Stephanie Young

Director, Resource Management Program, RAND Project AIR FORCE; Senior Political Scientist

Washington Office

Education

Ph.D., M.A. in history, University of California, Berkeley; B.A. in physics, astrophysics, history, University of California, Berkeley

Media Resources

This researcher is available for interviews.

To arrange an interview, contact the RAND Office of Media Relations at (310) 451-6913, or email media@rand.org.

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Overview

Stephanie Young is a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, and program director of the Resource Management Program at RAND Project AIR FORCE. She manages a diverse portfolio of research in support of the Department of the Air Force on topics related to budgeting, acquisition, logistics, sustainment, and organizational design. Her primary research interests relate to defense acquisition, budgeting, and resource allocation, but other recent work has focused on strategic competition, security cooperation and building partner capacity, countering-weapons of mass destruction, and U.S. policy in the Middle East and South Asia. In 2012 she spent three months as an analyst embedded with the Special Operations Joint Task Force – Afghanistan, in Kabul. At RAND she also taught a Ph.D. level course on the U.S. defense budget at the Pardee RAND Graduate School, and she previously served as the associate research department director of RAND's Defense and Political Sciences Department. She was educated at the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a Ph.D. in history and a B.A. in physics and astrophysics.

Research Focus

Recent Projects

Using Social Media to Extract Information About Chemical Weapons Incidents: A Methodology and Demonstration of Concept from the Civil War in Syria

Selected Publications

Ben Connable, Stephanie Young, Stephanie Pezard, Andrew Radin, Raphael S. Cohen, Katya Migacheva, James Sladden, Russia's Hostile Measures Combating Russian Gray Zone Aggression Against NATO in the Contact, Blunt, and Surge Layers of Competition, (RR-2539), 2020

Stephanie Young, J. Michael Gilmore, Operating Under a Continuing Resolution A Limited Assessment of Effects on Defense Procurement Contract Awards, (RR-2263), 2019

Eric V. Larson, Derek Eaton, Michael E. Linick, John E. Peters, Agnes Gereben Schaefer, Keith Walters, Stephanie Young, H. G. Massey, Michelle D. Ziegler, Defense Planning in a Time of Conflict A Comparative Analysis of the 2001–2014 Quadrennial Defense Reviews, and Implications for the Army, RAND (RR-1309-A), 2018

Stephanie Young, Daniel Tremblay, Roland Yardley, The U.S. Department of Defense’s Earned Value Management-Analyst Workforce, RAND (RR-1254), 2016

Stephanie Young, Henry Willis, Melinda Moore, Jeffrey Engstrom, Measuring Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP) Performance: Capacities, Capabilities, and Sustainability Enablers for Biorisk Management and Biosurveillance, RAND (RR-660), 2014

Richard R. Brennan Jr., et. al., Ending the U.S. War in Iraq: the Final Transition, Operational Maneuver, and Disestablishment of United States Forces-Iraq, RAND (RR-232), 2013

Stephanie Young, ""Would Your Answers Spoil My Questions?": Art and Technology at the RAND Corporation," in Volker Janssen (ed.), Where Minds and Matters Meet: Technology in California and the West, University of California Press, 2012

Bernard D. Rostker, et. al., Sexual Orientation and U.S. Military Personnel Policy: An Update of RAND's 1993 Study, RAND (MG-1056-OSD), 2010

Honors & Awards

Defense Council, Truman National Security Project
Edward Teller Fellow in Science and National Security Studies, United States Department of Energy
Foreign Policy Initiative Future Leader Program, Foreign Policy Initiative

Commentary

Women and Statecraft History
RAND policy researcher and historian Stephanie Young remembers her key mentors and the impact they had, whether by asking important questions, encouraging academic pursuits, and modeling female excellence.
Dec 16, 2020 Center for Strategic and International Studies

Publications

Report
Using Social Media to Extract Information About Chemical Weapons Incidents: A Methodology and Demonstration of Concept from the Civil War in Syria
RAND Corporation researchers developed an approach for analyzing social media data to derive insights about chemical incidents and conducted a proof of concept of that approach by applying it to the case of chemical weapons use in Syria (2017-2018).
Mar 21, 2022
Report
Russia's Hostile Measures: Combating Russian Gray Zone Aggression Against NATO in the Contact, Blunt, and Surge Layers of Competition
Exploring opportunities to deter, prevent, and counter Russia's use of hostile measures is critical to containing their consequences for both target countries and Western alliances and in both the gray zone short of war and conventional warfare.
Jan 7, 2020
Report
Operating Under a Continuing Resolution: A Limited Assessment of Effects on Defense Procurement Contract Awards
As described in this report, the authors developed an empirical basis for exploring policy issues pertaining to Department of Defense operations under a continuing resolution at the start of a fiscal year, which has become the norm in recent years.
Jan 21, 2019
Report
Defense Planning in a Time of Conflict: A Comparative Analysis of the 2001–2014 Quadrennial Defense Reviews, and Implications for the Army — Executive Summary
This summary highlights findings from a comparative analysis of the four Quadrennial Defense Reviews conducted after 1997, identifying trends, implications, and recommendations for the Army and Defense Department to help improve future reviews.
Jan 31, 2018
Report
Defense Planning in a Time of Conflict: A Comparative Analysis of the 2001–2014 Quadrennial Defense Reviews, and Implications for the Army
This report presents a comparative historical analysis of the four Quadrennial Defense Reviews (QDRs) conducted after 1997 and identifies trends, implications, and recommendations for the Army and Defense Department to help improve future reviews.
Jan 31, 2018
Report
The U.S. Department of Defense's Earned Value Management–Analyst Workforce
To support development and integration of earned value management (EVM) competencies across the defense acquisition workforce, RAND researchers surveyed the U.S. Department of Defense EVM-analyst workforce and described it across several dimensions.
Jan 14, 2016
Report
Measuring Cooperative Biological Engagement Program (CBEP) Performance: Capacities, Capabilities, and Sustainability Enablers for Biorisk Management and Biosurveillance
This report describes a project to develop a comprehensive evaluation framework for the Cooperative Biological Engagement Program and recommends metrics for assessing and communicating progress toward the program's goals.
Aug 21, 2014
Report
Building Toward an Unmanned Aircraft System Training Strategy
This report develops a general concept for training military forces in employment of unmanned aircraft systems and a framework for addressing training requirements and discusses the limits of existing infrastructure in supporting UAS training.
Jul 28, 2014
Report
Ending the U.S. War in Iraq: The Final Transition, Operational Maneuver, and Disestablishment of United States Forces-Iraq
This book looks at the planning and execution of the U.S. military's exit from Iraq and the transition of responsibilities to the Iraqi government, U.S. embassy, Office of Security Cooperation, USCENTCOM, and other U.S. departments and agencies.
Nov 5, 2013
Research Brief
Smooth Transitions? Lessons Learned from Transferring U.S. Military Responsibilities to Civilian Authorities in Iraq
This brief outlines policy and planning lessons that have been encapsulated in a study of the U.S. military's transition out of Iraq at the end of 2011 and the handover of property and responsibilities to Embassy Baghdad and the government of Iraq.
Nov 5, 2013
Report
Workforce Planning in the Intelligence Community: A Retrospective
This report chronicles intelligence community efforts over more than half a decade to improve community-wide workforce planning and management. The tools described will help decisionmakers maintain workforce capabilities as budgets decline.
Sep 16, 2013
Report
What Works Best When Building Partner Capacity and Under What Circumstances?
A RAND study collected and compared 20 years of data on 29 historical case studies to identify how the U.S. Department of Defense can increase the effectiveness of efforts to build partner security and military capacity.
Jan 28, 2013
Report
A Methodology for Implementing the Department of Defense's Current In-Sourcing Policy
The authors review the recent history of sourcing in the Department of Defense, assess relevant laws and policies, offer interpretations of key terms, and describe an approach to implementing current in-sourcing guidance.
Sep 8, 2011
Report
Alert and Ready: An Organizational Design Assessment of Marine Corps Intelligence
U.S. Marine Corps intelligence comprises a number of ad hoc arrangements, practices, and organizations. A review of its organizational design examined how to better align it with current and future missions and functions.
Jul 13, 2011
Research Brief
Sexual Orientation and U.S. Personnel Policy Revisited
Summarizes results of a RAND Corporation study on sexual orientation and U.S. military policy requested by the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Secretary of Defense in order to weigh repeal of the law known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Dec 23, 2010
Report
Sexual Orientation and U.S. Military Personnel Policy: An Update of RAND's 1993 Study
Shares results of a study on sexual orientation and U.S. military policy, requested by the Senate Armed Services Committee and the Secretary of Defense in order to weigh the repeal of the law known as ''Don't Ask, Don't Tell.''
Nov 18, 2010