The RAND Blog

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Iran's Proxies Are More Powerful Than Ever

The Trump administration has pursued a so-called maximum pressure strategy designed to alter the course of Iran's foreign and security policies, which relies heavily on sanctions to change Iranian behavior. Financial sanctions are an important part of any counterterrorism strategy. But they aren't enough.

Ariane M. Tabatabai, Colin P. Clarke

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Review of Behavioral Health Technician Training, Policies, and Practice Identifies New Opportunities

Behavioral health technicians are trained to be an essential part of the mental health clinical team, serving as provider extenders who work alongside and support licensed mental health providers. What are the factors that affect these roles? And how can the Military Health System most effectively incorporate them into mental health care settings?

Stephanie Brooks Holliday, Bradley Blair, et al.

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Synthetic Opioid Crisis Still Growing, Often Among Unwitting Users

Although opioid prescriptions in the U.S. have fallen, opioid overdose deaths remain at historic levels. The continued spread of fentanyl and other illicitly manufactured synthetic opioids suggests the problem could still get worse.

Bryce Pardo, Beau Kilmer @BeauKilmer

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Outputs of the Future

Are all types of research outputs of equal value? How do different outputs serve different purposes? Exploring these questions could benefit not only funders and universities, but also result in overall better use of research resources.

Catriona Manville, Steven Hill

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Stop Calling Us 'Women Experts'

To get to a place where a woman's expertise is valued as implicitly as a man's, women must be freed of the baggage of being “women scholars” and “women policymakers.” Instead, women must be given that most significant form of respect: Just call us experts.

Caroline Baxter, Elizabeth Bodine-Baron @bodinebaron

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Click and Exercise! Amazon, Netflix, Hulu—Are You Listening?

Most Americans spend their daily leisure time watching screens, devoting only a small fraction to physical activity. The explosion of streaming apps is likely contributing to this problem. Streaming services could consider adding a pop-up at the end of each episode that encourages viewers to get up and move.

Deborah A. Cohen

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Virtual Societal Warfare, Iran, Opioids: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the risk of virtual societal welfare, Iran's domestic debates, federal policy options for supervised consumption sites, and more.

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Early Childhood Education and Care Services Across the European Union Member States Still Fall Short of the Mark

Children's access to education and care from a young age is vital. Large differences exist between EU countries in access to those services and the quality of child care. Bridging the gap would require more efforts at the EU and national levels to guarantee that each child has access to services that will have lasting effects on their development.

Barbara Janta, Carlijn Straathof

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The Realities of Civil War

Civil war is not a pretty thing to see or be a part of. Those understandably engaged with the intense debate over whether or not the president should be impeached should not suggest that impeachment would result in civil war in our country. There are peaceful means available for us as Americans to follow in order to solve the problems at hand.

Gian Gentile

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The Emerging U.S.–China Strategic Competition and the Role of Trans-Atlantic Cooperation

When competing with China, what role should U.S. alliances, especially the transatlantic relationships the United States has with its European partners, play? This question is potentially decisive for whether or not any strategy adopted by the U.S. to compete with China will succeed or fail.

Scott W. Harold

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What Translation Troubles Can Tell Us About Russian Information Warfare

Moscow's form of information warfare targeting the West has attracted significant international attention since 2014, especially through its reinvigorated military intelligence branch. Nonetheless, little research has focused on these campaigns' apparent shortcomings. Most notable among operational errors are the confusing translation mistakes that undermine attempts at covert influence efforts.

Joe Cheravitch

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China's 70th Anniversary, Wargaming, Fentanyl: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on what the future holds for China, the importance of gender diversity in wargaming, how Army families address life's challenges, and more.

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China Will Struggle to Shut Taiwan Out of the Pacific

With the decisions of the Solomon Islands and Kiribati to recognize Beijing over Taipei, the list of Taiwan's official diplomatic partners has decreased to 15. But China is likely to have a difficult time eliminating Taiwan's presence diplomatically in the Pacific.

Derek Grossman @DerekJGrossman

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Nuclear Subs Idea Worth Floating

Whether Australia should operate and maintain nuclear-propelled attack submarines has been debated for years. While controversial to some, the option of nuclear subs in Australia's future fleet may be a useful alternative given trends in the country's security environment.

John Birkler, Robert Murphy

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The China Dream: Never Closer, yet Never More Elusive

To achieve its goals of national rejuvenation, China needs to become a true world power. But a softening economy and political gridlock make it seem less and less likely that Beijing will realize all of its objectives.

Timothy R. Heath