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A Message from Our President and CEO, America's Wealth Gap, Disinformation: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on doing more to address systemic inequalities and structural racism, paying the bills during COVID-19, America's growing wealth gap, and more.

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Reopened Offices Won’t Mean Back-to-Normal for Caregivers

As some workplaces start to reopen and work-from-home guidelines relax, corporate leaders may hope things will quickly get back to normal. But for employees who are also caregivers, that's likely not going to be the case.

Heather J. Williams @HeatherJWill, Bobbi Thomason

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The Risks of Autonomous Weapons Systems for Crisis Stability and Conflict Escalation in Future U.S.-Russia Confrontations

While autonomous weapons systems are still in their early development stages, it is worth the time of policymakers to carefully consider whether their putative operational advantages are worth the potential risks of instability and escalation they may raise.

Burgess Laird

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Is the '1992 Consensus' Fading Away in the Taiwan Strait?

For nearly 30 years, China has routinely touted Taiwan's recognition of the 1992 Consensus as the sole basis for maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. However, the consensus may hold less relevance for both sides today than in the past.

Derek Grossman @DerekJGrossman

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Is the Conflict in Libya a Preview of the Future of Warfare?

The Libyan conflict, now entering its ninth year, could well be a testing ground for how wars will be fought in the future. External nation-states have long interfered in other countries' civil wars, so what is new, exactly, about what is happening in Libya?

Nathan Vest, Colin P. Clarke

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With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility—How to Harness Technologies in the Fight Against COVID-19

The pandemic is an unprecedented public health crisis. But the response from science, technology, and innovation communities has been remarkable. It proves that innovation and learning, interdisciplinary methods and collaboration, information and data sharing, and adaptability are more important than ever.

Salil Gunashekar, Emily Ryen Gloinson

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The Wealth Gap Widens

Whether history considers the current downturn a recession or a depression, it will reinforce the growing inequality in the United States. Navigating this crisis without substantially increasing inequality would require an unwavering commitment to support displaced workers and small-business owners.

Shanthi Nataraj

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Innovations During COVID-19: Silver Lining or Threat to Patient Safety?

We still don't know what works best to treat COVID-19. Some of the ideas and innovations are outstanding, but they are, so far, untested. There is an urgent need to evaluate ongoing innovations to learn what works and what doesn't, and what may have costs that are acceptable only under crisis conditions.

Shira H. Fischer @ShiraFischer, Carl Berdahl

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38 Million Have Applied for Unemployment—but How Many Have Received Benefits?

Unemployment Insurance may need substantial reform to its application process, but it has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic unemployment disaster. Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, the new program intended for workers who are not part of the employer tax base, has not.

Kathryn A. Edwards, Jeffrey B. Wenger

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How Can Wargaming Improve Government Response to Catastrophic Events?

Wargames are abstracted models of national security challenges, where players' decisions and their consequences are adjudicated within a rules-based environment. Due to its inherent flexibility as a tool, wargaming can be applied to a wide range of issues. Yet, it is important to understand what wargaming can and cannot do.

Sebastian Joon Bae

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COVID-19's Effects on U.S. Schools, Vaccine Uptake, Small Businesses: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on how COVID-19 has affected U.S. schools, potential barriers to vaccine uptake, what small businesses need to survive, and more.

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Options for Designing a Public Option

State and federal policymakers are considering adding state-backed public options to the individual market in an effort to expand health coverage and improve affordability. We analyzed what would happen if public options became available in U.S. health insurance exchanges.

Michael Cohen, Al Bingham, et al.

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To Preserve Jobs, America's Employers May Have to Get Creative

With about 38.6 million Americans filing for unemployment insurance benefits since the end of February, it is clear that COVID-19 has turned the world of work upside down. One way to reduce the economic damage may be job-sharing, an approach that focuses on maximizing jobs by reducing workers' hours rather than resorting to layoffs or furloughs.

Jason M. Ward @jason_m_ward

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Emergency COVID-19 Aid Helps College Students with Food and Housing: Four Ways Colleges Can Maintain That Support

COVID-19 has expanded the pool of cash-strapped college students, but many were already struggling before the pandemic. The crisis could draw attention to food and housing insecurity among college students, and give college leaders a chance to consider how to address these needs more systematically over the long term.

Lindsay Daugherty, Drew M. Anderson

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Why the United States Will Need a New Foreign Policy in 2020

Even before the pandemic, the United States faced a growing strategic predicament: U.S. challenges are mounting, and America's international commitments increasingly outstrip its means to fulfill them.

Raphael S. Cohen