President Barack Obama's Operation United Assistance, which includes the deployment of 3,000 military personnel to West Africa to respond to the Ebola crisis, represents a dramatic push on the part of the U.S. to curb an epidemic that threatens to reach appalling proportions and destabilize an entire region. It is also a welcome recognition of the range of missions the U.S. military is increasingly able to tackle, particularly in disaster-management assistance.
The remainder of this commentary is available at modernhealthcare.com.
Stephanie Pezard and Michael Shurkin are political scientists at the not-for-profit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation.
This commentary originally appeared on Modern Healthcare on October 9, 2014. Commentary gives RAND researchers a platform to convey insights based on their professional expertise and often on their peer-reviewed research and analysis.
