October 2015

International Diplomacy
commentary
Pakistan and China's Almost Alliance
Jonah Blank
Oct 16, 2015
Foreign Affairs
Policymakers in the United States and throughout Asia should take note of why the Sino-Pakistani relationship has endured for so long, what each partner gets from the other, and what inherent limitations prevent the union from developing into a true alliance.
Read More »
commentary
Attacking Poverty Through Employability Interventions
Joachim Krapels, Marco Hafner
Oct 16, 2015
The RAND Blog
The UN's goal to end poverty is a worthy undertaking but less clear to policymakers is what the most efficient options are to reduce poverty through employment or training. An analysis of efforts in South Asia finds that investments in interventions that combine business training with financing could yield positive results.
Read More »
Afghanistan
commentary
More Boots Isn't Enough to Save Afghanistan
Jeffrey Eggers
Oct 16, 2015
Politico
Until there is a viable political strategy for Afghanistan, any modicum of U.S. troops is, at best, playing not to lose. Doing better than that will require promoting three dimensions of political change in Afghanistan and between Kabul and Islamabad.
Read More »
Survey Research Methodology
commentary
How to Help Surveys Have More Impact
Catherine L. Saunders
Oct 16, 2015
Statistics Views
How can researchers and the users of survey research move from a knee-jerk dismissal of survey findings to being comfortable trusting and acting on the findings? Likely ways forward include emphasizing the methodology, triangulating the evidence, acknowledging the limitations, and developing good communication and trust between parties.
Read More »
Security Cooperation
commentary
Keeping U.S. Troops in Afghanistan: RAND Experts React
Oct 15, 2015
The RAND Blog
Several RAND experts agree that sticking to the plan to remove all troops from Afghanistan by the end of next year would have ignored the reality on the ground and made an unstable situation more so.
Read More »
Syria
q&a
A No-Fly Zone Over Syria: Q&A with Karl Mueller
Oct 15, 2015
Some are advocating a no-fly zone in Syria to protect civilians from both ISIS and forces loyal to Assad. What constraints complicate establishing a no-fly zone and realizing its expected benefits? And how might Assad supporters, such as Russia, respond?
Read More »
Education Reform
commentary
Rethinking Student Discipline and Zero Tolerance
Joie D. Acosta, Matthew Chinman, John Engberg, Catherine H. Augustine
Oct 14, 2015
Education Week
Restorative practices are an alternative to zero-tolerance school discipline policies. Rather than mandating prescribed punishments for specific misbehaviors, this more tailored approach aims to empower students.
Read More »
commentary
Scoring the Surgeon Scorecard
Mark W. Friedberg
Oct 14, 2015
The Health Care Blog
There is no tradeoff between recognizing the serious methodological problems in the ProPublica Surgeon Scorecard, improving the Scorecard, and encouraging providers to release their own data. All three can and should be done simultaneously.
Read More »
Cybersecurity
commentary
Defining a New Paradigm for Government Secrecy
Richard S. Girven, Sina Beaghley, Cortney Weinbaum @cortney_dc
Oct 13, 2015
U.S. News & World Report
Technology has afforded the U.S. national security apparatus incredible capabilities, along with equally monumental challenges and risks. The government has the option to choose whether to adjust by taking a proactive approach or to allow external forces to determine the future of its secrets.
Read More »
commentary
The Prospective Impact of Airbus Industries on Mobile
Edward G. Keating, Irina Elena Danescu
Oct 10, 2015
AL.com
Austal USA's operations in Mobile, Alabama have benefited the broader region. Similarly, Airbus's hiring should have a net favorable impact on the region's economy, since the area does not appear to be at or near full employment.
Read More »
Law Enforcement
commentary
Understanding Police Coordination
Chris Giacomantonio
Oct 9, 2015
Oxford Center for Criminology Blog
Understanding coordination work in policing is worthy of attention by researchers for a number of reasons. When police fail to coordinate their activities adequately, crimes and their detection and prosecution can slip through organizational cracks.
Read More »
Refugees
commentary
Will Today's Refugees Become the 'New Palestinians'?
Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins
Oct 9, 2015
The Hill
The conflicts in Syria and Iraq have generated the greatest volume of refugees since World War II. If the international community is to avoid seeing the emergence of a population of new Palestinians lasting decades into the future, it will have to craft a more coherent approach.
Read More »
commentary
Do Young 'Elites' Favor Income Redistribution?
Michael S. Pollard @MichaelSPollard, Katherine Grace Carman @KGCarman
Oct 8, 2015
The RAND Blog
Young 'elites' -- employed Americans who are 40 or younger, with high household incomes and graduate degrees -- and especially Democratic elites have a strong preference for income redistribution.
Read More »
Demographics
commentary
Bridging the Global Age Gap
Krishna B. Kumar @kbkumar_
Oct 8, 2015
U.S. News & World Report
The Trans-Pacific Partnership offers hope for balancing the world's rapidly aging with its jobless youth. As long-term care for the elderly becomes a pressing need in many developed countries, services such as monitoring and reminding people to take their medications could be provided remotely from countries with an abundance of younger workers.
Read More »
Afghanistan
commentary
The Fall of Kunduz and What It Means for the Future of Afghanistan
Jason H. Campbell @JasonHCampbell
Oct 7, 2015
War on the Rocks
After the fall of Kunduz, Afghan officials and their coalition partners need to ask some hard questions about where their efforts have gone wrong and what can be done to recover.
Read More »