April 2016

The Internet
commentary
Strong Winds Ahead for Cloud Computing: Can Data Localization Threaten Future Growth?
Marlon Graf, Jakub P. Hlavka, Bonnie L. Triezenberg
Apr 29, 2016
The RAND Blog
A growing number of constraints have been imposed around the world on information in the cloud, fueling concerns that the Internet, the economic engine of the information age, may become hopelessly fragmented.
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Integrative Medicine
essay
Science and the Healing Arts
Apr 29, 2016
Americans spend billions of dollars out of pocket seeking relief from chronic conditions in alternative schools of health, such as acupuncture or chiropractic. What would it take to more fully integrate such practices into the mainstream?
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Japan
commentary
Obama Should Visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Scott W. Harold @ScottWHarold
Apr 28, 2016
Newsweek
During his upcoming visit to Japan, President Obama will have an opportunity to do something that none of his predecessors have ever done: visit the first and last cities to suffer atomic bombings.
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Arctic Region
commentary
Will the Arctic Remain a Warm Spot in Chilly U.S.-Russia Relations?
Stephanie Pezard @StephaniePezard, Abbie Tingstad
Apr 28, 2016
U.S. News & World Report
The United States should continue with its policy of engagement with Russia within Arctic institutions. This is the only way to keep building on a track record of successful agreements that make the Arctic safer for all.
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Principals
commentary
Improving School Leadership: What Works
Rebecca Herman, Susan M. Gates
Apr 28, 2016
The RAND Blog
There is evidence that having strong school leaders is instrumental for improving the quality of teaching. But resource constraints and pressure to spend money directly on students have left interventions focused on principals largely overlooked. However, the new Every Student Succeeds Act may be changing the script.
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Health Economics
commentary
Public Funding of Medical Research Pays for Itself
Jon Sussex
Apr 27, 2016
The RAND Blog
Public and charity spending on medical research in the UK stimulates the private sector to spend more on R&D, not less. Each pound of public funding leads to an additional 99 pence investment from the private sector.
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Pittsburgh
blog
In Pittsburgh, a Day of Giving
Susan M. Sohler Everingham
Apr 27, 2016
All funds that RAND raises on May 3 through Pittsburgh's Day of Giving will be devoted to RAND's work taking place in southwestern Pennsylvania.
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commentary
What Is Being Done in Europe to Get Mothers Back to Work?
Emma Harte, Joanna Hofman @JoannaBHofman
Apr 26, 2016
BlogActive.eu
Helping mothers get back to work has many benefits. It supports women's economic independence, helps reduce the gender pay gap, and boosts the economy. Perhaps most importantly, it could keep more children out of poverty.
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Military Strategy
commentary
Presence vs. Warfighting: A Looming Dilemma in Defense Planning
Michael J. Mazarr @MMazarr
Apr 26, 2016
War on the Rocks
Presence involves global military deployments to counter potential aggressors, reassure allies, underwrite extended deterrence, build partner capacity, and more. It is now as important, in terms of its stabilizing and deterrent effect, as warfighting capabilities. Yet U.S. force posture falls short.
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Special Operations Forces
blog
Special Ops Women: A Conversation with Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
Apr 26, 2016
Best-selling author Gayle Tzemach Lemmon discusses how recent conflicts changed the role of U.S. military women, the missing story about women in uniform, and more.
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Evidence Based Health Practice
commentary
What Do Stakeholders Say About Comparative-Effectiveness Research?
Thomas W. Concannon @tconcannon, Virginia Kotzias, Dmitry Khodyakov, Gavin Fahey, Jennifer Graff
Apr 25, 2016
The RAND Blog
Insurers, employers, and industry are some of the stakeholder groups that are critical to the success of comparative-effectiveness research. Current research models may not provide stakeholders with all the information they need to support their involvement.
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Military Force Deployment
commentary
Study Finds Most Military Families Are Resilient in Face of Deployment
Sarah O. Meadows @SarahOMeadows, Benjamin Karney
Apr 22, 2016
The RAND Blog
Despite the fact that service members, spouses, and their children experience frequent deployments to combat zones throughout the world, a recent study of more than 2,700 military families found that they generally fare well and adapt effectively to the stresses of deployment.
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Immigration and Emigration
commentary
Understanding and Addressing the Unaccompanied Minor Immigration Issue
Ernesto F. L. Amaral, Daniel M. Gerstein @Daniel_Gerstein
Apr 22, 2016
The Hill
The number of unaccompanied child immigrants apprehended at the U.S. southwest border is on the rise again, the majority of them coming not from Mexico, but from Central America. Research could provide valuable information to policymakers as they try to find ways to help young immigrants.
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Russia
commentary
Outnumbered, Outranged, and Outgunned: How Russia Defeats NATO
David A. Shlapak, Michael Johnson
Apr 21, 2016
War on the Rocks
Today NATO is outnumbered, outranged, and outgunned by Russia in Europe and beset by a number of compounding factors that make the situation worse. But it is possible to begin restoring a more robust deterrent posture and to do so at a price tag that appears affordable.
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Tunisia
commentary
Tunisia Is an Arab Spring Success Story
Shelly Culbertson @SC_Culbertson
Apr 21, 2016
Observer
Tunisia has not unraveled into civil war like Syria or Libya. It has not undergone a counter-revolution that returned it to the autocracy of its pre-revolution days, like Egypt has. Tunisia is fragile, but its success is vital to the long-term stability and societal health of the Middle East.
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Refugees
commentary
Solutions for Educating Young Syrian Refugees
Shelly Culbertson @SC_Culbertson
Apr 21, 2016
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Approximately 1.5 million Syrian refugees are school-age children. They face a slew of struggles, not the least of which is the lack of education that they need to move forward in life. What can be done to improve the access to and quality of refugee education?
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Military Transformation
commentary
Xi's Purge of the Military Prepares the Chinese Army for Confrontation
Derek Grossman @DerekJGrossman, Michael S. Chase
Apr 21, 2016
Newsweek
Xi Jinping is relying on an unprecedented anti-corruption campaign, echoing Mao Zedong's dictum that “the party commands the gun,” and implementing a sweeping reorganization of the PLA to ensure his personal dominance over the military and to strengthen its ability to deter or win future wars.
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Afghanistan
commentary
The Taliban's Persistent Threat
James Dobbins @Jim_Dobbins
Apr 21, 2016
The Cipher Brief
The United States and its NATO allies have been scaling back their military commitment in Afghanistan. The Taliban, in response, have been scaling up their operations, inflicting unprecedented heavy casualties on Afghan government forces and gaining increased control over much of the countryside.
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Israel
announcement
RAND Corporation Appoints Special Advisor on Israel with the Center for Middle East Public Policy
Apr 21, 2016
Shira Efron has been named a special advisor on Israel at the RAND Corporation Center for Middle East Public Policy, to continue to develop relationships with Israeli institutions and attract support for further Israel-related public policy research.
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Law Enforcement
commentary
Police and Crime Commissioners: Why Should We Care?
Matthew Davies
Apr 21, 2016
The RAND Blog
Police and crime commissioners (PCCs) are elected officials in the UK who oversee local policing and crime. Although they have significant, growing powers that affect everyone, public awareness about PCCs is low.
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Military Force Planning
commentary
Reimagining and Modernizing U.S. Airborne Forces for the 21st Century
David E. Johnson @DaveJohnsonDC, John Gordon IV
Apr 20, 2016
War on the Rocks
Many of the challenges the U.S. will face in the coming years across the range of military operations could be deep inland and require rapid response. Airborne forcible entry — with reimagined and modernized airborne forces — would offer decisionmakers options in crises that they do not possess today.
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North Atlantic Treaty Organization
commentary
A Risky Move in Brussels
Christopher S. Chivvis
Apr 19, 2016
The Cipher Brief
In the last two years, NATO's relations with Russia have collapsed to their post-Cold War nadir. The decision to convene a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in Brussels on April 20 has been met with an unusual amount of controversy and could prove to be a mistake.
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Civilian and Commercial Drones
commentary
Regulating Drone Airspace Using 'Smart Markets'
David Manheim, John F. Raffensperger, Jia Xu
Apr 19, 2016
TechCrunch
With commercially operated autonomous drones potentially on the horizon, a policy problem is likely to emerge: allocation of scarce airspace and preferred flight paths. 'Smart markets' could help.
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Middle East
announcement
RAND's Shelly Culbertson Publishes Book on Middle East After the Arab Spring
Apr 19, 2016
A new book by RAND's Shelly Culbertson mixes travel memoir, reporting, and analysis across six Middle Eastern countries, presenting diverse experiences of the Arab Spring.
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Health Insurance Cost Sharing
commentary
At 40, a Pioneering Health Care Experiment Remains Relevant
Michael D. Rich @michaeldrich
Apr 18, 2016
The RAND Blog
The impact of RAND's Health Insurance Experiment has been wide-reaching. The study's conclusions encouraged the restructuring of private insurance and helped increase the stature of managed care in the United States.
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North Atlantic Treaty Organization
commentary
NATO's Southern Exposure: The Real Threats to Europe—and the Alliance
Christopher S. Chivvis
Apr 18, 2016
Foreign Affairs
If NATO fails to define a strategy for its southern challenges (terrorism and the ongoing influx of migrants), it could slip into strategic irrelevance.
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Border and Port Security
commentary
Walls Won't Keep Us Safe
Daniel M. Gerstein @Daniel_Gerstein
Apr 15, 2016
U.S. News & World Report
Experience along the U.S. southern border demonstrates that even with fortifications, a wall provides only modest capacity to stop illegal crossings. More emphasis should be placed on expanding border security beyond the physical dimension.
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Postsecondary Education
commentary
Reframing the 'Free College' Debate
Diana Gehlhaus
Apr 14, 2016
The Hill
Framing the future of college as a debate about whether it should be free is a lost opportunity to discuss what's really wrong with higher education in America—and a missed chance to help young Americans regain lost competitiveness in the workforce.
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Taiwan
commentary
Taiwan Forced to Rethink Its Air Defense Strategy
Michael J. Lostumbo
Apr 14, 2016
Defense News
Taiwan's defense problem is challenging, but it will spend a considerable sum on air defense capabilities in the coming years, and those investments could be made much more effective.
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Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy
commentary
Why Research Funders Looking for Impact Need to Be 'DECISIVE'
Steven Wooding, Adam Kamenetzky
Apr 14, 2016
Research Fortnight
Funding decisions in the UK direct the flow of billions of pounds of public and philanthropic funding but there is little evidence to suggest how to allocate grants to researchers to increase the chances that the work they support changes lives and improves society. New research helps inform funders' strategies.
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Counterterrorism
commentary
Anti-Muslim Rhetoric Is a National Security Threat
Radha Iyengar Plumb
Apr 13, 2016
War on the Rocks
National security and counterterrorism experts agree that rhetoric that paints all Muslims as terrorists or terrorist sympathizers has a high chance of breeding future terrorists. And evidence suggests such language can hamper U.S. efforts to stop terrorists before they strike and to capture them after attacks.
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Health Care Organization and Administration
commentary
How to Galvanise the NHS to Adopt Innovation
Sonja Marjanovic @SonjaCambs, Stuart Parris
Apr 12, 2016
The BMJ
Two achievable and workable high-level approaches can help innovation take place within the National Health Service. These focus on mobilising people, and systems within the health service.
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Peacekeeping and Stability Operations
commentary
Get Ready: Syria Will Need Peacekeepers
Michael O'Hanlon, Sean M. Zeigler
Apr 11, 2016
The National Interest
For regional security and to deprive ISIS of what is still its most compelling and important sanctuary in the world today, the U.S. needs a new strategy for Syria that includes willingness to contribute to a substantial postwar military operation to stabilize the country.
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Electronic Medical Records
commentary
Ransomware Hackers Are Coming for Your Health Records
Lillian Ablon, Mark W. Friedberg
Apr 11, 2016
Newsweek
Cyber criminals may be preying on hospitals because cyber protection measures likely have not kept pace with electronic data collection and because hospitals typically do not have backup systems and databases in place, even though such attacks can strain health care systems and potentially put patients' lives at risk.
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commentary
The Latest from the RAND Presidential Election Panel Survey
Michael S. Pollard @MichaelSPollard, Joshua Mendelsohn
Apr 7, 2016
The RAND Blog
RAND's panel survey examines voter attitudes, intentions, and choices, and how these change throughout the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Some sizeable shifts in positions occurred in survey results from December to March.
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Education Reform
commentary
The High Stakes of 'Soft Skills'
Laura S. Hamilton, Brian M. Stecher, Grace Evans
Apr 7, 2016
U.S. News & World Report
With the recent passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, Congress is broadening what it considers success when it comes to judging school quality. One potential new indicator being discussed in some states is social and emotional learning, which has been linked to success later in life.
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Urban Warfare
commentary
A New Kind of Battlefield Awaits the U.S. Military — Megacities
Chad C. Serena, Colin P. Clarke
Apr 6, 2016
Reuters, The Great Debate blog
Megacities are urban areas that seep into one another and have more than 10 million inhabitants. To counter violent non-state actors operating in megacities in the future, the U.S. military will have to be able to piece together a comprehensive and actionable intelligence picture, and under enormously challenging circumstances.
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Border and Port Security
commentary
Ten Years After the Safe Port Act, Are America's Ports Secure?
Henry H. Willis @HenryHWillis
Apr 6, 2016
The Cipher Brief
The economic importance and visibility of America's ports make them attractive terrorism targets. Port security has improved, but many of the threats that motivated the Safe Ports Act in 2006 remain, and new dangers have emerged, including cyber threats.
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Missile Defense
commentary
THAAD's Effect on South Korea's Neighbors
Bruce W. Bennett @bwbennett
Apr 5, 2016
The Cipher Brief
It is hard to determine how China or Russia will respond to THAAD deployment in South Korea. THAAD deployment could change the dynamic and terms of the debate, leading to greater Chinese pressure on North Korea to curb its nuclear and missile threats.
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Migrants
commentary
Matching and Migration: Lessons from a Resettlement Programme in Indonesia
Alexander D. Rothenberg, Samuel Bazzi, Arya Gaduh, Maisy Wong
Apr 5, 2016
International Growth Centre Blog
With careful planning, resettlement remains a feasible and politically attractive option for coping with environmentally-induced migration in many settings. The lessons from Indonesia's Transmigration program can help inform ongoing resettlement planning.
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Health Interventions
commentary
A New Tool to Assess the Costs and Effectiveness of Traffic Crash Interventions
Liisa Ecola, Jeanne S. Ringel @JeanneRingel
Apr 4, 2016
ITE Journal
Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death in the U.S. An online tool can help policymakers understand the available evidence-based interventions that can help prevent crash injuries and deaths, what they will cost, and how effective they will be in their state.
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Autonomous Vehicles
commentary
The Police Could Be Controlling Your Self-Driving Car
Martin C. Libicki
Apr 4, 2016
MarketWatch
As self-driving cars become widespread, one of the biggest issues will be the rules under which public infrastructures and public safety officers may be empowered to override how autonomous vehicles are controlled.
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Military Transformation
commentary
Will the PLA Reforms Succeed?
Cristina L. Garafola @CLGarafola
Apr 1, 2016
China Analysis, ECFR
Reforms within the Chinese People's Liberation Army are in the process of delivering sweeping changes to its day-to-day operations, despite concerns held by some military members. Whether or not the overall implementation is successful as envisioned, assessing the operational implications of the reforms will require more time.
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Iran
blog
Impact of Iran Nuclear Deal Discussed at RAND Event
Apr 1, 2016
As part of the ongoing Conversations at RAND request, Alireza Nader, senior international policy analyst at RAND Corporation, spoke to Dan Simpson about the future of Iran, at RAND's Pittsburgh office on March 30.
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Russia
commentary
How Russia Undermines Nuclear Security
William Courtney @courtneywmh, John Herbst
Apr 1, 2016
The National Interest
Russian aggression in Ukraine and nuclear saber rattling are jeopardizing the very global nonproliferation efforts that this week's Nuclear Security Summit in Washington seeks to further. Moscow's actions deserve a stronger response than they have received.
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Cyber Warfare
commentary
The Online Fight Against ISIS
Colin P. Clarke, Isaac R. Porche III
Apr 1, 2016
Project Syndicate
To prevail against ISIS in cyberspace, the United States and its cyber soldiers will have to be capable of reacting quickly, while being guided by an overarching strategy. Secretary of Defense Carter urged U.S. Cyber Command to intensify the fight against ISIS but it would also be wise to recruit civilian volunteers.
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