2017

commentary
Campaign for Fair Food Makes a Real Difference
Susan L. Marquis @susanlmarquis
Aug 25, 2017
Tampa Bay Times
The Fair Food Program protects farmworkers while providing corporations with transparency in their supply chains and tremendous brand protection. It has been widely recognized for improving agricultural working conditions and for changing the culture of America's farm fields.
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Communication Systems
blog
How RAND Helped Cable TV Spread Far and Wide
Aug 25, 2017
In the late 1960s and early '70s, RAND released a series of reports about cable television — the technology, federal and state regulation, and its use in education. The researchers' interactive vision for cable TV was a lot like the internet.
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Health Insurance Cost Sharing
commentary
Four Steps That Could Stabilize the Health Insurance Market
Christine Eibner @Chrissyeibner
Aug 25, 2017
The Hill
Congress will soon discuss options to stabilize the individual market and ensure that all Americans have access to affordable coverage. Policymakers could encourage enrollment, make targeted investments to lower premiums, fund cost-sharing reductions, and enforce the individual mandate.
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Nuclear Weapons and Warfare
commentary
'Game of Thrones' Dragons, Nuclear Weapons, and Winning Whatever the Cost
Michael Shurkin
Aug 24, 2017
Scientific American
HBO's hit series “Game of Thrones” may be fantasy, but it explores many challenges that are familiar to real-world leaders. The military use of dragons and the dilemma these beasts pose is one recent example.
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commentary
What Afghanistan Needs to Move Forward: A Political Solution
S. Rebecca Zimmerman
Aug 24, 2017
U.S. News & World Report
Although the U.S. military's role in maintaining stability has been crucial, a real solution needs to consider Afghan politics first. The United States and the international community should push for parliamentary elections to build confidence between the government and the people.
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Cybercrime
commentary
Gaming Policy in Cyberspace
Michelle Price, Igor Mikolic-Torreira
Aug 23, 2017
Policyforum.net
Hacked devices and intellectual property theft are a rich hunting ground for policy development. The challenge posed by Internet-connect devices is only getting worse as the number of online devices continues to grow.
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Political Reform Movements
q&a
The Post–Arab Spring Experience: Q&A with Shelly Culbertson
Aug 23, 2017
It's too early to say whether the Arab Spring will turn out to be a success or not. The Arab Spring was about people deciding what they did not want and rising up against it, but they hadn't worked out what they did want. Many of them still have hope.
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Afghanistan
commentary
Trump's New Afghanistan Strategy: Governing from the Center?
James Dobbins @Jim_Dobbins
Aug 22, 2017
The Hill
The president has embraced a national security establishment strategy for Afghanistan with a veneer that does not alter its essence. The result is likely to disappoint some of his supporters and to be criticized by his opponents, but it will also secure a measure of bipartisan support.
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Arms Proliferation and Control
commentary
How We Can Keep Iran from Becoming the Next North Korea
Michael J. Mazarr @MMazarr
Aug 22, 2017
Fortune
The United States brokered an agreement to constrain North Korea's nuclear program 25 years ago, but hard-liners abandoned it with vague intentions of coercing the North into something better. They never did, and now a runaway North Korean program poses real danger. This offers a powerful reason to preserve the Iran nuclear deal.
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North Korea
essay
Understanding North Korea
Aug 18, 2017
How should the United States respond to North Korea's provocative behavior? Even the best military options could be cataclysmically bad, but there are nonmilitary options to convince Kim Jong Un that the costs of his provocations outweigh any benefits.
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Counterterrorism
commentary
When the Car Is a Terror Weapon, Can We Prepare for Attacks?
Colin P. Clarke
Aug 18, 2017
The Globe and Mail
Soft targets are notoriously difficult to protect from terrorism. Terrorists' latest shift to using vehicles to conduct attacks only compounds the problem.
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Information Operations
commentary
The Islamic State May Be Failing, but Its Strategic Communications Legacy Is Here to Stay
Colin P. Clarke, Charlie Winter
Aug 17, 2017
War on the Rocks
The Islamic State's caliphate is collapsing but its legacy will live on virtually because of its information operations. The scale of the menace presented by the group today pales in comparison to other global challenges, yet it manages to dominate and terrorize the public mind.
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Personalized Learning
commentary
What Emerging Research Says About the Promise of Personalized Learning
John F. Pane @JohnFPane
Aug 16, 2017
Brookings Institution's Brown Center Chalkboard
Personalized learning could lead to improved student outcomes. But those implementing this approach should temper their expectations for how big these benefits will be—and be patient while the benefits emerge. It's also important to consider the challenges of implementation.
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Global Climate Change
commentary
Another Casualty of Climate Change: Peace
Gulrez Shah Azhar
Aug 15, 2017
Project Syndicate
The connection between human conflict and climate change is no mere coincidence. Drought, temperature and tensions rise in tandem, with the implicit threat of violent conflict not far behind.
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Mental Health and Illness
commentary
Why the IPS Success Story Needs to Be Unpicked
Joanna Hofman @JoannaBHofman
Aug 15, 2017
The RAND Blog
The Individual Placement and Support model, which helps people with severe mental illness gain employment, has been a major statistical success. Why does it work and how it might be applied to other vulnerable populations?
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