National Security
CONGRESSIONAL NEWSLETTER
This monthly bulletin summarizes RAND national security publications released in the last month. Click on any link to view the full report. To request free copies of RAND publications, write to ocr@rand.org.
Past issues of this bulletin can be viewed in the archive section of RAND's Web site for Congress.
February 2004
Contents:
New Releases
1. Reports
INVESTIGATING OPTIMAL REPLACEMENT OF AGING AIR FORCE SYSTEMS
Authors: Edward Keating and Matthew Dixon
As part of a continuing project on aging aircraft and the replacement-or-repair decision, the authors develop a parsimonious model of the decision and apply it to the U.S. Air Force’s C-21A transport and KC-135 tanker aircraft. They find that, for the C-21A, it probably would be appropriate to undertake a 20,000 flight hour system and component replacement schedule-prescribed renovation in the 2012 timeframe, but the aircraft should be retired around 2020. For the KC-135 tanker, it would be optimal to replace the KC-135 before the end of the decade.
MODELS OF OPERATIONAL TRAINING IN FIGHTER SQUADRONS
Authors: James Bigelow, William Taylor, S. Craig Moore, and Brent Thomas
Operational squadrons spend most of their time training to maintain readiness and to prepare aircrew members for subsequent assignments. Although some operational training is needed to achieve these objectives, it has been difficult historically to justify any specific amount of flying. This report describes a linear programming model that calculates the minimum sorties that must be flown within a certain period of time to provide all crew members with the operational training they need.
NATO'S EASTERN AGENDA IN A NEW STRATEGIC ERA
Author: F. Stephen Larrabee
NATO’s Eastern agenda faces several challenges, including consolidating the democratic transitions in Central and Eastern Europe, ensuring the security of the Baltic states, developing a post-NATO-enlargement strategy for Ukraine, deepening the Russia-NATO partnership, and engaging the Caucasus and Central Asia. The author also considers NATO’s broader transformation.
THE FDA CONFRONTS HOMELAND AND NATIONAL SECURITY: REPORT ON THE WORKSHOP
OF THE RAND CENTER FOR DOMESTIC AND INTERNATIONAL HEALTH SECURITY
Author: Richard Rettig
In the post-September 11, 2001, environment, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) faces many new challenges. On December 19, 2002, the RAND Center for Domestic and International Health Security hosted FDA leaders, Department of Defense officials, health policy analysts, and various others at a one-day workshop to discuss FDA’s role in homeland and national security. Participants analyzed how FDA might modify its policies and procedures to make drugs and biologics, and especially vaccines, more readily available.
URBAN COMBAT SERVICE SUPPORT OPERATIONS: THE SHOULDERS OF ATLAS
Authors: Russell Glenn, Steven Hartman, and Scott Gerwehr
The inevitability of U.S. armed forces future involvement in urban contingencies worldwide demands that those responsible for arming, manning, sustaining, and otherwise supporting these operations prepare for the challenges inherent in such undertakings. This report gives an overview of these formidable tasks and recommends ways for the U.S. Army combat service support (CSS) community to prepare itself to meet them.
2. Gilmore Commission Report
The Department of Defense selected RAND to provide analytical support to the Gilmore Commission, an advisory panel charged with assessing U.S. domestic response to the threat of weapons of mass destruction. Since 1998, RAND has assisted the commission with staff support and key findings from RAND research and analysis.
3. Commentary
The following is a list of national security related opinion pieces that RAND researchers have contributed to newspapers in the past month. To retrieve them, please visit RAND's Commentary page.
BRINGING THE AFGHAN EXPERIENCE TO IRAQ
Ambassador James Dobbins (International Herald Tribune)
HELPING THE PA PUSH OUT HAMAS
Steven Simon and Jonathan Stevenson (Wall Street Journal, European Edition)
WHAT WE CAN LEARN FROM THE TERRORISTS?
Bruce Hoffman (Global Agenda 2004)
CARROTS ARE AS VITAL AS STICKS IN THE BALKANS
Ambassador James Dobbins (Financial Times)
FRENCH TUSSLE OVER MUSLIM HEAD SCARF IS POSITIVE PUSH FOR WOMAN’S
RIGHTS
Cheryl Benard (Christian Science Monitor)
MAO AS GUIDE TO FIGHT IN IRAQ
Ralph Masi (San Francisco Chronicle)
ABOUT RAND
For more than 50 years, decisionmakers in the public and private sectors
have turned to the RAND Corporation for objective analysis and effective
solutions that address the challenges facing the nation and the world.
These challenges include such critical social and economic issues as
education, poverty, crime, and the environment, as well as a range of
national security issues. Today, RAND researchers and analysts continue
to be on the cutting edge of their fields, working with decisionmakers
in both the public and private sectors to find solutions to todayÅs
difficult, sensitive, and important problems. Through its dedication
to high-quality and objective research and analysis and with sophisticated
analytical tools developed over many years, RAND is engaged with its
clients to create knowledge, insight, information, options, and solutions
that will be both
effective and enduring.
Read more
SUBSCRIPTION AND ORDERING INFORMATION
This bulletin has been sent to you as a courtesy update on RAND's ongoing national security research.
To unsubscribe, please write to ocr@rand.org or call (703) 413-1100
extension 5781.
To request a FREE copy of any RAND publication, please write to ocr@rand.org,
or call (703) 413-1100 extension 5781.
RAND can also provide briefings, research assistance, testimony, and other services to Congressional offices.
Sign up for RAND email announcements for new services and products.