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.
September 2004
Contents:
A. NEW RELEASES
1. Reports
INTERN PROGRAMS AS A HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT TOOL FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Authors: Susan Gates and Christopher Paul
The Department of Defense faces a challenge: how to replace a large number of retiring civilian workers and provide the larger civilian workforce likely to be needed for the impending U.S. military transformation’s new force structure. One goal in meeting this challenge is to find effective recruitment methods. The authors offer policy recommendations for DoD intern programs based on interviews with managers of public and private-sector intern programs, literature reviews, and personnel data analyses.
Read the Report: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG138/
MODELING THE DEPARTURE OF MILITARY PILOTS FROM THE SERVICES
Authors: Marc Elliott, Kanika Kapur, and Carole Roan Gresenz
High numbers of voluntary departures from the services by military pilots have periodically caused considerable concern among military administrators and policymakers, both recently and in previous periods of high attrition. In this study, the authors explore some determinants of the fixed-wing (airplane) pilot attrition problem among male pilots in the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, and the responsiveness of attrition to changes in military compensation. The authors estimated a pilot attrition model that examines the impact on attrition from factors such as compensation, civilian airline hiring, and deployment. This study produced several noteworthy findings, including: (1) Increases in major airline hiring tend to increase military pilot voluntary departures to a great degree in the Air Force and to a lesser extent in the Navy; (2) although attrition was found to be quite responsive to bonus pay, counteracting a sizable increase in major airline hiring could be costly, particularly for the Air Force; (3) the significant impact of civilian major airline hiring on pilot attrition calls for a pilot management plan that will enable the armed forces to respond to strong outside influences; and (4) the pay profile and lifestyle offered by the major civilian airlines contrast sharply with those of their military counterparts.
Read the Report: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1327/
U.S.-CHINA SECURITY MANAGEMENT: ASSESSING THE MILITARY-TO-MILITARY RELATIONSHIP
Author: Kevin Pollpeter
Restrictions on military-to-military relations with China imposed in 2001 stirred a debate on the value of those activities and their place in the overall U.S.-China relationship. This report finds that there is value in security cooperation, despite its problems. The relationship with China should concentrate on security management rather than on security cooperation. A three-part program of dialogue, information gathering, and limited cooperation can have mutual benefit in minimizing misperceptions and the chances of conflict.
Read the Report: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG143/
Read the Research Brief: http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB134/
SUPPORTING AIR AND SPACE EXPEDITIONARY FORCES: A METHODOLOGY FOR DETERMINING AIR FORCE DEPLOYMENT REQUIREMENTS
Authors: Don Snyder and Patrick Mills
The Air Force’s transition from a threat-based to a capabilities-based planning posture suggests the need to calculate swiftly the manpower and equipment required to generate those capabilities. This book outlines just such a methodology for determining deployment requirements. The methodology employs a prototype research tool–the Strategic Tool for the Analysis of Required Transportation (START)–which generates lists of capability units required to support a user-specified operation. The appendix serves as a user’s guide to the START program.
Read the Report: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG176/
ORGANIZATIONAL CONCEPTS FOR PURCHASING AND SUPPLY MANAGEMENT IMPLEMENTATION
Authors: Lynne Leftwich, James Leftwich, Nancy Moore, and C. Robert Roll, Jr.
This report presents a construct for reorganizing Air Force acquisition and purchasing activities using purchasing and supply management (PSM). PSM involves managing not only suppliers but the entire supply network. A PSM demonstration was chartered, and eight initiatives were targeted to help modernize the spares process and ultimately put more spares into the hands of maintainers. The report presents a flexible, springboard design to guide implementation of the process.
Read the Report: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG116/
2. Conference Proceedings
PROCEEDINGS OF THE 6TH ANNUAL RAND-CHINA REFORM FORUM CONFERENCE AUGUST 28-29, 2003
Edited By: Bijian Zheng and Charles Wolf, Jr.
Since 1998, the China Reform Forum in Beijing and The RAND Corporation have jointly organized an annual conference of experts from China and the United States. The conference focuses on economic and political-security subjects of mutual concern to China and the United States. It seeks to enhance mutual understanding among scholars and policymakers from both nations. This volume contains papers and discussant comments from the 2003 conference.
Read the Conference Proceeding: http://www.rand.org/pubs/conf_proceedings/CF195/
3. Technical Reports
PAST AND FUTURE: INSIGHTS FOR RESERVE COMPONENT USE
Authors: Harry Thie, Raymond Conley, Henry Leonard, Megan Abbott, Eric Larson, K. Scott McMahon, Michael Shanley, Ronald Sortor, William Taylor, Stephen Dalzell, and Roland Yardley
Four white papers, or think pieces, covering diverse topics--strategic ballistic missile defense programs, homeland security operations, manning and absorption problems, smaller-scale contingency operations--all linked by the common purpose of providing the Office of the Secretary of Defense with a range of considerations and alternatives for the prospective use of the Reserve Components in the military of the future. They raise key issues, explore past analyses, and offer recommendations for further research.
Read the Technical Report: http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR140/
4. 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: http://www.rand.org/commentary/US TROOP WITHDRAWALS COSTLY TO ALLIANCE
Ambassador Robert Hunter (Christian Science Monitor)
http://www.rand.org/commentary/2004/08/24/CSM.html
WORLD BECOMES THE HOSTAGE OF MEDIA-SAVVY TERRORISTS
Brian Michael Jenkins (USA Today)
http://www.rand.org/commentary/2004/08/22/USAT.html
LOOKING FOR HIGH NOON’ IN A HUNDRED YEARS WAR
Brian Michael Jenkins (San Diego Union Tribune)
http://www.rand.org/commentary/2004/08/22/SDUT.html
DON’T MOVE TOO FAST ON INTELLIGENCE REFORM
Brian Michael Jenkins (The Hill)
http://www.rand.org/commentary/2004/08/17/TH.html
AFGHANISTAN WITHOUT DOCTORS
Cheryl Benard (Wall Street Journal)
http://www.rand.org/commentary/2004/08/12/WSJ.html
NATION-BUILDING RETURNS TO FAVOUR
Ambassador James Dobbins (Financial Times)
http://www.rand.org/commentary/2004/08/11/FT.html
A DANGEROUS PEACE
Seth Jones (Newsweek International)
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5570111/site/newsweek
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