Philanthropically Supported Research

The RAND Corporation is a research organization that develops solutions to public policy challenges to help make communities throughout the world safer and more secure, healthier and more prosperous. RAND is nonprofit, nonpartisan, and committed to the public interest.

Philanthropic contributions support our ability to take the long view, tackle tough and often-controversial topics, and share our findings in innovative and compelling ways. RAND's research findings and recommendations are based on data and evidence, and therefore do not necessarily reflect the policy preferences or interests of its clients, donors, or supporters.

Featured Research

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  The Public Health Impacts of Gaza's Water Crisis: Analysis and Policy Options 2018

  Shira Efron, Jordan R. Fischbach, Ilana Blum, Rouslan I. Karimov, Melinda Moore

  Gaza has long had water and sanitation challenges, but today it is in a state of emergency. Its aquifer is polluted and depleted, and more than 108,000 cubic meters of untreated sewage flow daily from Gaza into the Mediterranean Sea. The authors describe the relationship between Gaza's water problems and its energy challenges, examine the implications of the water crisis for public health, and recommend steps to avert a regional disaster.

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  Personalized Hospital Performance Report Card: Review, Customize, and Compare Hospital Overall Star Ratings 2018

  Mark W. Friedberg, Jill Gurvey

  The Personalized Hospital Performance Report Card allows users to review, customize, and compare hospitals across the United States. The calculator is based on an overall star rating system developed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and allows users to create their own custom ratings based on the hospital performance areas most important to them.

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  China Belt and Road Initiative: How revival of the silk road could impact world trade 2018

  Hui Lu, Charlene Rohr, Marco Hafner, Anna Knack

  By using both qualitative and quantitative analysis, this study found improving transportation multimodal connectivity has a positive impact on multilateral trade across countries and regions along China Belt and Road Initiative.

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  China Belt and Road Initiative: Measuring the impact of improving transportation connectivity on trade in the region 2018

  Hui Lu, Charlene Rohr, Marco Hafner, Anna Knack

  Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this study found improving transportation connectivity has a positive impact on multilateral trade. Assuming that this relationship is causal, with the proposed level of investment in transport infrastructure in the BRI region, total trade volumes increase not only in the China Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) region, but also in the countries outside the initiative.

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  Improving Force Development Within the U.S. Department of Defense: Diagnosis and Potential Prescriptions 2018

  David Ochmanek

  For several years now, in wargames depicting future hypothetical conflicts against the nation's most capable adversaries, programmed U.S. forces repeatedly have failed to achieve their primary operational objectives and suffered heavy losses in doing so. There is an urgency to the need to modernize U.S. military capabilities and operational concepts. This Perspective examines how things got to this point and what can be done about it.

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  A Manual for Cultural Analysis 2018

  Luke J. Matthews, Ryan Andrew Brown, David P. Kennedy

  Many academic disciplines have formally theorized culture as socially learned information that can influence beliefs and behaviors. This tool combines methods from anthropology and related areas of social science to create a single manual structured around a formally theorized notion of culture. This tool can be a helpful resource for researchers who need to work with cultural data at multiple levels of analysis.

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  Using the Person-Event Data Environment for Military Personnel Research in the Department of Defense: An Evaluation of Capability and Potential Uses 2018

  David Knapp, Beth J. Asch, Christine DeMartini, Teague Ruder, Janet M. Hanley

  The objectives of the study described in this report are to determine whether the RAND Corporation's federally funded research and development centers can effectively and efficiently use the Person-Event Data Environment (PDE) to support manpower and personnel research sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense, assess how using the PDE compares with existing approaches to accessing data, and identify potential improvements to the PDE.

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  The Future of Israeli-Turkish Relations 2018

  Shira Efron

  This report, which draws largely on Israeli and third-party views, examines economic, diplomatic, and security ties between Israel and Turkey and the possible futures of these ties. Israeli-Turkish relations remain contentious; the main conflicts relate to Iranian influence in Syria and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as demonstrated by the May 2018 diplomatic rift over the clashes in Gaza and the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem.

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  Millennial Perceptions of Security: Results from a National Survey of Americans 2018

  Marek N. Posard, Jennifer Kavanagh, Kathryn A. Edwards, Sonni Efron

  This report — part of a series examining critical security challenges in 2040 — uses survey data from a nationally representative sample of adults to examine perceptions of economic and national security and compare attitudes and opinions of millennials with those of previous generations. It concludes by making inferences about potential millennial concerns about security in the year 2040.

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  Rethinking Insurance and Liability in the Transformative Age of Autonomous Vehicles 2018

  James M. Anderson, Nidhi Kalra, Karlyn D. Stanley, Jamie Morikawa

  The RAND Institute for Civil Justice held a workshop titled "Rethinking Insurance and Liability in the Transformative Age of Autonomous Vehicles," which examined the implications of autonomous vehicle technology for insurance and liability regimes. This conference proceeding summarizes key issues from the event and presents recommendations for future research.

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  Bridge to Opportunities: How One Probation Agency Developed a Program Designed to Connect Probationers to High-Wage Jobs 2018

  Dionne Barnes-Proby, Priscillia Hunt, Lisa Jonsson, Samantha Cherney

  This report summarizes findings from a case study of a program intended to improve the earning potential of probationers in Sacramento County, California, by training them in construction trades and connecting them to high-wage employers. Using a qualitative approach, the authors describe how the program evolved and was delivered; identify implementation barriers and facilitators; and highlight perceived program successes and shortcomings.

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  Truth Decay: A Narrated Video 2018

  Jennifer Kavanagh, Michael D. Rich

  Political and civil discourse in the United States is characterized by "Truth Decay," an increasing disagreement about facts, a blurring of the line between opinion and fact, an increase in the relative volume of opinion compared with fact, and declining trust in formerly respected sources of factual information. This video, based on a previous RAND work, discusses the causes and consequences of Truth Decay and proposes strategies to combat it.

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  Managing International Borders: Balancing Security with the Licit Flow of People and Goods 2018

  Daniel M. Gerstein, Anthony Atler, Aaron C. Davenport, Beth Grill, Amanda Kadlec, William Young

  Border management hinges on the tension between the need to prevent undesirable people and goods from crossing borders and the economic vitality gained through trade and travel. Building on lessons learned from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Niger, and Morocco, this Perspective proposes opportunities to strengthen security while simultaneously improving the flow of licit travelers and goods through national policies and programs.

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  The Future of Arctic Cooperation in a Changing Strategic Environment: Insights from a Scenario-Based Exercise Organised by RAND and Hosted by NUPI 2018

  Stephanie Pezard, Abbie Tingstad, Alexandra Hall

  This Perspective summarises the results of a table-top exercise that examined factors that could potentially upset Arctic cooperation in the 2020 decade, focusing on overlapping extended continental shelf claims; increased maritime activity; and maritime incidents. This exercise confirmed the solidity of Arctic cooperation, but also identified potential "wild cards" that could make negotiated solutions more difficult to reach.

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  Additive Manufacturing in 2040: Powerful Enabler, Disruptive Threat 2018

  Trevor Johnston, Troy D. Smith, J. Luke Irwin

  Additive manufacturing (AM) — colloquially known as three-dimensional, or 3D, printing — is an emerging technology with potential local and international security implications in the near and long terms. This Perspective — one of a series examining critical security challenges in 2040 — offers a new framework for exploring the disruptive dimensions of AM technology, helping to inform which sectors and industries might be the most affected in the future.

• 

  Speed and Security: Promises, Perils, and Paradoxes of Accelerating Everything 2018

  Kathryn E. Bouskill, Seifu Chonde, William Welser IV

  This Perspective — part of a series examining critical security challenges in 2040 — reviews the concept of speed and offers key points for policymakers and the public to consider in preparing for the possibilities and implications of a faster future. The authors hypothesize that this iteration of acceleration could be more intense and introduce new security threats, and that its scale and scope could vary across cultural and geographic categories.

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  Strengthening U.S.-ROK Relations in the New Administrations of the United States and South Korea: Findings from an October 2016 RAND Corporation Conference 2018

  Bruce W. Bennett, Booseung Chang

  This summary outlines presentations and discussions from an October 2016 conference held by the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy and the Sejong Institute on strengthening relations between the United States and the Republic of Korea, with a focus on such key issues as regional security interests and economic relations.

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  Discontinuities and Distractions — Rethinking Security for the Year 2040: Findings from a RAND Corporation Workshop 2018

  Andrew R. Hoehn, Andrew Parasiliti, Sonni Efron, Steven Strongin

  This report is based on a workshop that focused on how to better define, anticipate, and address continuities (trends that are unsurprising) and discontinuities (developments that are not considered but prove consequential enough to change history). It also addresses anticipated changes in warfare, information insecurity, challenges to privacy, and the problems of governance in liberal democracies.

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  What to Do with the Selective Service System? Historical Lessons and Future Posture 2018

  Bernard D. Rostker

  Since the end of conscription in 1973, the question of what to do with the Selective Service System has been asked again and again. This perspective reviews the history of registration since the advent of the all-volunteer force, then examines the current registration program and offers alternatives.

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  Security 2040: Perils and Promise Over the Near Horizon 2018

  Describes the Security 2040 project, which included a series of workshops examining possible outcomes for the future regarding the influence of advanced computing and artificial intelligence on nuclear security; the acceleration of technology, decisionmaking, and weapons systems; the disruption that 3D printing technology poses; and the implications of the culture and mindset of the millennial generation.

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  How Might Artificial Intelligence Affect the Risk of Nuclear War? 2018

  Edward Geist, Andrew J. Lohn

  RAND researchers held a series of workshops examining possible outcomes regarding the influence of advanced computing and artificial intelligence (AI) on nuclear security. The culmination of those workshops, this Perspective — one of a series that examines critical security challenges in 2040 — places the intersection of AI and nuclear war in historical context and characterizes the range of expert opinions.

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  Understanding Deterrence 2018

  Michael J. Mazarr

  Deterrence has again become a principal theme in U.S. defense policy. This short essay draws on a range of RAND Corporation studies to revisit fundamental deterrence concepts and principles, emphasizing that deterrence and dissuasion must be conceived primarily as an effort to shape the thinking of a potential aggressor. Any strategy must begin with an assessment of the interests, motives, and imperatives of the potential aggressor.

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  U.S. Policy in Asia — Perspectives for the Future: Proceedings from a RAND Corporation Conference in Early 2017 2018

  Rafiq Dossani, Scott W. Harold

  These proceedings summarize the findings of a conference on U.S. policy in Asia titled Pivot to Asia? U.S. Policy in Asia Under the Trump Administration, which was held at the RAND Corporation in January 2017. The conference's objectives were to examine the arenas of U.S.–Asia engagement, provide an understanding of the outcomes of past interaction, and make the case for the terms of future engagement.

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  A Preliminary Assessment of Indonesia's Maritime Security Threats and Capabilities 2018

  Lyle J. Morris, Giacomo Persi Paoli

  In recent years, Indonesia has re-conceptualised its identity as a maritime nation whose livelihood both derives from and depends upon the sea, evidenced by President Joko Widodo's Global Maritime Fulcrum and Sea Policy proposals. This study identifies the threats and priority areas for Indonesia in the maritime security domain as a first step in an overall assessment of capability requirements and gaps

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  Is Climate Restoration an Appropriate Climate Policy Goal? 2018

  Robert J. Lempert, Giacomo Marangoni, Klaus Keller, Jessica Duke

  This report offers an initial exploration of the concept of climate restoration — that is, approaches that seek to return atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to preindustrial levels within one to two generations. Authors explore the conditions under which it might be possible to achieve various climate restoration goals. This report also examines near-term actions that might help manage associated risks.

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