CMEPP Publications

2022 Publications

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  The Challenges and Opportunities of Institutional Capacity Building Through Professional Military Education: Lessons from the Defense Education Enhancement Program 2022

  Trevor Johnston, Alan G. Stolberg

  This report is intended to inform U.S. personnel, NATO Allies, and other Euro-Atlantic governments of the Defense Education Enhancement Program's status from 2018 to 2020, its opportunities and challenges, and ways the program can be improved. For institutional capacity building practitioners, this report also offers general lessons on how professional military education can support institutional change, sustainment, and development.

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  Competition and Governance in African Security Sectors: Integrating U.S. Strategic Objectives 2022

  Stephen Watts, Alexander Noyes, Gabrielle Tarini

  The authors examine U.S. institutional capacity-building (ICB) programs for the security sectors of African partner governments and their potential role in strategic competition. They outline a framework for understanding the relationships between ICB and efforts to gain influence among U.S. partner nations and provide initial recommendations for how U.S. policy can better integrate governance and strategic competition objectives in Africa.

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  Establishing a Sovereign Guided Weapons Enterprise for Australia: International and Domestic Lessons Learned 2022

  Christopher A. Mouton, Carl Rhodes, Mark V. Arena, Paul DeLuca, Andrew Dowse, John P. Godges, Adam R. Grissom, Caleb Lucas, Erik Silfversten

  The authors describe the relevance of five international case studies in relation to Australia's creation of a Sovereign Guided Weapons Enterprise, identified as a key priority by the government in its 2020 Defence Strategic Update. The authors review comparable enterprises in Japan, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Canada and Norway to identify the most relevant aspects of each country's experience and lessons for Australia.

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  An Exploratory Examination of Agent-Based Modeling for the Study of Social Movements 2022

  Aaron B. Frank, Marek N. Posard, Todd C. Helmus, Krystyna Marcinek, Justin Grana, Omair Khan, Rushil Zutshi

  Social movement research is becoming increasingly important, as information and communications technologies (ICTs) have altered the ways movements form, organize, mobilize, and act, as well as the ways in which they are surveilled and disrupted. The authors of this report explore the use of agent-based modeling as a method for studying the effects of ICTs on the formation, maintenance, and dissolution of social movements over time.

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  Iraqi Army Will to Fight: A Will-to-Fight Case Study with Lessons for Western Security Force Assistance 2022

  Ben Connable

  The Iraqi Army's collapse in summer 2014 has been widely attributed to a lack of will to fight. In this report, Ben Connable applies RAND's analytic model of will to fight to the regular Iraqi Army, identifying factors that contribute to or undermine Iraqi Army will to fight and providing recommendations for the U.S. security force assistance mission in Iraq.

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  Multi-Domain Integration in Defence: Conceptual Approaches and Lessons from Russia, China, Iran and North Korea 2022

  James Black, Alice Lynch, Kristian Gustafson, David Blagden, Pauline Paillé, Fiona Quimbre

  The Global Strategic Partnership, a research consortium led by RAND, was commissioned by the UK Ministry of Defence to support the development of a concept of Multi-Domain Integration enabling the UK to maintain advantage by exploiting the integration of activities across domains. In particular, the study aimed to investigate the nature, extent and drivers of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea's own evolving thinking on multi-domain integration.

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  National Security Decisionmaking Processes in Israel: Persistent Flaws and How to Amend Them 2022

  Ofer Shelah

  Throughout its existence, Israel has faced security challenges and has struggled with how best to make decisions to address them. In this Perspective, the author examines the inherent flaws in the function of key Israeli decisionmaking entities and in the process as a whole, reflects on their underlying causes, and suggests avenues toward a decisionmaking apparatus that is better suited to the challenges the country faces today.

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  Operation Inherent Resolve: U.S. Ground Force Contributions 2022

  Jeffrey Martini, Sean M. Zeigler, Sebastian Joon Bae, Alexandra T. Evans, Gian Gentile, Michelle Grisé, Mark Hvizda

  This report provides a narrative account of four battles within Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR) and a review of U.S. ground force contributions to those battles. It is intended to serve as an operational history and review of warfighting functions as applied to OIR. Although OIR was both a Coalition fight and joint one, the focus on U.S. ground forces is meant to address gaps both in analysis and in the common understanding of OIR.

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  Pulse-Check: Exploration of Early COVID-19 Pandemic Health Care and Public Health Responses in Select Middle East Nations 2022

  Hamad Al-Ibrahim, Nasma Berri, Emily Hoch, Nazia Wolters, Kristin J. Leuschner, Mahshid Abir

  This report outlines the results of an exploratory analysis of strategies used by health care systems and public health in response to COVID-19 in five countries &madsh; Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, and Tunisia. Drawing on research conducted from February 2021 through May 2021, the authors identify strategies and innovations critical to meeting the health care demands of populations in the Middle East region.

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  RAND Arroyo Center Annual Report 2021 2022

  This Annual Report illustrates the depth, breadth, and responsiveness of the studies that RAND Arroyo Center conducted for the Army in 2021. The report highlights projects that showcase both the variety of questions posed by Army leaders and the multidisciplinary approach that Arroyo uses to answer them. It also describes Arroyo's organization, leadership, and oversight.

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  RAND Review: July-August 2022 2022

  Features explore environmental racism; the economic value to the UK of improving languages education in schools; and causes of civilian harm in Raqqa, Syria, and ways to reduce civilian casualties in current and future military operations.

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  Road to Damascus: The Russian Air Campaign in Syria, 2015 to 2018 2022

  Michael Simpson, Adam R. Grissom, Christopher A. Mouton, John P. Godges, Russell Hanson

  The authors assess the strengths, weaknesses, and adaptations of Russian airpower in the Syrian civil war by examining operational histories, airstrikes, and disposition of Russian aircraft from September 2015 to March 2018 to determine the relative effectiveness of Russian airpower against the Syrian opposition and the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). They also compare the application of airpower in Syria by Russia and the U.S. Coalition.

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  Understanding Civilian Harm in Raqqa and Its Implications for Future Conflicts 2022

  Michael J. McNerney, Gabrielle Tarini, Nate Rosenblatt, Karen M. Sudkamp, Pauline Moore, Michelle Grisé, Benjamin J. Sacks, Larry Lewis

  In this report, RAND researchers study the causes of civilian harm in the 2017 battle for Raqqa, Syria, and provide insights into how the U.S. Department of Defense can reduce civilian harm in future operations.

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  Using Social Media to Extract Information About Chemical Weapons Incidents: A Methodology and Demonstration of Concept from the Civil War in Syria 2022

  Joshua Mendelsohn, Stephanie Young, Jenny Oberholtzer, Yousuf Abdelfatah, Gregory Weider Fauerbach, Natasha Lander, Paul S. Steinberg

  RAND Corporation researchers developed an approach for analyzing social media data to derive insights about chemical incidents and conducted a proof of concept of that approach by applying it to the case of chemical weapons use in Syria (2017–2018). The procedure, a four-step process, showed promise. They recommend that the Defense Threat Reduction Agency initiate three activities to further the development of the procedure.

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  U.S. Resourcing to National Security Interests in Latin America and the Caribbean in the Context of Adversary Activities in the Region 2022

  Jason H. Campbell, Stephen Dalzell, Anthony Atler, Mary Avriette, Jalen Zeman, Kevin J. Connolly

  Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has typically not been a priority region for U.S. national security objectives, but this posture may need to be reassessed. In this report, the authors assess the sufficiency of resources available to pursue U.S. national security objectives in LAC and describe the activities and investments of China, Russia, and Iran in the region.