August 2023

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A Four-Day School Week? Here Are the Costs and Benefits

Hundreds of small school districts across America have cut one day a week from their calendars. A shorter school week helps them compete for teachers and reduce costs. Teachers and parents love it. But is it really in the best interests of students?

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A Potential Alternative for Regulating Internet-Based Platform Services

The use of internet-based platform services like Amazon, DoorDash, and Uber Eats is increasing and can be helpful. But the companies that offer these services may be engaging in predatory practices that can harm users and local businesses. Some form of centralized policy action may help; local governments could play a more active role.

Swaptik Chowdhury, Timothy Marler

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A Trilateral Summit to Deal with Trilateral Threats

The leaders of Japan, South Korea, and the United States held a trilateral summit in August, focused on countering military threats in East Asia. Not surprisingly, China and North Korea were upset by the summit, designed as it was to respond to their military build-ups.

Bruce W. Bennett @bwbennett

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China Ponders Russia's Logistical Challenges in the Ukraine War

Any attempt by China to use military force to seize Taiwan would be an immense logistical undertaking requiring moving large quantities of troops and materiel across the Taiwan Strait. What then, are Chinese observers learning from the logistical realm of the war in Ukraine?

Lyle Goldstein, Nathan Waechter

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Hard Times for U.S.-Russian Nuclear Arms Control

New START is slated to expire in February 2026 and cannot be extended. The next chapter in U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control, if there is to be one, may not be written until rulers in Moscow ease repression at home, pull troops out of Ukraine, and recognize the mutual benefits of reducing, rather than stoking, nuclear tensions.

Frank G. Klotz, William Courtney @courtneywmh

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Pandemics Don't Really End—They Echo

Pandemics have always frayed the social fabric, disrupted economies, deepened social divides, and intensified prejudices, leaving behind psychological scars—all of which have lasting political repercussions. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt long after the last rapid test comes back positive.

Brian Michael Jenkins @BrianMJenkins

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Five Charts That Tell Us About the State of Public Education Right Now

To monitor education trends, RAND fields more than a dozen surveys per year to teachers, principals, and superintendents. Five charts highlight findings across different areas—staff turnover, teacher well-being, guns in schools, quality of instruction, and politics in schools—that say a lot about the state of American public education.

Melissa Kay Diliberti, Elizabeth D. Steiner @ED_Steiner, et al.

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ECOWAS: In Need of Help in Niger?

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu recently sought the Nigerian national legislature's backing for a possible military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to turn back a coup that toppled the government of Niger. An ECOWAS intervention would have a better chance of succeeding if other nations joined the effort.

Oluwatimilehin Sotubo

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The War in Ukraine, Income Share Agreements, the Tech 'Cold War': RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on why Ukraine isn’t like World War I, an alternative to student loans, the tech “Cold War" between the United States and China, and more.

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These Technologies Could Defeat China's Missile Barrage and Defend Taiwan: Analysis

Earlier this year, a group of experts from RAND and the Special Competitive Studies Project launched a new wargame effort around China's invasion of Taiwan. But unlike most D.C.-based wargames, this effort heavily involved members of the commercial technology sector, to understand what near-term capabilities might be brought to bear on a Taiwan scenario.

Jim Mitre @jim_mitre, Ylber Bajraktari

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Normalizing Assad Won't Solve the Syrian Refugee Crisis

As much as Syrian refugees would like to return home eventually and as much as neighboring countries would welcome an end to the challenges of hosting large refugee communities, now is not the right time for mass Syrian refugee repatriation. Regional governments could instead focus on supporting refugees where they are, especially by allowing them to be legal, productive members of local economies.

Nadia Almasalkhi, Shelly Culbertson @SC_Culbertson

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Is Believing Our Kids Are Safer Worth Closing Off Some of Their Futures?

Placing an officer in a school appears to reduce violence and petty crimes within a school. But it also creates long-term negative consequences for students who are increasingly likely to become involved in the school disciplinary system.

Lucy C. Sorensen, Shawn D. Bushway @BushwayShawn, et al.

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India Is Pushing Back Against China in South Asia

The jostling between India and China for influence in South Asia will likely prove crucial to the fate of U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy. The good news, at least for now, is that New Delhi has been mostly successful in pushing back against Beijing's rising influence across the region.

Derek Grossman @DerekJGrossman

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Much of the Damage in Maui Will Be Invisible, but Very Real

In addition to decimating buildings and other infrastructure, disasters also destroy human capital, the collective knowledge and skills that drive individual economic earnings, as well as regional economic growth. Failing to address these more-hidden damages is incredibly costly.

Isaac M. Opper

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Maui Wildfires, Regulating AI, Ukraine's Civilian Resistance: RAND Weekly Recap

This weekly recap focuses on the invisible damage of Maui’s wildfires, making the artificial intelligence supply chain safer, how Ukrainian civilians resist Russia, and more.