RAND Review

The cover story describes ways to factor climate change — and the uncertainty surrounding it — in to water management plans, using the Colorado River Basin and the Sierra Nevada as case studies and recommending greater conservation, efficiency, and surface water storage. The first additional feature story examines the burdens borne by military caregivers, contrasting the experience of those caring for veterans of the recent conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq with that of those caring for veterans of the pre-9/11 era. The second looks at the history of joint aircraft programs, concluding that they have failed to deliver expected savings and have resulted in other problems, such as compromises in requirements and capability. A third warns of growing divisions across the European Union (EU), including an age gap, a technological divide, an income and skills gap, and the particular vulnerability of single-adult households. The voices in Public Square comment on the employment difficulties that a unified Korea would face, the threat of Salafi-jihadism, Syria's worsening conditions, Ukraine's uncertain integration with the EU, Franco-U.S. relations, the limits of nutrition education, and Walmart's support for the fair treatment of agricultural workers.