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Insights from Our Experts

Recent Commentaries, Interviews, and Multimedia

Directed Energy Dilemmas
Directed energy weapons (DEW) are part of a layered approach to integrated air and missile defence. But with wide-ranging and disruptive implications for defence budgets and for industry that have only just begun to be considered, could the military impact of this possible DEW revolution be just the tip of the iceberg?
20 Feb 2024
Two Years After Russia Invaded Ukraine: Q&A with RAND Experts
RAND experts discuss the state of the conflict in Ukraine and its prospects, the war's global implications, possible outcomes and solutions, and what the West and the rest of the world might be doing now and once hostilities end.
19 Feb 2024
How Finland Approaches Its New NATO Role Is a Key Decision for the New President
Finland's presidential election is complete, and Alexander Stubb is the winner. As the president holds executive power to set foreign and security policy, as well as commanding the military, NATO countries are watching closely to see which course their newfound ally will chart.
14 Feb 2024
Public Finance Initiative Problems? The Challenges of Long-Term Defence Acquisition in a Rapidly Changing World
Future-proofing defense equipment acquisition remains a perplexing and wicked problem for policymakers, but one that merits ever greater attention. Acquisition decisionmakers would benefit from greater use of robust decisionmaking tools and methods to help them identify options that could increase the UK's operational (and financial) resilience for multiple different futures.
06 Feb 2024
Lessons for Industrial Resilience: The UK's Typhoon Export Conundrum
If Turkey steps back from its pursuit of the Typhoon, it would join India, South Korea, Finland, the UAE, and Switzerland on the list of countries to decline acquisition of the four-nation collaborative platform jointly exported by the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Spain. The United Kingdom and Germany have the most to gain, or lose, from the Typhoon's success.
02 Feb 2024
Preparing for the Potential Rollout of New Alzheimer's Drugs: Towards a Policy, Research, and Innovation Agenda
Several promising new drugs appear to slow cognitive decline in individuals with early-stage Alzheimer's disease. A number of challenges need to be addressed to ensure their successful rollout, but there are also opportunities for health innovation.
30 Jan 2024
The Promise and Peril of AI in the Power Grid
Artificial intelligence is poised to transform how electricity is produced and consumed. But as with any new technology, its use comes with hidden risks and challenges that must be addressed.
26 Jan 2024
Directed Energy: The Focus on Laser Weapons Intensifies
Directed energy weapons offer a more cost-efficient means of dealing with fast-proliferating threats. If the technology can be matured, such systems could tip both the military and economic calculus of modern warfare in their users' favor.
25 Jan 2024
Assessing the Value of Publicly Funded Earth Observation Programmes in the United Kingdom
Satellite-based earth observation (EO) technologies play a critical role across the world, from monitoring climate change to assessing the situation during crises such as extreme weather events. As the United Kingdom invests in space technology and participates in international agreements, effectively demonstrating the value of these investments remains a top priority.
23 Jan 2024
The Search for a High Seas Solution
While Western military action against the Houthis has increased, the Red Sea crisis is sailing through opaque waters. Short-term military action might help with the immediate crisis, but shipping routes will remain vulnerable unless the world recognizes its exposure to threats and cooperates to defend them.
17 Jan 2024
Germany's New Plans for Transforming Its Defence and Foreign Policy Are Bold. They Are Also Running Into Familiar Problems
Germany's new defence policy guidelines mark a seismic transformation in German military strategy, away from diplomacy and dialogue, towards defence and deterrence. But as the country seeks to be more assertive on the international stage, there may be resistance at home.
17 Jan 2024
The U.S. Must Close the Long-Distance Power Transmission Gap with China
The gap in long-distance transmission technologies between the United States and China raises significant national security implications.
16 Jan 2024
Movie Money in the EU: A Deception Circulating in Plain Sight
Altered design banknotes—often referred to as movie money or prop copies—have a similar shape and color to real euros. Without close inspection, they can easily be accepted as genuine money. They include disclaimers but they are still illegal.
16 Jan 2024
Deepfakes Aren't the Disinformation Threat They're Made Out to Be
Concerns over generative AI too often stray into alarmism, of hypothetical dystopias where fact is indistinguishable from fiction. That has distorted the picture. To really understand deepfakes, it is better to look at how they are being used today.
19 Dec 2023
Testing the Waters: Using Wastewater Surveillance as an Early Warning System
A global consortium to fund sentinel and community surveillance systems and enable global data sharing was established at a recent wastewater surveillance conference. Success will require bringing together the knowledge being amassed to combat the fracturing of pathogen surveillance and to enable effective early warning between countries.
13 Dec 2023
Political Manifestos Should Do Better Than “Legalise It”
After years of political deadlock, a new era for drug policy in the Netherlands seems to be on the horizon. At least two factors are increasing politicians' appetite for change: increased awareness of the problems of drug-related organized crime in the Netherlands, and Dutch drug policy no longer being ahead of the curve.
21 Nov 2023
What the REF 2021 Impact Case Studies Can Reveal About UK Research
A new study on the Research Excellence Framework 2021 impact case studies demonstrates the rich and varied impacts of UK research, and the extensive contribution of UK institutions and the academic community both nationally and globally.
15 Nov 2023
Nations Must Collaborate on AI and Biotech—or Be Left Behind
As two revolutionary technologies—machine learning and gene editing—converge, forward-looking policy is essential to both mitigate risks and leverage opportunities.
31 Oct 2023
Fixing the Problem of Innovation in the Health and Care System
The National Health System has an innovation problem. The problem is not that the system lacks an appetite for innovation; rather, it is that successive efforts to create an enabling environment for innovation have been met with only limited success. But why?
27 Oct 2023
Isn't It Obvious? Why Making the Case for Big Research Infrastructure Is Important
Large-scale research infrastructure is enormously expensive. Is the real impact and value of major investment in research facilities worth the cost?
20 Oct 2023

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