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Commentary

How U.S. Gun Laws Allow Mass Shooters to Slip Through

The three most lethal domestic terrorist attacks since 9/11 were carried out with high-capacity semiautomatic weapons. None of the attackers were under 21 or were stoppable through criminal background checks. Restrictions on sales of semiautomatics would make it much harder for terrorists to obtain their most effective means of killing.

Nov 15, 2018
Commentary

Could America Use Its Leverage to Alter the Saudis' Behavior?

As the Saudis' chief political and military partner and the undisputed security guarantor in the Middle East, the United States has considerable influence it can wield over Saudi decisionmaking. The Trump administration could consider using its influence to encourage Saudi leadership to moderate its assertive and damaging policies abroad.

Nov 15, 2018
Commentary

Building a Pipeline of Wargaming Talent: A Two-Track Solution

How does the Department of Defense imagine the future of war and make long-term investments to confront the challenges ahead? On issues ranging from potential conflicts with Russia to the future of transportation and logistics, senior leaders have increasingly turned to wargames to imagine potential futures.

Nov 15, 2018
News Release

Gun Violence Research Collaborative to Release First Request for Research Proposals in January, Names Advisory Committee

The National Collaborative on Gun Violence Research, a philanthropic fund that will support scientific research on gun policy, announced that it will release its first request for proposals in early January 2019 and award up to $10 million in research funding during its first round of grantmaking.

Nov 15, 2018
Report

The Strategy of China's Bomber Flights

Since March 2015, China's PLAAF has conducted a series of long-range bomber flights in the Asia-Pacific region, including over the South China Sea, near Japan, and around Taiwan. What's driving these flights? And what are the implications for U.S. interests in the region?

Nov 14, 2018
News Release

News Release

Youth-Oriented Mental Health Campaign Shows Evidence of Success

A community engagement campaign launched by Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health to address mental health barriers had an impressive reach with the younger audience it targeted and showed signs of changing attitudes.

Nov 14, 2018
Report

Evaluation of Los Angeles County's Mental Health Community Engagement Campaign

The Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health conducted a community engagement campaign to increase awareness of mental health access as a civil rights issue and to increase civic engagement. Youths who took part showed increased supportive and understanding attitudes toward mental illness, and empowerment and mobilization toward activism around mental health issues.

Nov 13, 2018
Research Brief

Evaluating Los Angeles County's Mental Health Community Engagement Campaign

The WeRise/WhyWeRise campaign targeted young people to encourage them to engage with mental health issues and create a movement to lower barriers to mental health access. People exposed to the campaign reported more-supportive attitudes toward people with mental illness and greater mobilization toward action around mental health issues.

Nov 13, 2018
Report

Report

A One-Stop Approach to Supporting the Nonacademic Needs of Community College Students: An Evaluation of Single Stop's Impact in North Carolina

This report examines the impact of using Single Stop (a program that connects college students to governmental, community, and institutional resources) on postsecondary outcomes for students at four community colleges in North Carolina.

Nov 12, 2018
Commentary

What Does America's Political Polarization Mean for Competition with China?

Political polarization in the United States potentially carries significant implications for America's strategic competition with China. Leaders in Washington will need to work to mitigate the effects of polarization and manage competition with China in a stable, effective manner.

Nov 9, 2018
Journal Article

Journal Article

NATO's Return to the North Atlantic: Implications for the Defense of Northern Europe

NATO allies and partners are refocusing on the maritime dimension of deterrence in the North Atlantic and Northern Europe in response to Russian assertiveness and deployment of new naval capabilities. They need to better integrate defense plans.

Nov 9, 2018
Commentary

Finding the Right Assessment Tool: Another Resource for Educators and Researchers

To teach something effectively, educators need to determine whether their instructional approaches are working, and make adjustments to those approaches as needed. The Assessment Work Group and RAND have developed tools to assist educators in finding and using assessments to measure social and emotional learning and higher-order cognitive competencies.

Nov 7, 2018
Report

Women's Representation in the U.S. Department of Defense Workforce

When compared with the civilian labor force, there is less women's representation among those who work for the U.S. Department of Defense. What accounts for this gap? And what could be done to address it?

Nov 7, 2018
Commentary

On Nurse Staffing Ballot Measure, Massachusetts Voters Should Look to Evidence from California

Massachusetts residents will soon vote on the Patient Safety Act, a mandate to increase nurse-to-patient ratios in acute care facilities. Evaluating existing data on the impact of a similar nurse staffing law implemented in California in 2004 may help inform voters as they head to the polls.

Nov 2, 2018
Commentary

In Refugee Vetting, How Good Is Good Enough?

A security policy that depends too heavily on vetting, and expects it to be foolproof, is likely to fall short. A better security standard the administration could consider is not whether vetting failures ever occur, but rather whether they pose an acceptable risk to the United States.

Nov 1, 2018
Report

Strategies to Counter Russian Social Media Influence

The Russian government's disinformation campaigns have found a comfortable home on social media. No single approach to countering their influence is likely to produce a conclusive victory over the threat. Therefore, it would be prudent to adopt approaches that target multiple links in the disinformation chain.

Nov 1, 2018
Essay

An Inside Look at Life in the Army's Junior Ranks

History records the names of generals, not of the privates filling out supply forms, cleaning out trucks, or huffing through another training exercise. But those privates keep the U.S. Army running. RAND research provides their unfiltered take on life in the ranks.

Oct 31, 2018
Commentary

Is Major Realignment Taking Place in the Middle East?

The shifting alignments in the Middle East have intensified since the murder of the Saudi journalist Khashoggi in Istanbul. Turkey has drifted away from NATO and toward Iran and Russia. Like Tehran and Moscow, Ankara is now more anti-Western than at any point in recent memory. What does this mean for the United States?

Oct 31, 2018
Report

Alternative Paths to Korean Unification

There are many ways in which Korean unification could occur or be attempted, and each holds vast uncertainties. What actions could South Korea and the United States take to set the conditions for stable reunification?

Oct 31, 2018
Report

Report

Career Paths in the Army Civilian Workforce: Identifying Common Patterns Based on Statistical Clustering

This report examines what the career of a "typical" Army civilian looks like. It identifies seven common career patterns among individuals who entered the Army civilian workforce between 1981 and 2000 as General Schedule employees.

Oct 31, 2018

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