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MAY 2007 HIGHLIGHTS:AMERICA GOES TO WAR: MANAGING THE FORCE DURING TIMES OF STRESS AND UNCERTAINTY
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For more than three decades, the United States has relied on an all-volunteer force to meet its military needs. This report looks at how the Department of Defense can continue to manage its personnel in times of high levels of deployment and subsequent “stress.” It also focuses on the many programs that have been developed to help military members and their families cope during difficult times.
This report estimates marriage and marital dissolution trends from 1996 to 2005, and the effects of recent deployments on risk of ending a marriage. Marital dissolution rates across services and components are currently similar to those seen in 1996, when the demands on the military were measurably lower. The report found that service members who were deployed had a lower risk of subsequently ending their marriages than those who did not deploy or deployed fewer days.
Understanding the efficacy of terrorist training efforts is a key element in assessing the threat posed by a terrorist group. This task requires insight into what training really accomplishes for the group, expressed by how the information passed to members meets the organization's needs and the impacts of training on group outcomes. This paper uses the Provisional Irish Republican Army as an example case to provide insight into the types of information required to more completely and successfully assess a group's training programs.
This report proposes adaptation of a RAND tool called Assumption-Based Planning to help Army personnel maintain proper alignment between strategic guidance and the Army acquisition program and budget. It uses this tool to create a model that recommends acquisition investments across a broad range of capabilities. The model works toward the goal of satisfying the complex and evolving requirements specified in the national security guidance.
The Department of Defense's modeling and simulation should help find strategies that are flexible, adaptive, and robust. It should be pursued with a family-of-tools approach, with models that involve man-in-the-loop, low resolution, and exploratory analysis, and high-resolution on selected issues. This occasional paper reviews analysis and analysis practices for defense planning and draws important implications for models and simulations.
COMMENTARYThe following is a list of national security related commentary pieces that RAND researchers have contributed to newspapers in the past month. To retrieve past commentary pieces, please visit RAND's commentary page. THE COUNTERINSURGENCY FIGHT: THINK GLOBALLY, LOSE LOCALLY
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RAND CONGRESSIONAL RESOURCES STAFFLindsey Kozberg Shirley Ruhe Sage Newman RAND Office of Congressional Relations |
TESTIMONYIMPROVING THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE'S SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH PROGRAMAuthor: Bruce Held Testimony presented before the House Science and Technology Committee, Subcommittee on Technology and Innovation on April 26, 2007. BUILDING AN ARMY OF BELIEVERS: JIHADIST RADICALIZATION AND RECRUITMENTAuthor: Brian Michael Jenkins Testimony presented before the House Homeland Security Committee, Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing and Terrorism Risk Assessment on April 5, 2007. |
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