National Security: Documents Available Online
For more information on current research projects, please visit the National Security Research Area. The documents below are alphabetized by title.
2008
Afghanistan: State and Society, Great Power Politics, and the Way Ahead: Findings from an International Conference, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2007
Compiles papers presented at an international conference on the problems that Afghanistan faces in the wake of the U.S.-led attack on al Qaeda and the Taliban; the obstacles to nation-building in the country; and possible solutions to these issues.
Aircraft Carrier Maintenance Cycles and Their Effects
This research brief summarizes RAND's analysis of the feasibility of different cycle lengths and their effect on the operational availability of Nimitz-class aircraft carriers. The authors also examine cycle length impact on shipyard workloads.
Analyzing Contingency Contracting Purchases for Operation Iraqi Freedom (Unrestricted Version)
This study examines U.S. Air Force in-theater contingency purchases made in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom during fiscal years 2003 and 2004 and develops a custom database to assist in analysis of demand and future decisionmaking.
Asia, America, and the Transformation of Geopolitics
Post-Cold War Asia is increasingly unstable due to changes in relationships among the major countries, risks to the globalization process that underlay U.S. Cold War successes, and failure so far of U.S. strategies to adapt to the new environment.
Assessing the Tradecraft of Intelligence Analysis
This report assesses the tradecraft of intelligence analysis across the main U.S. intelligence agencies and makes recommendations for getting and keeping the people intelligence needs and giving analysts the tools to do better work.
Breaking the Failed-State Cycle
This paper aims to improve the understanding and treatment of failed states by focusing on critical challenges at the intersections between security, economics, and politics and on the guiding goal of empowering local populations.
Caution Nation-Builders: Gender Assumptions Ahead
Drawing the female population into the nation-building process will be good for a country's post-conflict progress and stability.
The Challenge of Nuclear-Armed Regional Adversaries
Deterring nuclear use by regional adversaries such as North Korea could be problematic in some situations. This book examines the strategic and force planning implications of this shift in the international security environment.
Conducting Counterinsurgency Operations: Lessons from Iraq (2003-2006)
This research brief examines U.S. counterinsurgency operations in Iraq from 2003 to 2006, including U.S. failure to protect Iraqi civilians; implications for future conflicts; and recommends steps to improve U.S. counterinsurgency capabilities.
Countering Insurgency in the Muslim World: Rethinking U.S. Priorities and Capabilities
This research brief summarizes a RAND report that analyzes insurgencies such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq and calls for a major shift in investment priorities to give the United States the capabilities it needs for effective counterinsurgency.
Counterinsurgency in Iraq (2003-2006): RAND Counterinsurgency Study -- Volume 2
Implications of failure to protect local populations in counterinsurgency (COIN) operations, overreliance on technology, and lack of a coherent COIN approach, along with strategic considerations in and recommendations to improve U.S. COIN capability.
Estimating the Benefits of the Air Force Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Initiative
To help the Air Force assess the effectiveness of its purchasing and supply-chain management initiative, the authors have developed an econometric model to help isolate the effects of this initiative from those of other possible influences.
Evaluating Novel Threats to the Homeland: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Cruise Missiles
For several types of attacks, examines cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles from an adversary's perspective and assesses defensive options to address this and other asymmetric threats.
An Examination of the Relationship Between Usage and Operating and Support Costs for Air Force Aircraft
Examines the relationship between operating and support costs and usage of Air Force aircraft, in order to improve resource allocation.
Finding Candidate Options for Investment: From Building Blocks to Composite Options and Preliminary Screening
A methodology and prototype tool, the Building Blocks To Composite Options Tool (BCOT), that identifies investment options for defense capability areas, then uses a screening technique to identify those meriting more-extensive assessment in a fuller portfolio-analysis framework.
Fiscally Informed Total Force Manpower
Presents the results of a short-term review of 27 manpower studies to discover methods that other organizations could use to make ''fiscally informed'' manpower decisions.
Getting Back on Track in Afghanistan
Testimony presented before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia on April 2, 2008.
Getting the Most Out of Littoral Combat Ships
This research brief summarizes analysis of the Littoral Combat Ship, the U.S. Navy's first modular warship, suggesting the best locations for homeports, mission package installation sites, and the quantity of mission packages that should be procured.
Guidelines and Metrics for Assessing Space System Cost Estimates
A handbook to help analysts assess cost estimates of space systems.
Improving Strategic Planning at the Department of Defense
This research brief summarizes a monograph presenting a framework, methods, and tools to support capabilities analysis and related tradeoff work within the Department of Defense and the military services. The monograph deals with choice and risk.
Increasing Aircraft Carrier Forward Presence: Changing the Length of the Maintenance Cycle
Evaluating multiple one- and two-deployment scenarios, RAND examines the feasibility of different cycle lengths, their effect on Nimitz-class aircraft carrier forward presence, and their impact on shipyard workloads.
International Perspectives on Interagency Reform
Testimony presented before the House Armed Services Committee, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations on January 29, 2008.
Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery
A comprehensive study of the post-deployment health-related needs associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression, and traumatic brain injury among servicemembers returning from Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
Invisible Wounds of War: Summary and Recommendations for Addressing Psychological and Cognitive Injuries
Summarizes key findings and recommendations from Invisible Wounds of War: Psychological and Cognitive Injuries, Their Consequences, and Services to Assist Recovery (Tanielian and Jaycox [Eds.], MG-720-CCF, 2008).
Invisible Wounds: Mental Health and Cognitive Care Needs of America's Returning Veterans
This research brief summarizes a comprehensive RAND study of the mental health and cognitive needs of returning servicemembers and veterans of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.
An Iraqi Modus Vivendi: How Would It Come About and What Would It Look Like?
Testimony presented before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 3, 2008.
Leader Development in Army Units: Views from the Field
Summarizes discussions with over 450 Army officers about leader development in Army units, and offers suggestions on how the Army school system can improve leader development.
Maintaining Military Medical Skills During Peacetime: Outlining and Assessing a New Approach
The skills required of military medical personnel differ during deployment and peacetime. This study explored the possibility of stationing personnel in nonmilitary settings where the case mix might more closely resemble that under deployment.
Methodology for Improving the Planning, Execution, and Assessment of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Operations
Presents alternative methods to approach U.S. Air Force intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) tasking and assessment processes and presents a methodology for assessing the benefits and costs of different ISR employment strategies.
Middle East Perspectives: Conference Proceedings from Gstaad, Switzerland
These proceedings document the conclusions of panel discussions at the 2007 Workshop on the Middle East, addressing geopolitical and regional dynamics, the Arab-Israeli conflict, the situation in Iraq, and Iran and the Gulf region.
Modernizing the North Korean System: Objectives, Method, and Application
Describes a collaborative effort that produced illustrative plans, a consensus plan, and a tool kit to construct plans for stimulating the modernization of the North Korean system.
New Approaches to Planning, Executing, and Assessing Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Operations
This research brief summarizes research detailing a methodology for assessing the benefits and costs of U.S. Air Force intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance employment strategies.
Outcome Measures for Effective Teamwork in Inpatient Care: Final Report
Addresses one step in the process of moving from teamwork training to teamwork practices that improve outcomes of care: identifying outcomes that are most likely to be affected as teamwork practices improve in an implementing organization.
Performance Evaluation and Army Recruiting
Evaluates traditional performance metrics for Army recruiters and develops a ''preferred'' metric that takes into account the difficulty of recruiting different types of youth in various markets.
Perspectives on the Threat of Nuclear Terrorism
Testimony presented before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on April 15, 2008.
Portfolio-Analysis Methods for Assessing Capability Options
An analytical framework and methodology for defensewide capability-area reviews is described, along with two new tools developed to support capabilities analysis and related tradeoff work within the Department of Defense and the military Services.
Post-Deployment Stress: What Families Should Know, What Families Can Do
Information for families of veterans returning from deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and other emotional and behavioral problems that veterans may face.
Post-Deployment Stress: What You Should Know, What You Can Do
Covers information about post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and other emotional and behavioral problems, e.g., depression and substance abuse, that veterans may face following deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan.
RAND Alternative Strategy Initiative: A Conference on Creative Use of the Media for Understanding and Tolerance
The conference was designed to encourage discourse between regional activists and to encourage growth, exchanges of content, and collaboration. It provided an authentic understanding of the audience — the Middle Eastern public — for Western attendees.
RAND Review: Vol. 32, No. 1, Spring 2008
The cover story compares neonatal services across the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Sweden; other features discuss water resources management, U.S. policies in Asia, and political polarization.
Radicalization or Rehabilitation: Understanding the challenge of extremist and radicalized prisoners
Seeks to provide a preliminary overview of the challenges posed by radicalized and extremist prisoners, and to explore the potential for the radicalization of young European Muslims in the prison environment.
Recent Trends in Veteran Unemployment as Measured in the Current Population Survey and the American Community Survey
This technical report explores recent trends in the unemployment of recent veterans as estimated from two nationally representative surveys, the Current Population Survey (CPS) and the American Community Survey (ACS).
Remuneration and its motivation of UK military personnel
RAND was commissioned to study the attitudes of military personnel towards their remuneration package in order to highlight and determine the extent to which it motivates them to join and stay in the Armed Forces.
Rethinking Counterinsurgency: RAND Counterinsurgency Study -- Volume 5
British and U.S. counterinsurgency (COIN) operations have been slow to adapt to the rise of the global jihadist insurgency. The authors analyze past British COIN experience, explore the evolving nature of insurgency, and suggest a new COIN framework.
Small Ships in Theater Security Cooperation
The authors evaluate roles for small ships in theater security cooperation, present a concept of operations for employing such ships, describe necessary ship and crew characteristics, and survey classes of suitable vessels.
Stabilization and Reconstruction Staffing: Developing U.S. Civilian Personnel Capabilities
Presents a framework for improving U.S. civilian personnel and staffing programs for stability and reconstruction operations.
Turkey as a U.S. Security Partner
Turkey has long been an important ally, but Ankara is increasingly behaving more independently and assertively in ways that must factor into future U.S. planning for the region.
U.S.-Pakistan Relations: Assassination, Instability, and the Future of U.S. Policy
Testimony presented before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia on January 16, 2008.
Ungoverned Territories
Testimony presented before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs on February 14, 2008.
Using the Steel-Vessel Material-Cost Index to Mitigate Shipbuilder Risk
The more accurately a cost index captures a shipbuilder's risk, the less the Navy should have to pay its shipbuilders. The authors urge the Navy to develop a modern-vessel index that represents the materials used today.
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