Security & Defense Research
The RAND Corporation helped create the field of defense analysis after World War II. Modern researchers at RAND, including Pardee RAND students, carry on this tradition. Common topic areas include strategy and policy, technology and acquisition, logistics, and personnel. Students doing research in this area employ diverse methods: modeling and simulation, wargaming, archival research, econometric analysis, and more. In recent years, roughly forty percent of students’ project work (OJT) has been related to defense and security. An annual dissertation fellowship competition awards generous funding — around $25,000 per fellowship — to up to 10 students focusing on defense and security research.
Student-Faculty Research Collaborations
Through project-based research, students work with faculty mentors to obtain professional skills and tacit knowledge that courses alone cannot convey. Here are a few recent projects and their resulting research.
Enabling the Global Response Force
Student Jonathan Wong (cohort '12) worked with professor Christopher Pernin and other RAND colleagues in recommending specific Global Response Force access strategies for each geographic combatant command given constraints in aircraft, intermediate staging bases, and other factors.
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Assessing the Use of CERP in Afghanistan
Kathleen Loa (cohort '12), professor Daniel Egel, and RAND colleagues found the ability of the U.S. military to provide humanitarian relief and reconstruction services, through the Commander's Emergency Response Program in Afghanistan, enhanced the operational effectiveness of U.S. forces.
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Security Sector Reform in Ukraine
The 2014 Maidan revolution created an opportunity for change in a system that had resisted it for 25 years. Jakub Hlavka and Andriy Bega (both cohort '14) contributed to a report that found the Ukrainian security establishment has progressed since then, but its efforts have been insufficient to address the threats now facing the nation.
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Considerations for Integrating Women into U.S. Special Ops Forces
Cameron Wright (cohort '12), working with several professors and RAND colleagues, conducted a survey of special operations forces (SOF) personnel to identify their concerns with allowing women to fill SOF positions. Many said they thought mission effectiveness and unit cohesion would suffer as a result.
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