This research proposes a high-level yet practical strategic cyber indications and warning approach that governments, NATO agencies, and the private sector can apply to defend against cyber threats.
Relations between China and Israel have expanded rapidly since the early 2000s in numerous areas, including diplomacy, trade, investment, construction, educational partnerships, scientific cooperation, and tourism. The authors examine the extent and nature of Chinese investments in Israeli technology and infrastructure and discuss the security implications these pose for Israel and the United States.
To support U.S. Department of Defense goals to improve software acquisition, the authors discuss developing a competency model that emphasizes modern software practices and technical competencies; review training and education courses by the Defense Acquisition University to identify potential gaps in the current training of software acquisition professionals; and present options for tracking and managing a software acquisition workforce.
The unclassified networks of defense industrial base firms have become an attractive entrance for adversaries seeking access to cutting-edge technologies and research and development efforts. This report describes a way for the U.S. Department of Defense to better secure such networks through the establishment of a cybersecurity program designed to strengthen their protections.
Researchers are helping the U.S. Department of Homeland Security understand how social media might be better leveraged for situational awareness—particularly location information—in U.S. Coast Guard response operations.
Social media can enhance situational awareness in response operations, but using social media this way poses challenges. Researchers sought to contribute to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) mission to ensure resilience to disasters by helping DHS understand whether and how social media might be better leveraged for such situational awareness. The primary focus of this research was on U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) response operations.
The authors examine scalable analytics to detect malign or subversive information efforts, using the 2018 World Cup as a case study. The report has operational relevance to the U.S. government. It may benefit both researchers interested in going beyond post hoc recognition of malign or subversive information campaigns to in-time detection and social media companies interested in preventing their platforms from being co-opted by malign actors.
To what degree is the suicide trend in the U.S. Army unique to that service, relative to what is observed in the general U.S. population? Researchers investigate how accounting for additional population risk factors beyond age and gender (race/ethnicity, time, marital status, and educational attainment) affects suicide rate differences between soldiers and a comparable subset of the general U.S. population.
U.S. Army North led Department of Defense support to civilian disaster-response operations in the wake of hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. RAND was asked to answer a series of questions about that support, including about relationships among responding organizations and possible improvements in such things as speed of response and situational awareness.
In this report, the authors explore approaches for understanding, inventorying, and modeling cybersecurity implications of the rapid growth in drone usage, focusing specifically on current vulnerabilities and future trends. The authors propose conceptual approaches meant to enable the enumeration and categorization of drone-related cyber threats and explore some of the potential benefits and challenges of modeling the commercial drone threat.
This Perspective examines the interests that inspire Russia's use of subversion, the means involved, and recent events that illustrate Russia's attempts at subversion. The authors propose ensuring that any responses to such actions are closely and clearly linked with particular acts of subversion, conducting additional research on what makes some Russian subversion effective, and improving rapid attribution of subversion.
In this brief, RAND researchers, in support of Army efforts to provide the highest-quality behavioral health care possible, identify factors associated with changes in outcomes for soldiers who receive Army behavioral health specialty care.
This report identifies factors associated with changes in outcomes for soldiers who received Army behavioral health specialty care and provides recommendations to improve care and outcomes for posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety. Analyses of 141 patient and treatment variables indicated that two treatment factors—therapeutic alliance and receipt of benzodiazepines—were associated with outcomes.
Researchers estimate average annual total costs of typical general and flag officers (G/FOs) as well as the annual total costs of specific G/FO positions in support of the Secretary of Defense's congressional reporting requirement. Estimated costs range from $270,000 for O-7 pay grades with no staff or travel to over $10 million for O-10 pay grades that receive continuous protection and must use government aircraft for official travel.
In this report, the authors assess the state of artificial intelligence (AI) relevant to DoD and address misconceptions about it; conduct an independent and introspective assessment of the Department of Defense's posture in AI; and put forth a set of recommendations for internal actions, external engagements, and potential legislative or regulatory actions that could enhance the Department of Defense posture in AI.
This report describes an evaluation of the utility of different wargaming tools as the U.S. Marine Corps invests in its wargaming capability and in building its next-generation wargaming concept. The authors have collected information on wargaming processes, facilities, and skill sets through research and interviews at various wargaming centers. They make recommendations for low-, medium-, and high-resourced courses of action.
The authors of this report examine cases from Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea to understand whether and how states use cyber operations to coerce other states or actors, and highlight the challenges of identifying cyber coercion. They also propose ways to develop a deeper understanding of cyber coercion and how to counter it.
Policies for educating and managing joint officers are periodically modified to reflect operational considerations and to provide enhancements and greater flexibilities. This report assesses the production of joint qualified officers by examining trends in achieving educational requirements and accomplishing joint assignments. The trends serve as a baseline allowing policymakers to evaluate impact of both current and future policy changes.
Cyberspace capabilities are critical to national security. However, with a shortage of cyber personnel nationwide and high salaries commanded by some, the Air Force is concerned it may face recruiting and retention challenges within its cyberspace operations officer workforce. To understand potential drivers of attraction to and retention in the career field, researchers conducted interviews with the Air Force's cyberspace operations officer workforce. Recommendations are discussed.
The authors of this Perspective discuss current efforts by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) to integrate cyberspace as an operational domain. They examine one particular capability, indications and warning (I&W), that all states should develop to ensure an effective military presence within cyberspace. Cyber I&W is a relatively new capability; the authors explore existing scholarship and adapt a framework for the NATO context.
Scientific research ethics vary by discipline and by country, and this analysis sought to understand those variations. The authors reviewed literature and conducted interviews to provide researchers, government officials, and others who create, modify, and enforce ethics in scientific research around the world with an understanding of how ethics are created, monitored, and enforced across scientific disciplines and across international borders.
In December 2017, the RAND Corporation conducted a tabletop exercise on air operations across the boundaries between geographic combatant commands. The objective was to maximize operational effectiveness when using personnel recovery; close air support; and airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets against transregional adversaries. This report describes the exercise's design, key insights, and recommendations.
The decision analysis community faces obstacles in moving new methods, tools, and paradigms from theory to practice, partly because of the difficulties in demonstrating value proposition. In this report, RAND researchers use a structured comparison game to examine the value proposition of different analytic inputs (scenario-based versus Robust Decision Making) on a sample U.S. Department of Defense decision about force structure.
Anyone interested in joining the military must undergo a medical exam. If the standard in place at the time of that exam is tightened or loosened under Department of Defense or service policy, does a service member's chance of being medically discharged change? If so, how does the probability of medical discharge alter postservice costs to the department? This report answers those questions.
The 2018 National Defense Authorization Act required a federally funded research and development center to evaluate the Corporation for the Promotion of Rifle Practice and Firearms Safety, which administers the Civilian Marksmanship Program, in order to assess potential future transfers of excess firearms to the Corporation. This report summarizes the RAND Arroyo Center evaluation, with analyses of the discrete tasks in the legislative language.
