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| Founder(s) | Henry H. "Hap" Arnold, Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. |
|---|---|
| Type | Global policy think tank |
| Founded | 1948 |
| Headquarters | Santa Monica, California Arlington, Virginia Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
| Origins | United States Army Air Forces, Project RAND |
| Key people | Michael D. Rich |
| Area served | Predominantly United States of America |
| Focus | Policy Analysis |
| Revenue | $252.87 million (FY11)[1] |
| Employees | 1,700 |
| Motto | "To help improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis." |
| Website | www.rand.org |
RAND Corporation (Research ANd Development[2]) is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is currently financed by the U.S. government and private endowment,[3] corporations[4] including the healthcare industry, universities[5] and private individuals.[6] The organization has long since expanded to working with other governments, private foundations, international organizations, and commercial organizations on a host of non-defence issues. RAND aims for interdisciplinary and quantitative problem solving via translating theoretical concepts from formal economics and the hard sciences into novel applications in other areas; that is, via applied science and operations research. Michael D. Rich is president and chief executive officer of the RAND Corporation.
RAND has approximately 1,700 employees and three principal North American locations: Santa Monica, California (headquarters); Arlington, Virginia; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The RAND Gulf States Policy Institute has offices in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Jackson, Mississippi.[7] RAND Europe is located in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and Brussels, Belgium.[8] The RAND-Qatar Policy Institute[9] is in Doha, Qatar. RAND's newest office is in Boston, Massachusetts.
RAND is also home to the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School, one of the original[clarification needed] graduate programs in public policy and the first[citation needed] to offer a Ph.D. The program aims to have practical value in that students work alongside RAND analysts on real-world problems. The campus is at RAND's Santa Monica research facility. The Pardee RAND School is the world's largest Ph.D.-granting program in policy analysis.[citation needed]
RAND publishes the RAND Journal of Economics, a peer-reviewed journal of economics.
To date, 32 recipients of the Nobel Prize, primarily in the fields of economics and physics, have been involved or associated with RAND at some point in their career.[2][10][11]
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Project RAND [edit]
General Henry H. Arnold, commander of the United States Army Air Forces, established Project RAND with the objective of looking into long-range planning of future weapons.[12][13][12] In March 1946 Douglas Aircraft Company was granted the contract to research on intercontinental warfare by adopting operations research.[12] In May 1946 the Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship was released. In May 1948, Project RAND separated from Douglas and became an independent non-profit organization as Douglas Aircraft feared it would create conflicts of interest jeopardizing future hardware contracts.[12] Initial capital for the split was provided by the Ford Foundation.
History [edit]
Since the 1950s, the RAND has been instrumental in defining U.S. military strategy.[citation needed] Their most visible contribution is the doctrine of nuclear deterrence by mutually assured destruction (MAD), developed under the guidance of then-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and based upon their work with game theory.[14] Chief strategist Herman Kahn also posited the idea of a "winnable" nuclear exchange in his 1960 book On Thermonuclear War. This led to Kahn being one of the models for the titular character of the film Dr. Strangelove.[15][16]
Mission statement [edit]
RAND was incorporated as a non-profit organization to "further promote scientific, educational, and charitable purposes, all for the public welfare and security of the United States of America". Its self-declared mission is "to help improve policy and decision making through research and analysis", using its "core values of quality and objectivity".[2]
Achievements and expertise [edit]
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This section needs additional citations for verification. (April 2008) |
The achievements of RAND stem from its development of systems analysis. Important contributions are claimed in space systems and the United States' space program, in computing and in artificial intelligence. RAND researchers developed many of the principles that were used to build the Internet. RAND also contributed to the development and use of wargaming.
Current areas of expertise include: child policy, civil and criminal justice, education, health, international policy, labor markets, national security, infrastructure, energy, environment, corporate governance, economic development, intelligence policy, long-range planning, crisis management and disaster preparation, population and regional studies, science and technology, social welfare, terrorism, arts policy, and transportation.
RAND designed and conducted one of the largest and most important studies of health insurance between 1974 and 1982. The RAND Health Insurance Experiment, funded by the then-U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, established an insurance corporation to compare demand for health services with their cost to the patient.
According to the 2005 annual report, "about one-half of RAND's research involves national security issues". Many of the events in which RAND plays a part are based on assumptions which are hard to verify because of the lack of detail on RAND's highly classified work for defense and intelligence agencies. The RAND Corporation posts all of its unclassified reports in full on its website.
Notable participants [edit]
- Henry H. "Hap" Arnold: General, United States Air Force
- Kenneth Arrow: economist, won the Nobel Prize in Economics, developed the impossibility theorem in social choice theory
- Bruno Augenstein: V.P., physicist, mathematician and space scientist
- Robert Aumann: mathematician, game theorist, won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
- J. Paul Austin: Chairman of the Board, 1972–1981
- Paul Baran: one of the developers of packet switching which was used in Arpanet and later networks like the Internet
- Richard Bellman: Mathematician known for his work on dynamic programming
- Barry Boehm: worked in interactive computer graphics with the RAND Corporation in the 1960s and had helped define the ARPANET in the early phases of that program[18]
- Harold L. Brode: physicist, leading nuclear weapons effects expert
- Bernard Brodie: Military strategist and nuclear architect
- Samuel Cohen: inventor of the neutron bomb in 1958[19]
- Franklin R. Collbohm: Aviation engineer, Douglas Aircraft Company, RAND founder and former director and trustee.[20]
- Walter Cunningham: astronaut
- George Dantzig: mathematician, creator of the simplex algorithm for linear programming
- Linda Darling-Hammond: co-director, School Redesign Network
- James F. Digby: American military strategist, author of first treatise on precision guided munitions 1949–2007[21]
- Stephen H. Dole: Author of the book Habitable Planets for Man[22][23]
- Donald Wills Douglas, Sr.: President, Douglas Aircraft Company, RAND founder
- Daniel Ellsberg: leaker of the Pentagon Papers
- Francis Fukuyama: academic and author of The End of History and the Last Man
- Horace Rowan Gaither: Chairman of the Board, 1949–1959, 1960–1961; known for the Gaither Report.
- David Galula, French officer and scholar
- James J. Gillogly: cryptographer and computer scientist
- Cecil Hastings: Wrote "Approximations for Digital Computers" It has been estimated that this research saved enough machine time and memory (measured in dollar value) to have financed Project RAND for 15 years.
- Karen Elliott House: Chairman of the Board, 2009-Present, Former Publisher, The Wall Street Journal; Former Senior Vice President, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
- Brian Michael Jenkins: terrorism expert, Senior Advisor to the President of the RAND Corporation, and author of Unconquerable Nation
- Herman Kahn: theorist on nuclear war and one of the founders of scenario planning
- Zalmay Khalilzad: U.S. ambassador to United Nations
- Henry Kissinger: United States Secretary of State (1973–1977); National Security Advisor (1969–1975); Nobel Peace Prize Winner (1973)
- Ann McLaughlin Korologos: Chairman of the Board, April 2004–2009; Chairman Emeritus, The Aspen Institute
- Lewis "Scooter" Libby: United States Vice-President Dick Cheney's former Chief of Staff
- Ray Mabus: Former ambassador, governor
- Harry Markowitz: economist, greatly advanced financial portfolio theory by devising mean variance analysis
- Andrew W. Marshall: military strategist, director of the U.S. DoD Office of Net Assessment
- Margaret Mead: U.S. anthropologist
- Douglas Merrill: Former Google CIO & President of EMI's digital music division
- Newton N. Minow: Chairman of the board, 1970–1972
- Lloyd N. Morrisett: Chairman of the board, 1986–1995
- John Forbes Nash, Jr.: mathematician, won the the Nobel Prize in Economics
- John von Neumann: mathematician, pioneer of the modern digital computer
- Allen Newell: artificial intelligence
- Paul O'Neill: Chairman of the board, 1997–2000
- Edmund Phelps: winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics
- Arthur E. Raymond: Chief engineer, Douglas Aircraft Company, RAND founder
- Condoleezza Rice: former intern, former trustee (1991–1997), and former Secretary of State for the United States
- Michael D. Rich: RAND President and Chief Executive Officer, Nov. 1, 2011–present
- Leo Rosten: academic and humorist, helped set up the social sciences division of RAND[24]
- Donald Rumsfeld: Chairman of board from 1981 to 1986; 1995–1996 and secretary of defense for the United States from 1975 to 1977 and 2001 to 2006.
- Robert M. Salter: advocate of the vactrain maglev train concept
- Paul Samuelson: economist, Nobel Prize in Economics
- Thomas C. Schelling: economist, won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Economics
- James Schlesinger: former secretary of defense and former secretary of energy
- Norman Shapiro: mathematician, co-author of the Rice–Shapiro theorem, MH Email and RAND-Abel co-designer
- Lloyd Shapley: mathematician and game theorist, won the Nobel Prize in Economics
- Cliff Shaw: inventor of the linked list and co-author of the first artificial intelligence program
- Abram Shulsky: former Director of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans[25]
- Herbert Simon: Political scientist, psychologist, won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Economics
- James P Smith: Health economist
- Frank Stanton: Chairman of the board, 1961–1967[26]
- James Steinberg: Deputy National Security Advisor to Bill Clinton
- Peter Szanton: Policy analyst and former head of RAND operations in New York City[27]
- Ratan Tata: Chairman of Tata Sons
- James Thomson: RAND president and CEO, 1989 – Oct. 31, 2011
- William H. Webster: Chairman of the board, 1959–1960
- Albert Wohlstetter: Mathematician and Cold-War strategist
- Roberta Wohlstetter: Policy analyst and military historian
- Oliver Williamson: economist
Over the last 60 years, more than 30 Nobel Prize winners have been involved or associated with the RAND Corporation at some point in their careers.[2]
Criticism [edit]
In 1958 Democratic Senator Stuart Symington accused the RAND Corporation of defeatism for studying how the United States might strategically surrender to an enemy power. This led to the passage of a prohibition on the spending of tax dollars on the study of defeat or surrender of any kind. However, the senator had apparently misunderstood, as the report was a survey of past cases in which the United States had demanded unconditional surrender of its enemies, asking whether or not this had been a more favorable outcome to U.S. interests than an earlier, negotiated surrender would have been.[28]
See also [edit]
- A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates (published by RAND)
- Brookings Institution
- Council on Foreign Relations
- Daniel Ellsberg
- Hudson Institute
- Amrom Harry Katz
- Kepner-Tregoe
- Kevin N. Lewis
- Pentagon Papers
- Rational choice theory
- Lloyd Shapley
- Trilateral Commission
References [edit]
- ^ About the RAND Corporation — RAND at a Glance, retrieved 2012-06-06
- ^ a b c d The Rand Corporation. "History and Mission". RAND Corporation. Retrieved 2008-04-15.
- ^ http://www.rand.org/about/glance.html RAND's private endowment
- ^ http://www.rand.org/about/clients_grantors.html#industry Corporate contributors on RAND's website
- ^ Major Clients and Grantors of RAND Research | RAND
- ^ http://www.rand.org/about/glance.html for RAND's individual contributions see Finance
- ^ RAND Gulf States Policy Institute website
- ^ RAND Europe website
- ^ RAND-Qatar Policy Institute website
- ^ Brigette Sarabi, "Oregon: The Rand Report on Measure 11 is Finally Available", Partnership for Safety and Justice (formerly Western Prison Project), January 1, 2005. Retrieved on April 15, 2008.
- ^ Harvard University Institute of Politics. "Guide for Political Internships". Harvard University. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
- ^ a b c d Johnson, Stephen B. (2002). The United States Air Force and the Culture of Innovation 1945–1965. Diane Publishing Co. p. 32. ISBN 978-0756739966.
- ^ RAND History and Mission. Accessed 13 April 2009.
- ^ Twing, Steven W. (1998). Myths, models & U.S. foreign policy. Lynne Rienner Publishers. ISBN 1-55587-766-4.
- ^ Hanks, Robert (19 December 2007). "The Week In Radio: The think tank for unthinkable thoughts". The Independent. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
- ^ Kaplan, Fred (10 October 2004). "Truth Stranger Than 'Strangelove'". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
- ^ Life Magazine, 25 February 1957, "Passing of a Great Mind", by Clay Bair JR. pages 89–104
- ^ Alex Roland and Philip Shiman, Strategic Computing: DARPA and the Quest for Machine Intelligence, 1983–1993, The MIT Press, 2002, p. 302
- ^ Nina Tannenwald, The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Non-Use of Nuclear Weapons Since 1945, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (UK), 2007, p. 138-139
- ^ [1]
- ^ [2]
- ^ "stephen+h.+dole"
- ^ "Habitable Planets for man (6.4 MB PDF)". RAND Corporation (free PDFs).
- ^ [3]
- ^ Seymour M. Hersh (12 May 2003). "Selective Intelligence — Donald Rumsfeld has his own special sources. Are they reliable?". The New Yorker.
- ^ [4]
- ^ Jennifer S. Light, From Warfare to Welfare: Defense Intellectuals and Urban Problems in Cold War America, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003, p. 69-70
- ^ Poundstone, W. (1992). Prisoner's Dilemma. Doubleday.
Further reading [edit]
Books [edit]
- Alex Abella. Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire (2008, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hardcover; ISBN 0-15-101081-1 / 2009, Mariner Books paperback reprint edition; ISBN 0-15-603344-5).
- S.M. Amadae. Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy: The Cold War Origins of Rational Choice Liberalism (2003, University Of Chicago Press paperback; ISBN 0-226-01654-4 / hardcover; ISBN 0-226-01653-6).
- Martin J. Collins. Cold War Laboratory: RAND, the Air Force, and the American State, 1945–1950 (2002, Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press hardcover, part of the Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight Series; ISBN 1-58834-086-4)
- Agatha C. Hughes and Thomas P. Hughes (editors). Systems, Experts, and Computers: The Systems Approach in Management and Engineering, World War II and After (2000, The MIT Press hardcover, part of the Dibner Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology; ISBN 0-262-08285-3 / 2011, paperback reprint edition; ISBN 0-262-51604-7).
- Fred Kaplan. The Wizards of Armageddon (1983, Simon and Schuster hardcover, first printing; ISBN 0-671-42444-0 / 1991, Stanford University Press paperback, part of the Stanford Nuclear Age Series; ISBN 0-8047-1884-9).
- Edward S. Quade and Wayne I. Boucher (editors), Systems Analysis and Policy Planning: Applications in Defense (1968, American Elsevier hardcover).
- Bruce L.R. Smith. The RAND Corporation: Case Study of a Nonprofit Advisory Corporation (1966, Harvard University Press / 1969; ISBN 0-674-74850-6).
- Mark Trachtenberg. History and Strategy (1991, Princeton University Press paperback; ISBN 0-691-02343-3 / hardcover; ISBN 0-691-07881-5).
- Jean Loup Samaan . La Rand Corporation (2013, Cestudec Press Amazon Kindle ;
Articles [edit]
- Clifford, Peggy, ed. "RAND and The City: Part One". Santa Monica Mirror, October 27, 1999 – November 2, 1999. Five-part series includes: 1; 2; 3; 4; & 5. Accessed 15 April 2008.
External links [edit]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: RAND Corporation |
- Official website
- The Research and Development (RAND) Corporation from the Smithsonian Institution Archives
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