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RAND Corporation

Coordinates: 34°00′35″N 118°29′26″W / 34.009599°N 118.490670°W / 34.009599; -118.490670
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Not to be confused with American Research and Development Corporation.
"RAND" redirects here. For other uses, see Rand (disambiguation).
RAND Corporation
Predecessorindividuals of Douglas Aircraft Company
Merged intoUnited States Army Air Forces
Formation14 May 1948; 76 years ago (1948-05-14)
FoundersHenry H. "Hap" Arnold
Donald Douglas
Major General Curtis LeMay
TypeGlobal policy think tank[1]
95-1958142
Legal statusNon-profit corporation
PurposePolicy analysis
HeadquartersSanta Monica, California
Coordinates34°00′35″N 118°29′26″W / 34.009599°N 118.490670°W / 34.009599; -118.490670
Region
Worldwide
President and CEO
Michael D. Rich[2]
Senior Vice President and CFO
Richard Fallon[2]
Vice President, International
Charles P. Ries[2]
President, RAND Europe
Hans Pung[2]
Bonnie G. Hill, Joel Z. Hyatt, Paul G. Kaminski, Ann McLaughlin Korologos, Philip Lader, Peter Lowy, Michael Lynton, Ronald L. Olson, Mary E. Peters, David L. Porges, Donald B. Rice, Michael D. Rich, Hector Ruiz, Leonard D. Schaeffer[3]
SubsidiariesRAND Europe
Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School
AffiliationsIndependent
Revenue (2014)
Increase$313.2 million[4]
DisbursementsNumerous
ExpensesIncrease$297 million[4]
EndowmentSteady$217 million[4]
Staff1,700[5] (in 2015)
Websitewww.rand.org

RAND Corporation (Research AND Development[7]) is an American nonprofit global policy think tank[1] originally formed by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed by the U.S. government and private endowment,[5] corporations[8] including the health care industry, universities[8] and private individuals.[8] The organization has expanded to work with other governments, private foundations, international organizations, and commercial organizations on a host of non-defense issues. RAND aims for interdisciplinary and quantitative problem solving via translating theoretical concepts from formal economics and the physical 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.[9]

RAND has approximately 1,700 employees. Its American locations include: Santa Monica, California (headquarters); Arlington, Virginia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Boston, Massachusetts.[10] The RAND Gulf States Policy Institute has an office in New Orleans, Louisiana. RAND Europe is located in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and Brussels, Belgium.[11] RAND Australia is located in Canberra, Australia.[12]

RAND is home to the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School, one of the eight original graduate programs in public policy and the first to offer a Ph.D. The program aims to have practical value in that students work with 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.[13] Unlike many other universities, all Pardee RAND Graduate School students receive fellowships to cover their education costs. This allows them to dedicate their time to engage in research projects and provides them on-the-job training.[13] RAND also offers a number of internship and fellowship programs allowing students and outsiders to assist in conducting research for RAND projects. Most of these projects are short-term and are worked on independently with the mentoring of a RAND staff member.[14]

RAND publishes the RAND Journal of Economics, a peer-reviewed journal of economics.

Thirty-two 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.[15][16]

Project RAND

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.[7][17] In March 1946 Douglas Aircraft Company was granted the contract to research on intercontinental warfare by adopting operations research. 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. Initial capital for the split was provided by the Ford Foundation.

History

RAND Corporation, Santa Monica, California

RAND was created after individuals in the War Department, the Office of Scientific Research and Development, and industry began to discuss the need for a private organization to connect military planning with research and development decisions.[14] On October 1, 1945, Project RAND was set up under special contract to the Douglas Aircraft Company and began operations in December 1945, expending a total of $640 in its first month of operation.[14] By late 1947, Project RAND considered operating as a separate organization from Douglas and in February 1948, the Chief of Staff of the newly created United States Air Force wrote a letter to the president of the Douglas Aircraft Company that approved the evolution of Project RAND into a nonprofit corporation, independent of Douglas.[14] On May 14, 1948, RAND was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under the laws of the State of California and on November 1, 1948, the Project RAND contract was formally transferred from the Douglas Aircraft Company to the RAND Corporation.[14]

Since the 1950s, RAND research has helped inform United States policy decisions on a wide variety of issues, including the space race, the U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms confrontation, the creation of the Great Society social welfare programs, the digital revolution, and national health care.[18] Its most visible contribution may be 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.[19] 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, in which RAND is spoofed as the "BLAND Corporation".[20][21]

Mission statement

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".[6]

Achievements and expertise

RAND Corporation, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

The achievements of RAND stem from its development of systems analysis. Important contributions are claimed in space systems and the United States' space program,[22] in computing and in artificial intelligence. RAND researchers developed many of the principles that were used to build the Internet.[23] RAND also contributed to the development and use of wargaming.[24][25]

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.[26]

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.[27][28]

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

John von Neumann, consultant to the RAND Corporation.[29]

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.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Medvetz, Thomas (2012). Think Tanks in America. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 26. ISBN 9780226517292. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d "RAND Leadership". RAND Corp. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  3. ^ "RAND Corporation Board of Trustees". RAND Corp. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  4. ^ a b c "Financial Statements, FY 2013". RAND Corp. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  5. ^ a b "2013 RAND Annual Report". RAND Corp. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  6. ^ a b "About RAND - Vision". RAND. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  7. ^ a b "History and Mission". RAND Corp. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  8. ^ a b c "How We're Funded". RAND Corp. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  9. ^ "Michael D. Rich". RAND Corp. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  10. ^ "RAND Locations". RAND Corp. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  11. ^ "RAND Europe Contact Information". RAND Corp. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  12. ^ "RAND Locations: Canberra, Australia Office". RAND Corp. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  13. ^ a b "Pardee RAND History". Pardee RAND Graduate School. Retrieved 21 February 2014.
  14. ^ a b c d e "RAND at a Glance". RAND Corp. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
  15. ^ Sarabi, Brigette (1 January 2005). "Oregon: The Rand Report on Measure 11 is Finally Available". Partnership for Safety and Justice (PSJ). Retrieved 15 April 2008.
  16. ^ Harvard University Institute of Politics. "Guide for Political Internships". Harvard University. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
  17. ^ Johnson, Stephen B (2002). The United States Air Force and the Culture of Innovation 1945-1965 (PDF). Diane Publishing. p. 32. ISBN 9781428990272. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  18. ^ Jardini, David R. (2013). Thinking Through the Cold War: RAND, National Security and Domestic Policy, 1945-1975. p. 10.
  19. ^ Twing, Steven W. (1998). Myths, models & U.S. foreign policy. Lynne Rienner Publishers. ISBN 1-55587-766-4.
  20. ^ Hanks, Robert (19 December 2007). "The Week In Radio: The think tank for unthinkable thoughts". The Independent. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
  21. ^ Kaplan, Fred (10 October 2004). "Truth Stranger Than 'Strangelove'". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-06-24.
  22. ^ Davies, Merton E.; Hams, William R. (September 1988). RAND's Role in the Evolution of Balloon and Satellite Observation Systems and Related U.S. Space Technology (PDF). RAND Corp. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  23. ^ "Paul Baran - Posthumous Recipient". Internet Hall of Fame. Internet Society. 2012. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  24. ^ Perla, Peter P. (1990). The Art of Wargaming : A Guide for Professionals and Hobbyists. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press. pp. 114–118. ISBN 0870210505. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  25. ^ Perry, Walter L.; Pirnie, Bruce R.; Gordon, John (1999). Issues Raised During the 1998 Army After Next Spring Wargame. Santa Monica, CA: RAND. ISBN 0-8330-2688-7. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  26. ^ "Policy Experts". RAND Corp. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  27. ^ "RAND's Health Insurance Experiment (HIE)". RAND Corp. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  28. ^ Herdman, Roger C.; Behney, Clyde J. (September 1993). "Chapter 3: The Lessons and Limitations of the Rand Health Insurance Experiment" (PDF). Benefit Design in Health Care Reform: Patient Cost-Sharing (Princeton University): 23–38. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  29. ^ Life Magazine, 25 February 1957, "Passing of a Great Mind", by Clay Bair JR. pages 89–104
  30. ^ Alex Roland and Philip Shiman, Strategic Computing: DARPA and the Quest for Machine Intelligence, 1983–1993, The MIT Press, 2002, p. 302
  31. ^ 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
  32. ^ Dole, Stephen H. (2007). Habitable Planets for Man (New RAND ed.). Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corp. ISBN 9780833042279. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
  33. ^ "Habitable Planets for man (6.4 MB PDF)". RAND Corporation (free PDFs).
  34. ^ "Stephen H. Dole; Retired Head of Rand Corp.'s Human Engineering Group". Los Angeles Times. 2000-04-30. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2016-09-12.
  35. ^ Noland, Claire (April 12, 2007). "Konrad Kellen, 93; Rand researcher studied Vietnam War and urged withdrawal of troops". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on July 11, 2013. Retrieved July 13, 2013. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  36. ^ The Wizards of Armageddon - Fred M. Kaplan - Google Boeken. Books.google.nl. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
  37. ^ Seymour M. Hersh (12 May 2003). "Selective Intelligence — Donald Rumsfeld has his own special sources. Are they reliable?". The New Yorker.
  38. ^ Ratan Tata is chairman emeritus of Tata Sons - The Times of India. Timesofindia.indiatimes.com. Retrieved on 2013-07-18.

Further reading

Books

Articles

  • 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.
  • Specht, R.D. "Rand: A Personal View of Its History," Operations Research, vol. 8, no. 6 (Nov.–Dec. 1960), pp. 825–839. In JSTOR
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