Rand Corporation: 374 books
Afghanistan's Local War
Building Local Defense Forces
Language: English
Release Date: July 26, 2010
In Afghanistan, local communities have played a critical role in security, especially in rural areas. Afghan national security forces are important to the top-down strategy, but the Afghan government and NATO forces also need to leverage local communities to gain a complementary bottom-up strategy....
NATO's Air War for Kosovo
A Strategic and Operational Assessment
Language: English
Release Date: November 16, 2001
This book offers a thorough appraisal of Operation Allied Force, NATO's 78-day air war to compel the president of Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, to end his campaign of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. The author sheds light both on the operation's strengths and on its most salient weaknesses. He outlines...
by Michael S. Chase, Arthur Chan
Language: English
Release Date: April 7, 2016
Language: English
Release Date: April 7, 2016
Drawing on Chinese military writings, this report finds that China’s strategic-deterrence concepts are evolving in response to Beijing’s changing assessment of its external security environment and a growing emphasis on protecting its emerging interests in space and cyberspace. China also is rapidly...
by Seth G. Jones
Language: English
Release Date: July 19, 2011
Language: English
Release Date: July 19, 2011
Examines reintegrating Taliban and other insurgents into their local communities in Afghanistan and outlines steps to facilitate that reintegration process. The author discusses the factors that increase the likelihood of reintegrating fighters and the key options for fighters as they consider reintegration....
How Terrorist Groups End
Lessons for Countering al Qa'ida
Language: English
Release Date: July 17, 2008
All terrorist groups eventually end. But how do they end? The evidence since 1968 indicates that most groups have ended because (1) they joined the political process (43 percent) or (2) local police and intelligence agencies arrested or killed key members (40 percent). Military force has rarely been...
Security Force Assistance in Afghanistan
Identifying Lessons for Future Efforts
Language: English
Release Date: August 8, 2011
Security force assistance (SFA) is a central pillar of the counterinsurgency campaign being waged by U.S. and coalition forces in Afghanistan. This monograph analyzes SFA efforts in Afghanistan over time, documents U.S. and international approaches to building the Afghan force from 2001 to 2009, and...
Iran After the Bomb
How Would a Nuclear-Armed Tehran Behave?
Language: English
Release Date: May 17, 2013
This study explores how a nuclear-armed Iran would behave and what this would entail for the United States and its main regional allies. It analyzes the Islamic Republic's ideology, motivations, and national security doctrine; examines a nuclear-armed Iran's potential policies toward Saudi Arabia and...
Security in Iraq
A Framework for Analyzing Emerging Threats as U.S. Forces Leave
Language: English
Release Date: February 5, 2010
U.S. withdrawal could affect Iraq's internal security and stability, which could, in turn, affect U.S. strategic interests and the safety of U.S. troops and civilians in Iraq. U.S. policy-makers need a dynamic analytic framework with which to examine the shifting motivations and capabilities of the...
Iran’s Influence in Afghanistan
Implications for the U.S. Drawdown
Language: English
Release Date: June 11, 2014
This study explores Iranian influence in Afghanistan and the implications for the United States after most U.S. forces depart Afghanistan in 2016. Iran has substantial economic, political, cultural, and religious leverage in Afghanistan. Although Iran will attempt to shape a post-2014 Afghanistan,...
by Sara Beth Elson, Douglas Yeung, Parisa Roshan
Language: English
Release Date: January 17, 2012
Language: English
Release Date: January 17, 2012
In the months after the contested Iranian presidential election in June 2009, Iranians spoke out about the election using Twitter--a social media service that allows users to send short text messages, called tweets, with relative anonymity. This research analyzed more than 2.5 million tweets discussing...
by Jeffrey Martini, Becca Wasser, Dalia Dassa Kaye
Language: English
Release Date: July 20, 2016
Language: English
Release Date: July 20, 2016
This report examines what binds and divides the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states—Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—and presents the outlook for the GCC’s evolution over the next ten years. The study aims to help policymakers better understand intra-GCC...
by F. Stephen Larrabee, Alireza Nader
Language: English
Release Date: August 26, 2013
Language: English
Release Date: August 26, 2013
Turkey and Iran tend to be rivals rather than close partners, despite sharing certain economic and security interests. For instance, Turkey supports the opposition in Syria, while Iran supports the regime. Turkey is further concerned about a possible nuclear arms race in the Middle East. U.S. and Turkish...
Hard Fighting
Israel in Lebanon and Gaza
Language: English
Release Date: December 23, 2011
Like Israel in 2006, the United States today is likely ill prepared for hybrid warfare. To identify lessons that the U.S. military might learn from the Israeli experience in Lebanon, the author examines the state of the Israeli military before the Second Lebanon War, the lessons it learned during that...
Learning Large Lessons
The Evolving Roles of Ground Power and Air Power in the Post-Cold War Era
Language: English
Release Date: March 30, 2007
The relative roles of U.S. ground and air power have shifted since the end of the Cold War. At the level of major operations and campaigns, the Air Force has proved capable of and committed to performing deep strike operations, which the Army long had believed the Air Force could not reliably accomplish....