Jordan Willcox

This report presents the strengths and limitations of cost-effectiveness analysis and related metrics to inform the U.S. Army about whether, when, and how to usefully employ them for capability investment decisions. The authors discuss how complexity can increase as objectives become less clear cut, ancillary benefits and unintended consequences emerge, technologies become intertwined, boundaries change, and risk and uncertainty take hold.

The Army is currently reorienting from a focus on counterinsurgency operations to a focus on conventional combat operations, and this shift has highlighted the need to take a detailed look at the state of the field artillery. The authors of this report identify capability gaps in the field artillery and actions that the Army should consider taking from today to roughly 2030.

A priority of the United States Space Force (USSF) is to improve vertical and horizontal integration and synchronization of space capabilities. To assist with this priority, the authors of this research defined existing challenges and recommended ways that USSF can facilitate the integration and synchronization of space acquisition and fielding to support the timely delivery of end-to-end space capabilities to the joint force.

As part of a larger study on the future of the post-World War II liberal international order, RAND researchers analyze the health of the existing order and offer implications for future U.S. policy. The study's overall conclusion is that the postwar order continues to enjoy many elements of stability but is increasingly threatened by major geopolitical and domestic socioeconomic trends that call into question the order's fundamental assumptions.