Melissa A Bradley

This report examines the use of the Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP) in Afghanistan. It explores the effectiveness of CERP in supporting tactical operations in Afghanistan during the counterinsurgency-focused 2010-2013 time frame using both qualitative and quantitative methods and describes CERP's origins, history, and existing research on the effectiveness of CERP in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As the need to identify known and suspected combatants has elevated the importance of biometrics in the Department of Defense (DoD), RAND researchers assessed how current activities are supporting end users and how DoD is preparing to focus biometrics on different missions. As overseas contingency operations wind down, DoD's biometrics program must move in a new direction, and continued funding must be justified in new ways.

Provides an annotated version of a short course on qualitative research methods. The course includes an overview of semi-structured interviews and focus groups, two techniques that are commonly used in policy research and applicable to many research questions.

The Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005 (BAPCPA) limited the types and quantities of exempt household goods on which debtors could avoid certain liens. Part of the motivation for these changes was a perception that debtors were using household goods as collateral to obtain loans that they never intended to repay. This study found no changes in debtor or creditor behavior due to the new definition of household goods.

The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics asked RAND to evaluate the cost of compliance with acquisition-related statutes and regulations at the program office level. This report identifies the areas considered most burdensome and describes the study's methodology, focus, and data collection process, including the development of a Web-based data collection tool for use by program office personnel.