Natasha Lander

Because of the increasing militarization of Russian foreign policy since 2008, it is important to understand the formal authorities and responsibilities of the Russian General Staff as well as its capacity to influence Russia's national security decisionmaking process. In this report, the authors develop a foundational text for policymakers and warfighters to improve collective understanding of this institution.

This report addresses the issues of promotions, tenure, and other aspects of officer career management that lend themselves to modernization. The authors identify statutory, policy, cultural, and fiscal constraints on the military departments' flexibilities to make changes; they gather service perspectives on these constraints; and they offer potential mitigation strategies.

This report defines and describes will to fight and provides a model of unit will to fight that can be applied to ground combat units of any scale. The model provides a research-grounded template for case-by-case adviser assessment of partner or allied military forces and the intelligence analysis of adversary forces. This report also provides a theoretical basis for adding will to fight to military war gaming and simulation.

Comparing U.S. Army Systems with Foreign Counterparts: Identifying Possible Capability Gaps and Insights from Other Armies contrasts selected U.S. Army systems and capabilities with comparable foreign weapons. The research focused on armored fighting vehicles, helicopters, rocket and cannon artillery, and various logistics platforms. The armies that were selected for the comparisons included U.S. allies as well as potential future opponents.

RAND Corporation researchers developed an approach for analyzing social media data to derive insights about chemical incidents and conducted a proof of concept of that approach by applying it to the case of chemical weapons use in Syria (2017?2018). The procedure, a four-step process, showed promise. They recommend that the Defense Threat Reduction Agency initiate three activities to further the development of the procedure.

This report analyzes the cultural characteristics and competitive strategies and tactics exhibited by the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). Based on this analysis, the authors assess how each of the services and USSOCOM might adapt and respond if facing major policy shifts in the future, focusing specifically on contingencies in the Asia-Pacific.

RAND researchers conducted a lessons learned examination of operations analysis, modeling, and simulation in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. Researchers identified ways in which analysts have attempted to support commanders decision-making and describe a selection of the models and tools they employed."