RAND
Encyclopedia
RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank
first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces
by Douglas Aircraft Company
. It is currently financed by the U.S. government
and private endowment
, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities and private individuals. The organization has long since expanded to working with other government
s, 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 hard sciences into novel applications in other areas; that is, via applied science
and operations research
. RAND has been led since 1989 by Dr. James Thomson
, a physicist. The second in command of the organization since 1993 has been Michael D. Rich
, who has also been named Thomson's successor as chief executive of RAND.
RAND has approximately 1,600 employees and three principal North American locations: Santa Monica, California
(headquarters); Arlington, Virginia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The RAND Gulf States Policy Institute has offices in New Orleans, Louisiana
, and Jackson, Mississippi
. RAND Europe is located in Cambridge
, United Kingdom, and Brussels
, Belgium. The RAND-Qatar Policy Institute is in Doha
, Qatar. RAND's newest offices are in Boston, Massachusetts, Abu Dhabi, The United Arab Emirates, and Mexico City
, Mexico, a representative office.
RAND is also the home to the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School
, one of the 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 alongside 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.
RAND publishes The RAND Journal of Economics
, a peer-reviewed
journal of economics.
To date, 32 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.
as Project RAND, under contract to the Douglas Aircraft Company
, and in May 1946 they released the Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship
. In May 1948, Project RAND was separated from Douglas and became an independent non-profit organization
. Initial capital for the split came from the Ford Foundation
.
and based upon their work with game theory
. 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
.
al, 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."
The achievements of RAND stem from its development of systems analysis
. Important contributions are claimed in space systems and the United States' space program, in computing and in artificial intelligence
. RAND researchers developed many of the principles that were used to build the Internet
. RAND also contributed to the development and use of wargaming
.
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.
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.
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 official website.
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.
(Vice Chairman), Richard J. Danzig, Francis Fukuyama
, Richard Gephardt, John W. Handy
, Jen-Hsun Huang
, John M. Keane, Lydia H. Kennard, Philip Lader
, Peter Lowy, Michael Lynton
, Charles N. Martin, Jr., Ronald Olson
, Paul O'Neill, Michael Powell
, Donald B. Rice, James E. Rohr, James F. Rothenberg
, Hector Ruiz
, Carlos Slim Helu
, Donald Tang
, James Thomson, and Robert C. Wright
.
Trustees Emeriti include: Harold Brown
, Frank C. Carlucci
Former members of the board include: Walter Mondale
, Condoleezza Rice
, Newton Minow, Brent Scowcroft
, Amy Pascal
, John Reed, Charles Townes, Caryl Haskins, Walter B. Wriston, Frank Stanton
, Carl Bildt
, Donald Rumsfeld
, Harold Brown
, Robert Curvin, Pedro Greer, Arthur Levitt
, Lloyd Morrisett
, Lovida Coleman, Ratan Tata
, Marta Tienda
, Jerry Speyer
, Timothy Geithner, Rita Hauser
, Ann Korologos, and Bonnie McElveen-Hunter
.
accused the RAND Corporation of defeatism
for studying how the United States might strategically surrender
to an enemy power. This led to the passage of a prohibition on the spending of tax dollars on the study of defeat or surrender of any kind. However, the senator had apparently misunderstood, as the report was a survey of past cases in which the U.S. had demanded unconditional surrender
of its enemies, asking whether or not this had been a more favorable outcome to U.S. interests than an earlier, negotiated surrender would have been.
In April 1970, Newhouse News Service reported that Richard Nixon
had commissioned RAND to study the feasibility of canceling the 1972 election
. RAND denied it and reviewed its recent work for possible sources of the story. They said that the review was fruitless.
In the Simpsons episode "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy
" (1994), the character Milhouse includes RAND in a series of overlapping conspiracies that the children believe are causing their parents to disappear for long stretches of time.
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces
United States armed forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
by Douglas Aircraft Company
Douglas Aircraft Company
The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer, based in Long Beach, California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas...
. It is currently financed by the U.S. government
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and private endowment
Endowment
-Finance:*Financial endowment, relating to funds or property donated to institutions or individuals *Endowment mortgage, a mortgage to be repaid by an endowment policy*Endowment policy, a type of life insurance policy...
, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities and private individuals. The organization has long since expanded to working with other government
Government
Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...
s, private foundations, international organizations, and commercial
Commerce
While business refers to the value-creating activities of an organization for profit, commerce means the whole system of an economy that constitutes an environment for business. The system includes legal, economic, political, social, cultural, and technological systems that are in operation in any...
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 hard sciences into novel applications in other areas; that is, via applied science
Applied science
Applied science is the application of scientific knowledge transferred into a physical environment. Examples include testing a theoretical model through the use of formal science or solving a practical problem through the use of natural science....
and operations research
Operations research
Operations research is an interdisciplinary mathematical science that focuses on the effective use of technology by organizations...
. RAND has been led since 1989 by Dr. James Thomson
James Thomson (executive)
Dr. James A. Thomson has been RAND Corporation's president and chief executive officer since August 1989 and a member of the RAND staff since 1981.-Professional History:Dr...
, a physicist. The second in command of the organization since 1993 has been Michael D. Rich
Michael D. Rich
Michael Rich is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the RAND Corporation, the institution's highest-ranking position, which he has held since November 2011. Mr. Rich became the fifth president and CEO of the Santa Monica, Calif.,-based research institution, succeeding James A. Thomson, who...
, who has also been named Thomson's successor as chief executive of RAND.
RAND has approximately 1,600 employees and three principal North American locations: Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
(headquarters); Arlington, Virginia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The RAND Gulf States Policy Institute has offices in New Orleans, Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
, and Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson is the capital and the most populous city of the US state of Mississippi. It is one of two county seats of Hinds County ,. The population of the city declined from 184,256 at the 2000 census to 173,514 at the 2010 census...
. RAND Europe is located in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
, United Kingdom, and Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Belgium. The RAND-Qatar Policy Institute is in Doha
Doha
Doha is the capital city of the state of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf, it had a population of 998,651 in 2008, and is also one of the municipalities of Qatar...
, Qatar. RAND's newest offices are in Boston, Massachusetts, Abu Dhabi, The United Arab Emirates, and Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
, Mexico, a representative office.
RAND is also the home to the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School
Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School
The Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School is a private, higher-education institution that offers doctoral studies in policy analysis and practical experience working on RAND research projects to solve current public policy problems. Its campus is co-located with the RAND Corporation, a...
, one of the original graduate programs in public policy
Public policy (law)
In private international law, the public policy doctrine or ordre public concerns the body of principles that underpin the operation of legal systems in each state. This addresses the social, moral and economic values that tie a society together: values that vary in different cultures and change...
and the first to offer a Ph.D. The program aims to have practical value in that students work alongside 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.
RAND publishes The RAND Journal of Economics
The RAND Journal of Economics
The RAND Journal of Economics is a scholarly journal of economics published quarterly by the RAND Corporation...
, a peer-reviewed
Peer review
Peer review is a process of self-regulation by a profession or a process of evaluation involving qualified individuals within the relevant field. Peer review methods are employed to maintain standards, improve performance and provide credibility...
journal of economics.
To date, 32 recipients of the Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
, primarily in the fields of economics and physics, have been involved or associated with RAND at some point in their career.
Project RAND
RAND was set up in 1946 by the United States Army Air ForcesUnited States Army Air Forces
The United States Army Air Forces was the military aviation arm of the United States of America during and immediately after World War II, and the direct predecessor of the United States Air Force....
as Project RAND, under contract to the Douglas Aircraft Company
Douglas Aircraft Company
The Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer, based in Long Beach, California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas...
, and in May 1946 they released the Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship
Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship
The Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship was a 1946 proposal, by Project RAND, for a United States satellite program. Dr. Robert M...
. In May 1948, Project RAND was separated from Douglas and became an independent non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
. Initial capital for the split came from the Ford Foundation
Ford Foundation
The Ford Foundation is a private foundation incorporated in Michigan and based in New York City created to fund programs that were chartered in 1936 by Edsel Ford and Henry Ford....
.
History
Since the 1950s, the RAND has been instrumental in defining U.S. military strategy. Their most visible contribution is the doctrine of nuclear deterrence by Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), developed under the guidance of then-Defense Secretary Robert McNamaraRobert McNamara
Robert Strange McNamara was an American business executive and the eighth Secretary of Defense, serving under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson from 1961 to 1968, during which time he played a large role in escalating the United States involvement in the Vietnam War...
and based upon their work with game theory
Game theory
Game theory is a mathematical method for analyzing calculated circumstances, such as in games, where a person’s success is based upon the choices of others...
. Chief strategist Herman Kahn
Herman Kahn
Herman Kahn was one of the preeminent futurists of the latter third of the twentieth century. In the early 1970s he predicted the rise of Japan as a major world power. He was a founder of the Hudson Institute think tank and originally came to prominence as a military strategist and systems...
also posited the idea of a "winnable" nuclear exchange in his 1960 book On Thermonuclear War
On Thermonuclear War
On Thermonuclear War is a book by Herman Kahn, a military strategist at the RAND Corporation, although it was written only a year before he left RAND to form the Hudson Institute. It is a controversial treatise on the nature and theory of war in the thermonuclear age...
. This led to Kahn being one of the models for the titular character of the film Dr. Strangelove
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, commonly known as Dr. Strangelove, is a 1964 black comedy film which satirizes the nuclear scare. It was directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick, starring Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, and featuring Sterling...
.
Mission statement
RAND was incorporated as a non-profit organization to "further promote scientific, educationEducation
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
al, and charitable
Charitable organization
A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...
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."
Achievements and expertise
Systems analysis
Systems analysis is the study of sets of interacting entities, including computer systems analysis. This field is closely related to requirements analysis or operations research...
. Important contributions are claimed in space systems and the United States' space program, in computing and in artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
. RAND researchers developed many of the principles that were used to build the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
. RAND also contributed to the development and use of wargaming
Wargaming
A wargame is a strategy game that deals with military operations of various types, real or fictional. Wargaming is the hobby dedicated to the play of such games, which can also be called conflict simulations, or consims for short. When used professionally to study warfare, it is generally known as...
.
Current areas of expertise include: child policy, civil and criminal justice
Criminal justice
Criminal Justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts...
, 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.
RAND designed and conducted one of the largest and most important studies of health insurance between 1974 and 1982. The RAND Health Insurance Experiment
RAND Health Insurance Experiment
The RAND Health Insurance Experiment was an experimental study of health care costs, utilization and outcomes in the United States, which assigned people randomly to different kinds of plans and followed their behavior, from 1974 to 1982. As a result, it provided stronger evidence than studies...
, 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.
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 official website.
Notable participants
- Dana GoldmanDana GoldmanDana Paul Goldman is a senior economist at the RAND Corporation and UCLA, and a professor at USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development. He holds a corporate chair in Health Economics and is the director of the Health Economics, Finance and Organization unit of RAND...
, health economist - Henry H. "Hap" ArnoldHenry H. ArnoldHenry Harley "Hap" Arnold was an American general officer holding the grades of General of the Army and later General of the Air Force. Arnold was an aviation pioneer, Chief of the Air Corps , Commanding General of the U.S...
— General, United States Air Force - Kenneth ArrowKenneth ArrowKenneth Joseph Arrow is an American economist and joint winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics with John Hicks in 1972. To date, he is the youngest person to have received this award, at 51....
— economist, Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, developed the impossibility theoremArrow's impossibility theoremIn social choice theory, Arrow’s impossibility theorem, the General Possibility Theorem, or Arrow’s paradox, states that, when voters have three or more distinct alternatives , no voting system can convert the ranked preferences of individuals into a community-wide ranking while also meeting a...
in social choice theory - Arturo G. Munoz Ph.DArturo Munoz (intelligence)Arturo Munoz is a former Chief of Operations in the Central Intelligence Agency National Clandestine Service and a Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation....
— 30-year CIA Veteran, Former CIA Operative and COPS of Counter-Terrorism Center at the CIA National Clandestine Service, PsyOp Strategist, Pakistan/Afghanistan Expert, Senior Political Analyst of the RAND Corporation, and author of Afghanistan's Local War: Building Local Defense Forces and The Long Shadow of 9/11: America's Response to Terrorism - Bruno AugensteinBruno AugensteinBruno Wilhelm Augenstein was a German-born mathematician and physicist who made important contributions in space technology, ballistic missile research, satellites, antimatter, and many other areas.- Early life :...
— V.P., physicistPhysicistA physicist is a scientist who studies or practices physics. Physicists study a wide range of physical phenomena in many branches of physics spanning all length scales: from sub-atomic particles of which all ordinary matter is made to the behavior of the material Universe as a whole...
, mathematicianMathematicianA mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
and space scientist - Robert AumannRobert AumannRobert John Aumann is an Israeli-American mathematician and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences. He is a professor at the Center for the Study of Rationality in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel...
— mathematician, game theoristGame theoryGame theory is a mathematical method for analyzing calculated circumstances, such as in games, where a person’s success is based upon the choices of others...
, Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. - J. Paul Austin — Chairman of the Board, 1972–1981
- Paul BaranPaul BaranPaul Baran was a Polish American engineer who was a pioneer in the development of computer networks.He invented packet switching techniques, and went on to start several companies and develop other technologies that are an essential part of the Internet and other modern digital...
— one of the developers of packet switchingPacket switchingPacket switching is a digital networking communications method that groups all transmitted data – regardless of content, type, or structure – into suitably sized blocks, called packets. Packet switching features delivery of variable-bit-rate data streams over a shared network...
which was used in ArpanetARPANETThe Advanced Research Projects Agency Network , was the world's first operational packet switching network and the core network of a set that came to compose the global Internet...
and later networksComputer networkA computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information....
like the InternetInternetThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide... - Richard BellmanRichard BellmanRichard Ernest Bellman was an American applied mathematician, celebrated for his invention of dynamic programming in 1953, and important contributions in other fields of mathematics.-Biography:...
— Mathematician known for his work on dynamic programmingDynamic programmingIn mathematics and computer science, dynamic programming is a method for solving complex problems by breaking them down into simpler subproblems. It is applicable to problems exhibiting the properties of overlapping subproblems which are only slightly smaller and optimal substructure... - Barry BoehmBarry BoehmBarry W. Boehm is an American software engineer, TRW Emeritus Professor of Software Engineering at the Computer Science Department of the University of Southern California, and known for his many contributions to software engineering.- Biography :...
— software economics expert, inventor of COCOMOCOCOMO**********************************************************************************************The Constructive Cost Model is an algorithmic software cost estimation model developed by Barry W. Boehm... - Harold L. BrodeHarold L. BrodeHarold L. Brode is a nuclear weapons effects physicist who pioneered computer simulations of nuclear explosions at the RAND Corporation in the 1950s. In 1951 he received his PhD from Cornell University where his supervisor was Hans A. Bethe. He is co-founder of R&D Associates, Vice-President of...
— physicist, leading nuclear weapons effects expert - Bernard Brodie — Military strategist and nuclear architect
- James R. Huber (PhD international relations), former contributing editor;
- Amir Farshad EbrahimiAmir Farshad EbrahimiAmir Farshad Ebrahimi is a former member of Quds Force of Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution and is currently a peace and human rights activist living in Germany.-Paramilitary career:...
— PhD Master of Middle East security areas - Samuel Cohen — inventor of the neutron bombNeutron bombA neutron bomb or enhanced radiation weapon or weapon of reinforced radiation is a type of thermonuclear weapon designed specifically to release a large portion of its energy as energetic neutron radiation rather than explosive energy...
in 1958 - Franklin R. Collbohm — Aviation Engineer, Douglas Aircraft CompanyDouglas Aircraft CompanyThe Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer, based in Long Beach, California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas...
— RAND founder and former director and trustee - Walter CunninghamWalter CunninghamRonnie Walter Cunningham , known as Walt Cunningham, is a retired American astronaut. In 1968, he was the Lunar Module pilot on the Apollo 7 mission...
— astronaut - George DantzigGeorge DantzigGeorge Bernard Dantzig was an American mathematical scientist who made important contributions to operations research, computer science, economics, and statistics....
— mathematician, creator of the simplex algorithmSimplex algorithmIn mathematical optimization, Dantzig's simplex algorithm is a popular algorithm for linear programming. The journal Computing in Science and Engineering listed it as one of the top 10 algorithms of the twentieth century....
for linear programmingLinear programmingLinear programming is a mathematical method for determining a way to achieve the best outcome in a given mathematical model for some list of requirements represented as linear relationships... - Linda Darling-HammondLinda Darling-HammondLinda Darling-Hammond is the Charles E. Ducommun Professor of Education at the Stanford University School of Education, where she launched the , the Stanford Educational Leadership Institute, and the . Darling-Hammond is author or editor of more than a dozen books and more than 300 articles on...
— co-director, School Redesign Network - James F. Digby — American Military Strategist, author of first treatise on precision guided munitions 1949–2007
- Stephen H Dole — Author of the pivotal book Habitable Planets for Man
- Donald Wills Douglas, Sr.Donald Wills Douglas, Sr.Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. was a United States aircraft industrialist and founder of the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1921 .-Early life:...
— President, Douglas Aircraft CompanyDouglas Aircraft CompanyThe Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer, based in Long Beach, California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas...
— RAND founder - Daniel EllsbergDaniel EllsbergDaniel Ellsberg, PhD, is a former United States military analyst who, while employed by the RAND Corporation, precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War,...
— leaker of the Pentagon PapersPentagon PapersThe Pentagon Papers, officially titled United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political-military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967... - Francis FukuyamaFrancis FukuyamaYoshihiro Francis Fukuyama is an American political scientist, political economist, and author. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford. Before that he served as a professor and director of the International Development program at the School of...
— academic and author of The End of History and the Last ManThe End of History and the Last ManThe End of History and the Last Man is a 1992 book by Francis Fukuyama, expanding on his 1989 essay "The End of History?", published in the international affairs journal The National Interest... - H. Rowen Gaither, Jr. — Chairman of the Board, 1949–1959; 1960–1961
- David GalulaDavid GalulaDavid Galula was a French military officer and scholar who was influential in developing the theory and practice of counterinsurgency warfare.-Life and career:...
, French officer and scholar - James J. Gillogly — cryptographer and computer scientistComputer scientistA computer scientist is a scientist who has acquired knowledge of computer science, the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and their application in computer systems....
- Cecil Hastings — programmer, wrote software engineering classic, Approximations for Digital Computers (Princeton 1955)
- William E. Hoehn — Senior Policy Advisor to Senator Sam NunnSam NunnSamuel Augustus Nunn, Jr. is an American lawyer and politician. Currently the co-chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Nuclear Threat Initiative , a charitable organization working to reduce the global threats from nuclear, biological and chemical weapons, Nunn served for 24 years as a...
, Visiting Professor at the Sam Nunn School of International AffairsSam Nunn School of International AffairsThe Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, at the Georgia Institute of Technology located in Atlanta, Georgia is the only professional school of international affairs at a major technological institution...
and the Coca-Cola Foundation Eminent Practitioner in Residence at Georgia Institute of TechnologyGeorgia Institute of TechnologyThe Georgia Institute of Technology is a public research university in Atlanta, Georgia, in the United States... - Brian Michael JenkinsBrian Michael JenkinsBrian Michael Jenkins, born in 1942 in Chicago, is an expert on terrorism and transportation security. During his nearly four decades of analysis, Jenkins has advised governments, private corporations, the Catholic Church, the Church of England, and many other international organizations on...
— terrorism expert, Senior Advisor to the President of the RAND Corporation, and author of Unconquerable NationUnconquerable NationUnconquerable Nation: Knowing Our Enemy, Strengthening Ourselves is a book written by Brian Michael Jenkins, one of the world’s foremost authorities on terrorism... - Herman KahnHerman KahnHerman Kahn was one of the preeminent futurists of the latter third of the twentieth century. In the early 1970s he predicted the rise of Japan as a major world power. He was a founder of the Hudson Institute think tank and originally came to prominence as a military strategist and systems...
— theorist on nuclear warNuclear warfareNuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
and one of the founders of scenario planningScenario planningScenario planning, also called scenario thinking or scenario analysis, is a strategic planning method that some organizations use to make flexible long-term plans. It is in large part an adaptation and generalization of classic methods used by military intelligence.The original method was that a... - Zalmay KhalilzadZalmay KhalilzadZalmay Mamozy Khalilzad is a counselor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and president of Khalilzad Associates, an international business consulting firm based in Washington, DC. He was the United States Ambassador to the United Nations under President George W. Bush...
— U.S. Ambassador to United Nations - Henry KissingerHenry KissingerHeinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
— United States Secretary of StateUnited States Secretary of StateThe United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...
(1973–1977); National Security AdvisorNational Security Advisor (United States)The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs, commonly referred to as the National Security Advisor , serves as the chief advisor to the President of the United States on national security issues...
(1969–1975); Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
Winner (1973) - Ann McLaughlin KorologosAnn McLaughlin KorologosAnn McLaughlin Korologos , formerly known as Ann Dore McLaughlin, , was the United States Secretary of Labor from 1987 to 1989....
— Chairman of the Board, April 2004–present - Lewis "Scooter" LibbyLewis LibbyI. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is a former adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, later disbarred and convicted of a felony....
— Dick Cheney's former Chief of Staff - Ray MabusRay MabusRaymond Edwin "Ray" Mabus, Jr. is the 75th United States Secretary of the Navy. Mabus served as the 60th Governor of the U.S...
— Former ambassador, governor - Harry MarkowitzHarry MarkowitzHarry Max Markowitz is an American economist and a recipient of the John von Neumann Theory Prize and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences....
— economist, greatly advanced finanical portfolio theory by devising mean variance analysis - Andrew W. Marshall — military strategist, director of the U.S. DoD Office of Net Assessment
- Margaret MeadMargaret MeadMargaret Mead was an American cultural anthropologist, who was frequently a featured writer and speaker in the mass media throughout the 1960s and 1970s....
— U.S. anthropologist - Douglas MerrillDouglas MerrillDouglas Merrill is the CEO and founder of , a financial services technology company that provides credit alternatives for the underbanked. ZestCash announced a $19 million round of Series A funding in July 2011 and was one of Forbes’ Names You Need to Know in 2011...
— Former Google CIO & President of EMI's digital music division - Newton N. MinowNewton N. MinowNewton Norman Minow is an American attorney and former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. His speech referring to television as a "vast wasteland" is cited even as the speech has passed its 50th anniversary...
— Chairman of the Board, 1970–1972 - Lloyd N. MorrisettLloyd N. MorrisettLloyd N. Morrisett was an American educator.Born in Barrettsville, Tennessee, he graduated high school in Edmond, Oklahoma, and he received his A.B. degree from the University of Oklahoma in 1917. He earned an A.M. degree and Ph.D...
— Chairman of the Board, 1986–1995 - John Forbes Nash, Jr.John Forbes NashJohn Forbes Nash, Jr. is an American mathematician whose works in game theory, differential geometry, and partial differential equations have provided insight into the forces that govern chance and events inside complex systems in daily life...
— mathematician, winner of Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel - John von NeumannJohn von NeumannJohn von Neumann was a Hungarian-American mathematician and polymath who made major contributions to a vast number of fields, including set theory, functional analysis, quantum mechanics, ergodic theory, geometry, fluid dynamics, economics and game theory, computer science, numerical analysis,...
— mathematician, pioneer of the modern digital computer - Allen NewellAllen NewellAllen Newell was a researcher in computer science and cognitive psychology at the RAND corporation and at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science, Tepper School of Business, and Department of Psychology...
— artificial intelligence - Paul O'Neill — Chairman of the Board, 1997–2000
- Ron Olson — Chairman of the Board, 2001–2004
- Edmund PhelpsEdmund PhelpsEdmund Strother Phelps, Jr. is an American economist and the winner of the 2006 Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. Early in his career he became renowned for his research at Yale's Cowles Foundation in the first half of the 1960s on the sources of economic growth...
— winner of 2006 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel - W.V. Quine — philosopher and logician
- Arthur E. RaymondArthur E. RaymondArthur Emmons Raymond was an aeronautical engineer who led the team that designed the DC-3....
— Chief Engineer, Douglas Aircraft CompanyDouglas Aircraft CompanyThe Douglas Aircraft Company was an American aerospace manufacturer, based in Long Beach, California. It was founded in 1921 by Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. and later merged with McDonnell Aircraft in 1967 to form McDonnell Douglas...
— RAND founder - Condoleezza RiceCondoleezza RiceCondoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
— former intern, former trustee (1991–1997), and former Secretary of State for the United States - Michael D. RichMichael D. RichMichael Rich is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the RAND Corporation, the institution's highest-ranking position, which he has held since November 2011. Mr. Rich became the fifth president and CEO of the Santa Monica, Calif.,-based research institution, succeeding James A. Thomson, who...
— RAND Executive Vice President, 1993–present - Leo RostenLeo RostenLeo Calvin Rosten was born in Łódź, Russian Empire and died in New York City. He was a teacher and academic, but is best known as a humorist in the fields of scriptwriting, storywriting, journalism and Yiddish lexicography.-Early life:Rosten was born into a Yiddish-speaking family in what is now...
— academic and humorist - Donald RumsfeldDonald RumsfeldDonald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
— Chairman of Board from 1981–1986; 1995–1996 and Secretary of Defense for the United States from 1975 to 1977 and 2001 to 2006. - Robert M. Salter — advocate of the vactrainVactrainA vactrain is a proposed, as-yet-unbuilt design for future high-speed railroad transportation. This would entail building maglev lines through evacuated or partly evacuated tubes or tunnels...
maglev trainMaglev trainMaglev , is a system of transportation that uses magnetic levitation to suspend, guide and propel vehicles from magnets rather than using mechanical methods, such as friction-reliant wheels, axles and bearings...
concept - Paul SamuelsonPaul SamuelsonPaul Anthony Samuelson was an American economist, and the first American to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences. The Swedish Royal Academies stated, when awarding the prize, that he "has done more than any other contemporary economist to raise the level of scientific analysis in...
— economist, Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel - Thomas C. Schelling — economist, winner of 2005 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel
- James Schlesinger — former Secretary of Defense and former Secretary of Energy
- Norman ShapiroNorman ShapiroNorman Z. Shapiro is an American mathematician,who is the co-author of the Rice–Shapiro theorem.Shapiro spent the summer of 1954 at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jerseywhere, in collaboration withKarel de Leeuw,Ed Moore, and...
— mathematician, co-author of the Rice–Shapiro theorem, MH Email and RAND-Abel co-designer - Lloyd ShapleyLloyd ShapleyLloyd Stowell Shapley is a distinguished American mathematician and economist. He is a Professor Emeritus at University of California, Los Angeles, affiliated with departments of Mathematics and Economics...
— mathematician and game theorist - David A. Shephard — Chairman of the Board, 1967–1970
- Abram ShulskyAbram ShulskyAbram Shulsky is a neoconservative scholar who has worked for U.S. government, RAND Corporation, and the Hudson Institute. Shulsky served as Director of the Office of Special Plans, a unit whose function has been compared to the 1970s Team B exercise...
— former Director of the Pentagon's Office of Special PlansOffice of Special PlansThe Office of Special Plans , which existed from September 2002 to June 2003, was a Pentagon unit created by Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, and headed by Feith, as charged by then-United States Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to supply senior George W. Bush administration officials with... - Herbert SimonHerbert SimonHerbert Alexander Simon was an American political scientist, economist, sociologist, and psychologist, and professor—most notably at Carnegie Mellon University—whose research ranged across the fields of cognitive psychology, cognitive science, computer science, public administration, economics,...
— award-winning psychologist - Frank StantonFrank StantonFrank Nicholas Stanton was an American broadcasting executive who served as the president of CBS between 1946 and 1971 and then vice chairman until 1973. He also served as the chairman of the Rand Corporation from 1961 until 1967.Along with William S. Paley, Stanton is credited with the...
— Chairman of the Board, 1961–1967 - James SteinbergJames SteinbergJames Braidy "Jim" Steinberg is an American academic and political advisor, and former Deputy Secretary of State. He is currently Dean and Professor of Social Science, International Affairs, and Law at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University.-Early career:He...
— Deputy National Security Advisor to Bill Clinton - Peter Szanton — the policy analyst and former President of New York Rand
- Katsuaki L. Terasawa — economist
- James Thomson — RAND CEO, 1989–present
- William H. Webster — Chairman of the Board, 1959–1960
- Albert WohlstetterAlbert WohlstetterAlbert Wohlstetter was an influential and controversial nuclear strategist during the Cold War. He was major intellectual force behind efforts to deter nuclear war and avoid the further spread of nuclear weapons to more nations...
— Mathematician and Cold-War Strategist - Roberta WohlstetterRoberta WohlstetterRoberta Mary Morgan, better known by her married name of Roberta Wohlstetter, , was one of America's most important historians of military intelligence. Her most influential work is Pearl Harbor: Warning and Decision. The former secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, is said to have required that...
— Policy analyst and military historian - Ratan TataRatan TataRatan Naval Tata is the present chairman of Tata Sons and therefore, Tata Group. Also, he is one among the few in the world...
— Chairman of Tata SonsTata SonsTata Sons is a promoter of the key companies of the Tata Group and holds the bulk of shareholding in these companies. It was established as a trading enterprise by Group founder Jamsetji Tata in 1868... - Oliver Williamson — economist
Over the last 60 years, more than 30 Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
winners have been involved or associated with the RAND Corporation at some point in their careers.
Governance
The organization's governance structure includes a board of trustees. Current members of the board include: Paul G. Kaminski (Chairman), Karen Elliott HouseKaren Elliott House
Karen Elliott House is a journalist and former executive at the Wall Street Journal and its parent company Dow Jones. She served as President of Dow Jones International and then publisher of the WSJ before her retirement in the spring of 2006....
(Vice Chairman), Richard J. Danzig, Francis Fukuyama
Francis Fukuyama
Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama is an American political scientist, political economist, and author. He is a Senior Fellow at the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford. Before that he served as a professor and director of the International Development program at the School of...
, Richard Gephardt, John W. Handy
John W. Handy
General John W. Handy was Commander, U.S. Transportation Command, and Commander, Air Mobility Command, Scott Air Force Base, Illinois from October 2001 until September 2005. General Handy retired effective October 1, 2005....
, Jen-Hsun Huang
Jen-Hsun Huang
Jen-Hsun "Jensen" Huang is a Taiwanese American entrepreneur and businessman. A native of Taiwan, he grew up in Oregon, graduating from Oregon State University before moving to California where he graduated from Stanford University. He co-founded the graphics-processor company Nvidia and serves...
, John M. Keane, Lydia H. Kennard, Philip Lader
Philip Lader
Philip Lader was the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom and as of 2010 is chairman of WPP Group plc, a global media and communications firm....
, Peter Lowy, Michael Lynton
Michael Lynton
Michael Lynton is an American businessman who has led several media related companies including Time Warner, The Walt Disney Company's Hollywood Pictures and Pearson's Penguin Group. Since January 2004, he has been Chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment and has served on many Boards of...
, Charles N. Martin, Jr., Ronald Olson
Ronald Olson
Ronald L. Olson is an American attorney and partner in the Los Angeles office of the law firm of Munger Tolles & Olson LLP. Most recently, Olson was the lead attorney representing the board of directors of Yahoo! in connection with Microsoft's proposed acquisition of Yahoo!...
, Paul O'Neill, Michael Powell
Michael Powell (politician)
Michael Kevin Powell is an American Republican politician and lobbyist. He is the incoming president of the National Cable & Telecommunications Association . He was appointed to the Federal Communications Commission by President Bill Clinton on 3 November 1997. President George W. Bush designated...
, Donald B. Rice, James E. Rohr, James F. Rothenberg
James F. Rothenberg
James F. Rothenberg, "a leading figure in the investment world", has served as president and director of Capital Research and Management Co. and as investment adviser to American Funds...
, Hector Ruiz
Héctor Ruiz
Hector de Jesus Ruiz is the chairman and CEO of Advanced Nanotechnology Solutions Inc. and former CEO & executive chairman of semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. .-Education:...
, Carlos Slim Helu
Carlos Slim Helú
Carlos Slim Helú is a Mexican business magnate and philanthropist who as of 2011 is the richest person in the world, for the second year in a row...
, Donald Tang
Donald Tang
Donald Tang is an American investment banker who is the founder and CEO of the CSIP Group and a former Vice-Chairman of Bear Stearns.-Early life:...
, James Thomson, and Robert C. Wright
Robert C. Wright
Robert C. Wright is a former Republican member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He was first elected on September 15, 1981-References:...
.
Trustees Emeriti include: Harold Brown
Harold Brown
Harold Brown may refer to:*Harold Brown *Harold P. Brown, builder of the first electric chair*Harold L. Brown, Pennsylvania politician*Harold Brown , American physicist, U.S...
, Frank C. Carlucci
Former members of the board include: Walter Mondale
Walter Mondale
Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale is an American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States , under President Jimmy Carter, and as a United States Senator for Minnesota...
, Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
, Newton Minow, Brent Scowcroft
Brent Scowcroft
Brent Scowcroft, KBE was the United States National Security Advisor under Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush and a Lieutenant General in the United States Air Force. He also served as Military Assistant to President Richard Nixon and as Deputy Assistant to the President for National...
, Amy Pascal
Amy Pascal
Amy Pascal is Co-Chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, Inc. and Chairman of SPE's Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group. She oversees all development, production and marketing activities at Columbia Pictures...
, John Reed, Charles Townes, Caryl Haskins, Walter B. Wriston, Frank Stanton
Frank Stanton
Frank Nicholas Stanton was an American broadcasting executive who served as the president of CBS between 1946 and 1971 and then vice chairman until 1973. He also served as the chairman of the Rand Corporation from 1961 until 1967.Along with William S. Paley, Stanton is credited with the...
, Carl Bildt
Carl Bildt
, Honorary KCMG is a Swedish politician, diplomat and nobleman. Formerly Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994 and leader of the liberal conservative Moderate Party from 1986 to 1999, Bildt has served as Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs since 6 October 2006...
, Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Rumsfeld
Donald Henry Rumsfeld is an American politician and businessman. Rumsfeld served as the 13th Secretary of Defense from 1975 to 1977 under President Gerald Ford, and as the 21st Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2006 under President George W. Bush. He is both the youngest and the oldest person to...
, Harold Brown
Harold Brown (Secretary of Defense)
Harold Brown , American scientist, was U.S. Secretary of Defense from 1977 to 1981 in the cabinet of President Jimmy Carter. He had previously served in the Lyndon Johnson administration as Director of Defense Research and Engineering and Secretary of the Air Force.While Secretary of Defense, he...
, Robert Curvin, Pedro Greer, Arthur Levitt
Arthur Levitt
Arthur Levitt, Jr. was the twenty-fifth and longest-serving Chairman of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission from 1993 to 2001. Widely hailed as a champion of the individual investor, he has been criticized for not pushing for tougher accounting rules. Since May 2001 he has been...
, Lloyd Morrisett
Lloyd Morrisett
Lloyd Newton Morrisett, Jr. is an American experimental psychologist with a career in education, communications, and philanthropy...
, Lovida Coleman, Ratan Tata
Ratan Tata
Ratan Naval Tata is the present chairman of Tata Sons and therefore, Tata Group. Also, he is one among the few in the world...
, Marta Tienda
Marta Tienda
Marta Tienda is a sociologist. From 1997 to 2002, she served as the director of The Office of Population Research. She is co-author and co-editor of many books, including The Hispanic Population of The United States .-External links:...
, Jerry Speyer
Jerry Speyer
Jerry I. Speyer is an American real estate tycoon. He is one of two founding partners of the prominent New York real estate company Tishman Speyer...
, Timothy Geithner, Rita Hauser
Rita Hauser
Rita Eleanor Hauser is an international lawyer known for persuading Yasser Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization to renounce violence in 1988. She also served as United States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from 1969 to 1972. George W...
, Ann Korologos, and Bonnie McElveen-Hunter
Bonnie McElveen-Hunter
Bonnie McElveen-Hunter is an American businesswoman who is the first female Chairman of the Board of Governors of the American Red Cross. She is currently serving her second three-year term, the first of which began in June, 2004, when she was appointed to the post by U.S. President George W....
.
Criticism
In 1958, Democratic Senator Stuart SymingtonStuart Symington
William Stuart Symington was a businessman and political figure from Missouri. He served as the first Secretary of the Air Force from 1947 to 1950 and was a Democratic United States Senator from Missouri from 1953 to 1976.-Education and business career:...
accused the RAND Corporation of defeatism
Defeatism
Defeatism is acceptance of defeat without struggle. In everyday use, defeatism has negative connotation and is often linked to treason and pessimism, or even a hopeless situation such as a Catch-22...
for studying how the United States might strategically surrender
Strategic surrender
Strategic surrender is a strategy of attrition. What the loser avoids by offering to surrender is a last, chaotic round of fighting that would have the characteristics of a rout...
to an enemy power. This led to the passage of a prohibition on the spending of tax dollars on the study of defeat or surrender of any kind. However, the senator had apparently misunderstood, as the report was a survey of past cases in which the U.S. had demanded unconditional surrender
Unconditional surrender
Unconditional surrender is a surrender without conditions, in which no guarantees are given to the surrendering party. In modern times unconditional surrenders most often include guarantees provided by international law. Announcing that only unconditional surrender is acceptable puts psychological...
of its enemies, asking whether or not this had been a more favorable outcome to U.S. interests than an earlier, negotiated surrender would have been.
In April 1970, Newhouse News Service reported that Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
had commissioned RAND to study the feasibility of canceling the 1972 election
United States presidential election, 1972
The United States presidential election of 1972 was the 47th quadrennial United States presidential election. It was held on November 7, 1972. The Democratic Party's nomination was eventually won by Senator George McGovern, who ran an anti-war campaign against incumbent Republican President Richard...
. RAND denied it and reviewed its recent work for possible sources of the story. They said that the review was fruitless.
Cultural references
The firm was spoofed in the film Dr. Strangelove (1964) as "The Bland Corporation."In the Simpsons episode "Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy
Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy
"Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy" is the tenth television episode of The Simpsons sixth season. It was first broadcast on the Fox network in the United States on December 4, 1994. In the episode, Marge and Homer's sex life is struggling, but Grampa perks things up with a homemade revitalizing tonic...
" (1994), the character Milhouse includes RAND in a series of overlapping conspiracies that the children believe are causing their parents to disappear for long stretches of time.
See also
- A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal DeviatesA Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal DeviatesA Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates is a 1955 book by the RAND Corporation. The book, consisting primarily of a random number table, was an important 20th century work in the field of statistics and random numbers...
(published by RAND) - Pentagon PapersPentagon PapersThe Pentagon Papers, officially titled United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense, is a United States Department of Defense history of the United States' political-military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967...
- Lloyd ShapleyLloyd ShapleyLloyd Stowell Shapley is a distinguished American mathematician and economist. He is a Professor Emeritus at University of California, Los Angeles, affiliated with departments of Mathematics and Economics...
- Daniel EllsbergDaniel EllsbergDaniel Ellsberg, PhD, is a former United States military analyst who, while employed by the RAND Corporation, precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War,...
- Brookings InstitutionBrookings InstitutionThe Brookings Institution is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, D.C., in the United States. One of Washington's oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and...
- Council on Foreign RelationsCouncil on Foreign RelationsThe Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
- Hudson InstituteHudson InstituteThe Hudson Institute is an American think tank founded in 1961, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation...
- Trilateral CommissionTrilateral CommissionThe Trilateral Commission is a non-governmental, non-partisan discussion group founded by David Rockefeller in July 1973 to foster closer cooperation among the United States, Europe and Japan.-History:...
- Kepner-TregoeKepner-TregoeKepner-Tregoe, Inc. is a multinational management consulting and training services company. It provides consultation and training to companies in industries such as manufacturing, electronics, chemical, pharmaceuticals, and financial services....
- Rational choice theoryRational choice theoryRational choice theory, also known as choice theory or rational action theory, is a framework for understanding and often formally modeling social and economic behavior. It is the main theoretical paradigm in the currently-dominant school of microeconomics...
- Amron Harry KatzAmron Harry KatzAmron Harry Katz was an American physicist who specialized in aerial reconnaissance.Katz developed methods for aerial reconnaissance supported by space satellites...
Books
- Alex AbellaAlex AbellaAlex Abella is an American author and journalist best known for his non-fiction works Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire and Shadow Enemies: Hitler's Secret Terrorist Plot Against the United States .-Early life:Abella was born in Cuba in 1950...
. Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire (2008, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hardcover; ISBN 0-15101-081-1 / 2009, Mariner BooksMariner BooksMariner Books, a division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, was established in 1997 as a publisher of fiction, non fiction, and poetry in paperback. Mariner is also the publisher of the Harvest imprint backlist, formerly published by Harcourt Brace/Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.-Publisher bibliography:*The...
paperback reprint edition; ISBN 0-15603-344-5). - S.M. Amadae. Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy: The Cold War Origins of Rational Choice Liberalism (2003, University Of Chicago PressUniversity of Chicago PressThe University of Chicago Press is the largest university press in the United States. It is operated by the University of Chicago and publishes a wide variety of academic titles, including The Chicago Manual of Style, dozens of academic journals, including Critical Inquiry, and a wide array of...
paperback; ISBN 0-22601-654-4 / hardcover; ISBN 0-22601-653-6). - Martin J. Collins. Cold War Laboratory: RAND, the Air Force, and the American State, 1945-1950 (2002, Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press hardcover, part of the Smithsonian History of Aviation and Spaceflight Series; ISBN 1-58834-086-4)
- Agatha C. Hughes and Thomas P. HughesThomas P. HughesThomas Parke Hughes is an American Historian of Technology. He is an emeritus professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania and is a visiting professor at MIT and Stanford.He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in 1953....
(editors). Systems, Experts, and Computers: The Systems Approach in Management and Engineering, World War II and After (2000, The MIT Press hardcover, part of the Dibner Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology; ISBN 0-26208-285-3 / 2011, paperback reprint edition; ISBN 0-26251-604-7). - Fred KaplanFred KaplanFred Kaplan is a journalist and contributor to Slate magazine. His "War Stories" column covers international relations and US foreign policy.-Career:...
. The Wizards of Armageddon (1983, Simon and Schuster hardcover, first printing; ISBN 0-67142-444-0 / 1991, Stanford University PressStanford University PressThe Stanford University Press is the publishing house of Stanford University. In 1892, an independent publishing company was established at the university. The first use of the name "Stanford University Press" in a book's imprinting occurred in 1895...
paperback, part of the Stanford Nuclear Age Series; ISBN 0-80471-884-9). - Edward S. Quade and Wayne I. Boucher (editors), Systems Analysis and Policy Planning: Applications in Defense (1968, American Elsevier hardcover).
- Bruce L.R. Smith. The RAND Corporation: Case Study of a Nonprofit Advisory Corporation (1966, Harvard University Press / 1969; ISBN 0-67474-850-6).
- Mark Trachtenberg. History and Strategy (1991, Princeton University PressPrinceton University Press-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
paperback; ISBN 0-69102-343-3 / hardcover; ISBN 0-69107-881-5).
Articles
- Clifford, Peggy, ed. "RAND and The City: Part One". Santa Monica MirrorSanta Monica MirrorThe Santa Monica Mirror is a weekly community newspaper which covers Santa Monica, Brentwood, Pacific Palisades, Venice, and Marina del Rey in the U.S. state of California. It circulates around 22,000 subscriptions weekly. The Mirror focuses on local happenings, events, sports, and arts...
, October 27, 1999 – November 2, 1999. Five-part series includes: 1; 2; 3; 4; & 5. Accessed 15 April 2008.
External links
- Official website
- Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School
- "The Air Force Creates a Think Tank" Chalmers JohnsonChalmers JohnsonChalmers Ashby Johnson was an American author and professor emeritus of the University of California, San Diego. He served in the Korean War, was a consultant for the CIA from 1967–1973, and chaired the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of California, Berkeley from 1967 to 1972...
's review of "Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire", Harcourt Trade PublishersHarcourt Trade PublishersHarcourt was a United States publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for children and adults. The company was based in San Diego, California, with an Editorial / Sales / Marketing / Rights offices in New York City and Orlando, Florida.In 2007, the U.S...
, Alex Abella