RAND originated as "Project RAND" (from the phrase "researchanddevelopment") in thepost-war period immediately afterWorld War II.[7][8] TheU.S. Army Air Forces established Project RAND with the objective of investigating long-range planning of future weapons.[9] TheDouglas Aircraft Company was granted a contract to research intercontinental warfare.[9] Project RAND later evolved into RAND, and expanded its research into civilian fields such as education and international affairs.[10] It was the first think tank to be regularly referred to as a "think tank".[1]
RAND is home to theRAND School of Public Policy, one of eight original graduate programs inpublic policy and the first to offer aPh.D. The RAND School offers a selective Ph.D. program that aims to provide an analytically rigorous and applied curriculum through coursework and collaboration with RAND researchers to address real-world problems. The campus is at RAND's Santa Monica research facility and is the world's largest institution specializing in graduate-level education in policy analysis.[17]
All Ph.D. students receive fellowships to cover their education costs. This allows them to dedicate their time to engage in research projects and provides them with on-the-job training.[17] RAND also offers a number of internship and fellowship programs allowing students and others to assist in conducting research for RAND projects.[18]
As soon as Arnold realized Collbohm had been thinking along similar lines, he said, "I know just what you're going to tell me. It's the most important thing we can do."[23] With Arnold's blessing, Collbohm quickly pulled in additional people from Douglas to help, and together withDonald Douglas, they convened with Arnold two days later atHamilton Army Airfield to sketch out a general outline for Collbohm's proposed project.[23]
Douglas engineerArthur Emmons Raymond came up with the name Project RAND, from "research and development".[7] Collbohm suggested that he himself should serve as the project's first director, which he thought would be a temporary position while he searched for a permanent replacement for himself.[7] He later became RAND's first president and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1967.[24]
By late 1947, Douglas Aircraft executives had expressed their concerns that their close relationship with RAND might createconflict of interest problems on future hardware contracts. In February 1948, the chief of staff of the newly created United States Air Force approved the evolution of Project RAND into anonprofit corporation, independent of Douglas.[18]
On 14 May 1948, RAND was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under the laws of the State of California and on 1 November 1948, the Project RAND contract was formally transferred from the Douglas Aircraft Company to RAND.[18] Initial capital for the spin-off was provided by theFord Foundation.
Since the 1950s, RAND research has helped inform United States policy decisions on a wide variety of issues, including the space race, theVietnam War, the U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms confrontation, the creation of theGreat Society social welfare programs, the digital revolution, and national health care.[26] In the 1970s, New York City used RAND's computer models to determine which fire stations to close. Most of the closed stations were in relatively poor areas, such asSouth Bronx orLower East Side.[27]
Even in the late 1940s and early 1950s, long before Sputnik, the RAND project was secretly recommending to the US government a major effort to design a human-made satellite that would take photographs from space and the rockets to put such a satellite in orbit.[31]
RAND was not the first think tank, but during the 1960s, it was the first to be regularly referred to as a "think tank".[1] Accordingly, RAND served as the "prototype" for the modern definition of that term.[1]
In the early 1990s, RAND established a European branch to serve clients across the public, private, and third sectors, including governments, charities, and corporations. RAND Europe is the European arm of RAND, and like its main branch, it is a nonprofit policy research organization dedicated to improving decision-making through evidence-based research and analysis. RAND Europe's stated mission is to improve policy and decision-making through rigorous, independent research. RAND Europe is incorporated in, and has offices in, Cambridge, The Hague, and Brussels.[32][33]
The research of RAND stems from its development ofsystems analysis. Important contributions are claimed in space systems and the United States'space program,[34] in computing and inartificial intelligence. RAND researchers developed many of the principles that were used to build theInternet.[35] RAND also contributed to the development and use ofwargaming.[36][37]
During theCold War, RAND researchers contributed to the development of nuclear strategy concepts such as deterrence theory andmutually assured destruction.[39] In recent years, RAND has analyzed military readiness, force modernization, andcounterterrorism strategies. For example, one study examined the effectiveness ofcounterinsurgency operations inIraq andAfghanistan.[40]
RAND designed and conducted one of the largest and most important studies of health insurance between 1974 and 1982. TheRAND 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.[41][42]
In 2018, RAND began its Gun Policy in America initiative,[43] which resulted in comprehensive reviews of the evidence of the effects of gun policies in the United States. The second expanded review in 2020[44] analyzed almost 13,000 relevant studies on guns and gun violence since 1995 and selected 123 as having sufficient methodological rigor for inclusion. These studies were used to evaluate scientific support for eighteen classes of gun policy. The review found supportive evidence that child-access prevention laws reduce firearm self-injuries (including suicides), firearm homicides or assault injuries, and unintentional firearm injuries and deaths among youth. Conversely, it identified that stand-your-ground laws increase firearm homicides and shall-issue concealed carry laws increase total and firearm homicides. RAND also emphasized that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.[45] Both proponents and opponents of variousgun control measures have cited the RAND initiative.[46][47][48][49]
Additionally, RAND has researched the opioid epidemic, andalcoholism.[50]
The RAND analysis of the Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching, a $575 million initiative from theGates Foundation to increase teacher effectiveness, found that the interventions had no significant effect on student achievement.[51]
RAND has examined the implications of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity threats, and autonomous systems. It was accused of working too closely withOpen Philanthropy in its work on AI, at the risk of losing its independence.[52][53][54] RAND employees have expressed concerns to Politico about the organization's objectivity after it was revealed that RAND helped draft the Executive Order on AI, following over $15 million in funding from a Facebook founder-backed Open Philanthropy.[55] In December 2023, theHouse Science Committee sent a bipartisan letter to theNational Institute of Standards and Technology raising concerns over RAND's "research that has failed to go through robust review processes, such as academic peer review."[56][57] On September 13, 2024, the ranking member of theU.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation sent a letter to RAND to better understand its "involvement in the AI Executive Order and the administration’s other actions related to online speech."[58]
Alain Enthoven: economist, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1965, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Analysis from 1965 to 1969
^abHeilbrunn, Jacob:"Real Men of Genius"Archived 27 August 2017 at theWayback Machine (book review ofSoldiers of Reason: The RAND Corp and Rise of the American Empire by Alex Abella, 2008, Harcourt), September 21, 2008,Washington Post, retrieved November 24, 2022
^abKazin, Michael, reviewer:"Inside Job" (book review ofSecrets -- autobiography of Daniel Ellsberg, 2002, Viking), November 3, 2002,Washington Post, retrieved November 24, 2022
^Life Magazine, 25 February 1957, "Passing of a Great Mind", by Clay Bair JR. pages 89–104
^Alex Roland and Philip Shiman,Strategic Computing: DARPA and the Quest for Machine Intelligence, 1983–1993, The MIT Press, 2002,p. 302
^Nina Tannenwald,The Nuclear Taboo: The United States and the Non-Use of Nuclear Weapons Since 1945, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (UK), 2007,p. 138-139
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;ISBN1-58834-086-4)
Agatha C. Hughes andThomas P. Hughes (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;ISBN0-262-08285-3 / 2011, paperback reprint edition;ISBN0-262-51604-7).
David Jardini.Thinking Through the Cold War: RAND, National Security and Domestic Policy, 1945–1975 (2013, Smashwords; Amazon Kindle;ISBN978-1-301-15851-5).
$514 million (2024)[4]
