RAND Corporation

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The RAND Corporation, according to the corporate web site, is a "nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis."

"Covert foreign policy became the standard mode of operation after World War II, which was also when Ford Foundation became a major player for the first time. The institute most involved in classified research was Rand Corporation, set up by the Air Force in 1948. The interlocks between the trustees at Rand, and the Ford, Rockefeller, and Carnegie Foundations were so numerous that the Reece Committee listed them in its report (two each for Carnegie and Rockefeller, and three for Ford). Ford gave one million dollars to Rand in 1952 alone, at a time when the chairman of Rand was simultaneously the president of Ford Foundation."[1]
"Two-thirds of Rand's research involves national security issues. This is divided into Project Air Force, the Arroyo Center (serving the needs of the Army), and the National Defense Research Institute (providing research and analysis for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Staff, and the defense agencies). The other third of Rand's research is devoted to issues involving health, education, civil and criminal justice, labor and population studies, and international economics." 1994 Annual Report[2]

Origins and history

The RAND Corporation grew out of the merging of the corporate and state sectors in the United States that occurred during the Second World War – what President Eisenhower later famously dubbed the ‘Military-Industrial Complex’. As RAND itself states on its website: “There were discussions among people in the War Department, the Office of Scientific Research and Development, and industry who saw a need for a private organization to connect military planning with research and development decisions.” [3]

RAND began life as a project of the Douglas Aircraft Company, which had made enormous profits from the war, producing thousands of American bombers. It was conceived at a meeting on 1 October 1945 between Henry Arnold, Commanding General of the Army Air Force; MIT's Edward Bowles, a consultant to the Secretary of War; Donald Douglas, of Douglas Aircraft Company; Douglas' Chief Engineer Arthur Raymond, and his assistant Frank Collbohm. Then known as Project RAND, its name was taken from the term research and development. [4] By early 1948 Project RAND had grown to 200 staff members and on 14 May 1948 it broke off from Douglas Aircraft Company to become an independent, non-profit organisation. On 1 November 1948, the Project RAND contract was formally transferred from the Douglas Aircraft Company to the RAND Corporation. The Ford Foundation provided $1 million for operating the new corporation, [5] and the new think-tank also had $5 million in remaining funds from Project RAND at its disposal. [6]

Board of Directors

Source[7]

Project RAND

According to Wikipedia: RAND was set up, in 1945, by the USAAF as Project RAND, under contract to the Douglas Aircraft Company, and in 1945 they released the Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship. In May 1948, Project RAND was separated from Douglas and became an independent organization.

Locations

"RAND has four principal locations, Santa Monica, California; Arlington, Virginia (just outside Washington, D.C.); Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and RAND Europe headquarters in Leiden, The Netherlands. RAND Europe also has offices in Berlin, Germany, and Cambridge, the United Kingdom." Since 2003, RAND has also operated the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute in Doha, Qatar.


Notable RAND participants

Governance

The organization's governance structure includes a board of trustees. Current members of the board include: Francis Fukuyama, Timothy Geithner, John W. Handy, Rita Hauser, Karen House, Jen-Hsun Huang, Paul Kaminski, John M. Keane, Lydia H. Kennard, Ann Korologos, Philip Lader, Peter Lowy, Charles N. Martin, Jr., Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Ronald Olson, Paul O'Neill, Michael Powell, Donald Rice, James Rohr, James Rothenberg, Donald Tang, James Thomson, and Robert C. Wright.

Former members of the board include: Walter Mondale, Condoleezza Rice, Newton Minow, Brent Scowcroft, Amy Pascal, John Reed, Charles Townes, Caryl Haskins, Walter Wriston, Frank Stanton, Carl Bildt, Donald Rumsfeld, Harold Brown, Robert Curvin, Pedro Greer, Arthur Levitt, Lloyd Morrisett, Frank Carlucci, Lovida Coleman, Ratan Tata, Marta Tienda and Jerry Speyer.

Contact, References and Resources

Contact

RAND
P.O. Box 2138
1776 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138
Email: correspondence@rand.org
Website: www.rand.org

Resources, external links, notes

Resources

Further reading

  • Abella, Alex. Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire (Harcourt, 2008). ISBN 978-0-15-101081-3.
  • S.M. Amadae. Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy: The Cold War Origins of Rational Choice Liberalism (University of Chicago Press, 2003).
  • Martin Collins. Cold War Laboratory: RAND, The Air Force and the American State (Smithsonian Institute, 2002).
  • Paul Dickson Think Tanks, New York: Atheneum, 1971. - Contains a chapter and much other discussion of Rand.
  • Thomas and Agatha Hughes, eds. Systems, Experts, and Computers: The Systems Approach in Management and Engineering After World War II (The MIT Press. Dibner Institute Studies in the History of Science and Technology, 2000).
  • Fred Kaplan. The Wizards of Armageddon" (Stanford University Press, 1991).
  • Clifford, Peggy, ed. "RAND and The City: Part One". Santa Monica Mirror, October 27, 1999 – November 2, 1999. Five-part series includes: 1; 2; 3; 4; & 5. Accessed April 15, 2008.
  • Bruce L. R. Smith The Rand Corporation: Case Study of a Nonprofit Advisory Corporation, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard university Press, 1966.
  • Mark Trachtenberg. History & Strategy (Princeton University Press, 1991).

External links

References

  1. ↑ [Rene Wormser, Foundations: Their Power and Influence, p65-66 (Sevierville TN: Covenant House Books, 1993), 412 pages. First published in 1958 by Devin-Adair in New York, and reprinted in 1977 by Angriff Press.], Philanthropists at War by Daniel Brandt; From NameBase NewsLine, No. 15, October-December 1996
  2. ↑ [1]
  3. ↑ RAND Corporation website, A Brief History of RAND, (accessed 24 October 2008)
  4. ↑ RAND Corporation website, A Brief History of RAND, (accessed 24 October 2008)
  5. ↑ RAND Corporation website, A Brief History of RAND, (accessed 24 October 2008)
  6. ↑ Donald E. Abelson, A Capitol Idea: Think-Tanks and US Policy (McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP, 2006) p.75
  7. ↑ About Rand Rand Corporation
  8. ↑ Habitable Planets for man (6.4 MB PDF).  RAND Corporation (free PDFs).
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