Shari Lawrence Pfleeger

Martin C. Libicki

Rand Corporation

Across a wide variety of endeavors, failure to anticipate disaster has been ascribed to the inability to "connect the dots." But to "connect the dots," one must first "collect the dots." The authors investigate the barriers to circulating important information and describes approaches for bringing information together in a meaningful way and describe a formal process for collecting the dots.

Problem Formulation and Solution Elements

Collecting the Dots

Memorandum

Sanjai Narain

Often the assertion is made that programs in von Neumann languages like Fortran, Pascal, or C are difficult to synthesize, analyze, modify, or extend. While the assertion appears to be correct, usual arguments given in this support are not very convincing. This Note focuses on one part of this assertion, namely, that programs in von Neumann languages are difficult to synthesize, and develops a new argument in this support. Frequently it is necessary to express in a programming language statements of the form 'each of functions f1 ..., fn are to be computed for the same entity.' The presence of destructive assignment in von Neumann languages gives rise to the possibility that programs modify their inputs. This makes it difficult to express statements of the above form in them. Applicative languages such as pure Lisp or pure Prolog do not contain destructive assignment, so such statements can be expressed very easily in them.

Why is it Difficult to Program in Von Neumann Languages?

A Rand Note

Stephanie Cammarata

Darrell Shane

Prasad Ram

This report describes a research project whose objective is to improve the interaction between a database user and a relational database management system. It discusses the "data flow" gap between (1) external databases acquired from public agencies and (2) datasets derived from these databases to be used as input to specific simulation models. This gap is the lack of interoperability between external databases and simulation databases and the transformations that are necessary to derive compatible datasets. It also presents the computer software system the authors developed to bridge this data flow gap--the Intelligent Information Dictionary (IID) software system, which serves as a semantic-based interface between a database user and a relational database management system. IID extends the traditional roles of a data dictionary by enabling a user to view, manipulate, and verify semantic aspects of relational data. IID operates as a domain-independent kernel augmented with domain-specific knowledge bases. IID represents and maintains these knowledge bases as semantic metadata necessary for correcting external databases and deriving required abstractions and aggregations from these databases

An Intelligent Information Dictionary for Managing Semantic Metadata

Jacob Marschak

M. R. Mickey

Notes on the Optimal Choice of Weapons

Michael D. Rich

I. K. Cohen

Raymond Pyles

This report is based on testimony given by Michael Rich to the House Armed Services Committee's Subcommittee on Readiness in February 1986. It traces the evolution of RAND research on an important defense management problem: How to increase the capability of combat forces by improving the ability of combat commanders, resource managers, and planners to assess readiness and sustainability and to take appropriate action to strengthen both. It describes the general challenge of assessing readiness and sustainability, discusses the present state of the art and its evolution, and finally, considers what the future holds. It reflects a view that readiness and sustainability assessment represents more than a means of looking at past decisions; it is now a required and increasingly important element of day-to-day combat force operations, support system management, and planning for future forces and operations.

Prepared for the United States Air Force

Recent Progress in Assessing the Readiness and Sustainability of Combat Forces

Coproduction, or international collaboration during production of a major weapon system, is one of the more complex forms of multinational cooperation, and the Rand Corporation has completed a comprehensive investigation into some widely held beliefs about such arrangements. The purpose of the analysis was to assess the impact of coproduction on acquisition costs and schedules and to identify ways to maximize its advantages while sidestepping its pitfalls. (For details of this Air Force-sponsored study, see Michael Rich, William Stanley, John Birkler, and Michael Hesse, 'Multinational Coproduction of Military Aerospace Systems, ' Rand Corporation, R-2861-AF, October 1981). Researchers were particularly interested in determining whether European collaborative programs are credible guideposts for predicting the outcomes of U.S.-European programs, whether collaborative programs experience more schedule slippage than do uninational programs, and whether coproduction imposes a cost penalty on the United States. The Rand team examined a wide variety of uninational, U.S.-European, and European collaborative aerospace development and production programs, both completed and ongoing, including the largest and most complex U.S.-European collaborative effort to date, the F-16 fighter aircraft program.

Cost and Schedule Implications of Multinational Coproduction

National Defense Research Institute (U.S.)

George Kilpatrick Tanham

This Study Focuses On The Historical, Geographic And Cultural Factors Influencing Indian Strategic Thinking; How India`S Past Has Shaped Present Day Conceptions Of Military Power And National Security, Whether Indian Thinking Follows Consistent Logic And Direction, How Indian Elites View Their Strategic Position Vis-A-Vis Their Neighbours, The Indian Ocean And Great Power Alignments, Etc. Cover Slightly Shopsoiled, Text Clean, Condition Good.

An Interpretive Essay

Indian Strategic Thought

Alex Alexiev

This study examines the determinants and character of German policies toward the Soviet non-Russian nationalities and their effects on the Soviet and German war efforts and on the nationalities themselves. Particular emphasis is placed on the analysis of the nature and magnitude of military collaboration with the Germans by the non-Russian nationalities, in an attempt to examine the military exploitability of the political warfare opportunities that presented themselves. Section II outlines the attitudes toward the Soviet nationalities prevalent among the Nazi leadership and the role envisaged for them in a postwar German-dominated Europe, and juxtaposes them on the views of German officials who did not share Nazi dogma and advocated a more pragmatic approach. German policies in the occupied non-Russian territories and their implications are examined in Sec. III. Section IV describes the different types and degrees of military collaboration with the Germans. The main conclusions are summarized in Sec. V.

Soviet Nationalities in German Wartime Strategy, 1941-1945

Rand Report

Nikola Schahgaldian

Gina Barkhordarian

This study assesses the Iranian military as a factor in internal Iranian politics. It examines successive influences on the Iranian armed forces since the Islamic Revolution of February 1979. The analysis includes both the professional military and the new paramilitary organizations, the Pasdaran and the Basij. The findings of the study are based primarily on interviews with former Iranian military personnel living outside Iran who have seen service since the revolution, and with nonmilitary individuals. The interview data were supplemented by an analysis of open-source literature in local and Western languages. The findings suggest that the long-term U.S. policy objective ought to be to reestablish a working relationship with Iran and to prevent it or any part of it from coming under Soviet influence. A directory of Iranian military officials and a chronology of events in Iran since 1979 are included in appendixes.

The Iranian Military Under the Islamic Republic

Lee A. Lillard

"This Note examines selected methodological issues for the evaluation of training programs similar to the one established by the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act. It addresses two aspects of the training programs that are treated only casually in the literature. First, in addition to the worker's endogenous participation and program-completion decisions, the authors' analysis includes the program sponsor's endogenous decisions concerning the type of training received by the trainee (i.e., assignment to a program type) and the placement of the trainee in a job at the end of the training period. Second, the authors analyze various components of earnings (in terms of wage rates, hours per week, and weeks worked), as well as individual differences in the long-run level and growth of these components, and transitory variations."--Rand abstracts

Endogenous Participation, Completion, and Program Assignment

Methodological Issues in the Evaluation of CETA Programs

Reports - Rand

Rand Corporation

About

Books

Join the club