RAND International

RAND International is dedicated to supporting RAND’s vision to be the world’s most trusted source for policy research and analysis.

RAND has decades of experience bringing independent, rigorous, and interdisciplinary methods to bear on the world’s most pressing issues across the globe, including fragile and conflict-affected regions.

Through its centers and internationally focused research conducted by our research divisions, RAND International helps connect RAND’s capacity and expertise to meet research and analysis needs and provide effective policy solutions worldwide. RAND’s subsidiaries in Europe and Australia extend RAND’s reach in meeting our mission to improve policy and decision making through objective research and analysis.

Learn More About Our Global Research

International Research and Analysis on Social and Economic Policy
Providing analytic rigor and systematic data collection to global research and evaluations, in the pursuit of accessible and actionable recommendations to address a wide range of social and economic policy challenges.
International Research and Analysis on Security Policy
Understanding the political, military, and economic aspects of global challenges, drawing on the best available qualitative data, quantitative data, and methodological tools.

International Contacts

Vice President, International: Contact: Krishna Kumar
International Research and Analysis; 1776 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138; Phone: (310) 393-0411, ext. 7589
Director, International Programs: Contact: Robin Meili; 1776 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138; Phone: (310) 393-0411, ext. 7190
Center for Global Risk and Security: King Mallory, Director
Center for Global Risk and Security; 1200 South Hayes Street
Arlington, VA 22202-5050; Phone: (703) 413-1100, ext. 5263
Center for Middle East Public Policy: Robin Meili, Acting Director
Center for Middle East Public Policy; 1776 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401-3208; Phone: (310) 393-0411, ext. 7190
Center for Russia and Eurasia: Robin Meili, Acting Director
Center for Russia and Eurasia; 1776 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90401-3208; Phone: (310) 393-0411, ext. 7190
Center for Asia Pacific Policy: Rafiq Dossani, Director
Center for Asia Pacific Policy; 1776 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138; Phone: (310) 393-0411, ext. 7275
RAND Europe: Hans Pung, Director
RAND Europe; Westbrook Centre
Milton Road
Cambridge
CB4 1YG
United Kingdom; Phone: +44 (1223) 353 329

Explore Our Work by Region

Asia

RAND Centers

The RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy
The RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy improves policy by providing decisionmakers and the public with rigorous, objective, cutting-edge research on critical policy challenges facing Asia and U.S.-Asia relations.

Recent Work

Commentary
Vietnam's Show of Welcome for Xi Reflects Growing Self-Confidence
Chinese leader Xi Jinping's recent visit to Vietnam aimed to reinvigorate bilateral ties, but produced mixed outcomes. Hanoi and Beijing signed a number of substantive bilateral deals, but Vietnam is also strengthening partnerships with other strategically significant nations, complicating any future Chinese aggression.
Commentary
PALM10: Japan's Chance to Engage with Pacific Island Countries
Next year, Japan will host the 10th triennial Pacific Island Leaders Meeting (PALM10), the “cornerstone” of Japan's diplomacy toward the Pacific Island countries. As China attempts to increase its influence in the region, Japan must marshal a strategic response that connects these states to its broader objectives in the Indo-Pacific.
Report
The People's Liberation Army's Approach to Maintenance Management
Understanding the PLA's approach to maintenance management is essential for assessing its ability to sustain a modernized force. At the moment, the PLA is a maintenance force in transition.
Commentary
Looking Back on the Big Policy Stories of 2023
As 2023 draws to a close, RAND president and CEO Jason Matheny highlights areas where RAND is tackling the most urgent and complex problems we face. Each is a small reminder that where there are thoughtful people working tirelessly to find solutions, there is hope.
Event
China, Taiwan, and the United States: The Coming War?
In this Policy Lab, RAND experts explain how the United States figures into the defense of Taiwan and break down the possibility of a large-scale Chinese military attack on Taiwan.
Report
China's AI Exports: Developing a Tool to Track Chinese Development Finance in the Global South — Technical Documentation
This report is the technical documentation for a tool that tracks Chinese government-supported development finance projects that used or enabled artificial intelligence technology in the Global South between 2000 and 2017.

Europe and Russia

RAND Centers

Center for Russia and Eurasia
The RAND Center for Russia and Eurasia (CRE) brings together experts from across RAND to shed light on the foreign policies, domestic developments, and economic relationships of the countries that succeeded the Soviet Union.
RAND Europe Improves Policy and Decision Making in Europe and Around the World
RAND Europe is a not-for-profit research institute dedicated to helping improve policy and decision making through research and analysis. With offices in the UK and Belgium, its research portfolio complements RAND's and also includes choice modeling, evaluation, workplace wellbeing, and much more.

Recent Work

Commentary
Ukraine, Gaza, and the U.S. Army's Counterinsurgency Legacy
What insights from Russia's war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war might be meaningful to the U.S. Army and the rest of the joint force?
Commentary
Elements of an Eventual Russia-Ukraine Armistice and the Prospect for Regional Stability in Europe
There is no going back to normal relations with Russia after its wanton violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity. But it is still possible to conceive of managing the competition with Russia and working out regional arrangements that will reduce the possibility of future conflicts and contribute to regional and global stability.
Report
What Is the Invasion of Ukraine Costing Russia?
As of September 2022, Russia's military costs of its invasion of Ukraine reached $40 billion. GDP losses in 2022 were between $81 billion and $104 billion. Russia can sustain these costs for at least several years but over the long term its economy and standard of living are likely to decline.
Report
Insights from the Plan Blue 21 Game: Examining the Role of Sensing and Partner and Allied Contributions to Competition with Russia in the Arctic
Plan Blue wargames have explored scenarios that depict large-scale war fights against state adversaries in order to help U.S. Department of the Air Force (DAF) leaders better understand the demands of these potential war fights, evaluate the capabilities and limitations of programmed forces to meet those demands, and test new approaches to projecting power. The 2021 iteration of the game (Plan Blue 21) was set in the Arctic.
Commentary
Looking Back on the Big Policy Stories of 2023
As 2023 draws to a close, RAND president and CEO Jason Matheny highlights areas where RAND is tackling the most urgent and complex problems we face. Each is a small reminder that where there are thoughtful people working tirelessly to find solutions, there is hope.
Commentary
Resilient Reconstruction in Ukraine
Kyiv may be prudent to invest in resilience as it rebuilds energy and other utilities, transport, economic and health infrastructure, and housing. Doing so could put Ukraine in a stronger position during the war and give it a jump start on peacetime rebuilding.

The Middle East

RAND Centers

The RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy
The RAND Center for Middle East Public Policy (CMEPP) brings together analytic excellence and regional expertise from across the RAND Corporation to address the most critical political, social, and economic challenges facing the Middle East today.

Recent Work

Commentary
The Trouble with a Cease-Fire
Given that Hamas promised to repeat the October 7 attack until Israel's annihilation, it is no wonder that Israelis nearly uniformly want, as one Israeli politician put it, to finish the job this time around. To Israelis, the international calls for a cease-fire ring hollow.
Commentary
Five Potential Next Steps for the Hostage Situation in Gaza
In hostage negotiations, rarely are there good options—just bad and less bad. The case of the remaining hostages held in Gaza offers no easy resolution. Yet history may point to an acceptable way out.
Commentary
Ukraine, Gaza, and the U.S. Army's Counterinsurgency Legacy
What insights from Russia's war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war might be meaningful to the U.S. Army and the rest of the joint force?
Commentary
Looking Back on the Big Policy Stories of 2023
As 2023 draws to a close, RAND president and CEO Jason Matheny highlights areas where RAND is tackling the most urgent and complex problems we face. Each is a small reminder that where there are thoughtful people working tirelessly to find solutions, there is hope.
Commentary
A Precarious Moment for Yemen's Truce
The truce in Yemen is imperfect, but it is the only barrier currently preventing the country from sliding back into widespread war. A comprehensive negotiation process is the most viable option for peace in Yemen in the near term, and the only barrier to the humanitarian devastation that a full-scale resumption of the war in Yemen would surely bring.
Commentary
Displaced in Gaza: The Least-Bad Option
There is currently no good option for protecting civilians amid the Israel-Hamas war. But the least-bad option is to keep civilians in southern Gaza—and provide protection and humanitarian assistance where they are.

Australia

RAND Centers

RAND Australia
With 75 years of worldwide research in defence, national security, health care, education, transport, employment, innovation, energy, and the environment behind it, RAND Australia is ideally positioned to help improve policy and decisionmaking in Australia.

Recent Work

Journal Article
A Comparative Look at Various Countries' Legal Regimes Governing Automated Vehicles
What is the nature of different AV legal regimes around the world? A summary of the makeup of AV legal regimes of Australia, China, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom highlights some key contrasts.
Report
An Assessment of U.S.-Allied Nations' Industrial Bases in Quantum Technology
RAND researchers assessed the quantum industrial bases of Australia, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom (UK) and made recommendations for strengthening international collaboration in quantum technology research and development (R&D) between the United States and its allied nations.
Commentary
AUKUS as Big Science?
AUKUS—the trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States—framed as a multinational quest for discovery rather than a security pact made sensible by deterrence logics, could be a political boon, both diplomatically and domestically.
Commentary
Why China Should Worry About Asia's Reaction to AUKUS
If most Indo-Pacific nations support AUKUS—or refuse to condemn it—then Beijing will have more geostrategic and military implications to worry about than AUKUS itself. As long as AUKUS continues to assuage nuclear-proliferation concerns, then the region will view it as a legitimate counter to Chinese military excesses.
Blog
Opioids in America, Silicon Valley Bank, Semiconductors: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on addressing America's illicit opioids problem, Silicon Valley Bank’s demise, Taiwan’s semiconductor dominance, and more.
Commentary
Is Australia's Defense Strategy Based on a Mistaken Assumption?
The concept of “impactful projection” has become a topic of heightened interest in the Australian strategic discourse, as pundits wait on further information from the Defense Strategic Review. But is the concept underpinned by a fundamentally mistaken assumption?

South America

RAND Centers

Latin American Social Policy Research
RAND conducts research throughout Latin America and the Latin American population in the United States in the areas of aging, social determinants and consequences of health, saving for retirement, social security coverage, labor market dynamics, and migration.

Recent Work

Report
Exploring How Teach for All's Networks Connect Local Educational Organizations
Using data from the annual alumni survey of Enseña Perú (EP), the Peru chapter of the global Teach for All network, researchers evaluated alumni professional interactions with each other and the extent to which these collaborations span organizations, sectors, and geographic regions in Peru.
Commentary
Is Ecuador in the Middle of a Self-Coup?
On May 17, the president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, dissolved the country's legislature in the midst of impeachment proceedings against him. Did Ecuador just have a self-coup? The answer matters greatly for the country's democratic trajectory and for the international community's response.
Report
China's Role in the Global Development of Critical Resources
China's extensive foreign investments in energy infrastructure and critical minerals have raised concerns. Case studies in coal power, electricity transmission, and seabed mining examine China's behaviors and suggest ways to build capacity among host nations to minimize the potential effects of an overreliance on China.
Journal Article
How We Talk About Migration: The Link Between Migration Narratives, Policy, and Power
International migration has more than tripled worldwide since 1960. This rapid social and demographic change in many countries around the world has triggered a new reckoning around what immigration means for societies, giving rise to a plethora of narratives or stories about how the movement of people across international boundaries reinforces-or undermines-national values, security, and prosperity.
Commentary
Opportunities for the Brazilian Navy to Employ Additional Unmanned Systems
The Brazilian Navy needs to have both the capabilities and capacity to meet a wide range of demands over vast and diverse geographic areas. What are some of the potential ways the Brazilian Navy could use unmanned systems to improve effectiveness and, potentially, reduce risks and costs?
Blog
Understanding Violent Extremism, 'Blockships,' VMT Fee: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on firsthand accounts of violent extremism, lessons from the recent blockage in the Suez Canal, and if a federal Vehicle Miles Travel fee could replace the gas tax.

North America

RAND Centers

The RAND Center for Global Risk and Security
The RAND Center for Global Risk and Security (CGRS) conducts objective research on future security trends—analyzing anything that impacts the security of individuals, communities, nations, and the world at large.
RAND Gulf States Policy Institute
The RAND Gulf States Policy Institute was created in 2005 as a collaboration between RAND and local universities to support hurricane recovery and long-term economic development in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Today, RAND Gulf States provides objective analysis to help answer the region's toughest questions related to a wide range of issues including coastal protection and restoration, health care, and workforce development.

Recent Work

Commentary
Ukraine, Gaza, and the U.S. Army's Counterinsurgency Legacy
What insights from Russia's war in Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war might be meaningful to the U.S. Army and the rest of the joint force?
Commentary
The U.S. Military Needs to Build Arctic Capabilities and Capacity
By making substantial investments in Arctic platforms, equipment, infrastructure, and training, U.S. military forces will be better able to shape the Arctic security environment, helping to deter potential threats and protect U.S. interests in a region that is tightly linked to overall U.S. interests.
Commentary
Learning from the OpenAI Staff Mutiny
As AI and other software-based technologies continue to rise in importance for the government and Department of Defense, its leaders should learn how top technical talent differs from other kinds of workers and how to ensure the military understands how to interact with the best and brightest technical workers America has to offer.
Journal Article
Creating a Path Forward to Reduce Racial Disparities in the Criminal Justice System in Allegheny County
Researchers analyze the extent of and reasons for racial disparities in the Allegheny County criminal justice system, examining the policies, practices, and outcomes at numerous decisionmaking points that may contribute to racial disparities.
Commentary
Looking Back on the Big Policy Stories of 2023
As 2023 draws to a close, RAND president and CEO Jason Matheny highlights areas where RAND is tackling the most urgent and complex problems we face. Each is a small reminder that where there are thoughtful people working tirelessly to find solutions, there is hope.
Commentary
Three Myths About Hiring People with Convictions
Employers are desperate to recruit hundreds of thousands of workers who seemingly have vanished from the workforce. People with criminal histories represent a large pool of labor that could fill the gap. So why aren't more managers hiring them?

Africa

The Middle East and North Africa
RAND experts Brian Michael Jenkins and Dalia Dassa Kaye discuss current events in the Middle East and North Africa. Their discussion with RAND Media Relations Director Jeffrey Hiday includes how changes in Egypt, Iran, and Syria are reverberating within the region, and beyond, via terrorist networks including al Qaeda.

Recent Work

Report
China's AI Exports: Technology Distribution and Data Safety
The authors analyze a new project finance dataset on China's development-funded artificial intelligence (AI) export projects — adding interview-based country case studies — to better understand China's AI exports and their impact on developing countries.
Commentary
ECOWAS: In Need of Help in Niger?
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu recently sought the Nigerian national legislature's backing for a possible military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to turn back a coup that toppled the government of Niger. An ECOWAS intervention would have a better chance of succeeding if other nations joined the effort.
Commentary
The Case for a Governance-First U.S. Security Policy in the Sahel
Both terrorism and coups are on the rise in the Sahel. To reverse this troubling trend, the United States could ramp up support aimed at improving security governance, professionalizing militaries, and strongly sanctioning all forms of military takeovers in the region. This would require a real shift from the current U.S. security approach in the region.
Blog
Violence in Sudan, Alcohol Use, North Korea: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on the violence in Sudan, preventing alcohol-related deaths, the North Korean nuclear threat, and more.
Report
Great-Power Competition Outside the Indo-Pacific and Europe
The United States, China, and Russia are competing for influence in secondary theaters like Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East. Where and why could competition turn into conflict, and what form might that conflict take?
Report
Quantifying the link between COVID-19, conflict risk, and the global economy
While there is a growing consensus that the COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected countries' economies and may exacerbate socio-political unrest, understanding the dynamics of this process remains challenging. RAND Europe research suggests that COVID-19 will significantly increase the risk of civil conflict in African countries. This effect may, in turn, have negative global economic repercussions via international trade losses.