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The RAND Corporation is a nonpartisan, independent nonprofit public policy research institution founded to support U.S. national security planning in the immediate post-World War II period, and now conducts analysis across hundreds of domestic and global policy areas ranging from defense to public health, climate action, and governance.
Key moments
1946Project RAND launched under U.S. Air Force contract, building on operations research practices developed during WWII to support long-term military strategic planning
1948Formally incorporated as the independent RAND Corporation, separating from direct U.S. Air Force administrative oversight to broaden its institutional mandate
1960sSignificantly expanded its research scope beyond national security to cover civilian social policy domains including education, health care, poverty reduction, and urban planning
1990sEstablished a network of international affiliate offices to address post-Cold War transnational policy challenges ranging from nuclear nonproliferation to economic development
2020sGrew its core research portfolio to prioritize emerging areas including artificial intelligence governance, pandemic response policy, and climate adaptation planning
Pioneer of Public Sector Systems Analysis
RAND is widely credited with formalizing and popularizing the use of systems analysis, probabilistic modeling, and operations research methodologies for civilian and military public policy decision making, replacing many previously unstructured, anecdote-driven planning processes in U.S. federal government agencies. Many foundational early texts in modern policy analysis were produced by RAND researchers, shaping standard curricula for public policy graduate programs across the globe.
Ongoing Debates Over Institutional Independence
While RAND frames itself as fully nonpartisan and ideologically neutral, it has faced consistent scrutiny from critics across the political spectrum who note that a large share of its operating budget comes from U.S. government defense and domestic agency contracts. These critics argue that this funding structure creates implicit incentives for research outputs to align with the priorities of major institutional funders, rather than fully independent inquiry.
Unusually High Public Cultural Visibility
Unlike most peer think tanks, RAND has a prominent public footprint in popular culture, referenced frequently in Cold War spy fiction, political thrillers, and mainstream discourse about technocratic policy making. This public profile has cemented its reputation as a leading source of high-level strategic thinking, even among audiences who do not regularly engage with academic or policy research.
Policy analysis
Research and development
headquarters
Santa Monica, California, U.S.
coordinates
34.0096°N, -118.49067°W
region served
Worldwide
leader title
President and CEO
leader name
Jason Gaverick Matheny‡R2R‡
leader title2
RAND Leadership
leader name2
Jennifer Gould
Andrew R. Hoehn
Mike Januzik
Eric Peltz
Melissa Rowe
Robert M. Case‡R2R‡
leader title3
President, RAND Europe
leader name3
Hans Pung‡R2R‡
board of directors
* Michael E. Leiter (Chair)
* Teresa Wynn Roseborough (Vice Chair)
* Joel Z. Hyatt
* Peter Lowy
* Michael Lynton
* Mary E. Peters
* David L. Porges
* Donald B. Rice (Emeritus)
* Leonard D. Schaeffer‡R3R‡
subsidiaries
RAND Europe Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School
affiliations
Independent
revenue
$556 million (2025)‡R4R‡
disbursements
Numerous
expenses
$544 million (2025)‡R4R‡
endowment
$355 million (2025)‡R4R‡
num staff
2,000 (2024)‡R5R‡
The RAND Corporation, doing business as RAND,[6] is an American nonprofit global policy think tank,[1]research institute, and public sector consulting firm.RAND engages in research and development (R&D) in several fields and industries.Since the 1950s, RAND research has helped inform United States policy decisions on a wide variety of issues, including the Cold Warspace race, the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, the U.S.–Sovietnuclear arms confrontation, the creation of the Great Societysocial welfare programs, and national health care.
RAND originated as "Project RAND" (from the phrase "research and development") in the post-war period immediately after World War II.[7][8] The U.S. Army Air Forces established Project RAND with the objective of investigating long-range planning of future weapons.[9] The Douglas 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 receives both public and private funding. Its funding sources include the U.S. government, private endowments,[11] corporations, universities, charitable foundations, U.S. state and local governments, international organizations, and to a small extent, foreign governments.[12] In the 2024 fiscal year, the think tank's revenues and other support were $514 million,[13] of which $328 million was provided by the U.S. federal government.[14]
Overview
RAND has approximately 1,850 employees. Its American locations include: Santa Monica, California (headquarters); Arlington, Virginia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Boston, Massachusetts.[15] The RAND Gulf States Policy Institute has an office in New Orleans, Louisiana.RAND Europe is located in Cambridge, United Kingdom; Brussels, Belgium; and The Hague, Netherlands.[16] RAND Australia is located in Canberra, Australia.[17]
RAND is home to the RAND School of Public Policy, one of eight original graduate schools in public policy and the first to offer a PhD. Its selective doctoral program provides an analytically rigorous and applied curriculum through coursework and collaboration with RAND researchers to address real-world policy challenges. 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.[18]
History
Project RAND
RAND was created after individuals in the War Department, the Office of Scientific Research and Development, and industry began to discuss the need for a private organization to connect operational research with research and development decisions.[19] The immediate impetus for the creation of RAND was a conversation in September 1945 between General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold and Douglas executive Franklin R. Collbohm.[23] Both men were deeply worried that ongoing demobilization meant the federal government was about to lose direct control of the vast amount of American scientific brainpower assembled to fight World War II.[23]
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."[24]
Research
The research of RAND stems from its development of systems analysis.Important contributions are claimed in space systems and the United States' space program,[35] in computing and in artificial intelligence.RAND researchers developed many of the principles that were used to build the Internet.[36] RAND also contributed to the development and use of wargaming.[37][38]
Current areas of expertise include: child policy, law, civil and criminal justice, education, health (public health and health care), international policy/foreign policy, labor markets, national security, defense policy, infrastructure
Notable participants
Henry H. "Hap" Arnold: General of the Air Force, United States Air Force
Kenneth Arrow: economist, won the Nobel Prize in Economics, developed the impossibility theorem in social choice theory
Bruno Augenstein: V.P., physicist, mathematician and space scientist
Robert Aumann: mathematician, game theorist, won the Nobel Prize in Economics.
Paul Baran: one of the developers of packet switching which was used in ARPANET and later networks like the Internet
Richard Bellman: Mathematician known for his work on dynamic programming
Yoram Ben-Porat: economist and President of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
See also
A Million Random Digits with 100,000 Normal Deviates (published by RAND)
Truth Decay (also published by RAND)
Federally funded research and development centers
Further reading
Books
Alex Abella. Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire (2008, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt hardcover; ISBN 0-15-101081-1 / 2009, Mariner Books paperback reprint edition; ISBN 0-15-603344-5).
S.M. Amadae. Rationalizing Capitalist Democracy: The Cold War Origins of Rational Choice Liberalism (2003, University of Chicago Press paperback; ISBN 0-226-01654-4 / hardcover; ISBN 0-226-01653-6).
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)
Joe Flood. The Fires: How a Computer Formula Burned Down New York City—and Determined the Future of American Cities, 2010, Riverhead Books, ISBN 1-59448-898-3—summarized at: GoodReads.com, and reviewed at: GoodReads.com (by Rob Kitchin), and at Accounts,
All PhD students receive fellowships to cover their education costs. This allows them to dedicate their time in research projects and provides them with on-the-job training.[18] RAND also offers a number of internship and fellowship programs allowing students and others to assist in conducting research for RAND projects.[19]
RAND publishes the RAND Journal of Economics, a peer-reviewed journal of economic sciences.[20] Thirty-two recipients of the Nobel Prize, primarily in the fields of economics and physics, have been associated with RAND at some point in their career.[21][22]
With Arnold's blessing, Collbohm quickly pulled in additional people from Douglas to help, and together with
Donald Douglas
, they convened with Arnold two days later at
Hamilton Army Airfield
to sketch out a general outline for Collbohm's proposed project.
Douglas engineer Arthur 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.[25]
On 1 October 1945, Project RAND was set up under special contract to the Douglas Aircraft Company and began operations in December 1945.[19][26] In May 1946, the Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship was released.
RAND
By late 1947, Douglas Aircraft executives had expressed their concerns that their close relationship with RAND might create conflict 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 a nonprofit corporation, independent of Douglas.[19]
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.[19] Initial capital for the spin-off was provided by the Ford Foundation.
Since the 1950s, RAND research has helped inform United States policy decisions on a wide variety of issues, including the space race, the Vietnam War, the U.S.–Soviet nuclear arms confrontation, the creation of the Great Society social welfare programs, the digital revolution, and national health care.[27] 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 as South Bronx or Lower East Side.[28]
RAND contributed to the doctrine of nuclear deterrence by mutually assured destruction (MAD), developed under the guidance of then-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and based upon their work with game theory.[29] Chief strategist Herman Kahn also posited the idea of a "winnable" nuclear exchange in his 1960 book On Thermonuclear War.This led to Kahn's being one of the models for the titular character of the film Dr. Strangelove, in which RAND is spoofed as the "BLAND Corporation".[30][31]
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.[32]
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.[33][34]
During the Cold War, RAND researchers contributed to the development of nuclear strategy concepts such as deterrence theory and mutually assured destruction.[40] In recent years, RAND has analyzed military readiness, force modernization, and counterterrorism strategies.For example, one study examined the effectiveness of counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.[41]
Healthcare and public health
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.[42][43]
In 2018, RAND began its Gun Policy in America initiative,[44] which resulted in comprehensive reviews of the evidence of the effects of gun policies in the United States.The second expanded review in 2020[45] 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.[46] Both proponents and opponents of various gun control measures have cited the RAND initiative.[47][48][49]
Additionally, RAND has researched the opioid epidemic and alcoholism.[51]
Education
The RAND analysis of the Intensive Partnerships for Effective Teaching, a $575 million initiative from the Gates Foundation to increase teacher effectiveness, found that the interventions had no significant effect on student achievement.[52]
Emerging technologies and innovation
RAND has examined the implications of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity threats, and autonomous systems. It was accused of working too closely with Open Philanthropy in its work on AI, at the risk of losing its independence.[53][54][55] 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.[56] In December 2023, the House Science Committee sent a bipartisan letter to the National 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."[57][58]
Hubert Dreyfus: philosopher and critic of artificial intelligence
Karen Elliott House: Chairman of the Board, 2009–present, former publisher, The Wall Street Journal; Former Senior Vice President, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Daniel Ellsberg: economist and leaker of the Pentagon Papers
Alain Enthoven: economist, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense from 1961 to 1965, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Systems Analysis from 1965 to 1969
Stephen J. Flanagan, political scientist, National Security Council senior director
Francis Fukuyama: academic and author of The End of History and the Last Man
Horace Rowan Gaither: Chairman of the Board, 1949–1959, 1960–1961; known for the Gaither Report.
David Galula, French officer and scholar
James J. Gillogly: cryptographer and computer scientist
Paul Y. Hammond: political scientist and national security scholar, affiliated 1964–79, program director 1973–76[84]
Anthony C. Hearn: developed the REDUCE computer algebra system, the oldest such system still in active use;[85] co-founded the CSNET computer network
Fred Iklé: US nuclear policy researcher
Brian Michael Jenkins: terrorism expert, Senior Advisor to the President of RAND, and author of Unconquerable Nation
Herman Kahn: theorist on nuclear war and one of the founders of scenario planning and Hudson Institute
Amrom Harry Katz
Konrad Kellen: research analyst and author, co-wrote open letter to U.S. government in 1969 recommending withdrawal from Vietnam war[86]
Zalmay Khalilzad: U.S. ambassador to United Nations
Henry Kissinger: United States Secretary of State (1973–1977); National Security Advisor (1969–1975); Nobel Peace Prize Winner (1973)
Ann McLaughlin Korologos: Chairman of the Board, April 2004 – 2009; Chairman Emeritus, The Aspen Institute
Lewis "Scooter" Libby: United States Vice-president Dick Cheney's former Chief of Staff
Ray Mabus: Former ambassador, governor
Harry Markowitz: economist, greatly advanced financial portfolio theory by devising mean variance analysis, Nobel Prize in Economics
Andrew W. Marshall: military strategist, director of the U.S. DoD Office of Net Assessment
Jason Gaverick Matheny: selected as president and CEO of RAND in 2022[87]
Margaret Mead: U.S. anthropologist
Douglas Merrill: former Google CIO & President of EMI's digital music division
Newton N. Minow: Chairman of the board, 1970–1972
John Milnor: mathematician, known for his work in differential topology
Chuck Missler: Bible teacher, engineer, chairman and CEO of Western Digital
Lloyd Morrisett: Chairman of the board, 1986–1995
John Forbes Nash, Jr.: mathematician, won the Nobel Prize in Economics
John von Neumann: mathematician, pioneer of the modern digital computer
Allen Newell: artificial intelligence
Paul O'Neill: Chairman of the board, 1997–2000
Edmund Phelps: winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Economics
Sharon Ghamari-Tabrizi. The Worlds of Herman Kahn: The Intuitive Science of Thermonuclear War (2005, Harvard University Press; ISBN 978-0-674-01714-6)
Agatha C. Hughes and Thomas 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; ISBN 0-262-08285-3 / 2011, paperback reprint edition; ISBN 0-262-51604-7).
David Jardini. Thinking Through the Cold War: RAND, National Security and Domestic Policy, 1945–1975 (2013, Smashwords; Amazon Kindle; ISBN 978-1-301-15851-5).
Fred Kaplan. The Wizards of Armageddon (1983, Simon & Schuster hardcover, first printing; ISBN 0-671-42444-0 / 1991, Stanford University Press paperback, part of the Stanford Nuclear Age Series; ISBN 0-8047-1884-9).
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 0-674-74850-6).
Marc Trachtenberg. History and Strategy (1991, Princeton University Press paperback; ISBN 0-691-02343-3 / hardcover; ISBN 0-691-07881-5).
Jean Loup Samaan. La Rand Corporation (2013, Cestudec Press)
Articles
Clifford, Peggy, ed. "RAND and The City". Santa Monica Mirror, 27 October 1999 – 2 November 1999. Five-part series includes:
28.Joe Flood. The Fires: How a Computer Formula, Big Ideas, and the Best of Intentions Burned Down New York City--and Determined the Future of Cities 2011^
63."Data in the Fire Service," 2015, NFPA 2015 Responder Forum, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), retrieved November 24, 2022^
64.Flood, Joe: The Fires: How a Computer Formula Burned Down New York City—and Determined the Future of American Cities, 2011, Riverhead Books, -- summarized at: GoodReads.com, and reviewed at: GoodReads.com (by Rob Kitchin), and at Accounts, (newsletter of the Economics section of the American Sociological Association), Vol. XV, Issue 2, Spring 2016, page 32, retrieved November 24, 2022^
65.Saul Friedman (Houston Chronicle, Nieman Fellow): "The Rand Corporation and Our Policy Makers," September 1963, The Atlantic, retrieved November 25, 2022^
67.Rej, Abhijnan: Commentary: The Other Legacy of Robert McNamara," June 10, 2016, War on the Rocks, -- reviewed by Matthew Fay in "Rationalizing McNamara's Legacy," August 5, 2016, Niskanen Center; Fay rebutted by RAND representatives John Speed Meyers and Jonathan P. Wong, at "In Defense of Defense Analysis," September 2, 2016, The RAND Blog, RAND Corporation; retrieved November 24, 2022^
71.Heilbrunn, Jacob: "Real Men of Genius" (book review of Soldiers 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^
72."The Insider" (book review of Wild Man -- biography of Daniel Ellsberg -- by Tom Wells, 2001, Palgrave), July 22, 2001, Washington Post,; also reviewed by Michael Young at "The Devil and Daniel Ellsberg," June 2000, Reason, retrieved November 24, 2022^
73.Kazin, Michael, reviewer: "Inside Job" (book review of Secrets -- autobiography of Daniel Ellsberg, 2002, Viking), November 3, 2002, Washington Post, retrieved November 24, 2022^
74.Elliot, Mai (Foreword by James A. Thomson, RAND president): RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era, 2010, RAND Corporation / Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-8330-4754-0; reviewed by James M. Carter at August 2011, Journal of American Studies, Volume 45, Issue 3, pp. 631 - 633, reproduced at Cambridge University. Retrieved November 24, 2022^
76.Life Magazine, 25 February 1957, "Passing of a Great Mind", by Clay Bair JR. pages 89–104^
77.Alex Roland and Philip Shiman, Strategic Computing: DARPA and the Quest for Machine Intelligence, 1983–1993, The MIT Press, 2002, p. 302^
78.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^
91.Jennifer S. Light, From Warfare to Welfare: Defense Intellectuals and Urban Problems in Cold War America, The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003, p. 69-70^
U.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."
