Caitlin McCulloch

Information warfare (IW) and analogous terms of art are not new to the U. S. military's vocabulary or that of the U. S. Air Force (USAF). Yet even with the decades-old recognition by USAF leadership that IW is fundamental to all aspects of air operations, the USAF's approach to conducting IW remains relatively nascent. In this report, RAND researchers provide actionable recommendations for how the USAF should organize, train, and equip for IW.

From 2001 to 2021, despite deteriorating conditions and no apparent hope of military victory, the United States pursued an unchanging policy objective in Afghanistan: to prevent a terrorist group from using the country as a haven in which to plan or launch an attack on the United States. The authors examined the reasons behind this policy inertia through interviews with the senior leaders involved in policy deliberations between 2001 and 2016.

Strengthening U. S. security relationships is a core element of the Biden administration's foreign policy. But some analysts have argued that these relationships cause the United States to adopt its partners' interests, incentivize allies and partners to engage in reckless behavior, and risk dragging the United States into conflict. Others dismiss these concerns. In this report, RAND researchers assess the evidence for these competing claims.