Michael G. Mattock

In consideration of the many challenges associated with Qatar's continued growth and demographic changes, the government of Qatar is interested in updating its school transportation system (STS). This volume assesses parents' and school administrators' perspectives on Qatar's STS, identifies a vision and goals for the STS, and discusses strategies to achieve the vision and better align Qatar's STS with international norms.

Military compensation is a pillar of the all-volunteer force. Its importance is such that it is reviewed every four years to determine whether it is adequate to meet the U. S. military's objectives. To inform the 10th Quadrennial Review of Military Compensation, this monograph presents the results of estimation and simulations of a model designed to assess the U. S. military's current retirement-benefit system and several policy alternatives.

The U. S. Air Force (USAF) needs accurate models to develop retention policies that ensure the force has a sufficient number of experienced officers to meet requirements. Unlike the annualized cost of leaving (ACOL) model, the dynamic retention model (DRM) can be used to take into account the retention effect of the availability of multi-year contracts such as the Aviator Continuation Pay (ACP) program to certain classes of USAF officers.

The Qatar Supreme Council for Family Affairs is developing a social indicators database system that will provide essential information for assessing the well-being of families in Qatar. This report, which presents the final results of an analysis by the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute, addresses questions related to the implementation, use, and maintenance of the database, as well as its potential short- and long-term benefits.

This report focuses on the factors affecting the supply of information technology (IT) personnel to the active duty enlisted force, and the findings point to the conclusion that the IT training opportunities offered by the military can help secure the supply of IT personnel over the long haul. During the 1990s, the private-sector demand for information technology (IT) workers, escalating private-sector pay in IT, growing military dependence on IT, and faltering military recruiting led to a concern that the military cap ability was vulnerable to a large shortfall in IT personnel. This report addresses that concern by use of a literature review, field interviews, data analysis, and a dynamic model that, taken together, offer some policy implications for military planners in terms of how to recruit and retain qualified IT personnel.

Extends the military services1 usual definition of quality--high school diploma graduate and scoring in the upper half on the Armed Forces Qualification Test (AFQT)--to include performance as indicated by speed of promotion during the first term. Future assessment of personnel quality and of policies that affect quality should employ measures of quality that reflect both entry-level measures and performance in service.

The dynamics of growth in worldwide satellite communications capacity over the past two decades is closely related to general economic growth. The Department of Defense does not own all the satellite communications capacity it needs worldwide and must purchase capacity from commercial vendors. Understanding what contributes to growth in satellite communications capacity and predicting that growth would be useful to planners in their decisions to lease or buy capacity. The author shows that the market can adjust swiftly to a surge in demand, and thus there may be little need to buy satellite capacity in advance simply to ensure that capacity will be there if needed.

A "rule of thumb" is set forth that communications planners can use in making efficient satellite leasing decisions while facing uncertain demand for satellite services. The Department of Defense needs far more satellite communications capacity than it owns and thus must lease satellite communications services. Communications planners can use the "rule of thumb" set forth in this study to aid in making efficient satellite leasing decisions in the face of uncertain demand for satellite services. It is a simple, graphical technique. Extensions to the basic model show how price uncertainty and the ability to salvage unused capacity change the appropriate amount of capacity to lease.