S Rebecca Zimmerman

This report defines and describes will to fight and provides a model of unit will to fight that can be applied to ground combat units of any scale. The model provides a research-grounded template for case-by-case adviser assessment of partner or allied military forces and the intelligence analysis of adversary forces. This report also provides a theoretical basis for adding will to fight to military war gaming and simulation.

The U. S. Army invests significant resources in new soldiers. When a soldier does not complete a full contract term, the Army views this as a net loss. This report assesses whether organizational factors matter for producing attrition and generates hypotheses regarding the mechanisms by which organizational factors generate attrition.

There is much more to Army service than the outlines with which most Americans are familiar. A separate RAND Arroyo Center report details the service experiences of 81 junior enlisted soldiers; the objective of this report is to provide deeper insight into the junior enlisted experience in a way that is accessible to policymakers, Army leaders, recruiters, and potential recruits. This volume tells the stories of six soldiers in their own words.

This report analyzes the cultural characteristics and competitive strategies and tactics exhibited by the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and U. S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). Based on this analysis, the authors assess how each of the services and USSOCOM might adapt and respond if facing major policy shifts in the future, focusing specifically on contingencies in the Asia-Pacific.

In this report, RAND researchers explore the factors, contexts, and mechanisms that shape a national government's decision to continue or end military and other operations during a conflict (i.e., national will to fight). To help U. S. leaders better understand and influence will to fight, the researchers propose an exploratory model of 15 variables that can be tailored and applied to a wide set of conflict scenarios.

The U. S. Army Recruiting Command asked RAND Arroyo Center to undertake research to improve its understanding of soldiers' motivations to join the Army, and how the reality of Army life matches up with expectations. This study's portrayal of the U. S. Army private could serve as an educational tool for a variety of important audiences, such as Army senior leadership, junior officers, noncommissioned officers, and prospective new recruits.

This report addresses the challenge of creating a U. S. Department of Defense wide (DoD-wide) system for security cooperation assessment, monitoring, and evaluation (AME) by (1) analyzing existing planning and AME principles, processes, and practices inside and outside DoD and (2) presenting a conceptual framework that explains how AME methods might be applied, integrated, and implemented by major security cooperation organizations."

To help ensure that limited security cooperation resources are properly directed for greatest effect, this report evaluates the U. S. Department of Defense s effectiveness in developing SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and results-oriented, and time-bound) security cooperation objectives that facilitate assessment, monitoring, and evaluation."

Building the capacity of Afghan special operations forces (SOF) is a key goal of the United States and its coalition partners. This report summarizes key partnering practices and presents findings from SOF partnership case studies in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Colombia. The goal is to identify best practices to benefit the development of Afghan SOF, as well as for special operations partnerships beyond Afghanistan.