March 2014

commentary

The Foreign Policy Essay: The Limits of Small Footprints

The history of “small-footprint approaches” should be sobering. It suggests that such approaches are good at preventing allied governments from losing against rebels, but are not very good at actually winning wars.

Stephen Watts

commentary

Instead of Promoting STEM Education Indiscriminately, Try This

With all the evidence demonstrating the importance of STEM education for success in the 21st century, well-intentioned policymakers may be tempted to indiscriminately promote all STEM curricula, across all levels of education. But unpacking what STEM really means reveals the need for a more nuanced approach.

Rafiq Dossani

commentary

Nonprofits and Bridging the Civil-Military Divide

Troops, veterans, and military families can go to the National Resource Directory to find help if they need it, and citizens can turn there to find organizations serving those communities where they can donate their time or money. Each of us can play a role in bridging the civil-military divide, but only if we take action.

Kayla M. Williams @KWilliams101

commentary

Assessing and Addressing Women's Health and Health Care

Women make up a majority of the U.S. population. Yet research policies and practices often treat women's health and health care as special topics or minority issues. The resulting knowledge gaps hamstring efforts to improve women's health care and outcomes even for cardiovascular disease, the leading cause of death among women.

Chloe E. Bird @ChloeBirdPhD

blog

RAND Health Reform Opinion Study: Attitudes Shift as the ACA's Open Enrollment Draws to a Close

A brighter spotlight on the Affordable Care Act due to its impending open enrollment deadline on March 31 may be further polarizing an already divided populace.

Katherine Grace Carman

commentary

No Easy Answers for Ukraine

What Russia seeks from its adventure is status, importance and free reign in its neighborhood, for a start. If sanctions and other responses are short-lived, Moscow will feel victorious, and possibly emboldened to future aggression.

Olga Oliker

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Restaurant Standards Could Curb Fat America

Given the high prevalence of obesity and chronic diseases and their enormous societal burden, every restaurant, including fast food outlets, should offer healthier meal options and discourage over-consumption.

Deborah A. Cohen

blog

Many Americans Are Confused About the Affordable Care Act

In a nationally representative sample of more than 6,000 Americans, researchers found an acute lack of understanding among low-income people regarding finances in general, and health reform and health insurance in particular.

commentary

A New Model for Open Innovation: The Structural Genomics Consortium

Open innovation is often suggested as a solution to enhance productivity in under-performing areas of research. Now, the strengths and weaknesses of a new open innovation model in drug discovery have been evaluated.

Sophie Castle-Clarke

blog

Spotlight on America's Hidden Heroes: Military Caregivers

Despite military caregivers' vital contributions, little is known about their numbers, the burden of caregiving that they shoulder, or the resources that exist to support them. To shed light on these

Rajeev Ramchand @RRamchand, Terri Tanielian

commentary

Obesity Epidemic: Standardized Portion Sizes in Restaurants Could Help Solve Public Health Crisis

Ideally, restaurant food should be tailored and sold the way clothing is, so people can get the exact amount that is appropriate for their bodies. Such sizing options should be required in all dining establishments to give people the option of consuming meals that fit.

Deborah A. Cohen

commentary

The Internet's Role in Radicalisation

Even as people enjoy the advantages of social networks, online shopping and access to information, concerns are growing about the negative effects of the Internet, such as its potential role in radicalising terrorists.

Ines von Behr

commentary

The Foreign Policy Essay: Evangelicals, Israel, and U.S. Foreign Policy

The religiously grounded pro-Israel viewpoint distorts American policy towards Israel with an unhelpful inflexibility and exaggerates the political importance of the country (indeed, the whole region) to the United States, says Paul Miller.

Paul D. Miller

commentary

The Flight 370 Mystery Gets Political

Why might unnamed sources try to link Anwar to a potential hijacking of an aircraft carrying 239 passengers? Possibly to divert attention from the government's ineffective management of the search in the days since the plane's disappearance.

Jonah Blank

blog

RAND Health Reform Opinion Study: Steep Decline in Favorable Opinion

With the end of the ACA's open enrollment period looming on March 31, it is perhaps unsurprising that opinions are again changing in a significant way. The final push to encourage or discourage enrollment may be renewing public attention to the ACA.

Katherine Grace Carman