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Decisions about U.S. military officer appointments, promotions, and retirements weigh both favorable and unfavorable information. For its own decisionmaking, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) relies on the military departments to provide reliable and consistent information about military officers' performance and conduct. Additionally, DoD must include this information with its nominations for personnel actions that require Presidential approval or Senate confirmation. However, it is challenging to standardize the management of information that is complex, unique to each officer, and not always readily available. In this report, the authors describe DoD and Service policies and self-reported processes for tracking and reporting adverse and other potentially unfavorable information about the conduct of military officers. The authors document progress made since 2010, when RAND researchers first evaluated these processes. The authors also outline new or persisting differences in how policies are interpreted or applied; describe processes that differ by Service that might be problematic; and identify opportunities to correct misalignment among Senate, DoD, and Service expectations, policies, and processes.

The Russian Ministry of Defense uses military forecasting to inform its long-term planning. Since the 1960s, Russian military analysis has applied comprehensive assessments of a country's ability to wage war that go beyond weapons and formations. The Ministry of Defense uses this forecasting to answer (1) what is the likelihood and character of future war and (2) what is the correlation of military potential between Russia and its potential adversaries? In this report, the authors draw on an established framework to examine key indicators related to military forecasting to gain insight into the answers to these questions. The Russian military science and academic research that the authors of this report reviewed found that the correlation of military potential (state power)-a broad measure that includes political, economic, scientific-technical, and conventional armed forces indicators-is and will be weighted in favor of the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the West and the United States and Japan in the Asia-Pacific region through 2040. The factors that could improve Russia's competitive position are the inclusion of China in the correlation of military potential and the possible reduced ability of the United States to manage the international system in ways that favor its interests. Russia's current military assessments and forecasts have not found indications of intentions of the United States or China to launch a large-scale war against Russia. The conditions under which Russia might take preemptive military action that risks war with an opponent with superior military potential remain an open question.

The French Army has been developing and fielding networked warfare technology since the 1990s and now boasts both considerable experience using the technology in the field and a successful modernization program. As part of an effort to glean lessons learned from the French network-centric warfare (NCW) program for the U.S. Army, RAND researchers combed through a variety of primary and secondary French sources and interviewed several dozen French Army officers, think tank analysts, and government experts. The concept of NCW argues that, because of networks that share information, the power and lethality of a deployed force can be greater than the sum of its parts; information, moreover, would enable modern forces to forgo armor and mass. Interviews with French Army officers suggest that NCW is a French solution to a French problem stemming from French budgetary constraints-specifically, the need to build one middle-weight force that is deployable to Africa but that is still robust enough for higher-end threats. By contrast, the U.S. Army's modernization challenge starts with a different strategic premise-deterring China and Russia, as well as different assumptions about available logistical capabilities. The two militaries' requirements therefore do not necessarily overlap sufficiently for a solution appropriate for one to be appropriate for the other.

This report examines the characteristics of highly competitive societies, explores the relationship of a nation's social condition to its global standing, and then applies these lessons to the United States today.

Racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism (REMVE) and extremists (REMVEs) present some of the most pressing threats to the United States. REMVE also has been identified as the White identity terrorist movement (WITM). REMVEs are among the most lethal domestic violent extremists, and they are the most likely to commit mass-casualty attacks. These movements are characterized by a broad ideological orientation toward xenophobic, anti-Semitic, racist, and misogynistic sentiment. For this report, the authors reviewed the relevant literature on REMVE networks and collected and analyzed social media data from six social networks (Twitter, Reddit, Gab, Ruqqus, Telegram, and Stormfront) to produce a global network map of the digital REMVE space. That network map evaluates each network's construction, connectivity, geographic location, references to prominent organizations, and proclivity to violence. The authors also reviewed ten countries' experiences with REMVE to sketch out an understanding of the REMVE space in these countries and how REMVEs in those countries relate to those in the United States.

The authors assess how the U.S. business community viewed Trump administration policies designed to counter Chinäs anticompetitive economic behaviors and how to improve support from the business community in U.S. competition with China.

The authors review the chronology of Russian air operations in Syria, and assess the strategic and operational blueprint, basing strategy and force disposition, effectiveness of the Russian air campaign, and its applicability to future campaigns.

This report presents the results of a survey of software engineers and other technical staff to learn their views toward the defense community and their willingness to contribute to artificial intelligence projects for the U.S. Department of Defense.

In this broad review of commercial space capabilities that could support the U.S. Space Force's future space architecture and innovation ecosystem, the authors characterize capabilities and trends through mid-2020 in seven commercial space sectors.

In this study, RAND researchers examined the current role of security cooperation efforts as a tool in the emerging strategic competition among the United States, Russia, and China.

The authors examine the nature of the emerging era of international competition, assess the perspectives of the major powers?beginning with the primary challengers to the U.S.-led international order?and evaluate various characteristics for each country.

This report presents a flexible and repeatable set of metrics for assessing a nation's industrial base in quantum technology, and applies those metrics to the U.S. and Chinese quantum industrial bases.

Foreign attacks against the United States occur frequently. The authors propose game-changing ideas to enable intelligence analysts to address long-standing challenges related to the use of open sources, analytic tradecraft, and politicization

Older recruits, as a group, score higher on Army qualification tests and are more likely to reenlist and to be promoted. RAND researchers examined the potential for recruiting individuals older than 21 and derived actionable recommendations.

This report presents the findings of a review of two military standards that have enabled significant interoperability and evolution in warfighting to better understand paths toward successful interface standard design in the military environment.

RAND researchers surveyed military behavioral health technicians (BHTs) and licensed mental health providers about BHTs? contributions, training and supervision, and job satisfaction, as well as barriers to integrating them into clinical practice.

The U.S. Army is introducing a new fitness test for the first time in more than 40 years. In this report, the authors conduct a review of the Army Combat Fitness Test and provide recommendations to support the Army's implementation decisions.

The federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program can help develop community resilience through mitigation activities that emphasize equity goals alongside reduction of risk to physical assets, as described in this report.

A children's story about a young goat who learns to swim and, against overwhelming odds, saves her mother from certain death. Other characters in the story include a grouper, a pig and a shark. These characters feature in other stories in the series.

Gertie's Big Mouth is the third in a series of children's books, with a Bahamian theme. Gertie is a grouper with a wonderful imagination and she uses it to get herself in trouble with her family and friends on the reef. She eventually learns a valuable lesson about telling the truth.