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commentary
Money, Markets, and Machine Learning: Unpacking the Risks of Adversarial AI
The consequences of ignoring the problem of adversarial attacks in algorithmic trading are potentially catastrophic. In a world increasingly reliant on machine learning models, the financial sector needs to shift from being reactive to proactive to ensure the security and integrity of our financial system.
Joshua Steier, Sai Prathyush Katragadda
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essay
A Four-Day School Week? Here Are the Costs and Benefits
Hundreds of small school districts across America have cut one day a week from their calendars. A shorter school week helps them compete for teachers and reduce costs. Teachers and parents love it. But is it really in the best interests of students?
Aug 31, 2023
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commentary
A Potential Alternative for Regulating Internet-Based Platform Services
The use of internet-based platform services like Amazon, DoorDash, and Uber Eats is increasing and can be helpful. But the companies that offer these services may be engaging in predatory practices that can harm users and local businesses. Some form of centralized policy action may help; local governments could play a more-active role.
Aug 29, 2023
The RAND Blog
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commentary
A Trilateral Summit to Deal with Trilateral Threats
The leaders of Japan, South Korea, and the United States held a trilateral summit in August, focused on countering military threats in East Asia. Not surprisingly, China and North Korea were upset by the summit, designed as it was to respond to their military build-ups.
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commentary
China Ponders Russia's Logistical Challenges in the Ukraine War
Any attempt by China to use military force to seize Taiwan would be an immense logistical undertaking requiring moving large quantities of troops and materiel across the Taiwan Strait. What then, are Chinese observers learning from the logistical realm of the war in Ukraine?
Lyle Goldstein, Nathan Waechter
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Arms Proliferation and Control
commentary
Hard Times for U.S.-Russian Nuclear Arms Control
New START is slated to expire in February 2026 and cannot be extended. The next chapter in U.S.-Russia nuclear arms control, if there is to be one, may not be written until rulers in Moscow ease repression at home, pull troops out of Ukraine, and recognize the mutual benefits of reducing, rather than stoking, nuclear tensions.
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commentary
Pandemics Don't Really End—They Echo
Pandemics have always frayed the social fabric, disrupted economies, deepened social divides, and intensified prejudices, leaving behind psychological scars—all of which have lasting political repercussions. The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt long after the last rapid test comes back positive.
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commentary
Five Charts That Tell Us About the State of Public Education Right Now
To monitor trends in public education, RAND fields over a dozen surveys annually to teachers, principals, and superintendents. Five charts tell us the most about the state of public education right now: staff turnover; teacher well-being; guns in schools; quality of academic instruction; and politics in schools.
Aug 28, 2023
The RAND Blog
Melissa Kay Diliberti, Elizabeth D. Steiner @ED_Steiner, et al.
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commentary
ECOWAS: In Need of Help in Niger?
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu recently sought the Nigerian national legislature's backing for a possible military intervention by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to turn back a coup that toppled the government of Niger. An ECOWAS intervention would have a better chance of succeeding if other nations joined the effort.
Aug 25, 2023
Premium Times
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blog
The War in Ukraine, Income Share Agreements, the Tech 'Cold War': RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on why Ukraine isn’t like World War I, an alternative to student loans, the tech “Cold War" between the United States and China, and more.
Aug 25, 2023
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commentary
These Technologies Could Defeat China's Missile Barrage and Defend Taiwan: Analysis
Earlier this year, a group of experts from RAND and the Special Competitive Studies Project launched a new wargame effort around China's invasion of Taiwan. But unlike most D.C.-based wargames, this effort heavily involved members of the commercial technology sector, to understand what near-term capabilities might be brought to bear on a Taiwan scenario.
Aug 24, 2023
Breaking Defense
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commentary
Normalizing Assad Won't Solve the Syrian Refugee Crisis
As much as Syrian refugees would like to return home eventually and as much as neighboring countries would welcome an end to the challenges of hosting large refugee communities, now is not the right time for mass Syrian refugee repatriation. Regional governments could instead focus on supporting refugees where they are, especially by allowing them to be legal, productive members of local economies.
Nadia Almasalkhi, Shelly Culbertson @SC_Culbertson
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commentary
Is Believing Our Kids Are Safer Worth Closing Off Some of Their Futures?
Placing an officer in a school appears to reduce violence and petty crimes within a school, but also creates long-term negative consequences for students who are increasingly likely to become involved in the school disciplinary system. Even as we believe that, by putting more police officers in schools, we are keeping our kids safer, we are also closing off future success to some of them. And that has a cost for us all.
Aug 22, 2023
Houston Chronicle
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commentary
India Is Pushing Back Against China in South Asia
The jostling between India and China for influence in South Asia will likely prove crucial to the fate of U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy. The good news, at least for now, is that New Delhi has been mostly successful in pushing back against Beijing's rising influence across the region.
Aug 21, 2023
Foreign Policy
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commentary
Much of the Damage in Maui Will Be Invisible, but Very Real
In addition to decimating buildings and other infrastructure, disasters also destroy human capital, the collective knowledge and skills that drive individual economic earnings, as well as regional economic growth. Failing to address these more-hidden damages is incredibly costly.
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blog
Maui Wildfires, Regulating AI, Ukraine's Civilian Resistance: RAND Weekly Recap
This weekly recap focuses on the invisible damage of Maui’s wildfires, making the artificial intelligence supply chain safer, how Ukrainian civilians resist Russia, and more.
Aug 18, 2023