UFOs: What To Do?
Examines the phenomenon of unidentified foreign objects (UFOs).
Frequently Asked Questions About RAND
- Is RAND an acronym?
- When was RAND created? Some of your material says you started in 1946; some says 1948.
- What is a think tank?
- What is an FFRDC?
- Why aren't you located in Washington, D.C., with the other think tanks?
- Aren't you the RAND Corporation? Or should I call you RAND?
- How does RAND select projects?
- Isn't most of your research classified “Secret”?
- Does everyone at RAND have a security clearance?
- Do you have to be a U.S. citizen to work at RAND?
- Can anyone visit RAND?
- Does RAND take positions on campaign issues or candidates?
- How did RAND come by “1776” for its headquarters address on Main Street in Santa Monica?
- Did RAND try to halt placement of the “chain reaction” sculpture across the street from its headquarters building?
- I've heard a lot of rumors about RAND. Are any of them true?
Is RAND an acronym?
The RAND name originated as a contraction of research and development.
When was RAND created? Some of your material says you started in 1946; some says 1948.
RAND began in 1946 as a research project (Project RAND) backed by a single client, the U.S. Army Air Forces. The project was developed at the Douglas Aircraft Company in Santa Monica, California. In 1948, with Ford Foundation support, RAND became an independent, nonprofit research organization committed to exploring the most complex and consequential problems facing our society.
Learn more about RAND historyWhat is a think tank?
It is generally acknowledged that the term “think tank” was first applied to RAND in the 1960s. At the time, a think tank was a research institute that came up with new ideas that could inform public policy.
One important distinction to note is that while “think tanks” are commonly thought of as organizations with specific political or ideological agendas, RAND is strictly nonpartisan, and our focus is on facts and evidence.
Learn more about RAND quality standardsWhat is an FFRDC?
Federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) are entities that assist the U.S. government.
RAND operates one FFRDC sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center) and three sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense: the RAND Arroyo Center, RAND Project AIR FORCE, and the RAND National Defense Research Institute.
All RAND FFRDCs focus exclusively on producing studies and analysis that help their clients in a variety of ways. For example, RAND insights can help streamline the acquisition process for greater efficiency, identify ways to maintain operational readiness, highlight how to save the government money, assess future risks, and shape cost-effective security solutions.
Learn more about RAND's FFRDCsWhy aren't you located in Washington, D.C., with the other think tanks?
Our headquarters campus is in Santa Monica, California, because that's where RAND was founded. It suits us. There are advantages to being located not only outside the Beltway, but also as far away as the West Coast. It provides a healthy distance between us and our clients and policymakers.
That said, we also appreciate the value of having a presence near the capital. For many years, RAND had an office in Washington, D.C. As our organization grew, we moved to Arlington, Virginia.
We opened a second major East Coast office in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 2000, and a third in Boston, Massachusetts, in 2009. RAND has U.S.-based researchers living and working in almost 40 other states and the District of Columbia.
We're also a global organization. RAND Europe has offices in Cambridge, United Kingdom; Brussels, Belgium; and The Hague, The Netherlands. RAND Australia has its office in Canberra.
Learn more about RAND's locationsAren't you the RAND Corporation? Or should I call you RAND?
We were founded in 1948 as the “RAND Corporation.” However, in the 75+ years since our inception, the term “corporation” has become increasingly synonymous with private enterprise and profit-driven companies, not nonprofits like us. That's why we recently decided to refer to ourselves as simply “RAND”—to clearly reflect our nonprofit status and our mission to inform better policy in the public's interest.
Learn more about philanthropic support at RANDHow does RAND select projects?
Project selection is mainly driven by the division that conducts the research.
Some divisions that conduct research in social and economic policy (e.g., RAND Health Care, RAND Education and Labor, RAND Social and Economic Well-Being) compete with other organizations for funds from government agencies and private foundations.
Three of our federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs) are long-standing entities funded by the Department of Defense. They carry out short- and long-term research on national security questions. In 2016, the Department of Homeland Security selected RAND to operate a fourth FFRDC: the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center.
We also use philanthropic support and our endowment for projects that are either too new (e.g., HIV research in the 1980s) or too urgent (e.g., providing aid to the Gulf States region immediately after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita) to attract client support.
Isn't most of your research classified “Secret”?
No. Roughly 95 percent of our research is unclassified and available for free on rand.org. To recoup the cost of printing, we do sell hard copies of our books.
For the past three decades, we've opened our archives to academics who want to study RAND's history. This includes access to declassified documents and internal memoranda.
Learn more about gaining access to our archives and the scholars who have written about RANDDoes everyone at RAND have a security clearance?
No. Many RAND staff do not have a security clearance and never venture into the classified areas.
Do you have to be a U.S. citizen to work at RAND?
No. At present, RAND staff hail from over 50 countries, and, in our offices outside of the United States, the majority of our researchers and staff are not American. Additionally, a quarter of RAND School of Public Policy students come from outside the United States.
Can anyone visit RAND?
See our calendar for upcoming events. We also periodically offer tours of our Santa Monica headquarters campus, which received the U.S. Green Building Council's Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification in April 2006 and the Urban Land Institute Award for Excellence in May 2007.
Does RAND take positions on campaign issues or candidates?
RAND is a nonpartisan research institution and, as such, does not espouse or exert pressure toward particular legislative or partisan outcomes. Thus, RAND does not lend its name to referenda or other legislative initiatives. RAND also refrains from participating in or in any sense intervening in a political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to any candidate for public office. However, in keeping with our mission to help improve policy and decisionmaking, RAND is happy to present research findings and recommendations to candidates and elected or appointed decisionmakers.
Some states require contributors to provide their occupation and employer information when making a donation to a campaign. Those donations are from individuals who work at RAND, not from our organization.
How did RAND come by “1776” for its headquarters address on Main Street in Santa Monica?
For many years, RAND's headquarters campus was located at 1700 Main Street. In 2004, we moved down the block to a new building located on what had been a parking lot. The City of Santa Monica offered us a range of numbers from which to choose our new address. Because it made sense numerically based on our building's location at the end of the block on the west side of the street, we opted for 1776 Main Street. We like that our address symbolizes America's independence (even if our RAND Europe colleagues in Cambridge, UK, may not be as enthusiastic).
Did RAND try to halt placement of the “chain reaction” sculpture across the street from its headquarters building?
No. The sculpture, installed on the grounds of Santa Monica's Civic Center, predates our arrival and was already part of the landscape when we began construction of our current headquarters building.
I've heard a lot of rumors about RAND. Are any of them true?
RAND works in subjects of interest to a wide range of people, and the line between fact and fiction can blur (especially with regard to our historical research). Some of the most persistent rumors include the following:
RAND refused to release an important study on the existence of unidentified flying objects
Initially, we did refuse to release the UFO study, but not because it was classified or controversial. The paper was published in an internal series that was not releasable to the public because it had not been peer-reviewed. We eventually decided that the demand for the paper superseded our internal policy and posted it.
RAND advised President Nixon on the feasibility of canceling the 1972 presidential election
Henry S. Rowen, then RAND's president, released this statement carried by The Wall Street Journal on May 13, 1970: “The Rand Corporation has not undertaken such a study. It does not contemplate making such a study, nor has it been approached by anyone with a proposal for such a study.”
RAND developed the “Planetran,” a high-speed floating train that can travel from Los Angeles to New York City in two hours
RAND explored the idea, though it was initially discussed at Lockheed.
RAND predicted in the 1960s what a home computer would look like in 2004
An email hoax shows a man standing next to a wall of gadgets with a steering wheel, which purportedly represents our prediction of a home computer. The photo was created for a Photoshop competition organized by Fark.com. You can find out more about the rumor on any of the hoax-busting websites (e.g., snopes.com, truthorfiction.com). RAND, however, did invent one of the first mainframe computers.
Read more about our early computing workRAND planned to use LSD to stop antiwar protestors
In the early 1960s, RAND studied the short- and long-term effect of LSD on personality change. Volunteers from RAND's research and support staff participated in the experiments in a controlled environment at UCLA.
RAND invented windsurfing
Windsurfing was first described in a RAND document written and illustrated by aeronautical engineer James Drake. He was the first to hold the patent and is heralded by many within the windsurfing world as “the father of windsurfing.”
RAND's first building on Main Street in Santa Monica was designed by a RAND mathematician
The RAND headquarters building at 1700 Main Street in Santa Monica, California, was designed by John Williams, head of the Mathematics Division. He raised the idea of creating a building that would increase the probability of chance personal meetings. Such meetings, he argued, would promote the interdisciplinary aspect of RAND—the use of mixed teams of analysts in addressing a problem.
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A RAND researcher designed the bridge of the Starship Enterprise on the original Star Trek television series
A RAND researcher, Harvey Lynn, was consulted, but as a private citizen, not as part of a RAND project.
RAND was involved with the Pentagon Papers
In 1967, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara hired a team of 36 analysts to explore why the United States had not succeeded in Indochina, whether this failure could have been prevented, and what lessons could be learned to prevent similar experiences in the future. Half a dozen people from RAND were asked to be part of that study team, including Daniel Ellsberg. The team looked at papers from the Department of Defense, the State Department, the CIA, and the White House. RAND received two copies of the final classified study, United States – Vietnam Relations, 1945–1967: A Study Prepared by the Department of Defense. One of the copies stored at RAND was copied by Ellsberg and eventually leaked to the New York Times in 1971. Ellsberg had left RAND in 1970.
To learn more, read RAND in Southeast Asia: A History of the Vietnam War Era by Mai Elliott. Chapter 9 includes a detailed account of RAND's role with the Pentagon Papers.
Read more of RAND's research on VietnamRAND has said very negative things about the Chinese people
Several online posts containing false information about RAND research have appeared on various websites and blogs produced in China. With such titles such as “China will become the poorest country in the world in 2020” and “RAND Corporation's evaluation of Chinese people,” these posts contain extremely negative comments about the Chinese people, and attribute those sentiments to RAND. RAND has never published the comments or reports cited in those posts, and the posts do not represent the views of RAND staff. Some of the posts appear to misquote testimony by a RAND associate given in 2005. That testimony is available in full, in both English and Chinese, at: rand.org/pubs/testimonies/CT244. A full range of RAND reports related to China may be found at rand.org/topics/china.
We've also built a site in Chinese so that we can present RAND to the Chinese-speaking world in our own words. See rand.org/zh-hans. Further queries regarding RAND and China may be directed to correspondence@rand.org.
Chinese version