The RAND Corporation (1989–2009): The Reconfiguration of Strategic Studies in the United States PDF
Preview The RAND Corporation (1989–2009): The Reconfiguration of Strategic Studies in the United States
The Sciences Po Series in International Relations and Political Economy Series Editor, Christian Lequesne This series consists of works emanating from the foremost French researchers from Sciences Po, Paris. Sciences Po was founded in 1872 and is today one of the most pres- tigious universities for teaching and research in social sciences in France, recognized worldwide. This series focuses on the transformations of the international arena, in a world where the state, though its sovereignty is questioned, reinvents itself. The series explores the effects on international relations and the world economy of regionaliza- tion, globalization (not only of trade and finance but also of culture), and transnational flows at large. This evolution in world affairs sustains a variety of networks from the ideological to the criminal or terrorist. Besides the geopolitical transformations of the globalized planet, the new political economy of the world has a decided impact on its destiny as well, and this series hopes to uncover what that is. 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Dowdle In the Name of the Nation: Nationalism and Politics in Contemporary Russia by Marlène Laruelle Organized Crime and States: The Hidden Face of Politics edited by Jean-Louis Briquet and Gilles Favarel-Garrigues Israel’s Asymmetric Wars by Samy Cohen, translated by Cynthia Schoch China and India in Central Asia: A New “Great Game”? edited by Marlène Laruelle, Jean-François Huchet, Sébastien Peyrouse, and Bayram Balci Making Peace: The Contribution of International Institutions edited by Guillaume Devin, translated by Roger Leverdier War Veterans in Postwar Situations: Chechnya, Serbia, Turkey, Peru, and Côte d’Ivoire edited by Nathalie Duclos The RAND Corporation (1989–2009): The Reconfiguration of Strategic Studies in the United States by Jean-Loup Samaan, translated by Renuka George The RAND Corporation (1989–2009) The Reconfi guration of Strategic Studies in the United States Jean-Loup Samaan Translated by Renuka George THE RAND CORPORATION (1989–2009) Copyright © Jean-Loup Samaan, 2012. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-34092-3 All rights reserved. First published in French in 2010 as La RAND Corporation (1989–2009). La reconfi guration des savoirs stratégiques aux États-Unis by Editions L’Harmattan, Paris, France. First published in English in 2012 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-34368-3 ISBN 978-1-137-05735-8 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137057358 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Samaan, Jean-Loup. [Rand corporation, 1989–2009. English] The RAND Corporation (1989–2009) : the reconfi guration of strategic studies in the United States / Jean-Loup Samaan ; translation by Renuka George. pages cm.—(The sciences po series in international relations and political economy) 1. Rand Corporation—Infl uence. 2. Rand Corporation—History. 3. Military research—United States—History. 4. Research institutes—United States— History. 5. United States—Military policy. 6. United States—Intellectual life—21st century. 7. United States—Foreign relations—1989– I. Title. AS36.R35S2613 2012 355(cid:2).03357309049—dc23 2011050321 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: June 2012 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 C O N T E N T S Acknowledgments vii Introduction 1 Part I New and Old Rules of the Military-Intellectual Field One The Inheritance of a Technicist Ideology 19 Two T he Competitive Dynamics of the Strategic Field 37 Part II RAND and the New US Military Posture Three RAND and the Post–Cold War Pentagon 61 Four The Work of Legitimizing Political Agendas 7 9 Part III The Emissaries of American Military Thought Five The Internationalization of RAND: A Tale of US Global Posture after the Cold War 117 Six R AND and the Global Diffusion of US Strategic Concepts 135 Conclusion: The Disenchantment of Strategists? 159 Notes 169 Index 191 A C K N O W L E D G M E N T S This book is the translation of my PhD thesis on the same topic defended at the Sorbonne University of Paris in January 2009. Therefore, first and foremost, my thanks go to my supervisor, Josepha Laroche, pro- fessor of political science at the Sorbonne University of Paris, for her invaluable support and advices all along the PhD years. My sincere appreciation goes to the Directorate for Strategic Affairs of the French Ministry of Defense and its outstanding director, Michel Miraillet. The Directorate for Strategic Affairs provided me with a scholarship to explore the world of American think tanks. I greatly benefited from many exchanges, remarks, and suggestions from some of the brightest policy planners there. I would like to express my gratitude to the people at the RAND Corporation: Stephen Larrabee, Stuart Johnson, James Dobbins, Lynn Davis, Michael Rich, and James Thomson. Not only did they allow me to do research on their history but also gave me the opportunity to get an inside view with a one-year visiting scholar position in the Washington office. I would also like to express my sincere thanks to the people in Paris, Cambridge or Washington who shared their views and precious expe- riences about the topic: among many, Peter Wilson, Laurent Murawiec, Bruno Tertrais, Jeremy Shapiro, Justin Vaisse, Roger Molander, David Ronfeldt, John Arquilla, David Gompert, and François Géré, especially. I am also indebted to the editors of Palgrave who supported me dur- ing the final steps of this project. Christian Lequesne and Ewa Kulesza, viii Acknowledgments director and executive director of the CERI, believed in the initial proposal and Irina Vauday provided precious help with the final editing of the manuscript. Finally, the book would hardly have been written without the sincere support of my family and close ones. Introduction On May 17, 2008, the RAND Corporation celebrated its sixtieth birthday in its premises in Santa Monica, California. On the same day, the state of Israel also celebrated 60 years of existence. The RAND event was hosted by the corporation directors—James Thomson and Michael Rich—respectively president and executive vice president, and took the form of a conference dedicated to the work the organiza- tion had accomplished over the past six decades. Their main area of expertise covers the field of research related to national security issues. Thomson and Rich took the opportunity to present a statistical evalu- ation of their institute. Sixty years after its inception, RAND showed a yearly turnover of over $200 million, employed about 1,500 people, and ran five offices in the United States (Santa Monica, Washington, Pittsburgh, Jackson, and New Orleans), two in Europe (Cambridge, Brussels), and one in Qatar (Doha). A few days earlier Alex Abella, an independent American journalist, had published a work called Soldiers of Reason: The RAND Corporation and the Rise of the American Empire .1 The author described the history of a confidential research center that was supposedly at the origin of almost all the US government’s political orientations since Eisenhower, from the Korean War in 1950, to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. Omnipotent and omnipresent, RAND was thus seen as the very source of the United States’ torment in the world at large and in the Middle East, in particular. Abella’s thesis, which lapses into the caricatural and sensational, is actu- ally only the latest media expression of the curiosity—the fascination even—this organization has provoked since its creation.
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