Avoiding Nuclear Escalation in a Conflict with China

RAND’s Kristen Gunness breaks down U.S. strategy in the Indo-Pacific. She discusses Washington's efforts to increase U.S. basing and access in the region, what actions might trigger a response from China, and the possibility that Beijing could impose a quarantine of Taiwan.

Nearly 7 million Americans have Alzheimer's disease. And an estimated 12 million have mild cognitive impairment, which may be a sign of Alzheimer's or other dementias. RAND's Peter Hudomiet and Jodi Liu discuss the risk factors—and why early detection is so important.

What do we really know about AI's potential impacts on the workforce? What jobs and tasks might be transformed, replaced, or even deleted? How could reforms to the education system help workers and employers adapt? We tackle these questions and more.

What if China invades Taiwan, the United States intervenes, and the world’s two superpowers engage in direct military conflict? RAND experts Dahlia Goldfeld and Nathan Beauchamp-Mustafaga discuss how the United States could prevail in such a scenario without triggering catastrophic nuclear escalation.

As teachers across the country pack up their classrooms for summer break, we sit down with RAND education researchers Elizabeth Steiner and Ashley Woo. They discuss their recent findings on teachers' stress, compensation, use of AI, and more.

RAND's David Luckey discusses what's contributing to the supply of illicit fentanyl and other synthetic opioids in the United States, the biggest challenges to stopping the flow of these drugs across U.S. borders, and why we need a “whole-of-nation” approach to address the crisis.

RAND's David Ochmanek discusses the erosion of U.S. military power and influence. Ochmanek, who previously served as a deputy assistant secretary of defense under two different administrations, breaks down why U.S. defense strategy and posture have become "insolvent," lessons from the war in Ukraine that the United States could apply to future conflicts, and how the U.S. military can learn to "fight differently."

RAND's Beth Asch, a renowned expert on military personnel economics and defense manpower, breaks down the recruiting crisis the U.S. military has faced in recent years, why enlistment numbers rebounded last year, and what the service branches should focus on to ensure a capable force for the future.

What if all your coworkers … were geniuses? On Policy Minded, we pick the brains of the world’s top policy experts, so you can get smarter about the issues that shape the world. Our first episode drops May 15th, 2025.

Emergency management is essential to all communities, but it isn't a field that most people think about often or understand well. Patrick Roberts and Mary Ellen Carroll join us to discuss what today’s emergency managers do to support communities, how the field is evolving, and why emergency management matters to all of us. For more information on this episode, visit rand.org/podcast.