Doctoral Dissertation Research: RAND Goes Domestic: The RAND Corporation's Diversification into Social Welfare Research, 1958-1972

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Hounshell/Jardini Mr. Jardini, under the direction of Dr. Hounshell, is undertaking dissertation research on the RAND Corporation as a case study of the production of knowledge during the Cold War and the interaction between national security and social welfare research and policy during that period. The RAND Corporation was formed at the conclusion of World War II as a means by which America's finest intellectual talent could be harnessed to national security research and policy making in peacetime. Under a cloak of secrecy, RAND hosted remarkable advances in such diverse fields as computer and software design, materials science, space systems, and especially, in social science methodologies such as game theory, linear and dynamic programming, and systems analysis. Yet on July 14 1966, RAND's board of trustees decided to terminate the corporations exclusive military focus and diversify into social welfare research. Moving aggressively, RAND quickly secured funding support from a wide range of public and private institutions, and by 1972 its research and methods had become central to the social welfare movement. This means that, ironically, the sophisticated methodologies developed at RAND to contemplate nuclear war became some of the nation's fundamental weapons in the war against poverty and other social ills. Drawing from a wide range of documentary sources, including RAND's previously inaccessible archives, Mr. Jardini is employing RAND's diversification as a window on the complex interaction among national security and social welfare research and policy making in Cold War America. In general, he is exploring the evolution of RAND's research program, RAND's development and use of innovative methodologies as an "independent" research organization in federal policy making, the gradual deterioration of the 1950's model of secret science, and the consequences of RAND's central role in both national security and social welfare research and policy analysis. RAND's central role in bo th national security and social welfare policy-making allows this dissertation to address several other critical issues and contribute substantially to rapidly developing fields of scholarship. What led to the emergence of nonprofit research and advisory organizations, and what was their role in government policy formulation during the post-World War II ear? How have American's perceptions of the roles of science and technology in national policy-making changed over time? Of what consequence is it that many of the central analytical methodologies employed in social research and problem-solving were created to address national security concerns? What were the implications of massive defense sponsorship for the definition and content of Cold War research and research methods? As the US moves to meet the challenges of the post-Cold War era, it is of increasing importance that scholars analyze and understand the issues taken by in this dissertation.