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

Hounshell/Jardini Jardini先生在Hounshell博士的指导下，正在进行关于兰德公司的论文研究，作为对冷战期间知识生产以及这一时期国家安全和社会福利研究与政策之间相互作用的案例研究。 兰德公司成立于第二次世界大战结束时，作为一种手段，美国最优秀的智力人才可以利用国家安全研究和政策制定在和平时期。 兰德在保密的外衣下，在计算机和软件设计、材料科学、空间系统等不同领域取得了显著的进步，特别是在博弈论、线性和动态规划以及系统分析等社会科学方法论方面。 然而在1966年7月14日，兰德的董事会决定终止公司的独家军事重点和多样化的社会福利研究。 兰德公司积极进取，很快就获得了广泛的公共和私人机构的资金支持，到1972年，其研究和方法已经成为社会福利运动的核心。 这意味着，具有讽刺意味的是，兰德公司为考虑核战争而开发的复杂方法成为了美国对抗贫困和其他社会弊病的基本武器。 Jardini先生从广泛的文献资料来源，包括兰德公司以前无法访问的档案中汲取经验，将兰德公司的多样化作为一个窗口，了解冷战时期美国国家安全和社会福利研究与政策制定之间复杂的相互作用。 总的来说，他正在探索兰德公司的研究计划的演变，兰德公司的发展和使用创新的方法作为一个“独立”的研究机构在联邦政策制定，20世纪50年代的秘密科学模型的逐渐恶化，以及兰德公司的核心作用在国家安全和社会福利研究和政策分析的后果。 兰德公司在国家安全和社会福利政策制定方面的核心作用使本论文能够解决其他几个关键问题，并为迅速发展的学术领域做出重大贡献。 是什么导致了非营利研究和咨询组织的出现，他们在二战后的政府政策制定中扮演了什么角色？ 随着时间的推移，美国人对科学和技术在国家政策制定中的作用的看法是如何变化的？ 社会研究和解决问题所采用的许多核心分析方法是为了解决国家安全问题而创立的，这有什么后果呢？ 大规模的国防赞助对冷战研究的定义和内容以及研究方法有什么影响？ 随着美国应对后冷战时代的挑战，学者们分析和理解本文所涉及的问题越来越重要。

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.