Once upon a time, I used to do historical research, mainly concerning wars. My last job concerned the war in Afghanistan, and I found myself relying on the authors and editors of the Rand Corporation for their well-researched, boots on the ground approach. (A few of the Special Forces guys I met commented that Rand was the holy grail of post-service, big brain employment.)

Here’s a selection of the Rand books that have come through my office lately. Libraries and bookstores can’t go wrong with these mostly slender volumes. They are indispensable for historians, journalists, academics, and policy makers.



In Their Own Words: Voices of Jihad (Rand, 978-0-8330-4402-0) carries the heavy endorsements of Bob Woodward, Zbigniew Brzezinski, and John Esposito on the back cover. Compiled by Rand’s director of Middle East Public Policy, David Aaron, the book provides a wide variety of views, stories, and justifications by individuals who promote terrorism in the name of Islam. “We have not attempted to present a balanced collection of Muslim views in this book,” Aaron writes in the Note on Sources. “Because the book comprises original jihadi writings, the issue of balance is not germane, except as it pertains to conflicting jihadi views.” While terrorism may have always been a tactic of warfare, seldom have its authors been so well documented.



Iran’s Political, Demographic, and Economic Vulnerabilities (Rand, 978-0-8330-4304-7) by Keith Crane, Rollie Lal, and Jeffrey Martini is the typical under-200-pages size of most of Rand’s monographs. Here, the work was sponsored by the Air Force and carried out in 2005. It covers political, ethnic, and demographic issues, and predicts economic trajectories of growth. Clear and to-the-point, the book finishes with a set of policy recommendations that include discouraging ethnic groups from violently opposing the regime and encouraging the development of markets as the buying power of the electorate translates into less control by the regime. It also recommends that the US not oppose Iran’s accession to the WTO.



Counterinsurgency in Afghanistan (Rand, 978-0-8330-4133-3). Author Seth Jones writes in the summary, “This study’s assessment of 90 insurgencies indicates that it takes an average of 14 years to defeat insurgents once an insurgency develops.” What are the major factors that allow an insurgency to develop and stick? Native lawlessness and a foreign safe haven for resting and resupply. The mujahadeen hid from the Soviets in Pakistan, now Pakistan also protects the Taliban. Jones, who has made repeated trips to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India since 2004, stresses the importance of involving local populations in counterinsurgency operations. The history and strategies in this book are important for understanding the nature of unconventional warfare, no matter where in the world it is.