Past Grants

Mireya Solís will research and write a book examining why Japan might be immune to the populist political currents affecting other major industrialized democracies. She will analyze Japanese- and English-language primary and secondary sources, conduct field work in Japan, and convene panels and roundtables with Japanese and U.S. experts.

Casimir Yost and Kelly McFarland will convene a group of experts to identify ways that the policy community can prepare for the challenges posed by strategic surprises. The project’s findings will appear in a monograph.

Rockford Weitz and Richard Shultz will lead an effort to examine how the United States should evolve its maritime strategy and capabilities to meet contemporary security challenges. They will build a consortium of research organizations on maritime security and commission monographs on key issues. The project’s findings will appear in a series of monographs and articles.

Richard Hendra will examine whether a sectoral approach toward workforce development that engages employers to train individuals for available jobs and then provides new employees with ongoing training and support can help those individuals succeed at jobs that offer opportunity for advancement and higher earnings. He will collect and analyze administrative data on employment and earnings from individuals five years after they enrolled in a program that adopted a Work Advance strategy. He will also undertake a cost-benefit analysis of the program. The project’s findings will appear in a report and a series of research briefs.

Ilan Goldenberg will explore whether the United States and its Arab state partners could develop a combined irregular and unconventional warfare capability to counter both Iran’s Quds Force and Sunni jihadist groups. He will research primary and secondary sources, undertake field work, and convene expert roundtable meetings to examine whether the United States should pursue the creation of a multinational joint task force with Arab partners to prevail in irregular wars across the Middle East. The project’s findings will appear in a report.

Paul Rieckhoff will explore how best to tailor veterans’ programs to support veterans of conflict in Afghanistan and Iraq. The project’s findings will appear in a series of papers and briefings.

Devesh Kapur will convene an annual conference to facilitate an interaction between younger researchers and their senior counterparts on issues related to India’s security and defense policies.

Marcus Winters, Joshua Cowen, and Scott Imberman will examine whether liberalizing the rules that govern the hiring, assessment, and retention of teachers can help improve the performance of schools. Using nine years of data on all students in Massachusetts traditional public and charter schools, they will identify patterns of teacher hiring, retention, and mobility across different types of schools. This analysis will help reveal whether charter schools, which have more freedom to make their own choices in terms of staffing than traditional public schools, are better able to attract and retain high-quality teachers. The project’s findings will appear in a report and a series of articles and briefings.

Dane Stangler will research and write a book examining steps that cities are taking to foster entrepreneurship and considering whether those efforts can increase business formation and spur economic growth. He will undertake case studies of efforts in more than a dozen cities to support entrepreneurs through innovation centers, startup accelerators, business plan competitions, and partnerships with local universities. He will seek to better understand whether such efforts are leading to increases in new business formation, new employment and economic growth.