Policy Currents | The newsletter for policy people
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** March 4, 2025
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Virtual Support May Expand Breastfeeding
Sustained breastfeeding offers health benefits for mothers and their infants, but most women stop breastfeeding earlier than recommended. A new RAND study examines telelactation, which provides remote counseling and video instruction by lactation support professionals, and its effects on breastfeeding rates.
The results show that mothers who were given access to telelactation through a free app reported slightly higher rates of breastfeeding six months after giving birth, compared with mothers who did not receive such help. The increase was sharply higher among Black mothers. This suggests that telelactation could be part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce racial disparities in breastfeeding rates.
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Thinking Through a Potential Protracted War with China
What are the conditions that might lead to a protracted conflict between the United States and China? In a new report, RAND researchers consider nine hypothetical scenarios that involve sustained military operations by China and the United States. These include U.S. intervention in an attempted seizure of Taiwan by Beijing, a collision between U.S. and Chinese satellites, and an indirect fight between the United States and China through proxies in Southeast Asia. Examining these and other scenarios could help defense planners better understand what might lead to an open-ended U.S.-China war--and how to prevent such a conflict in the first place.
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At the Paris AI Summit, Europe Charts Its Course
Last month's Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris showcased the evolution of Europe's AI strategy, says RAND's Marzia Giambertoni. Over the last year, Europe has emerged not only as a regulatory pioneer but as an "innovation laboratory" where AI models are tested and refined for practical application. The real question, she says, isn't whether Europe can compete with U.S. and Chinese AI capabilities but whether the continent is "already charting a distinct path that could reshape how we think about technological development in regulated markets." However, a sobering reality remains: Total European AI funding remains modest compared with that of U.S. competitors.
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** RAND Recommends
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- In the Washington Post, RAND's David Luckey discusses efforts to stop the transportation of fentanyl from Mexico to the United States: "We need to address the entire supply chain."
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- RAND's Isaac Opper explains his research examining how natural disasters lead to drops in students' test scores, graduation rates, and college-going rates. These effects can create "scarring and persistent" damage to lifetime earnings.
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- Patient waiting lists for the UK's National Health System reached 7.5 million as of November 2024. RAND Europe's Jon Sussex and Saoirse Moriarty consider whether allocating more NHS funds to private-sector providers could help address this.
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