RAND corporation

An early 'think tank' created by the US Air Force in the 1950s as Project Rand. RAND was incorporated as a nonprofit organization to "further promote scientific, educational, and charitable purposes, all for the public welfare and security of the United States of America." Its self-declared mission is "to help improve policy and decision-making through research and analysis", using its "core values of quality and objectivity." It relies to a large extent on the views of experts. Two well-known RAND researchers are Olaf Helmer who was a moving force in the development of the Delphi technique and a co-founder of the Institute for the Future, and Herman Kahn, who helped think through the implications of nuclear warfare in his 1967 book, “On Thermonuclear War”, and later established the Hudson Institute. RAND has expanded to working with other governmental and commercial organizations.