Nonpartisan think tank whose original focus was national security.
It grew out of a research-and-development project (its name is a contraction of "research and development") by Douglas Aircraft Co. for the Army Air Force in 1945. In 1948 it became a private nonprofit corporation. In the 1960s it expanded its focus to address domestic public-policy issues. Its mission today is to improve policy and decision making through research and analysis. It employs several hundred scholars in many disciplines. Its funding comes from government contracts, charitable foundations, private corporations, and earnings on its endowment. Its headquarters are in Santa Monica, Cal., and it has offices in Washington, D.C., New York, and overseas.