Giving Compass' Take:

• This RAND post explores the future of public policy and argues that new tools are needed to effect change.

• The new streams of study include "technologist" and "policy in action." What might nonprofits working in the public sector learn from more forward-thinking research?

• Here's more on how to strengthen philanthropy’s role in policy work.

Pardee RAND was one of eight schools that established the nation's first graduate-level programs in public policy in the early 1970s. They were traditional academic programs, grounded in economic theory, with a focus on working through the federal government to solve problems. For the most part, they still are.

But the world doesn't work that way anymore. Private companies like Facebook and Apple are often two steps ahead of the federal government on policy issues like privacy. Advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning are creating solutions, as well as problems, that no one has ever thought of before. Decisions made on one side of the globe can ripple across the other.

We need a new approach to public policy. We need to recognize, and take on, ever-changing complex and wicked policy problems. We need new tools, new perspectives, a new understanding of what it really takes to effect change. Pardee RAND is a small school, built on the strong foundation of RAND but not bound by the constraints of a big university. It has the freedom and flexibility to go first.

We're creating three new streams of study and action that better align with the policy needs of now. All of them will have a new focus on ethics, communication, and bringing new perspectives into public policy.

Read the full article about the future of public policy problem solving by Susan L. Marquis at rand.org.