The organization now works with other governments, private foundations, international organizations, and commercial organizations on a host of non-defence issues. RAND techniques were based on operations research (O.R.) which started in World War II. O.R. is the interdisciplinary application of scientific thinking to problem-solving. It relies mostly on the hard sciences like physics and mathematics, and economics. However, some famous biologists and social scientists have worked with RAND at times, and the importance of social ideas and thinking is more important than ever today.