The Foreign Service Journal, January-February 2015

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | JANUARY FEBRUARY 2015 85 Creating Space for the “Scholar-Practitioner” Scholars, Policymakers & International A airs Edited by Abraham F. Lowenthal and Mariano E. Bertucci, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014, $29.95, 260 pages. R J B To paraphrase intellectual giant Hans Morgenthau: the search for truth leaves the scholar oblivious to power and the pursuit of power leads the politician to step on the truth. e challenge of narrowing the gap between scholars and practitioners has long been noted, usually with the recogni- tion that a greater ow of people and ideas between the rewalls of the ivory tower and the stovepipes of government could produce rewards for everyone. It could result in improved development, measure- ment and evaluation of policies, as well as more targeted and applicable research and analysis. But we’re not there yet. Policymakers are still constrained by process, bureaucracy and politics. ey can view academic data as esoteric and narrow, and shut the door to academic analysis. Academics, for their part, face challenging incentive structures. For example, selling their ideas to government o cials does not result in tenure, whereas publishing in a prestigious academic journal might. e authors attempt to explore that gap, share their experiences and o er les- sons learned. Based on a symposium they organized in 2011 to increase the bonds between policymakers and academics, edi- tors AbrahamF. Lowenthal andMariano E. Bertucci present a collection of readable, re ective essays written by scholars and practitioners. Lowenthal is a distinguished profes- sor emeritus at the University of Southern California who has spent his career working on Latin America. Bertucci, a former student of Lowenthal’s, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Inter-American Policy and Research at Tulane University. e book covers a broad range of topics—from secu- rity to development—with most of the examples coming fromLatin America. Con- tributors include scholars such as Mitchell Seligson, professor of political science at Vanderbilt University, and Peter Andreas, professor of political science at Brown University, as well as practitioners such as Rafael Fernández de Castro, former foreign policy adviser to the president of Mexico, and U.S. Career Ambassador and Counselor of the Department of State Tom Shannon. (Full disclosure: Ambassador Shannon also happens to be my boss.) e essays present many excellent case studies based on the interaction or integration of scholars and practitioners. Examples include the design and evalu- ation of Mexico’s cash transfer programs that have incorporated economic theory and resulted in widespread poverty allevia- tion, the development and application of United Nations economic sanctions, and the politicization of debates about the U.S.- led international war on drugs. In his thoughtful essay, University of British Columbia Professor Paul Evans describes how during the 1980s and 1990s an uptick in Canadian track-two diplo- macy—the practice of involving everyday citizens in informal discussions on topics of policy import—led tomany societal changes. Canada became more involved in resolving South China Sea claims and expanded participation by academics in other spheres, such as free trade agreement discussions. As a result, academics built networks with each other and became more connected to government o cials. ey engaged in new research and, in some cases, younger scholars altered the course of their careers. Evans also notes how the scholar-practitioner concept di ers in Asia. Because scholarly institu- tions in Asia are often sponsored, sta ed and administered by the state, the concept of scholars as separate from the state does not necessarily hold true there. Moreover, Evans notes, measuring the impact of scholarship on various types of govern- ments ranging fromdemocratic to authori- tarian is challenging. He contends that it is di cult to compare and draw conclusions about how receptive di erent governing structures are to academic inputs. e Counselor’s O ce, for one, has found the ideas in this book of great interest. Among other initiatives, we have attempted to link to outside institutions and bring in outside experts to interact with Department of State leaders. e broader foreign policy community and diplomats everywhere will no doubt also nd the book useful. e collaboration between scholar and practitioner is an undertapped but potentially powerful resource. By exhibit- ing a degree of humility, and heeding some of the lessons in this book, we can break down the insularity of the two elds to very bene cial e ect. n Joseph Bristol joined the Foreign Service in 2008 and has served in Beijing, Kabul and Washington, D.C., where he served in the Executive Secretariat. He is currently in the O ce of the Counselor.