How do intellectual leaders of professional schools of international affairs, whose institutions primarily educate and train master's students for careers in government, the non-governmental sector, and the private sector, differ from academic administrators in disciplinary departments, whose primary raison d’être is producing the next generation of scholars whose primary task is to conduct basic research, in terms of how they see the academic enterprise and their expectations of faculty research and writing? The results of our recent survey of deans of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA), the leading professional body for international relations-oriented policy schools, and chairs of Top-50 political science departments, reveal some predictable differences but also some surprising overlap. Specifically, we find a clear convergence between disciplinary departments and APSIA schools on the core requirements for promotion and tenure: Peer-reviewed publications in high-impact scholarly journals and leading university presses. But rather than relax demands for other activities by their faculty as they hold them to the expectations of their disciplines, APSIA deans still expect significant policy and broader public engagement from them. In other words, policy schools’ faculties face a greater array of professional demands than their disciplinary colleagues. APSIA schools simultaneously embrace the disciplinary criteria for excellence and still try to maintain a close policy focus as they seek to bridge the gap between these two worlds. How feasible this effort will turn out to be hinges on whether policy school faculty can indeed do it all.
relevant to policymakers, but scholars struggle to engage key audiences. In other words, the problem is with the packaging: it is too long, too inaccessible, and not timely. This follows media theorist Marshall McLuhan's famous distinction between the "message" and the "media." 2 Many scholars thus look to various types of online new media as a promising means to address this challenge. These outlets offer a quick and easy way to translate and disseminate existing research to a broader public. The format makes it possible to bring social science research to bear on pressing issues more quickly than going through the lengthy and ponderous peer-review process. New media sites also force political scientists to convey their findings succinctly and in plain English and apply them to contemporary issues. Warming to this possibility, George Washington University political scientist and blogger Marc Lynch effuses that "this is in most ways a golden age for policy-relevant public spheres." 3 Social media such as Facebook and Twitter can, in turn, help disseminate online posts or serve as a direct platform for commentary. There are now so many new outlets for scholars to engage in the policy debate, it is both easier for them to do so and also unnecessary for them to concern themselves with doing so in their scholarship. This new media relevance model counsels that scholars publish basic research-what Vannevar Bush defined as research "performed without thought of political ends" 4 -in scholarly venues and then highlight its applied implications online.To date, however, there has been little systematic assessment of the broader impact of academic new media and blogs. 5 We rely on two new sources of data to help us gauge its influence and provide suggestions as to how to maximize the role of new media in increasing the relevance of international relations (IR) scholarship. First, we asked 563 current and former U.S. policymakers serving in national security, trade, and 2
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