Our next Bridging the Gap Book Nook features Rachel Whitlark, an associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She discusses her recent book, All Options on the Table: Leaders, Preventive War, and Nuclear...
The benefits of bridging the gap between academics and policymakers are well-known, but much of the research and practice is based on experiences in the United States. How well does it translate to...
There is an increasing focus in academic and policy circles on research-policy partnerships. These partnerships are often achieved through co-creation, or “the joint production of innovation between...
Maybe the problem isn’t that scholars don’t know how to speak to U.S. foreign-policy makers, but rather that U.S foreign-policy makers don’t know how to engage with scholarship?
Feminist foreign policies (FFP) are considered the latest contribution of feminism to global governance. Eleven countries around the world have embraced FFP, aiming to “systematically integrate a gender perspective throughout” foreign policy agendas. In recent years, FFP has spread to Latin America: Mexico introduced an FFP in 2020 and the newly elected Chilean and Colombian governments have expressed their intentions of adopting the framework. This growing interest in FFP across Latin American raises important questions: What exactly is this feminist foreign policy and what is there to gain...
Election observation is at a turning point. Roughly 80-85% of elections around the world are subject to election observation. The majority of these are in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. While international election observation is important for democracy promotion and electoral integrity, it has undermined the agency of those being observed. A growing push for domestic observers highlights the importance of local involvement, expertise and accountability during the electoral process. My research is particularly interested in how African international organizations use election...
Waves of global crises have generated challenges in nearly every corner of human life. Catastrophic climate change, an ever-morphing global pandemic, widening democratic decline, rising economic inequality, increasing violence, geopolitical rivalry, and war join deeply entrenched systemic racism and sexism to create a toxic cocktail. How can “experts” productively engage at this moment? Practitioners often seek out guidance from experts during upheavals like ours, but policy-engaged scholars face dilemmas that complicate their response. To begin, crises are often the product of complex,...
In 2018 and 2019, two Boeing 737 MAX planes crashed, killing 346 people hailing from 36 different countries across the globe. Now, some of the families who lost loved ones are challenging in U.S. federal court the Department of Justice’s (“DOJ”) settlement with Boeing. No matter what the court decides, the families have already raised important questions not only about the Boeing settlement, but also how corporations are held accountable for criminal wrongdoing. The families have brought to headline news the fact that the Boeing settlement – and most corporate criminal prosecutions today –...
Our next Bridging the Gap Book Nook features Emmanuel Balogun, an assistant professor of political science at Skidmore College and Bridging the Gap's inaugural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Fellow. He discusses his new book Region-Building in West Africa: Convergence and Agency in ECOWAS. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLVZp56pL4Q
Bridging the Gap team is thrilled to announce the addition of a new member of our leadership team: Fabiana Perera, our new BtG Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Fellow. We recently sat down with her to ask about her work, hobbies, and plans for the fellowship. Welcome to the team, Fabiana! Tell us a bit about yourself. What drives your scholarship? I'm a 14th Amendment American who grew up in Caracas, Venezuela, and began learning how to be American in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (people always have questions about that.) I am a...
Our next Bridging the Gap Book Nook features Tom Long of the University of Warwick. He discusses his new Oxford University Press book, A Small State's Guide to Influence in World Politics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glKAammexM8
What happens when a research subject becomes a research and briefing partner? In 2017, I was contacted by the peacebuilding NGO Peace Direct to contribute to a policy report on community-based atrocities prevention. I invited a local peacebuilder I knew from Colombia to partner with me in the endeavor. We co-facilitated an online forum and drafted a chapter for the report. We then shared our findings – plus her experiences and my research – with NGOs and policymakers in the U.S. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, once I got involved with the Sié...