Political Science isn’t sterile laboratory. The discipline is riddled with politics and deeply influenced by policy concerns.

by Ido Oren | Sep 1, 2021 | "Lab Leaks" in Political Science, Academia, Bridging the Gap, Featured, Theory & Methods, US Foreign Policy
Political Science isn’t sterile laboratory. The discipline is riddled with politics and deeply influenced by policy concerns.
by Erica De Bruin | Aug 31, 2021 | "Lab Leaks" in Political Science, Academia, Bridging the Gap, Featured, US Foreign Policy
Some political-science lab leaks are more difficult to control than others.
by James Goldgeier & | Aug 30, 2021 | "Lab Leaks" in Political Science, Academia, Bridging the Gap, Featured
Paul Musgrave has written an important piece discussing how ideas developed within academia can have profoundly negative effects when they escape into the wild of the policymaking world. For someone like me who has been involved for many years in the Bridging the Gap project, whose goal is to better connect academics and policymakers, this argument is important and cautionary. (In addition to Musgrave’s recent Foreign Policy piece, Michael Desch provides a long and extensive history of academic ideas leading to bad policy in his book The Cult of the Irrelevant.) I was...
by Dan Nexon | Aug 30, 2021 | "Lab Leaks" in Political Science, Bridging the Gap, Featured
Today we're kicking off a new symposium on Paul Musgrave's Foreign Policy article, "Political Science Has Its Own Lab Leaks." In it, Musgrave likens academic disciplines to labs; academic theories that exercise political influence, in his metaphor, are like viruses. Perhaps, his piece suggests, international-relations scholars should exercise a bit more caution in their drive to “bridge the gap” between theory and policy. The contributors to the symposium include scholars who share an interest in, and experience with, the relationship between international-relations scholarship and the...
The Duck of Minerva occasionally runs symposia. These consist of a collection of linked pieces that engage with one another on a specific topic, although you will also find series of posts that are united only by their topic. Symposia always involve at least some guest contributors.
Notable examples include a series of companion posts to the European Journal of International Relations special issue on “The End of IR Theory” (2011) and a discussion of Iain M. Banks’ The Hydrogen Sonata (2012).
If you’re interested in organizing a symposium, visit our FAQ.
by Patrick Thaddeus Jackson | 2022-02-07 | Conscious States, Theory & Methods | 5 Comments