Two Worlds of International Relations

In the twentieth century the social science of international relations has gone from strength to strength. At first, policy makers showed little interest in academic international relations, but in the last thirty years they have both encouraged and to a degree intervened in this burgeoning field. For their part, academics have been drawn more and more into commentary on governments' actions, to the point where, for some, the policy debate represents the main focus of their research. l The aims of this book are to discover how significant academic work in international relations has become for practitioners involved in policy formulation and implementation, and to examine the impact of the policy community on academic work and academic values.