[20.05.11] Ordering the World: Academic Research and Policymaking on Fragile States
Using the literature on fragile states as a window into the research-policy interface, Roland Paris argues that the scholarship on state fragility appears to have had indirect but potentially important effects on the policies of influential international actors: namely, by helping them to define and refine understandings of state fragility as a policy problem, and by informing the development of operational frameworks for responding to this problem.
Put differently, scholars appear to have helped “order” the conceptual world for policymakers, who themselves faced the difficult task of understanding and responding to the most disorderly parts of the physical world. However, Paris also finds evidence of apparent problems in the transmission of ideas between the academic and policy realms: in particular, there are substantial time lags; research findings can be distorted and manipulated; and unreliable findings have the potential to circulate as quickly as more reliable information.
Learning more about these problems would a first step towards correcting or mitigating them, while also shedding light on the under-researched relationship between IR research and policymaking.
Programme 10:00-11:30
- Lecture by Roland Paris, University of Ottawa
- Chair: Ole Jacob Sending, NUPI
The seminar is hosted by NUPI's Centre for Global Governance and the Department of Security and Conflict Management.