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Power Problems • July 25, 2023 

# Social Science, Think Tanks, & National Security Policy 

Michael C. Desch, professor of international relations at University of Notre Dame, discusses the disconnect between political science scholarship and policymaking and offers solutions for how to bridge the gap.

**Show Notes**

- [Michael C. Desch bio](https://politicalscience.nd.edu/people/michael-c-desch/)
- Michael C. Desch, *[Cult of the Irrelevant: The Waning Influence of Social Science on National Security](https://www.amazon.com/Cult-Irrelevant-Influence-Princeton-International/dp/0691181217)* (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019).
- Paul C. Avey, Michael C. Desch, Eric Parajon, Susan Peterson, Ryan Powers, and Michael J. Tierney, “[Does Social Science Inform Foreign Policy? Evidence from a Survey of US National Security, Trade, and Development Officials](https://academic.oup.com/isq/article-abstract/66/1/sqab057/6321904?redirectedFrom=fulltext),” *International Studies Quarterly* 66, no. 1 (March 2022).
- Benjamin H. Friedman and Justin Logan, “[Why Washington Doesn’t Debate Grand Strategy](https://www.jstor.org/stable/26271528),” *Strategic Studies Quarterly* 10, no. 4 (Winter 2016): pp. 14–45.

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/). 

##### Featuring 

##### Michael C. Desch 

Professor, International Relations, University of Notre Dame

![John Glaser](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/author_picture/public/2021-01/John%20Glaser.jpg?itok=-uvxR8zG) 

##### John Glaser 

Host, Power Problems Podcast

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](https://twitter.com/jwcglaser)