Program on States and Security

The workshop convened a group of younger scholars and policy practitioners to address the problem of the gap between academic knowledge on post-conflict state-building and operational practice. The participants focused upon: (1) substantive knowledge and perspectives on post-conflict state-building from their respective studies; (2) the goals, methods, existing models, and institutional aspects of creating a network of scholars; and (3) the goals, challenges, ethics, methods, and value to policy makers of connecting academic and policy communities. The discussion ranged from the benefits to researchers and the production of more and better research via connections with the policy community, to very useful suggestions from policy practitioners of what research they need, the most usable forms, and what practitioners can offer the academic community in return.