TY  - BOOK
AU  - Desch,Michael C.
TI  - Cult of the Irrelevant: The Waning Influence of Social Science on National Security 
T2  - Princeton Studies in International History and Politics
SN  - 9780691181219
AV  - H97 
U1  - 320.6 23
PY  - 2019///]
CY  - Princeton, NJ : 
PB  - Princeton University Press, 
KW  - National security
KW  - Social sciences and state
KW  - POLITICAL SCIENCE / Security (National & International)
KW  - bisacsh
KW  - Cold War
KW  - Office of Strategic Services
KW  - Second World War
KW  - Thomas Schelling
KW  - U.S. policymakers
KW  - Vietnam
KW  - Walt W. Rostow
KW  - World War II
KW  - academic security specialists
KW  - academic social science
KW  - academic strategists
KW  - applied research
KW  - basic research
KW  - development strategists
KW  - disciplinary professionalism
KW  - economic development
KW  - intellectual culture
KW  - intellectual frameworks
KW  - international relations
KW  - international security
KW  - national security policymakers
KW  - national security policymaking
KW  - national security studies
KW  - national security
KW  - natural sciences
KW  - nuclear states
KW  - nuclear strategy
KW  - nuclear weapons
KW  - policy decisions
KW  - policy issues
KW  - policy problems
KW  - policy relevance
KW  - policymakers
KW  - policymaking
KW  - political development
KW  - political science
KW  - political scientists
KW  - practical relevance
KW  - professionalization
KW  - scientific objectivity
KW  - scientific strategists
KW  - social science disciplines
KW  - social science methods
KW  - social science
KW  - social sciences
KW  - social scientists
KW  - strategic modernization theory
N1  - Frontmatter --; CONTENTS --; ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --; 1. The Relevance Question: Professional Social Science and the Fate of Security Studies --; 2. How War Opened the Door to the Ivory Tower during the First World War and Peace Closed It Again --; 3. World War II: Social Scientists in the Physicists' War --; 4. Social Science's Cold War: The Behavioral Revolution's Quixotic Effort to Construct a "Policy Science" --; 5. Summer Studies, Centers, and a Governmentwide Clearinghouse: Federal Efforts to Mobilize Social Science for the Cold War --; 6. The Scientific Strategists Follow the Economists to an Intellectual Dead End --; 7. Strategic Modernization Theory Bogs Down in the Vietnam Quagmire --; 8. The "Renaissance of Security" Languished until the Owl of Minerva Flew after 9/11 --; 9. Conclusions, Responses to Objections, and Scholarly Recommendations --; Notes --; Index; restricted access; Issued also in print
N2  - How professionalization and scholarly "rigor" made social scientists increasingly irrelevant to US national security policyTo mobilize America's intellectual resources to meet the security challenges of the post-9/11 world, US Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates observed that "we must again embrace eggheads and ideas." But the gap between national security policymakers and international relations scholars has become a chasm.In Cult of the Irrelevant, Michael Desch traces the history of the relationship between the Beltway and the Ivory Tower from World War I to the present day. Recounting key "Golden Age" academic strategists such as Thomas Schelling and Walt Rostow, Desch's narrative shows that social science research became most oriented toward practical problem-solving during times of war and that scholars returned to less relevant work during peacetime. Social science disciplines like political science rewarded work that was methodologically sophisticated over scholarship that engaged with the messy realities of national security policy, and academic culture increasingly turned away from the job of solving real-world problems.In the name of scientific objectivity, academics today frequently engage only in basic research that they hope will somehow trickle down to policymakers. Drawing on the lessons of this history as well as a unique survey of current and former national security policymakers, Desch offers concrete recommendations for scholars who want to shape government work. The result is a rich intellectual history and an essential wake-up call to a field that has lost its way
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1515/9780691184906?locatt=mode:legacy
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/isbn/9780691184906
UR  - https://www.degruyter.com/cover/covers/9780691184906.jpg
ER  -