Bridging the Gap | December 2023 Newsletter

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2024 International Policy Summer Institute (IPSI) Applications Now Open

IPSI is a five-day professional development program for professors (all ranks) and post-docs in the field of international affairs who want to build the tools and networks to produce and disseminate policy-relevant academic research.

The Institute delivers an intensive curriculum designed to teach participants how to develop and articulate their research for a policy audience, what policy-makers are looking for when they look to scholarship on international issues, whom to target when sharing research, and which tools and avenues of dissemination are appropriate. IPSI also provides a forum for scholars to develop professional networks with their colleagues and with the broader policy community.

IPSI 2024 will be held in Washington, DC June 2nd-June 6th. Travel, accommodations, and workshop meals are covered by Bridging the Gap. More information and applications can be found here .

BTG Policy Outreach Award

BTG is now accepting applications from early-career scholars for our Policy Outreach Award. This award, generously supported by the Raymond Frankel Foundation, supports focused outreach to members of the policy community by outstanding early-career scholars on issues related to international security, politics, and foreign policy. The award will support outreach efforts that convey policy implications of the scholar’s research to policy practitioners, with the purpose of informing policy making or practice. These outreach efforts could include meetings, briefings, or talks with officials at U.S. government agencies, U.S. Congressional staff, diplomats from other countries, officials at international institutions, think tank experts, advocates in non-governmental organizations, or private sector representatives.

The award will fund travel to Washington, DC and three nights of accommodation in DC. Each award recipient will also be assigned a mentor who is a senior member of the Bridging the Gap network and will provide the recipient with focused guidance and advice on their policy outreach. To be eligible, scholars must have completed their PhD in international relations, international studies, political science, history, or public policy within the past five years. The opportunity is open to scholars based in the U.S. regardless of citizenship.

BTG will select two Policy Outreach Award recipients in 2024. BTG will select awardees based on the potential of their expertise and knowledge to influence policy making or practice on an important international issue. More information and application form can be found here.

October 2023 New Era Workshop

October's New Era Workshop, hosted at the University of Denver, was a great success. The three-day training program welcomed an impressive and enthusiastic cohort of 21 current PhD students from across the US and internationally. At the heart of the program, a comparative scenario analysis exercise allowed participants to think through the future drivers of international politics and generate innovative research questions. The workshop also featured panel discussions on careers outside of academia, opportunities and ethics in policy engagement, and policy writing; participants networked with an esteemed group of policymakers, practitioners, and editors. Applications for the 2024 program will open in spring.

Left to right, Emmanuel Balogun, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Skidmore College; Morgan Kaplan, Senior Policy & Communications Lead, Palantir; Keira Sterns, Director of Strategic Partnerships, Analyst Institute; Alexandra Stark, Associate Policy Researcher, RAND

Left to right: Jim Goldgeier, BTG Senior Advisor; Tamara Wittes, Director of Foreign Assistance, U.S. Department of State; Dani Gilbert, Assistant Professor, Northwestern University

BTG Team Member Dani Gilbert Highlighted In Media

In the wake of the October 7 attacks by Hamas, BtG's Dani Gilbert has drawn on her research on armed group kidnapping to help analyze the ongoing hostage crisis. After writing about the hostage crisis in Good Authority, she has engaged in dozens of media appearances, including multiple tv interviews with ABC, the BBC, as well as Australian, Canadian, Dutch, and German networks; WBUR's On Point and KCBS's Ask an Expert radio programs; and she has been quoted in the New York Times, Associated Press, Washington Post, the New Yorker, and Ha'aretz, among others. She was also featured in the Chicago Council for Global Affairs Deep Dish podcast and a webinar with the World Affairs Council of Seattle.

New Voices in National Security Workshop Report

Bridging the Gap and the Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide recently hosted a New Voices in National Security workshop on Atrocity Prevention: Tools and Strategies. Visit the summary developed by New Voices Rapporteur, Laurel Holley.

Bridging the Gap Co-Director, Jordan Tama, along with Maria Rost Rublee and Kathryn Urban, recently co-authored The Impact of Professional Training in Public and Policy Engagement (PS: Political Science & Politics). Their study, largely based on BTG's IPSI program, finds that "investments in public-engagement training by universities and the discipline of political science have the potential to significantly boost public outreach by faculty members." Find the article here!

Updates from Our Network

SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES

IGCC’s Postdoctoral Fellowship in Technology and International Security supports postdoctoral fellows whose research generates new theoretical and empirical insights into the relationship between technology, national security, and the global security environment. Applications for the 2024-26 Postdoctoral Fellowship in Technology and International Security are now open.

The fellowship program will be based in Washington, D.C. for a 24-month term in line with the 2024–25 and 2025–26 academic years. Applicants who can participate for only 12 months in line with the 2024–25 academic year should also apply.

Next review date: Monday, December 4, 2023, at 11:59 pm (Pacific Time) Application review will begin on this date and will continue on a rolling basis until all selections are made or until the final application deadline.

Final deadline: Friday, January 12, at 11:59 pm (Pacific Time)

Application can be found here. For questions, please contact Olivia Chioffi (ochioffi@ucsd.edu).

SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS

Susanna P. Campbell and Jessica Di Salvatore

Keeping or Building Peace? UN Peace Operations beyond the Security Dilemma (American Journal of Political Science)

Rosella Cappella Zielinski and Ryan Grauer

Understanding Battlefield Coalitions (Routledge)

Dana El Kurd

The Paradox of Peace: The Impact of Normalization with Israel on the Arab World (Global Studies Quarterly)

Abosede Omowumi Babatunde

Oil exploitation and food insecurity in Nigeria's Niger Delta (The Journal of Modern African Studies)

Maria Rost Rublee, Constance Duncombe, George Karavas, Naazneen Barma, Cecilia Idika-Kalu, Arturo C. Sotomayor, Mariana Kalil, and Hye Yun Kang