The Bridging the Gap initiative is dedicated to strengthening the relationship between scholars of international relations and the broader foreign policy community. We aim to support policy-relevant academic research on international politics and provide professional development for those who wish to pursue it.

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of organized efforts in the academic community to apply scholarly expertise to policy-relevant research agendas, and to strengthen the place of that research in the political science discipline in particular.

We seek to build upon this momentum by pursuing three high-level goals:

1. Bringing together scholars who have been leaders in advancing policy-relevant international relations research;
2. Providing assistance to junior scholars seeking to engage in policy-relevant research or pursue careers in the policy world; and
3. Connecting scholars with policymakers from the diplomatic, defense, and intelligence communities.

We will advance these goals through this website, as well as a series of meetings and conferences to build networks of scholars to support this type of academic research.

The Bridging the Gap initiative is co-sponsored by the School of International Service at American University; the University of California, Berkeley; and Duke University, with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.