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[ 35 ] Borderlands and the Value of Academic Research for Policy: A Case Study Celeste A. Wallander Without a doubt, the realms of academic research and policymaking in the United States are worlds apart. The mission of universities is to understand and teach fundamental knowledge that is important over time without regard to fashion or political acceptability. The mission of the policy realm is to conceive and execute the strategies and actions of government in order to achieve national objectives and secure national interests, which in turn means that the work of policymakers and analysts must be detailed and pragmatic. These differences in mission lead the two circles to foster vastly divergent skills, demands, and modes of work. Between these real differences in province, however, lies a potentially promising borderland of interaction. In order for a policymaker to know what works and what fails, the lessons of history or comparison across cases can serve as a useful guide and remind policymakers that political and economic systems may determine policy success to a greater degree than seemingly powerful foreign leaders. And though academics face strong incentives to develop and test elegant deductive theory that cuts across time periods and specific events, good scholarship also requires the rigorous testing of theory that is attainable only when academics descend from the ivory tower for regular forays into field research and data gathering. This need for field investigation puts academics in an excellent position to provide up-to-date, practical, and well-grounded empirical evidence and information that can prove vital to immediate policy issues. Thus the residents of both worlds can benefit by traveling to the borderlands occasionally, or even regularly, to ask questions and learn something new. Much like visitors to a foreign country, these travelers need help with transportation, infrastructure that facilitates meetings and encounters, and communication across different languages. Though likely to feel somewhat uncomfortable in encountering a different culture, all visitors must be tolerant and open to other ways of speaking and thinking. These travelers must Celeste A. Wallander is the Executive Director and Founder of the Program on New Approaches to Russian Security (PONARS), and currently serves as Director and Senior Fellow of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Previously she was a Senior Fellow for Europe at the Council on Foreign Relations, and, while at Harvard University, an Associate Professor of Government and Faculty Associate both at the Davis Center for Russian Studies and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs. She can be reached at . bridging the gap • roundtable [ 36 ] asia policy also feel confident that they will not be punished back home for speaking to foreigners. What follows is an effort to assist Asia Policy in its new venture to bridge the gap. This essay offers suggestions gleaned from a short case study of one such effort to create an infrastructure and support system in the borderland between scholars and policymakers in the area of post-Soviet studies: the Program on New Approaches to Russian Security (PONARS). Why the Need for a PONARS Borderland? The political change that began to sweep across post-Soviet Eurasia in the mid-1990s created a pressing need to understand the causes of Russia’s difficult transformation and the political and economic role the country plays in the larger post-Soviet space. During the Cold War, the existence of the Soviet Union necessitated the funneling of U.S. policy resources toward pursuit of a strategy to contain a global competitor. The generation of U.S. scholars of Soviet affairs who played roles in U.S. policy was comprised largely of defense and security experts. Although knowledgeable both on the Soviet system as well as traditional security issues, their seniority has not necessarily translated into expertise on post-Soviet developments and issues, which are now increasingly shaped by post-Communist economic, political, and social dynamics. The gap in training and expertise is all the more a problem because the post–Soviet era has created new opportunities and demands for cutting-edge research in the field. Scholars can now engage in research projects that are based on systematic interviews, field research, the building of data sets, and...

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