Bridging the Gap, an initiative dedicated to strengthening the relationship between scholars of international relations and the foreign policy community, annually holds a professional development institute for professors and a workshop for PhD students who want to build the tools and networks to produce and disseminate policy-relevant academic research.
Please see below for details on the applications for each program.
2016 New Era Foreign Policy Conference (NEFP)
Sunday, March 6, 2016 – Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Location: School of International Service at American University
Application Deadline: December 11, 2015
For Doctoral Students or Recent PhDs
The New Era Foreign Policy Conference is an annual two-day workshop for Political Science Ph.D. students, post-docs, and foreign policy experts. Participants are asked to assess the medium-term challenges and opportunities currently facing the United States, to critically examine the macro-level goals that underpin American foreign policy, and to devise the strategies and policies meant to achieve these goals. On the basis of these discussions, participants are encouraged to generate and shape policy-relevant research ideas. In the past, these ideas have contributed to participants’ dissertation projects and have also resulted in conference papers, published academic articles, and pieces in policy journals.
Rather than the presentation of papers with panels and discussants, the format of the conference is a series of workshops and scenario-planning sessions. At past conferences, the PhD students have been joined by policy experts with experience at the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, the RAND Corporation, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Brookings Institution, NPR, the United States Mission to the United Nations, Foreign Policy magazine, and the Council on Foreign Relations.
2016 International Policy Summer Institute (IPSI)
Sunday, June 5, 2016 – Thursday, June 9, 2016
Location: School of International Service at American University
Application Deadline: January 8, 2016
For Professors (all ranks) and Post-docs
IPSI is a weeklong professional development program for professors of 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 IR scholarship, 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 the broader policy community.