July 2010: Engaging with the National Security Policy Community

As part of the Tobin Project’s National Security inquiry into "Power through its Prudent Use," scholars Deepak Malhotra (Harvard Business School) and Jeremi Suri (University of Texas-Austin, History) traveled to Washington, D.C. in July to share their research with members of the policymaking community. Featured at Tobin’s 2009 National Security conference and later published in The Prudent Use of Power in American National Security Strategy, Professor Malhotra’s work examined the use of preconditions in negotiations with adversaries, and Professor Suri’s paper explored the U.S. experience balancing diplomacy with military power. The scholars’ research was well-received by officials from the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff, the Brookings Institution, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. As part of a longer-term Tobin effort to engage the policy community around scholarship emerging from the National Security initiative, the meetings focused on ideas raised by the professors’ research and their potential policy applications.

"The presentation and papers by Tobin Project professors were extremely informative, expanding our thinking and helping shed new light on tough and often intractable problems. The ability to link rigorous academic thinking with the policy process is absolutely essential to successful policy planning."
- William Burke-White, Office of Policy Planning, U.S. Department of State