^aCentre for the Study of Public Policy, University of Aberdeen, Edward Wright Building, Aberdeen, Scotland AB24 3QY, UK. E-mail: Richard.rose@abdn.ac.uk

Abstract

A Ph.D. is not a qualification to decide a country's foreign policy, but it should not be a disqualification from communicating with people whose choices are not entirely rational. Founders of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) learned to do this in occupied Europe during the Second World War. I learned it in libraries and working on newspapers. So, instead of talking about Iraq in an Oval Office meeting with President Bush I offered a parable about Northern Ireland, supported by quotations from Max Weber and Isaiah Berlin.