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Knowledge without power: International relations scholars and the US war in Iraq

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Abstract

In this article we present several important first steps toward understanding the role of academics in shaping US foreign policy – identifying their policy views on one of the most salient foreign policy issues of this generation, the US War in Iraq; exploring how those views differ from public opinion more generally; and assessing the extent to which scholarly opinion was reflected in the public debate. To determine how IR scholars’ views on the invasion of Iraq differed from those of the public, we compare the answers of IR scholars at US colleges and universities to those of the US public on similar opinion survey questions. To this end, we analyze data from a unique series of surveys of IR scholars conducted by the Teaching, Research, and International Policy project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science, University of Washington, Seattle, 98195-3530, Washington, USA

    James D Long

  2. Department of Government, College of William and Mary, PO Box 8795, Williamsburg, 23185-8795, VA, USA

    Daniel Maliniak, Susan M Peterson & Michael J Tierney

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  1. James D Long
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  2. Daniel Maliniak
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  3. Susan M Peterson
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  4. Michael J Tierney
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Correspondence to James D Long.

Appendix

Appendix

Table A1

Table A1 Ordered logit results predicting support for Iraq war and belief that war enhanced US security among IR scholars (TRIP survey)
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Long, J., Maliniak, D., Peterson, S. et al. Knowledge without power: International relations scholars and the US war in Iraq. Int Polit 52, 20–44 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1057/ip.2014.38

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