Mako, Shifrinson Attend Bridging the Gap International Policy Summer Institute
Shamiran Mako, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, and Joshua Shifrinson, Pardee School Assistant Professor of International Relations, participated at a June 9-13, 2019 workshop organized by Bridging the Gap for professors 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.
Bridging the Gap’s International Policy Summer 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 with the broader policy community.
The workshop included panels with academics who have served in government, government officials, think tank researchers, and other members of the policy community, with an emphasis on policy processes and the roles that academic research can play within them, and the value of policy experience for scholars. the event also included discussions with editors of policy journals, newspaper op-ed pages, and major blogs about how to pitch pieces and write for different kinds of outlets.
Participants also took part in interactive communications and media training, including practice sessions and personalized feedback on policy writing and media interviews and network-building opportunities with policy-makers and fellow scholars.
Shamiran Mako’s research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of international relations and comparative politics with a focus on authoritarianism, civil wars, democratization, institutional capacity building, governing in divided societies, and American foreign policy with a regional interest on the Middle East and North Africa. Specifically, she explores the historical and contemporary drivers of inter and intra-state conflicts that produce weak and fragile states and examines ways in which successful conflict mitigating strategies relating to post-conflict state and peacebuilding can be applied to states in the MENA region.
Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson’s teaching and research interests focus on the intersection of international security and diplomatic history, particularly the rise and fall of great powers and the origins of grand strategy. He has special expertise in great power politics since 1945 and U.S. engagement in Europe and Asia. Shifrinson’s first book, Rising Titans, Falling Giants: How Great Powers Exploit Power Shifts (Cornell University Press, 2018) builds on extensive archival research focused on U.S. and Soviet foreign policy after 1945 to explain why some rising states challenge and prey upon declining great powers, while others seek to support and cooperate with declining states.