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{
  "authors": [
    "Stephen Tankel",
    "Ryan Evans",
    "Erin Simpson",
    "Francis Gavin"
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Source: Getty

In The Media

National Security and the Schoolhouse

Is scholarship relevant to the policymaker? Is the academy preparing people to go into the policy world?

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By Stephen Tankel, Ryan Evans, Erin Simpson, Francis Gavin
Published on May 20, 2015
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Program

South Asia

The South Asia Program informs policy debates relating to the region’s security, economy, and political development. From strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific to India’s internal dynamics and U.S. engagement with the region, the program offers in-depth, rigorous research and analysis on South Asia’s most critical challenges.

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Source: War on the Rocks

The Schoolhouse series of the War on the Rocks podcast is concerned with the intersection between policy and the academy. Is scholarship relevant to the policymaker? Is the academy preparing people to go into the policy world? Guests grappled with these questions and more, telling their own stories of how they came be involved as scholars in the policy world, in the field in Afghanistan, and the private sector. This episode had Frank Gavin of MIT, Erin Simpson of Caerus Associates, and Stephen Tankel of American University. Gavin noted that the incentives for graduate students work against getting involved in policy early in their careers. Simpson discussed the role that her experience working in Afghanistan had in her intellectual and career development, and Tankel explained how a policy fellowship in the Pentagon made him a better researcher.

This podcast was originally published by War on the Rocks.

About the Authors

Stephen Tankel

Former Nonresident Scholar, South Asia Program

Tankel was a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment, where his research focuses on insurgency, terrorism, and the evolution of nonstate armed groups.

Ryan Evans

War on the Rocks

Erin Simpson

Caerus Associates

Francis Gavin

MIT

Authors

Stephen Tankel
Former Nonresident Scholar, South Asia Program
Stephen Tankel
Ryan Evans
War on the Rocks
Erin Simpson
Caerus Associates
Francis Gavin
MIT
Foreign PolicySouth Asia

Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.

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