What Is the Social Responsibility of Social Scientists to Influence National Security Affairs?

Abstract

Mainstream scholars of IR favor policy-relevant research, that is the agenda to influence government policymakers by offering policy recommendations. In this article, I offer a different perspective by presenting alternative arguments about social scientists’ responsibility to influence. By drawing on themes of public sociology and critical sociology, security studies and public policy, I argue that the core of this responsibility is to seek to influence policy via engagement with the public rather than with policymakers.

Introduction to the Symposium on National Security and Social Science

“…Professor Yagil Levy (2023) answers Desch’s (2019) assertions with “What Is the Social Responsibility of Social Scientists to Influence National Security Affairs?” by challenging Desch’s basic assumption that scholars “should aspire to influence government policy makers by offering policy recommendations” (p. 7). To Levy, scholars can also influence security policy by engaging more with the public rather than policymakers alone.…”