Bridging the Gap
Theory and Practice in Foreign Policy
June 1993
Bridging the gap that separates the two cultures of academia and policymaking is the central purpose of this pathbreaking study.
George undertakes an ambitious task in Bridging the Gap and does a more-than-creditable job in accomplishing it. . . . George carefully analyzes U.S. policy towards Iraq from 1988 through 1991. . . . He offers six implications for scholarly research and policymaking.
- American Political Science Review
Alexander L. George
Alexander L. George was the Graham H. Stuart Professor of International Relations, Emeritus at Stanford University. A professor of political science at Stanford from 1968 to 1990, George published seminal articles on the impact of cognitive beliefs on an individual's political behavior and on the role of stress in decision-making. He also developed methods of using case studies as a basis for building theories of political behavior, especially in the areas of Cold War foreign policy. After his retirement from Stanford, George was a distinguished fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., where he was invited to discuss the role of regional conflicts in international affairs alongside Nobel laureates Oscar Arias Sanchez, former president of Costa Rica, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.