Which Gap? – What Bridge?

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X211035820
• Published date: 01 January 2023
• Date: 01 January 2023
• Subject Matter: Symposium: National Security and Social Science

https://doi.org/10.1177/0095327X20917183

Armed Forces & Society

2023, Vol. 49(1) 26 –40

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/0095327X211035820

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Symposium: National Security and Social Science

1134644AFSXXX10.1177/0095327X20917183Armed Forces & SocietyLevy

research-article2022

Which Gap? –What Bridge?

Alan Okros

1

and Rebecca Jensen

2

Abstract

The discourse around the bridging the gap debate is seen to a unique sub-set of the

social sciences in the United States as applied to a unique American approach to

security. This article looks beyond US National Security and the practices of the

discipline of political science at US universities to address, and expand on, some specif‌ic

ideas in Michael Desch’s volume The Cult of the Irrelevant. We offer that an integrative

assessment of how scholarly work can best inform security policies and practices

requires more critical examination in four domains: consideration of how different

disciplines frame key issues and speak to each other; understanding the dynamics of the

policy marketplace; assessments to alternate ways to frame security and national

security; and requirements to critical challenge the privilege academics have awarded

themselves as the purveyors (and gatekeepers) of ‘knowledge’and the ‘truth’.

Keywords

public policy, security studies, social sciences, Canadian security

Michael Desch’s (2019) The Cult of the Irrelevant provides additional perspectives on

the ongoing debate over ‘bridging the gap’between scholars and policy makers (the Ivy

Tower and The Beltway) in areas of National Security. This article contributes to the

others presented in this volume with perspectives beyond the two American-centric foci

in this debate. We suggest that most of the Desch’s book and, in fact, the various

Bridging the Gap initiatives represent issues of a unique sub-set of the social sciences in

1

Dallaire Centre of Excellence for Peace and Security, Toronto, ON, Canada

2

Canadian Forces College, Toronto, ON, Canada

Corresponding Author:

Alan Okros, Dallaire Centre of Excellence for Peace and Security, 215 Yonge Blvd, Toronto, ON M5M 3H9,

Canada.

Email: okros@rmc.ca