Publications
fp21 is building a new culture of foreign policy. Explore our publications below.
Raiding the Ivory Tower: How to Seek Academic Research Like an Expert
Thomas Leo Scherer, Lauren Van Metre, and Analise Schmidt: Smart policymakers know that foreign policy should be informed by the best available evidence. Too often, however, the policy process fails to seek evidence from academic research. This article offers tips to make the path easier by 1) searching better, 2) evaluating quality, and 3) creating systems to manage knowledge.
Identifying Influence in Geopolitics: China’s Belt and Road Initiative
Thomas Scherer: The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is China’s $1 trillion (and growing) infrastructure investment program, prompting large counter-investments from U.S. allies. But there’s a huge assumption baked into this financial arms race to exert influence: more investment causes more influence. Is that even true? New research suggests not.
Evaluating Policy Success and Failure in Foreign Policy: A Better Approach
Thomas Scherer: When is a foreign policy a success, and when is it a failure? Most commentators fail to specify criteria or offer good evidence to support their claims. As with any scientific endeavor, clear standards of success are essential to policy learning, innovation, and improvement. This article offers three rules to follow to improve our understanding of policy success.