Bridging the gap? Lessons from the scholarship-practitioner Nexus in Latin American Foreign Policy

MELISA DECIANCIO

Conferencia; Conferencia Anual International Studies Association; 2022

Different studies have analysed the relevance of IR research for policy-making and the importance of bridging the gap to benefit decision-making and academic analysis. The literature has mainly focused on the experience of countries in the Global North, with less development in how this interaction takes place in peripheral countries and how it shapes policy decisions in the Global South. This article aims to contribute to this literature on policy engagement in IR scholarship by examining the specific case of Latin America. I argue that the scholarship-practitioner nexus in Latin American Foreign Policy (FP) contributes to understanding the relevance of this interaction for both the development of autochthonous theoretical approaches and conceptualisations and the design and implementation of foreign policy strategies. It also contributes to understanding States’ behaviour and decision-making in Latin American countries that influence and shape national and regional dynamics on how to participate in international politics from the periphery. To address this complex process and by focusing on Argentinian FP as an illustrative case, I will examine the specialised knowledge networks that drove FP Studies in the region, the origin of FP studies in Latin America, and the main theoretical developments and debates that nurtured the field and policy-making.