Developing the relevance potentialities of national security and foreign policy research: Some proposed criteria

While effective foreign and national security policy-making increasingly requires research that is produced outside government, little is known about how such research affects the actions of policy-makers, or why it may or may not be policy-relevant to them. This essay poses a number of criteria which can be used to weigh the policy relevance of applied social science research for national security and foreign policy issues. These criteria can be divided into content and process categories, the former including aspects of time, issue salience, format, and confidence; and the latter incorporating questions related to the origin of research, the strategy which informs it, and the tactics by which it is presented. Hopefully, such criteria can be applied to existing works, serve as guidelines for future research, and perhaps illuminate the general role of social knowledge in policy formulation.The authors wish to express their appreciation for the opportunity to participate in the National Security Education Seminar held at Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado, June 18–July13, 1973, directed by Fred A. Sondermann and conducted under the auspices of the National Security Program, New York University, Frank N. Trager, Director. This paper is a revised version of a report originally prepared for the seminar. The views presented here are those of the authors, and not necessarily of any of the institutions with which they are associated.     

Reviews

Seweryn Bialer, The Soviet Paradox: External Expansion, Internal Decline. London: I. B. Tauris, November, 1986, xx + 396 pp. £16.50.

Frank Füredi, The Soviet Union Demystified: A Materialist Analysis. London: Junius Publications, 1986, 271 pp. £12.50 h/b, £5.95 p/b.

R. Furtak, The Political Systems of the Socialist States: an Introduction to Marxist‐Leninist Regimes, Wheatsheaf Books Ltd., Brighton, 1986, xi + 308 pp. £32–50.

Peter Jones and Sian Kevill (Compilers) China and the Soviet Union 1949–84, Keesing's International Studies; Longman, London: 1986, 202 pp. £20.00.

Roy Medvedev, China and the Superpowers, Basil Blackwell, Oxford; 1986, 234 pp. £17.50.

Gail Schlachter (ed.) Sino‐Soviet Conflict: A Historical Bibliography, ABC‐Clio Distribution Services, Clio Press, Oxford; 1985, xii + 190 pp. £30.50.

Károly Attila Soós, Terv, Kampany, Penz. Szabalyozas es Konjunkturaciklusok Magyarorszagon es Jugoszlaviaban, Közgazdasagi es Jogi Könyvkiado‐Kossuth Könyvkiado, Budapest, 1986, 533 pp. 142 Ft.

William V. Wallace and Roger A. Clarke, Comecon, Trade and the West, Frances Pinter (Publishers), London, 1986, xi + 176 pp. £18.50.

Alec Nove, Socialism, economics and development, Allen & Unwin, London, 1986, 243 pp. £25.00 US $29.95.

Klaus Fritsche, Blockfreiheit aus sowjetischer Sicht, Deutsches Übersee‐Institut, Munich, Cologne, London, Weltforum Verlag, 1986, 299 pp.

Winrich Kühne, Sowjetische Afrikapolitik in der ‘Ara Gorbatschow’. Eine Analyse ihrer grundlegenden Probleme Mitte der 80er Jahre, ausgehend von den Entwicklungen in Mozambique, Angola und Äthiopien. Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, Ebenhausen, 1986, 146 pp.     

Preadjudicatory detention in a large metropolitan juvenile court

While the use, and possible abuse, of detention by the juvenile court has been the subject of heated controversy in recent years, this issue has received very little systematic empirical attention. A few studies of detention have been conducted, but they have produced mixed findings, which may be a result of the different locations and time periods considered, and the different methodologies employed. To shed additional light on this important question, we examine in this investigation the effect of a variety of legal, extralegal, and other case characteristics on the preadjudicatory detention practices of a large metropolitan juvenile court. Over 60,000 cases disposed of by the court during a seven-year period (1969–1975) were considered in a detailed multivariate analysis of detention outcomes (detained/not detained). The analysis produced no evidence that the court operates on a double standard—discriminates—along sexual, racial, or socioeconomic lines in the use of detention. Both additive and interaction statistical models considering the extralegal variables showed a youth's sex, race, and social class to be largely independent of detention decisions. In contrast, a legal factor—a youth's previous court experience—was found to be an important predictor of detention. This factor better accounts for detention outcomes than any, or all, of the other legal, extralegal, and other case history variables considered in the analysis.     

Reviews

Joseph L. Nogee and Robert H. Donaldson, Soviel Foreign Policy Since World War II. New York: Pergamon Press, 1981. viii + 320 pp. Flexicover, £5.45.

Robert H. Donaldson (ed.), The Soviet Union in the Third World: Successes and Failures. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press / London: Croom Helm, 1981. xiv + 458 pp. Hardcover, $25.00.

Karen Dawisha and Philip Hanson (eds.), Soviet—East European Dilemmas: Coercion, Competition, and Consent. London: Heinemann for the Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1981. xiv + 226 pp. Paper, £5.95.

Jerry F. Hough, Soviet Leadership in Transition. Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution, 1980. viii + 175 pp. $11.95 and $4.95.

Sheila Fitzpatrick, Education and Social Mobility in the Soviet Union 1921–1934. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979. x + 355 pp. £15.50.

Jan Ake Dellenbrant, Soviet Regional Policy: A Quantitative Inquiry into the Social and Political Development of the Soviet Republics. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1980. 192 pp. Sw. kr. 105.—

Maria Hirszowicz, The Bureaucratic Leviathan: A Study in the Sociology of Communism. Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1980. x + 208 pp. £12.50.

Theodore H. Friedgut, Political Participation in the USSR. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1979. xvi + 353 pp. £11.70.

Ronald J. Hill, Soviet Politics, Political Science and Reform. Oxford: Martin Robertson, 1980. x + 221 pp. Hardcover. £12.00.

Daniel N. Nelson, Democratic Centralism in Romania: A Study of Local Communist Politics. Boulder: East European Monographs, distributed by Columbia University Press, New York 1980. xii + 186 pp. $19.50.

Timothy Dunmore, The Stalinist Command Economy: The Soviet State Apparatus and Economic Policy 1945–53. London: Macmillan, 1980. xii + 176 pp. £20.00.

Paul Marrer and John Michael Montias (eds.), East European Integration and East‐West Trade. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980. vi+432 pp. US, Canada $32.50, UK £19.50, Elsewhere $40.63.

Christoph Bertram (ed.), Prospects of Soviet Power in the 1980s. London: Macmillan in association with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1980. 126 pp. £15.00.

Jiri Valenta, Soviet Intervention in Czechoslovakia, 1968: Anatomy of a Decision. Baltimore and London: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1979. xii + 208 pp. £7.75.

R. Selucky, Marx, socialism and freedom. London: Macmillan, 1979. 237 pp. £12.00.

Mihaly Vajda, The State and Socialism. London: Allison and Busby, 1981. 150 pp. £9.95 and £4.50.

Elizabeth Pond, Russia Perceived. A Trans‐Siberian Journey. London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1981. 296 pp. £9.95.

Philip T. Grier, Marxist Ethical Theory in the Soviet Union. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1978. xvii + 276 pp. No price.

Edward M. Swiderski, The Philosophical Foundations of Soviet Aesthetics: Theories and Controversies in the Post‐War Years. Dordrecht: D. Reidel, 1979. xviii + 225 pp. DM.65, US $34.00.

Edward Braun, The Theatre of Meyerhold: Revolution on the Modern Stage. London: Eyre Methuen, 1979. 299 pp. £9.95.