Over the last thirty years, practitioners of international relations have shown increasing interest in the academic study of the subject and likewise academics have been drawn more and more into involvement in government policy making.
Two Worlds of International Relations contains essays by leading academics together with practitioners who discuss and analyze the important developments in the field. The book's two main aims are on the one hand to discover how significant academic work has become for those taking practical decisions and on the other to examine the impact on academic values of increasing involvement in the policy community. The book has case studies and presents the views of diplomats, lawyers and parliamentarians. The editors conclude that there may well be a natural partnership between the modern academic and foreign policy-makers, but to work will it needs to be based on a distance between the two worlds.

The aims of this book are to discover how significant academic work in international relations has become for practitioners involved in policy formulation and implementation, and to examine the impact of the policy community on academic work and academic values. On the academic side, theoretical, historical and political economy perspectives are presented. On the practitioner side, there are contributions from diplomats, lawyers and parliamentarians. The principal question at issue is whether, if there is a natural partnership between the modern academic and foreign policy makers, there needs to be preserved a respectful distance between the two worlds.