Scholars of internaonal relaons have oen been referred to in foreign policy decision making process. However, there is sll a “gap between the “two cultures of academia and policymaking, as Alexander L. George (1994) discussed in his paper. The gap is reflected on the lack of polical relevance of theory in policy (Jahn, 2016), thus creates a sort of “ivory tower of the academia which seems to be detached from the real world (Mearsheimer and Walt, 2013). Beate Jahn (2016) categorized two broad posions with regards to this gap – “gap bridgers and “gap-minders. The “gap-bridgers posit that much of internaonal relaons research should be mindful of the policy relevance of theory and therefore, should “bridge the gap between theory and policy. In contrast, the “gap-minders warn that theory should maintain its distance with policy and direct interacons between the two cultures should not be viewed as imperative in policymaking.

International relations, policy, cultures

• Dian Novikrisna, S.Sos., MIS

• Ella Syafputri Prihatini, S.I.P., Master of Dev. Prac. (Adv), Ph.D