STAKEHOLDERS IN FOREIGN, SECURITY AND DEFENCE POLICY: EXPANDING THE PUBLIC DEBATE

It is to examine the question of impacts in particular that the project has been conducted as part of a programme of ‘Impacts Grants’ funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, launched in order to understand better the ways in which UK social scientists are extending the findings of their research to the policy sphere and to society at large. Drawing on our experience of ‘bridging the gap’ between research and the policy domain in our work on the linkage between policymaking and stakeholder influences in foreign, defence and security policies, we will reflect both on the lessons to be drawn from our own research and dissemination practice, and on broader discussions, held with a wide range of stakeholders during the course of our Impact Grant, that provide important food for thought for the academic community in its efforts to render research policy relevant.