Connecting practitioners of national and international security with scholars and academia. The Intersect Project operates at the confluence of the academy and the policy world.
About the Intersect Project
Connecting practitioners with scholars
Our Mission
The Intersect Project’s mission is to connect policymakers with academics and help disseminate rigorous, scholarly, policy-useful research on international security to the wider national security community. The Project grapples with and helps navigate some of the barriers many scholars of international relations face in producing and disseminating policy relevant work such as:
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General unfamiliarity with the internal structure and day-to-day workings of U.S. government
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Lack of pathways and incentives to disseminate work in a digestible format for practitioners
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Misunderstandings of what actually constitutes policy-useful work for practitioners
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Misreading of the extant questions, issues, and threats facing national security practitioners
We produces regular compendiums on relevant scholarly work as well as organizes briefings in Washington for USG officials with scholars and academics. The project also commissions, tailors, and disseminates policy briefs on extant topics and issues.
Leadership
The Intersect Project is directed by Jeffrey Fields who is director of the Dornsife Washington, DC Program and associate professor of the practice of international relations at the University of Southern California. Dr. Fields was a Presidential Management Fellow, political-military analyst, and senior adviser at the U.S. Department of Defense. From 2009 until 2011 he was a foreign affairs officer and adviser to the Special Representative for Nonproliferation at the U.S. State Department. While working at State, Dr. Fields curated a compendium of abstracts and analysis of peer reviewed articles related nuclear nonproliferation for the bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation (ISN) and the bureau of Arm Control and Compliance (AVC). After leaving government, he established the Intersect Project to continue to highlight policy useful scholarly work for practitioners and connect scholars conducting policy relevant work with government officials.
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Prior to serving in government Dr. Fields was a research associate at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies and a researcher at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He has a PhD in politics and international relations from USC and an MA in international policy studies from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.