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The Cult of the Irrelevant or Political Narrative?

This commentary discusses Michael Desch’s book The Cult of the Irrelevant: The Waning Influence of Social Science on National Security. Desch offers a respectable and important overview of the history of national security within the social sciences from World War I through current times. He focuses on the gradual irrelevancy of political science and particularly the field of international security. Desch, however, neglects the recent university activism and political narratives infusing academic writings and classroom discussions. This review argues that what contributes to the irrelevancy of social science and particularly national security is the new “cult” itself: demands placed on academia and students to become political activists, and not social scientists nor theorists who contribute rigorous academic research affecting domestic and foreign policy. It is the political advocacy narrative itself, embraced by university cultures, that pushes social science and the study of national security down the path of irrelevancy.