The New York Times has a story today, with quotes from Jeffrey Isaac (see also Henry’s post), Joseph Nye, Peter Katzenstein, Rogers Smith, and Skip Lupia. Lupia says:
bq. Mr. Lupia, whose background is in applied mathematics and economics, concedes that political science is not quite like the natural sciences. First, the subjects under study “can argue back.” But he maintains that it uses the same rigorous mechanisms to evaluate observations as any other science.
Indeed.
And there’s this irony:
bq. Yet even as he is trying to restrict National Science Foundation financing of social science, the Defense Department has been recruiting scholars in the same fields to work on security issues like terrorism, Iraq and China’s military. The nation must embrace “eggheads and ideas,” Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has said, to meet potential national threats.
Lee’s post summarizes the political science eggheads who have just been embraced.
[Hat tip to Brandon Bartels.]