Broadly, scholars have developed far better understanding of contextual issues – how a foreign political system works, the detailed history of key issues, and so forth – than high level government officials typically have. But scholars rarely understand the reality that policymaking entails enormous attention to specific operational steps and internal consensus building, even for something as “simple” as a presidential phone call to a foreign leader. These differences are so profound that if left to the course of natural events, very little cross-fertilization will occur between the scholarly and policymaking spheres. Each side has much to contribute to developing better policy, but they can work together only if scholars better understand the needs of policy makers and the latter make the effort to reach out to the scholarly community.