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History matters

A better understanding of history can help policymakers.

Good policymaking requires a wide range of evidence: statistics, social studies, modelling and economics. History is often absent from this list despite the fact that understanding what history is, and how it can help, is as important as other kinds of evidence when it comes to policymaking.

The long-delayed Chilcot Inquiry is a recent example of importance placed on history. One of the Inquiry’s main aims is to ‘to identify the lessons that can be learned… [to] ensure that, if we face similar situations in future, the government of the day is best equipped to respond to those situations in the most effective manner in the best interests of the country’. What lessons those are and how they can be applied may at first seem just a reform process of changes that may or may not happen. But in thinking about the impact of Iraq, the lessons will go further and continue longer than Chilcot’s eventual publication. But simply stating that history can help policymaking is not enough. The question then becomes: how do we properly apply that historical context to future policy decisions? For our latest Institute for Government publication, 'What is the Value of History in Policymaking', we held a series of seminars with Whitehall officials and academics to talk about the contribution history makes to the policy process. It became clear from these sessions that there is a demand for access to historical knowledge and expertise. Participants saw many reasons why it might be useful: history might be the background to a policy area; it might provide parallels for current concerns; it could help bring perspective to a complicated series of events; it could frame a debate; it could make sense of competing narratives. But the seminars revealed that one big impediment was the difficulty in Whitehall in understanding how history and other humanities subjects can be used in a practical, timely and appropriate fashion. The phrase ‘learning the lessons from history’ is thrown around without sufficient thought about what it means. The seminars also discussed options for getting more academics into Whitehall or helping officials know who to call upon for professional expertise. They also talked about the various impediments to doing this – whether finding the right person quickly enough, what kind of research was needed and how it fitted both academic and Whitehall needs. They discussed culture clash and how knowledge could best be transmitted. They also talked about the problems for academics, not just in terms of career incentives but also simply having the time, the resources and the skills in order to engage. As a recent report on academic engagement suggests that the incentives for academics are still very poor. For some public engagement can actually feel detrimental to their career. There is still a lot of prejudice and confusion surrounding what engagement is, how it can be demonstrated and why it can be valued alongside high quality research. Finally, the seminars explored the value of history and intercultural learning beyond just its immediate policy impact. One official from the Treasury talked about the importance of getting staff there to get outside of a static mindset, to see how things could have been or could now be different. Officials talked about how historical perspective had been extremely useful both when dealing with the 2008 financial crash and in how they continued to think about staff development and capability. The lessons from Iraq also came up in one of our seminars, particularly the formative effect the conflict has had on current humanitarian intervention. One participant wondered how far different perspectives on the August 2013 parliamentary vote on Syrian intervention depended on whether the person’s main frame of reference was Iraq or the failures to intervene in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia. It was a reminder that the complications of history should not be seen as problem for policymaking, but rather a necessary dimension that needs to be understood. If we are to get better historical and intercultural knowledge into policymaking, both Whitehall and academia need to consider more practically the barriers and opportunities for doing so. Academia needs to consider what the incentives should be for policy engagement, and what support academics need to improve in this area. And as Whitehall continues to professionalise policy and open it up to more and different kinds of evidence and methods, it needs to think about how the use of history can be employed better. The fact that history is so sorely needed, available and can be made useful is an opportunity that should be taken up. Maybe this can be one lesson that it is possible to learn.
Keywords
Academia
Publisher
Institute for Government

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