Marshall Shulman: Bridging the Gap between the Academic and Policymaking Worlds and Building Transnational Communities

Authors

• Cynthia A. Roberts, CUNY Hunter CollegeFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

Abstract

This essay examines Marshall D. Shulman’s legacy as a scholar of Soviet foreign policy, a scholar-practitioner who moved between academic and policymaking worlds, and a builder of transnational expert communities. It highlights Shulman’s early challenge to essentialist interpretations of Soviet foreign policy, his conception of the U.S.-Soviet relationship as a “limited adversary relationship,” and his emphasis on managing nuclear competition while avoiding catastrophic war. The essay also traces Shulman’s role in arms control, Track II diplomacy, scientific and expert exchanges, and the development of Russian and Soviet studies at Columbia University. Drawing on the author’s experience as Shulman’s student and participant in subsequent transnational networks, it considers how these intellectual and institutional legacies shaped later generations of scholarship and security-policy analysis.

Comments

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