I’m not saying that all political scientists, historians, or economists ought to start their own blogs, but we shouldn’t penalize scholars who do engage in this activity and we might even consider rewarding it, the same way we should reward scholars who care enough about public service to use their talents and training working in the public or NGO sector. It would be good for the IR field if academic scholars were expected to write a few blog posts every now and then, if only for the purpose of self-examination. If the typical academic had to write a blog for two weeks, they might discover they had nothing to say to their fellow citizens, couldn’t say it clearly, or that nobody cared. That experience might even lead a few of my fellow academics to scratch their heads and ask if they were investing their research time appropriately, which would be all to the good.

– Extracted from Stephen M. Walt, “Happy Anniversary”, Foreign Policy, 6 January 2010 (via the Lowy Institute’s Interpreter).