On Thursday 2 May, Blavatnik School of Government Visiting Professor Joe Nye gave an informal master class to MPP students and members of faculty and staff.

Professor Nye discussed his experiences moving between academia and the United States government. The former Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, he was appointed to an advisory role on non-proliferation policy in the administration of President Carter. He soon found that many habits he'd formed as an academic were 'useless' in a public service role.

Reflecting on what he wished he'd known before he went into government, Professor Nye said that while academics are expected and encouraged to seek perfection in their work, in government there is no time for perfection. 'Time,' he said, 'makes all the difference. Situations develop quickly, and paper memos rapidly become irrelevant. The ability to conduct a fast, effective briefing in a short amount of time is vital.

Another difference Professor Nye discussed was one of output. Academics can write papers themselves, and authorship is an important goal. However, government is like a machine: it produces 'reams of information and paper', which no one can possibly write alone. In this environment, authorship is less important than ensuring one's ideas are included.

The informal conversation format gave Professor Nye a chance to answer questions from Dean Ngaire Woods and MPP students on a variety of topics relating to the organisation of government, as well as to international security and soft power, on which he is an expert. Students posed questions about the relationship between academia and government; the decline of US soft power; drone attacks in Pakistand and Yemen and the implications for drone use elsewhere; combining soft power and hard power to create 'smart power'; the influence of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India and China); and whether today's British foreign policy is on a backward trajectory to the 1960s.

Professor Nye also provided practical guidance, explaining that the most important skill for university students to develop is what he calls 'contextual intelligence': how we adjust our leadership skills to different situations. Many of today's students will spend their careers working in multiple sectors, so an understanding of how culture, power structures and the needs of followers differ between these sectors is essential for success.

MPP student Jonnie Beddall found Professor Nye inspiring: 'His success in both academia and government sets a rare example for aspiring public servants who not only want to shape policy, but to make a material difference to people's lives'.