Unelected intellectuals with fancy degrees have had too great a role in determining how America interacts with other nations, at least to hear Penn professor Bruce Kuklick tell it.

Last night in the Penn Bookstore, a curious crowd gathered to hear Kuklick discuss Blind Oracles, his book that subject.

Kuklick's book offers an analysis of the role and impact of intellectuals in American foreign policy in the period between the end of World War Two and the Vietnam War.

"Intellectuals provided the rationale and justification" for American foreign policy in that period, Kuklick said.

According to Kuklick, though, there is a problem with intellectuals in foreign policy because they have trouble connecting theory and practice, often despite having been educated at educated at elite schools such as Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government and Johns Hopkins' School of Advanced International Studies.

Intellectuals such as former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara display a "disconnect between ideas and implementation," Kuklick said.

An additional problem intellectuals display is partisanship. They become "captured by the politics," he said. "You would hope that knowledge is neutral, but this is not the case."

In order to mitigate the impact intellectuals can sometimes have in foreign policy, Kuklick proposed a two pronged alternative.

First, intellectuals "need to learn that they do not know everything and should not expect others to follow their reasoning and analysis," he said. Second, "intellectuals should be humble about their expertise."

"We don't want to go back to the days of rolling a die to decide" what course of action to take, Kuklick said.

"The impact of intellectuals is more pervasive in the United States" than in many other nations, he added.

Students enjoyed the presentation and thought Kuklick provided an alternative way of looking at foreign policy.

The event was "a great occasion to hear other voices and interesting ideas," said Wharton MBA student Partha Vasudev, nevertheless adding that much of the evidence presented was anecdotal.