epistemic community

epistemic community, in international relations, a network of professionals with recognized expertise and authoritative claims to policy-relevant knowledge in a particular issue area. Such professionals may have different backgrounds and may be located in different countries, but they share a set of norms that motivate their common action, a set of beliefs about central problems in their area of expertise, shared criteria for evaluating knowledge, and a common policy enterprise. The concept of epistemic community was first introduced by John Ruggie and then refined by Peter M. Haas. These scholars focused on the role played by networks of actors and the consensus they hold about causes and effects on state policy and interstate cooperation.

Globalization has increased the importance of epistemic communities by creating a more interdependent and complex world. States increasingly depend on each other’s policy choices in trying to coordinate common policy responses and solve common problems on issues such as ecological degradation, economic and monetary policy, and strategic security. Uncertainty about how to respond to these complex problems generates demand for informed advice about the causes and interrelationships of particular social or physical processes and the consequences of possible responses. Epistemic communities are one provider of this information.

Epistemic communities exercise influence by interpreting these complex problems and possible responses for decision makers within national governments and international organizations. Their influence comes partly from their claim to authoritative and consensual knowledge based on their professional expertise. Epistemic communities influence governance in more direct ways as well, because they shape many of the stages of policy making, both domestically and internationally.

Epistemic communities can first frame an issue so that policy makers understand that it is a problem, as experts demonstrated in the issues of ozone depletion and biodiversity management. Epistemic communities then help set the political agenda by clarifying the importance of the problem and the consequences of not acting. Their causal knowledge about the sources and remedies of a problem contribute to policy formulation as well as policy innovation. For example, scientific evidence demonstrated that chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were depleting the stratospheric ozone layer. A transnational epistemic community of atmospheric scientists and policy makers gathered and spread this information to governments and the manufacturers of CFCs.

Epistemic communities also shape the stage of policy choice, because they use their professional expertise to lay out the consequences of different courses of action as well as of not acting. The ozone epistemic community used its expertise and causal knowledge to help policy makers develop domestic and international regulations on CFC manufacture and consumption. In the case of California biodiversity, epistemic communities demonstrated that, because of the interrelated nature of biodiversity, management of natural resources could not be achieved unilaterally and required interagency cooperation. Epistemic communities then suggested how such cooperation might take place.

Their causal knowledge provides a basis for social learning about what constitutes a problem, why, and what can and should be done about it. This learning, mediated by epistemic communities, occurs through international negotiations and cooperation in formal and informal institutional settings. The influence of epistemic communities outlasts their direct involvement when they create institutions that reflect their cause-and-effect understanding of a particular issue. These causal ideas become institutionalized in organizations and continue to shape how problems are defined and solutions identified.