Knowledge, Power, and International Policy Coordination (STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS)

Demonstrates that control over knowledge and information is an important determinant of international policy coordination and the difficulty of achieving it

The increasing complexity of the world's problems has escalated both the need for international policy coordination. With that in mind, the contributors to this volume assess what happens to the distribution of power when policymakers rely on the counsel of technical experts to make decisions of international importance. Because the way states identify and respond to problems depends not only on how policymakers understand of the issues but also on how the issues are represented by their advisers, the contributors examine the growing role that epistemic communities play in several areas: facilitating governmental learning; articulating the cause-and- effect relationships of global problems; helping to discern state interests; framing the issues for collective debate; proposing specific policies; and identifying salient points for international negotiation.

Peter M. Haas is an associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is a co-editor of Institutions for the Earth: Sources of Effective International Environmental Protection and the author of Saving the Mediterranean: The Politics of International Environmental Cooperation.