鈥淲e are an epistemic community writing about epistemic communities,鈥� Dr. Jeff Knopf, a senior lecturer with the 51福利 (51福利) department of National Security Affairs (NSA), said with a chuckle about a recent workshop he hosted for the 51福利 Center on Contemporary Conflict (CCC).
So what exactly is an epistemic community and why would 51福利 invest time, money and man hours hosting a workshop to both build and study one on multinational collaboration on non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD)?
鈥淎n epistemic community is a group of knowledgeable experts with a set of shared beliefs that emerges during times of uncertainty to influence policy makers,鈥� said Sara Kutchesfahani, a post-doctoral research associate at Los Alamos National Laboratory and one of 24 participants at that aforementioned CCC workshop on non-proliferation.
Kutchesfahani presented her doctoral research on the events that led to the creation of the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC).
鈥淚n the case of Argentina and Brazil鈥檚 nuclear non-proliferation agreement, much of the work was done and much of the decision-making occurred around tables 鈥� similar to what we are doing here,鈥� Kutchesfahani said.
鈥淭he epistemic community was integral in moving both governments toward a non-proliferation agreement. Scientists in nuclear facilities began talking to one another and eventually collaborating. We cannot undervalue the importance of the epistemic community,鈥� she continued.
If epistemic communities have proven effective and necessary in causing long-term policy changes as shown in the ABACC example, why does the CCC need to study them?
鈥淭his workshop began out of conversations I had with some of the faculty in the NSA department,鈥� said Knopf. 鈥淲e felt like there was a gap between how the academic literature described cooperation in the international community and what we were experiencing in our work. The literature focused on negotiations, and whether they resulted in a treaty being signed and ratified.
鈥淲e wanted to look at how nations were handling issues after treaties were in place, such as if one nation suspected another of cheating on the treaty, or if unexpected problems emerged, such as the danger of non-state actors obtaining WMD.
鈥淭here is a lot more international cooperation that鈥檚 happening on issues of national security than most people realize,鈥� Knopf continued. 鈥淚t arises out of necessity; many nations are facing global and transnational threats. It鈥檚 become difficult for one nation to tackle these issues on its own, so states are improvising and forming new types of cooperation. These are the types of communities we are looking at to see what ingredients made for successful instances of multinational cooperation and which didn鈥檛.鈥�
And as Kutchesfahani points out, epistemic communities often take a long time to bring about policy changes: 鈥淚t took 20 years of steady work by scientists in both countries before ABACC was signed, but the steps along the way were key for ABACC鈥檚 success.鈥�
David Santoro, a workshop participant and senior fellow for nonproliferation and disarmament at the Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies agreed that the process is as important as the eventual outcome.
鈥淲hile there haven鈥檛 been as many formal successes in international negotiations with Iran, there has been a lot of progress made in dialogues. These steps need to be appreciated for the progress they represent,鈥� he noted.
And just exactly what change is CCC trying to bring about through the epistemic community it鈥檚 building?
鈥淲e want to let policy makers know how to elicit as much cooperation as possible. Every country has its own threat perceptions, and it鈥檚 hard to get people on the same page,鈥� said Knopf. 鈥淲e鈥檙e hoping through this workshop, and the published papers that emerge from it, that we will be able to offer practical advice on what leads to more effective implementation of WMD and nuclear non-proliferation agreements.鈥�
Participants at the workshop presented research on a variety of efforts intended to prevent the spread of WMD, such as the Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) program, the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), and the Six-Party Talks on North Korea鈥檚 nuclear activities. They will use the feedback they received during the workshop to refine their papers. The plan is to then compile the papers into a cohesive whole for publication and also to present the key findings that emerge to policy makers.