Private Military Companies as ‘Epistemic Communities’

The TAC's ‘Intellectual Campaign’ (2000–2004): Social Movements and Epistemic Communities

“…However, the idea of an epistemic community extends past the somewhat passive notion of a consultancy-based group. In this respect, epistemic communities often engage with decision-makers in an attempt to interpret, frame, influence and optimise the solutions to problems within a particular issue area (Haas, 2001;Jones, 2006;Youde, 2005). Politically, epistemic communities can even be perceived to fulfil the role of a 'countervailing power to dominant policy discourses and practices' within the state (Pieterse, 2006), as the case of the TAC, described below, clearly demonstrates.…”