Description
This paper analyses the various types of knowledge produced by think tanks as well as their practices in relation with NATO. To do so, this paper focuses on the competition between think tanks and their understandings of the world as well as the recommendations that they provide.
Building upon a two months ethnographic study of think tanks in Brussels as well as a dozen semi-structured interviews with think tankers as well as NATO employees, this paper assesses the practices and discourses that shape the interaction between experts and practioners in the field of international relations and security.
The first part of this paper provides a short literature review on epistemic communities as well as a short overview of the literature regarding practices and discourses. The second part of this paper provides a discourse analysis of the reports published by think tanks. The discourse analysis is inductive, with a special focus on recommendations and representations of Russia provided by think tanks. The third part of this paper relies on interviews at NATO and with think tankers and aims to outline the practices that shape the interaction between think tanks and NATO and the specific discourses and knowledge that circulate between the two actors.
This paper is part of an on-going PhD research.
