Summary

This timely handbook offers a comprehensive, critical overview of current research on knowledge and expertise in international politics that helps readers navigate the growing literature in the field and explore new research agendas.

The handbook is based on a shared understanding that knowledge and expertise matter in politics and that knowledge claims are a form of power warranting critical interrogation. The chapters of Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics take different theoretical starting points to explore the complex relationship between knowledge and politics and investigate whose knowledge matters politically, why, how, and with what effects. The contributions are organized into five perspectives, highlighting the role of actors, practices, contexts, structures, and relations in the (re)production, circulation, and contestation of knowledge. Further chapters explore central knowledge debates and cutting-edge avenues for future research in the International Relations (IR) discipline. The handbook addresses themes such as the ethics and politics of knowing, new technologies, and ways to democratize, decolonize, and pluralize politically relevant knowledge.

Bringing insights from different sub-disciplines and policy fields together in one place, Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics consolidates the international politics of knowledge as a new, transdisciplinary paradigm in the discipline, providing numerous points of connection with debates around pressing global challenges.

With original theoretical expositions and granular thematic case studies, it is an invaluable companion to all those interested in adopting knowledge and expertise approaches in research, teaching, and policy work.

Chapters 1, 16, 27, 45, and 67 of this work are available under the terms of a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 International open access licence. These parts of the work are free to read on Oxford Academic and offered as a free PDF download from OUP and selected open access locations.

Author Biography

Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Professor of International Politics, Aberystwyth University,Katarzyna Kaczmarska, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, University of Edinburgh,Xymena Kurowska, Associate Professor in International Relations, Central European University,Birgit Poopuu, Associate Professor of International Relations, Tallinn University,Andrea Warnecke, Assistant Professor in History and International Studies, Leiden University

Berit Bliesemann de Guevara is Professor of International Politics and Co-Founder of the Centre for the International Politics of Knowledge at Aberystwyth University. She has been the principal investigator and co-investigator of projects studying the role of knowledge and expertise in and after violent conflict in Colombia and Myanmar and of international research networks on knowledge in conflict, funded by UK and German research councils.

Katarzyna Kaczmarska is Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests centre on knowledge construction among scholars and practitioners of international politics, the theory and practice of academic freedom, and post-Soviet politics, as well as the ways in which socio-political contexts influence academic knowledge-making and use. She is the author of Making Global Knowledge in Local Contexts (Routledge, 2020).

Xymena Kurowska is Associate Professor in International Relations at Central European University in Vienna. She received her doctorate in political and social sciences from the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and works within International Political Sociology, using social and security theory, psychosocial and anthropological approaches, and relational and interpretive methodologies.

Birgit Poopuu is Associate Professor of International Relations and co-director of the Central and Eastern European Security Hub (CEESHub) at Tallinn University's School of Governance, Law, and Society. Her research is curious about the role of radical and nonviolent knowledge and experience within international politics, with a focus on feminist and decolonial approaches to peace and conflict studies. She is the Principal Investigator of the European Horizon Twinning grant "A critical relational perspective on peace & security in CEE".

Andrea Warnecke is Assistant Professor in History and International Studies at Leiden University's Institute for History. She holds a PhD in political and social sciences from the European University Institute, Florence. Her research on the practices of international organizations in peace and conflict is informed by several years of experience as a senior researcher and consultant on conflict, peacebuilding, and migration in think tanks, NGOs, and on behalf of government agencies and international organizations.

Foreword, Cynthia Enloe1. Introduction: Studying International Politics Through the Lens of Knowledge and Expertise, Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Katarzyna Kaczmarska, Xymena Kurowska, Birgit Poopuu, and Andrea WarneckePART I: KNOWLEDGE DEBATES IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS2. International Politics by Other Means: The Role of the Scholar in IR, Vineet Thakur3. International Relations Knowledge and Practice: The Crisis of Critical Theory?, Beate Jahn4. Gender and Knowledge (Re)Production in International Thought, Kimberly Hutchings5. Worlding and Worlds, David L. Blaney and Arlene B. Tickner6. Science and International Relations: Knowing and Making the International, Dagmar Vorlícek7. Not Knowing as Expertise: Knowledge and the Politics of Ignorance, Matthias Gross8. Knowing Violence in International Politics, Werner Distler and Mariam Salehi9. 'Artificial Intelligence' and the Production of Knowledge and Expertise in International Relations, Ingvild Bode and Hendrik Huelss10. Studying Knowledge: An Analytical Guide for International Politics, Audrey Alejandro11. Coloniality of Knowledge (Re)Production: Individual Entanglements and Collective Solidarities in Epistemic North-South Relationships, Siddharth TripathiPART II: ACTOR-CENTRED APPROACHES12. Actor-Centred Approaches to Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics, Andrea Warnecke and Berit Bliesemann de Guevara13. The Politics of Knowledge Production in International Organizations, Katharina Glaab and Nele Kortendiek14. Legal Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics, Mikkel Jarle Christensen and Mikael Rask Madsen15. Informal Ties and Expertise in Global Crisis Governance: An Exploration of Network Methodologies, Andrea Warnecke16. Intimate Networks and Strategic Knowledge in Peacebuilding Interventions, Roland Kostic and Berit Bliesemann de Guevara17. Deep Co-Production of Human Security at the Science-Politics Nexus, Šárka Waisová18. Quantified Expertise: Connecting Science and Politics in Global Governance, Justyna Bandola-Gill19. From Product to Process: Science and the Making of International Environmental Governance, Rolf Lidskog and Göran SundqvistPART III: PRACTICE APPROACHES20. Practice Approaches to Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics, Berit Bliesemann de Guevara and Andrea Warnecke21. The Embedded Study of International Knowledge Practices: Towards a Methodology of Ironic Immersion, Trine Villumsen Berling22. Thinking, Feeling, and Choosing: Pragmatism, Political Psychology, and the Intelligence Community, Janice Gross Stein23. Arts-Based Methods in IR: What Knowledges Become Possible, Saara Särmä and Juha A. Vuori24. The Co-Production of Expertise in Global Governance, Annabelle Littoz-Monnet25. Producing Knowledge to Problematize War: A Foucauldian Approach to Knowledge Practices, Christine Andrä26. Forensic Experts and Knowledge Practices in Transitional Justice Scenarios, María Fernanda Olarte-Sierra27. Algorithmic Knowledge and International Politics, Rocco Bellanova and Linda Monsees28. Assembling Knowledge Through Pilot Projects and Massive Open Online Courses in International Policymaking, Maria Martin de Almagro29. Instrument Constituencies and Spaces of Knowing Governance, Jan-Peter Voß30. War and Peace: Techno-Political Assemblages in the Postcolonial Middle East, Nikolas Kosmatopoulos and Chloe NasrPART IV: CONTEXT-CENTRED APPROACHES31. Context-Centred Approaches to Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics, Katarzyna Kaczmarska32. Hierarchies and Contexts in International Relations Knowledge Production, Beverley Loke and Catherine Owen33. A Broadening of International Relations: Knowledge Production Beyond West-Centrism, Yong-Soo Eun34. Queer Knowing and Knowledge: The Case of Queer IR, Cai Wilkinson35. The Problem with Cultural Contexts, Christian Reus-Smit36. Academic Freedom and the Contexts of Knowledge Production, Katarzyna Kaczmarska37. The Global Easts in the Geopolitics of Knowledge: The Decolonial Imperative, Martin Müller and Alexandra Yatsyk38. The Politics of International Relations: Glimpses from Chile and Uruguay, Paulo Ravecca and Camilo López Burian39. The Everyday Practices of Making a Global Discipline, Ari Jerrems, Mariela Cuadro, and Melody Fonseca40. Creating a Global International Relations Section at the International Studies Association, Beatrix Futak-Campbell41. Experts and Public Trust in the Policy Field of Climate Change, Alexander RuserPART V: STRUCTURAL APPROACHES42. Structural Approaches to Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics, Birgit Poopuu and Xymena Kurowska43. The Violens in International Relations: Can We Produce Knowledge Differently?, Birgit Poopuu, Elisabeth Schweiger, and Elena Simon44. Knowledge Regimes and the Postcolonial Hierarchies of International Health Quantification, Luis Aue45. Regimes of Power/Non-Knowledge in Global Politics, Claudia Aradau, Lucrezia Canzutti, and Sarah Perret46. Experts in Conflict: Having Been There but Not Being From There, Victor Anas and Suda Perera47. Queering Humanitarian Response Through LGBTIQ People's Expertise, Jamie J. Hagen, Anupama Ranawana, and Emma Pritchard48. Social Movements and Insurgent Social Theory: Making Theoretical Knowledge Through Collective Action, Alf Gunvald Nilsen and Laurence Cox49. EU Foreign Policy Ideas as International Relations of Domination: A Neo-Gramscian Perspective, Michael Merlingen50. Poverty, Inequality, and Knowledge in Development Politics, Gloria NovovicPART VI: RELATIONAL APPROACHES51. Relational Approaches to Knowledge and Expertise in International Politics, Xymena Kurowska and Birgit Poopuu52. Ways of Knowing: A Relational Account, Patrick Thaddeus Jackson and Sujin Heo53. Relationality with Asian Characteristics? Healing the Columbus Syndrome of International Relations, Emilian Kavalski54. Anthropological Approaches to Knowledge in International Politics, Emma Mc Cluskey55. Fielding Knowledge: The Problematic Case of Human Rights Advocacy and Genocide Labelling, Alistair Markland56. Field Methodology and the Relational Emergence of an 'Interventionary Object', Anna Danielsson57. Being as a Mode of Knowing: Feminist Knowledge on Affect, Linda Åhäll58. Transnational Feminist Solidarity: Story as a Relational Approach to Knowledge Production, Aytak Dibavar59. Complexity Thinking, Posthumanism, and International Relations Knowledge, Erika Cudworth and Stephen Hobden60. Pluriversal Knowledge and Shamans: The Aymara Yatiris as Knowers and Diplomats, Amaya QuerejazuPART VII: DISRUPTIONS AND MEDITATIONS61. Cosmologies, Sciences, Planetary Politics: Reflections on 'Knowledge' in New Registers, Milja Kurki62. The Future of Academic Expertise: Speculative European Bureaucratic Fabulations, Jonathan Luke Austin and Anna Leander63. Racism and Racialization in International Relations Knowledge, Amal Abu-Bakare64. Reflections on Imagination of Future and AI, Toni Cerkez, James Finnis, Milja Kurki, Helen Miles, and Joseph Thurgate65. Hermeneutical Ignorance and 'Strong Objectivity' in Knowledge Production about the Russo-Ukrainian War, Thomas Fetzer, Xymena Kurowska, and Kateryna Zarembo66. The Necessity of Being Negative: Critique and Care in the Anthropocene, Philip Conway67. Creating Knowledge by Editing a Handbook: A Self-Critical Reflection, Berit Bliesemann de Guevara, Katarzyna Kaczmarska, Xymena Kurowska, Birgit Poopuu, and Andrea Warnecke

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