Scientists under Anarchy: Use of Scientific Expertise in Global Governance

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to bridge the approaches of two fields of study – international relations and science and technology studies – in order to explore the nature of the science-policy interactions in global governance. It first reviews existing theorizations in the two fields on how scientific expertise is utilized in addressing issues and problems of global significance. The paper goes on to suggest future research topics for studying the use of scientific expertise in global governance – (i) organizational diversity of global scientific advisory bodies, (ii) tradeoffs among the attributes of effective global scientific advice, (iii) differential impacts of scientific input on different stages of global policymaking, (iv) accountability problem in the global context, and (v) degree of knowledge synthesis as opposed to knowledge generation.