Haas

Knowledge, Power, and International Policy Coordination 
Peter M. Haas has published on international relations theory, constructivism, international environmental politics, global governance, and the interplay of science and international institutions at the international level. 
Thesis: 
“An epistemic community is a network of professionals with recognized expertise and competence in a particular domain and an authoritative claim to policy-relevant knowledge within that domain or issue-area. 1. Shared set of normative and principled beliefs; 2. Shared causal beliefs; 3. Shared notions of validity; 4. A common policy enterprise.” (3)
Within an epistemic community bias must be put to the side (and recognized by the members) to ensure they create the best solution.
Table 1: Approaches to the Study of Policy
Approach	
Level of analysis and area of study	
Factors that influence policy change	
Mechanisms and effects of change	
Primary actors
Epistemic communities approach	
Transnational; state administrators and international institutions	
Knowledge; causal and principled beliefs	
Diffusion of information and learning; shifts in the patterns of decision making	
Epistemic communities; individual states
Nonrealist approaches	
International; states in political and economic systems	
Distribution of capabilities; distribution of costs and benefits from actions	
Technological change and war; shifts in the available power resources of states and in the nature of the game	
States
Dependency theory-based approaches	
International; global system	
Comparative advantage of states in the global division of labor; control over economic resources	
Changes in production; shifts in the location of states in the global division of labor.	
States in the core, periphery, and semiperiphery multinational corporations
Poststructuralist approaches	
International; discourse and language	
Usage and meanings of words	
Discourse; the opening of new political spaces and opportunities	
Unclear