Pitfalls of Transnational Knowledge Governance: The Fragile Constitution of Expert Networks in EU External Relations

Think tanks have come to play a key role in the formulation of policies in the international sphere. While they are often deeply rooted in national contexts, they engage as part of transnational policy networks of public and private actors and contribute to international policy formulation. While much attention has been dedicated to how think tanks seek to become part of transnational governance and influence policy formulations, less attention has been dedicated to understanding attempts at knowledge governance beyond national contexts. The European Commission has long sought to establish EU-wide networks of think tanks. It considered the transnational organisation of external policy professionals crucial for improving European governance. As ‘epistemic communities’ they seem to fit well into the expertise-driven advocacy of the EU’s transnational policy processes. One of these cases is an EU-wide network of think tanks in the area of international development cooperation and humanitarian assistance. The Commission’s support led to the establishment of a formal network between several European think tanks, the European Think Tank Group (ETTG), in 2010. Over time, the relationship became increasingly fraught, contributing to a decline of the network before, since late 2017, the network has significantly scaled up its activity again. Understanding the case study of the ETTG is relevant as it sheds light on wider questions regarding the engagement with and promotion of transnational networks of external policy professionals, especially as competition between think tanks over policy formulation and access to policy-makers increases in the transnational arena. As a result, this paper contributes to questions about the formation, promotion and functioning of expert networks, their engagement with EU policy-makers and the role of expertise in the organisation of transnational networks in the EU.