Epistemological Security in the Global South: the BRICS Academic Forum.

The international order is passing through significant transformations. In an article published in 2021, Emanuel Adler and Alena Drieschova propose the concept of epistemological security, affirming that epistemes stand at the core of the liberal international order. Epistemological security focuses on shared knowledge and how people and states strive to safeguard a particular 'truth' concerning the international order. The idea that knowledge interacts with power, politics and diplomacy is not new, found in authors from Foucault to Spivak. The novelty of Adler and Drischova's proposal lies in connecting epistemes and knowledge production to maintaining an international order. Although other authors, like Xymena Kurowska or even Robert Cox, discuss the intersection between epistemes and international politics, epistemological security still deserves further development. In this paper, I propose to bring this concept to the emerging literature on the influence of scholars on international politics. Since epistemological security structures the existing international order, challengers to such an order may seek to alter shared 'truths' regarding the international system. Hence, focusing on potential challengers, BRICS arises as an optimal object of analysis. Some observers perceive BRICS as a counter-hegemonic bloc formed by states from the global South. Furthermore, within BRICS, there are two organisms composed mainly of scholars: the BRICS Think Tank Council (BTTC) and the BRICS Academic Forum (BAF). These two forums met before the summit of heads of state. Then, they produce policy proposals that are sent to BRICS leaders. Hence, these forums represent two spaces where scholars from different countries share and discuss knowledge, directly influencing international politics. BAF and BTTC, however, have not been the focus of extensive research. Therefore, this paper seeks to comprehend how scholars from the Global South share knowledge concerning the international system. Thus, I will conduct a narrative analysis of the official publications by BAF and BTTC. Most of these publications are available online. Mapping these narratives, I can find patterns of values and beliefs these scholars share. As epistemological security proposes, states vow to secure their knowledge and 'truths' concerning the world. Identifying such shared knowledge among academics from BRICS becomes a promising contribution to the literature due to this group's growing importance.