IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ceasxx/v77y2025i2p175-200.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Epistemic Communities and ‘Agents of Influence’: Insights from Soviet Intelligence Documents

Author

Listed:
  • Sanshiro Hosaka

Abstract

The peaceful end of the Cold War highlighted the power of ideas diffused through transnational networks of scientists—epistemic communities—in international politics. Drawing on Soviet intelligence documents, this article explores a hidden dimension of the relationship between Western scholars and autocracies: ‘agents of influence’. Both epistemic communities and agents of influence share a common policy enterprise, such as the prevention of nuclear war. Soviet intelligence sought out ‘sophisticated’ foreigners whose views were partially congruent with Soviet perspectives, gradually broadening common ground, and prompting them to attempt to influence a target state’s public, parliament or government.

Suggested Citation

  • Sanshiro Hosaka, 2025. "Epistemic Communities and ‘Agents of Influence’: Insights from Soviet Intelligence Documents," Europe-Asia Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 77(2), pages 175-200, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ceasxx:v:77:y:2025:i:2:p:175-200
    DOI: 10.1080/09668136.2025.2463399
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09668136.2025.2463399
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09668136.2025.2463399?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:ceasxx:v:77:y:2025:i:2:p:175-200. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/ceas .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.