ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the fundamentals of epistemic community and network theory and how such a community might have been considered to have existed in this field, based principally around Vienna from the mid nineteen-eighties into the early nineteen-nineties. Certainly Vienna in the mid-nineteen eighties was likely to be a fertile environment for the development of an epistemic community in the field of conventional arms control as the two blocs began to enter into more meaningful negotiations. During the 1980s, leadership in arms control was generally very obvious. The extent of national interest definition has fluctuated considerably, both over time and between states in the last 10 years. The development of comprehensive 'crisis stabilizing measures' which could be invoked in the case of internal, sub-national or ethnic conflict would also be a great step forward. Without such demonstrations Peter Haas's model is devalued and important data on different forms on other 'types' of policy community might well be lost.
