News

Science Diplomacy: A Pragmatic perspectives from the Inside

The article criticises the aforementioned traditional taxonomy of Science Diplomacy (as used in the 2010 landmark report published by the UK Royal Society and the AAAS), which distinguishes between “science in diplomacy”, “diplomacy for science” and “science for diplomacy”. The authors argue that while this approach has been useful for academic and theoretical discussions, the concept proves fairly imprecise in real life scenarios: neither does it capture all relevant elements nor does it provide clear political responsibilities. Accordingly and to better resonate with the tasks of government agencies, the authors suggest a more utilitarian science diplomacy framework based on three categories: actions designed to (1) directly advance a country’s national needs, (2) address cross-border interests and (3) meet global needs. Elaborating on these three categories, the article provides numerous examples of how Science Diplomacy facilitates international cooperation.

Gluckman, Turekian, Grimes, and Kishi (2018).Science Diplomacy: A Pragmatic perspectives from the Inside.

Available here.