SCIENCE DIPLOMACY

Alik Ismail-Zadeh

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Definition

Science diplomacy refers to the use of science to build bridges between countries and to promote scientific cooperation as an essential element of international relations policy, creating fora for thought and analysis, and initiating multi-partner activities. Science brings nations together with technology and innovation to address cross-border challenges existing across the Earth and its space environment. Although scientific collaboration cannot resolve complex political problems between countries, the nature of the scientific enterprise and the joint goals of seeking solutions to scientific problems, whatever the political climate, keeps the door open, helps to build trust, and reinforces the idea of global cooperation to solve problems of mutual relevance. In this way, promoting the value of science, as a global public good, helps to create a more peaceful and prosperous world.

Science diplomacy reply on an interrelation between scientific outreach and diplomatic work to facilitate international scientific cooperation, to address challenging problems of the modern society, and to build international partnerships for the benefit of societies. Science diplomacy is required to promote national needs and cross-border interests as well as to deal with global issues, such as (i) climatic and environmental preservations, (ii) disaster risk reduction, (iii) food and water security; (iv) development of renewable energy; (v) space exploration, and some others.

In 2010, the Royal Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) noted in the report “New Frontiers in Science Diplomacy” that science diplomacy has three major dimensions, which lead to three types of activities. Science in Diplomacy provides scientific evidence-based advices to inform and support foreign policy objectives. The COVID-19 pandemic showed clearly a major role of science in diplomacy informing the governments and the societies on the SARS-CoV-2 virus and providing scientific evidences to help policymakers to take relevant decisions at most challenging times. Diplomacy for Science facilitates international research cooperation. One of the examples of the activities is free circulation of scientists and related visa issues, which cannot be solved without diplomatic relationship. Science for Diplomacy allows improving international relations using scientific cooperation.

History

Science diplomacy started to emerge at the end of the XIXth century. The first formal science diplomacy action happen in 1899, when representatives of European and US academies met in Wiesbaden (Germany) to establish the International Association of Academies (IAA). At this meeting, the Royal Society discussed a proposal on international cooperation in measurements of an arc of the meridian running through the African territories controlled by Britain, France, and Germany. This cooperation required political agreement on the scientific work in the region between those three countries, and the relevant academies agreed to work with their governments to allow for free circulation of scientists in the region to perform the scientific research. IAA was active until the First World War discussing, initiating, and promoting science diplomacy and international scientific cooperation among nations.

 

However, while diplomacy for science worked well until the early 20th century, the international scientific cooperation was not restored after the war for several decades. Discussion between existing international scientific societies and national academies was limited, forcing scientists to devise a new model of cooperation and science diplomacy. After intensive discussions in 1918, the leadership of several scientific academies decided to establish an international research council (IRC) for fostering science diplomacy and international scientific cooperation. The IRC was active until 1931, when it was renamed the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU). Therefore, the creation of IAA started a modern era of science diplomacy.

After the establishment of the United Nations organization and its several agencies dealing with science, e.g., UNESCO, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), and some others, activities of ICSU and its Member organizations (international unions and national academies) concentrated more on international scientific cooperation rather than diplomacy for science, since the UN agencies took a lead in diplomacy being directly linked to governments of UN Member countries.

Science Diplomacy Efforts

The role of science has been dramatically changed at the beginning of the XXIst century calling scientists to help societies and governments in solving urgent and challenging problems related to sustainability. Natural sciences and social sciences were somehow not well linked to contribute together to interdisciplinary action-oriented research. To help development of inter- and transdisciplinary research and strengthen the role of science in decisionmaking, the International Science Council (ISC) was established in 2018 as a merger of ICSU and the International Social Science Council (ISSC). Alik Ismail-Zadeh was elected the Secretary General of the Council.

Being a non-governmental organization with a unique global membership that brings together over 200 international scientific unions and associations as well as national and regional scientific organizations including academies and research councils, ISC acts as the global voice for science. As part of that mission, the Council “(i) speaks for the value of all science and evidence-informed decision-making; (ii) stimulates and supports international scientific research and scholarship on major issues of global concern; (iii) articulates scientific knowledge on such issues in the public domain; (iv) promotes the continued and equal advancement of scientific rigor, creativity and relevance in all parts of the world; and (v) defends the free and responsible practice of science” (ISC webpage). As a leader of the Scientific and Technological Community Major Group at the United Nations, ISC works at the intersection of science and policy ensuring that science is integrated into international policy development and that relevant policies take into consideration both scientific knowledge and the needs of science. ISC promotes science diplomacy via its affiliated body, the International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA), which is “a collaborative platform for policy exchange, capacity building and research aiming to enhance the global science-policy interface to improve the potential for evidence-informed policy formation at sub-national, national and transnational levels” (INGSA webpage).

Science diplomacy efforts led to development of regional and international scientific organizations such as CERN, CESAM, IIASA, and ICTP. CERN started its development with the UNESCO resolution in 1951 calling to establish a European Council for Nuclear Research as a world-class physics research facility and “to stop the brain drain to America that had begun during the Second World War, and to provide a force for unity in post-war Europe” (CERN webpage). In 2002 UNESCO promoted to establish another regional scientific institution “Synchrotron-Light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East (SESAME)” to foster international research collaboration and to promote peace in the region.

For the last 50 years since its establishment, the International Institute for Applied System Analysis (IIASA) promotes international research cooperation in most challenging problems related to the society “to identify policy solutions to reduce human footprints, enhance the resilience of natural and socioeconomic systems, and help achieve the sustainable development goals” (IIASA webpage). The recent Vienna statement on science diplomacy discussed at the meeting organized by IIASA calls for the need for international scientific cooperation and multilateralism.

Created more than 50 years ago during the Cold War era, the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) provided a unique communication between scientists from the East and West. ICTP emerged as “a focal point of cooperation between the North and South, aiming to help scientists from developing countries overcome their isolation and contribute to state-of-the-art research in physics and mathematics” (ICTP webpage).

My Efforts in Science Diplomacy

Since 2007 I contributed to international scientific collaboration and science diplomacy working closely with intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations such as the International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG), International Science Council (ISC), World Meteorological Organization (WMO), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and its science programmes, including International Geoscience Programme, and scientific institutions, including the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) and East African Institute for Fundamental Research (EAIFR), Group of Earth Observation (GEO), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR).

 

A list of my recent activities in science diplomacy:

 

-          2023 UN High-Level Political Forum

-          2021 NASEM Science Diplomacy Workshop

-          2019 IUGG Centennial Anniversary at UNESCO

-          2019 World Climate Research Programme Symposium

-          2019 United Nations Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction

-          2019 CTBTO Science and Technology Conference

-          2017 Global Forum on Science and Technology for Disaster Resilience

-          2017 United Nations Global Platform on Disaster Risk Reduction

-          2016 Plenary XIII of the Group of Earth Observation

-          2015 United Nations Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction