Similar to international organisations and agencies, intergovernmental organisations can be looked at from the perspective of science diplomacy.
Examples:
The Central European Initiative (CEI) was founded in Budapest on 11 November 1989. It is a regional intergovernmental forum committed to supporting European integration and sustainable development through cooperation between and among its Member States and with the European Union, international and regional organisations as well as with other public or private institutions and non-governmental organisations. While acting as a platform for political dialogue, the CEI has developed a strong operational, result-oriented approach to regional cooperation. It combines multilateral diplomacy and fund, programme and project management as both donor and recipient. In 2020, the CEI published a study on Science Diplomacy in CEI Member States, providing a mapping of how Science Diplomacy is approached by these countries. The main purpose was to make a contribution to the global conversation on Science Diplomacy, by bringing in the perspectives of Central, Eastern and Southeastern European countries. The report is available here.
The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an independent intergovernmental organisation supported by 34 states. ECMWF is both a research institute and a 24/7 operational service, producing and disseminating numerical weather predictions to its member states. This data is fully available to the national meteorological services in the member states. The Centre also offers a catalogue of forecast data that can be purchased by businesses worldwide and other commercial customers. The supercomputer facility (and associated data archive) at ECMWF is one of the largest of its type in Europe and member states can use 25% of its capacity for their own purposes.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is the world’s central intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the nuclear field. It works for the safe, secure and peaceful uses of nuclear science and technology, contributing to international peace and security and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
The Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) was founded in 1996 in relation to the ban of nuclear explosions by everyone on the Earth’s surface, in the atmosphere, underwater and underground. Many attempts were made during the Cold War to negotiate a comprehensive test ban, but it was only in the 1990s that the Treaty became a reality. The CTBTO’s main tasks are the promotion of the Treaty and the build-up of the verification regime so that it is operational when the Treaty enters into force. The Treaty has a unique and comprehensive verification regime to make sure that no nuclear explosion goes undetected: The International Monitoring System (IMS) will, when complete, consist of 337 facilities worldwide to monitor the planet for signs of nuclear explosions; On-site inspections can be dispatched to the area of a suspicious nuclear explosion if the data from the IMS indicate that a nuclear test has taken place there. The huge amount of data collected by the stations can also be used for other purposes than detecting nuclear explosions. They can provide tsunami warning centres with almost real-time information about an underwater earthquake, thus helping to warn people earlier and possibly saving lives. The International Data Centre at the CTBTO’s headquarters in Vienna receives gigabytes of data from the global monitoring stations.
Visit sites: https://www.cei.int/, https://www.ecmwf.int/, https://www.iaea.org/, https://www.ctbto.org
Keywords: Global collaboration, Collective achievements, Publications, Computing, Nuclear, Safety and security, Safeguards and verification
