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 – which they helped develop – has been useful for academic and theoretical discussions, the concept proves fairly imprecise in real-life scenarios. This taxonomy, they argue, does not capture all relevant elements nor does it indicate 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.

Turchetti, Simone, Lalli, Roberto (2020) | Envisioning a “science diplomacy 2.0”: on data, global challenges, and multi-layered networks

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41599-020-00636-2
Relevance: All Modules

The term “science diplomacy” broadly identifies interactions between scientific and foreign policy communities connected to the promotion of international scientific exchanges (also as a way to establish constructive relations between countries), and the provision of scientific advice on issues of relevance to more than one nation. Science diplomacy initiatives have been positively portrayed by practitioners, while recent scholarship has underscored the need for these actions to more directly address social and global challenges. In this article the authors sketch the contours of a data-driven “science diplomacy 2.0” that could actually be seen as more directly tackling these challenges.

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