8.3 National and Regional Approaches to Science Diplomacy

AAAS (2005) | National Approaches to Science Diplomacy: An Education Resource (reading)

• • https://www.sciencediplomacy.org/national-approaches-science-diplomacy-education-resource
  • Relevance: Module 2 and Module 5

In 2005, the AAAS published an overview gathering a number of papers illustrating how science diplomacy is perceived differently in different countries. Some contributions describe different national approaches each seeking to address a variety of goals: Some are driven to increase the nation’s economic growth and innovation; others focus on strengthening the national influence and global connectivity. Analysing the perceptions of science diplomacy in Canada, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, and the US, the authors provide an overview of different national approaches to science diplomacy, especially of the different drivers, motivations, mechanisms and tools that countries are using to articulate their foreign policy priorities.

Distinctive Voices (2013) | Science for Diplomacy and Diplomacy for Science (video)

• • Relevance: Module 2 and 5

In this video, Dr Frances Colón, Former Deputy Science and Technology Adviser to the US Secretary of State (2012-2017), explains how technological capacity-building and science-based policymaking are promoted internationally. She describes the relevance for and relation of science and diplomacy and provides numerous illustrative examples on how to integrate science into high-level policy dialogues. For instance, during the Arab-spring the analysis of twitter data has been used as a basis of policy decisions, and real-time event monitoring has been key for the relief efforts in the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake.

COM Communication (2012) | Enhancing and focusing EU international cooperation in research and innovation: A strategic approach (reading)

• • https://ec.europa.eu/research/iscp/pdf/policy/com_2012_497_communication_from_commission_to_inst_en.pdf
  • Relevance: Module 4

In 2012, the European Commission stated that the EU needed a strategic approach to focus on and to enhance the EU’s international cooperation activities in research and innovation in particular with the perspective of the implementation of the new Horizon 2020 framework. The text provides a brief overview of the Union’s history in promoting research cooperation across borders as well as related examples (e.g. CERN, Marie Skłodowska Curie Actions or Joint Research Centres). The Commission identifies several objectives of the Union’s international cooperation with third countries, explains a set of valuable instruments in this regard (such as policy dialogue or funding instruments) and puts forward suggestions on how the scale and scope of international cooperation activities can be coordinated with other policy areas and international fora.

López de San Roman and Schulz (2017) | Understanding European Union Science Diplomacy (reading)

• • https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jcms.12582
  • Relevance: Module 4

The article aims to provide a better understanding of the under-researched development of this policy domain, asking how and why the EU has extended the scope of its external activities in the scientific area. To answer these questions, it conducts an analysis of EU policy-makers’ discourses on external science policies inspired by role theory. It points out that EU role conceptions in this domain take the forms of ‘science for diplomacy’ or ‘diplomacy for science’ and that they correspond either to an image of normative or market power Europe.

SFIC (2020) | Input Paper “Science Diplomacy”: Advancing the impact of Science Diplomacy at EU and Member States level through targeted support and improved coordination (reading)

• • https://data.consilium.europa.eu/doc/document/ST-1352-2020-INIT/en/pdf
  • Relevance: Module 4

The European Union Strategic Forum for International S&T Cooperation (SFIC) is an advisory group to the Council of the European Union and the European Commission in the field of international cooperation in science and technology. SFIC set up a Science Diplomacy Task Force that has produced an input paper that stresses the importance to seize the potential and promote a clearer and more strategic role of EU Science Diplomacy. The paper also reflects on future programming for science diplomacy in the upcoming Horizon Europe framework programme. Inspiration for the joint statement by the EU Science Diplomacy Cluster (S4D4C, InsSciDE, EL-CSID) is explicitly acknowledged. For its strategic vision and advisory role to the EU, this input paper may help reinforce the foundations for the uptake of science diplomacy practices and strategies at the European level, and so it proposes concrete lines of actions.