[closed] Submit an abstract: Bridging Science and Diplomacy in Global Policymaking

The panel asks: How can we better understand and conceptualize the practice of science diplomacy using public policy tools and approaches? The question is linked to the S4D4C State-of-the-art Report which distinguishes between the explicit discourse of science diplomacy and the set of practices that fall at the interface between science, science policy and foreign policy, which may or may not be given the official label of science diplomacy (Rungius et al 2018).

Yet, there is still a large overarching policy question regarding how science diplomacy actually works. What are the processes of science diplomacy? How can it be theorized? Does each type of science diplomacy require separate theorization or is there a common thread that can be found? Who counts as a science diplomat? What are the roles of different actors in science diplomacy? How do scientists and diplomats interact? What are the interfaces between the two? How do the different logics of science and diplomacy conflict and get resolved? How does scientific knowledge make its way into diplomacy and foreign policy?

The concept of science diplomacy, both in itself and as it has been understood in practice, raises a set of critical questions which impact of public policy debates and approaches:

• Questioning policy sectors: Science diplomacy questions the boundaries, interfaces and frictions between distinct policy sectors (science policy and foreign policy).
• Questioning complex policymaking:  Many global policy challenges are becoming more complex and global in nature and call for more coordinated and science-driven solution.
• Questioning the evolving role of the national policy state: the development of science diplomacy does not mean the decline of the state. It can also be understood as a policy of constructing soft power and re-negotiating the role of the state in transnational multilevel governance.
• Questioning the growing diversity and hybridity of policy actors: Science diplomacy challenges the traditional role of the diplomat, opening possibilities for non-officials and IOs to function in diplomatic processes.

The panel invites papers that use public policy tools and approaches to better understand and conceptualize the practice of science diplomacy. Specifically we are interested in papers, both theoretical and empirical in nature, that bridge the fields of science and diplomacy.

Papers may be oriented toward 1) Theorizing science diplomacy, 2) Interfaces and institutionalizations of science diplomacy, 3) Policy processes and organization of science diplomacy, and 4) Science diplomacy policy actors.