Happy 10th Birthday to the AAAS Center for Science Diplomacy
By Tom Wang
Ten years ago this week, on another warm summer day, the then-CEO of AAAS, Alan Leshner, announced the creation of the AAAS Center for Science Diplomacy. During his testimony before the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Research and Science Education, Leshner said:
AAAS believes this use of scientific collaboration and communication [between the United States and Soviet Union during the Cold War] is essential both to the advancement of science and its use for the benefit of our global society. For these reasons I am very pleased to announce today the creation of a new AAAS Center for Science Diplomacy. The Center is to be guided by the over-arching goal of using science and scientific cooperation to promote international understanding and prosperity.
In one sense, the early efforts of the Center and the general view of science diplomacy were focused on giving greater visibility for the activities, policies, and norms that were already in existence — of the role of science in bridging societies, of science in foreign policy priorities, and of diplomacy in support of the scientific enterprise. These messages were well received in the United States, by government and by the scientific community, at that time. And over the years, the concept of science diplomacy has also resonated in many countries around the world.
During the closing keynote of the Center’s first science diplomacy conference in Washington, DC, in October 2008, John Hamre, president and CEO of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) — an influential foreign policy think tank, and former U.S. deputy secretary for defense — made the remark that science diplomacy did not come up directly in CSIS’ initiative on “smart power,” which sought to strategically bring together soft power and hard power. But in thinking about it in preparation for his keynote, Hamre said he recognized that science diplomacy was certainly an important part of America’s “smart power.”
This was emblematic of the disconnect between the world of science and the world of foreign policy but also made clear that once addressed together, the connection was obvious and appreciated. While the disconnect still exists today, governments and scientific communities have come a long way in recognizing the importance and need of science diplomacy in many different corners of society and government — from official government science diplomacy strategies to graduate courses on the subject offered by science and engineering departments.
Over the past ten years, the Center has undertaken initiatives and projects that sought to demonstrate the power of science diplomacy in building bridges, to ground the conceptualization of science diplomacy in practice, and to catalyze and support the development of a growing and diverse stakeholder community.
Science diplomacy is moving in new directions beyond simply recognizing the existing connections between science and diplomacy.
Over the course of this 10th anniversary year, we will be asking and pursuing where science diplomacy will be going. Two broad areas include:
- New actors in science diplomacy. While foreign policy and foreign relations typically are viewed as the purview of national governments, sub-national and supra-national entities have been playing greater and greater roles. These may be provincial governments or multilateral organizations. Universities and government research institutions have played prominent roles in science diplomacy, but, especially in countries like the United States, the industrial sector undertakes the majority of research and development. Science and technology-based companies have multi-national presence and increasingly complex interactions with governments.
- New skills in the practice of science diplomacy. With the institutionalization of science diplomacy in more and more sectors, the professionals engaged in different aspects of this area will require skills that are not currently addressed in undergraduate, graduate, and professional education and training — in law and policy, on scientific and technical issues, in big data analytics, in communication, etc.
One thing that hasn’t changed in the last ten years is the commitment of AAAS to continuing to be a catalyst and forum for the future of science diplomacy.
Tom Wang is AAAS Chief International Officer and Director of the Center for Science Diplomacy.
