Farhana Saleem
\nHumanity has come a long way since the regional conflicts that resulted in burning of intellectual resources, libraries and documented historical accounts of the defeated. Ours is the information age and that of \u2018Science Diplomacy\u2019, which sets the stage for cooperation in what is now considered the most elite form of epistemic preoccupation of current times \u2013 Science and Technology. This form of intellectual cooperation in a way holds more merit than any academic cooperation as it has a potential of cross-cuts themes of academics, big science, R&D, global politics, conflict resolution, international relations and cooperation, with a huge potential to fostering and maintaining peace.
\nAs the nature of war and conflicts have evolved over centuries, so has the nature of diplomacy and international relations. Nation-states have learnt a lot from extended conflicts and wars. Foreign Policy has evolved to include measures of \u2018soft power\u2019 to manage international relations through non-coercive means. Science and Technology have flourished in leaps and bounds to offer innovative solutions to a number of national, regional and international issues, so much so that international cooperation is but natural outcome of the evolution of knowledge that resulted in current advancements in S&T. For last couple of decades, Science and Technology are institutionally being studied for their reciprocal relationship with foreign policies and other policy domains. Science Diplomacy is being seen as contributor to Big Science, as well as means for furthering foreign policy objectives, as sensitive as dissolving political tensions.
\nScience Diplomacy is an emerging field that serves as means to bringing scientific cooperation together with political and regional interests of national to serve foreign policy objectives of nations related, inter alia, to from academic\/R&D cooperation, resolution of peace and conflict, or working out ways of addressing common global challenges. Ontologically speaking, the current narratives of science diplomacy with specific jargons and definition are fairly recent, early 2000s. However, academic, research and scientific collaborations have been nibbling on the hard lines of international relations over centuries.
\nAs a more relatable example from the 20th century, Russell and Einstein\u2019s Manifesto of July, 9, 1955, warned the world about impending nuclear war. Signed by nine other leading men, the Manifesto cautioned against the worst that nuclear war could bring to the world, while also calling world leaders to \u2018remember their humanity\u2019. Calling the American Congress\u2019 attention to these threats, the Manifesto read:
\n\u201cIn view of the fact that in any future world war nuclear weapons will certainly be employed, and that such weapons threaten the continued existence of mankind, we urge the governments of the world to realize, and to acknowledge publicly, that their purpose cannot be furthered by a world war, and we urge them, consequently, to find peaceful means for the settlement of all matters of dispute between them.\u201d
\nThis page from the history provides an example of men of letters exhibiting what we know under the popular typology of science diplomacy as \u2018Science for Diplomacy\u2019. One wonders, had the field existed in its manifest form as it does today, would the outcomes of the competitive scientific race around World War I have been different?
\nScience Diplomacy maybe a relatively new field, but it is becoming increasingly important and relevant as we face global challenges such as climate change, pandemics, and sustainable development. It could be an effective public policy instrument for bringing closer groups of actors from ST&I, Education and Foreign Policy with a potential to addressing these challenges that are also cross-border and even cross-continental in nature. The calling of Science Diplomacy is also to help invoke actors (states, international institutions, etc) for stronger international relations to improve situations with regard to political tensions, which is why it is crucial for diplomatic community to playing a role as enablers of international scientific collaborations.
\nDeveloping countries who\u2019ve not had the chance to benefit from the industrial revolutions of the 20th century stand to benefit greatly from good utilization of Science Diplomacy in that there is a lot to be gained from the countries with comparative and competitive advantages from the countries faring well in different fields of S&T. Good scientific collaborations, while may not be a direct contributor to peace could serve as a reason to maintaining it, in addition to stronger collaborations in the face of growing global challenges with far-reaching gains.
\nRather newer terms like Climate Diplomacy, Vaccine Diplomacy have rightly gained popularity in view of the catastrophic climate events and recent and looming future pandemics about which the humanity has been forewarned. Science Diplomacy offers a unique approach to addressing these challenges by focusing on building bridges through scientific collaboration and exchange for attaining peace, prosperity, and sustainability around the world.
\nThe 2015-Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) played a key role in informing the negotiations that led to the historic Paris Agreement on climate change. The Report provides an excellent example of Science in Diplomacy, where scientific evidence informed foreign and security policy decisions and helped achieve global consensus on the need to address climate change.
\nNot far behind in adopting this 21st century field, academically speaking, some institutions in Pakistan embarked upon this journey of Science Diplomacy. Around the same time as the IPCC Report and the cusp of MDGs to SDGs shift, the academic and scientific cooperation in this regard has been ongoing in Pakistan since 2015 thanks to some international organizations based in the country, such as the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS). Science Diplomacy has since been gaining steady pace and popularity in the development sector related to Science and Technology with other organizations, such as ECO-SF and COMSTECH, soon following suit. <\/p>\n
The Author is a veteran Science Communicator currently associated with an Islamabad-based IGO for over 14 years. A PhD scholar in Government and Public Policy, Ms. Saleem\u2019s research and academic interests include Women in Science, Climate Response, Science Diplomacy, and Science and Civil Society. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Farhana Saleem Humanity has come a long way since the regional conflicts that resulted in burning of intellectual resources, libraries and documented historical accounts of the defeated. Ours is the information age and that of \u2018Science Diplomacy\u2019, which sets the stage for cooperation in what is now considered the most elite form of epistemic preoccupation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-359297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"yoast_head":"\n