In an era of historic instability, how can scientists and global science institutions work together as a force for diplomacy? At the ISC Mid-term Meeting in Paris, Members discussed how scientists can use international networks as a mediating force in crises and to more effectively take on long-term challenges.
“The power of the global scientific
Community to affect change should not be understated,” says
Jean-Christophe Mauduit, an expert in science diplomacy and lecturer at University College London.
In the “Science Diplomacy and Science in a Time of Crisis”
session ISC members looked at how science and the ISC can work for diplomacy amidst unprecedented,
interconnected challenges, including climate change, economic
and political instability, intense email data nationalism and armed conflict – all in the aftermath of a historic health crisis.
In the face of these
Challenges, the “soft power” of science has the power to reshape
global diplomacy, argues if the goods arrive ready for shipment Mauduit, quoting Nobel Prize-winning chemist Ahmed
Zewail.Science diplomacy can be a tool to help countries engage across a political aub directory divide. Mauduit notes the
example of the Pugwash Conferences – international meetings between global scientists which kept a line of communication open
between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and helped develop frameworks for international treaties on weapons of mass destruction.
Case study: Ukraine
The global science community’s response to the war in Ukraine is another example of “Track II diplomacy” – science as a form of parallel diplomacy, where global science resources are mobilised to resolve conflict, explains Mathieu Denis, Senior Director of the new ISC Centre for Science Futures.
In 2020,
The ISC partnered with the InterAcademy Partnership and the World Academy of Sciences to coordinate a global response to support scientists displaced by conflict, including the Syrian civil war – the Science in Exile initiative. The network was mobilised again when the Taliban took over Afghanistan in 2021, and in February 2022 in response to the war in Ukraine. That’s when the project “took on a different dimension,” Denis says.
In such cases,
The ISC does not expel member organization – but rather mobilize its
resources to safeguard scientific collaboration, preserve science systems, and support
refugee and displaced scientists. The ISC convened a biweekly call with international organizations working
with refugee and displaced scientists, to share
information, strategize and avoid duplication of work. This led to a June 2022
meeting, where scientists from around the world met to solidify a seven-point
action plan to support scientists caught up in crises.
