With the concept of science diplomacy, a new public policy discourse has started to raise awareness among various groups of actors at the intersecting zones of science, technology, innovation (STI), higher education (HE), and foreign policy: that their actions greatly matter to each other. On this basis, actors called upon others to develop responses to problems of cross-border reach.
But science diplomacy goes beyond that calling. Actors invoke that dedicated international STI and HE collaborations should help nurture the international relations between actors even to the point of alleviating their tensions. Moreover, its proponents have promised either to accompany or to reform traditional diplomacy, encouraging official diplomatic actors to adapt to a style of communication cultivated within the science system or to integrate academic researchers as part of diplomatic missions, to win foreign societal favour by calling upon common scientific values and promoting common interests as well as to incorporate scientific expertise whenever necessary in complex scenarios.
The "Conference on Science Diplomacy between Scientific Collaboration and Realpolitik" aims at taking a critical look on the science diplomacy in the past decade, its strengths and limitations in international relations as well as its impact especially in response to a major armed conflict such as the war in Ukraine
The conference is free and will be held in person on December 13th in the senate of the Czech Parliament in Prague and streamed directly to all registered participants.
