ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Reframing science and diplomacy in times of disruption

• In Event: Science Diplomacy: Cooperation, Competition and Crisis 1

English Abstract

In this paper, we critically reassess the ways in which science and diplomacy has been portrayed as fostering international collaborations, by analyzing past tensions between internationalism and nationalism in science. We claim that the idea of science diplomacy, as rooted in the Cold War, although initially useful as a focus for research to open discussions is ill-suited to serve as a reference to framing dynamics between science and diplomacy because of the unique configuration of international relations in that period, which was dominated by the struggle for power between two overarching blocks. We argue that analyzes of power dynamics developed by historians of science and imperialism can be used to better characterize projects that required international conversations, bringing to the fore the tensions that significantly shaped them and thus complexifying excessive emphasis on cooperative aspects in most past scholarship. More attention to developments from 1870 to 1940, in particular, seems particularly promising to enrich our understanding of the history of science and diplomacy because these decades were marked by explicit multipolar dynamics, which were more the rule than the exception throughout this history. We believe that such an approach will allow us to go beyond canonical studies on what has been termed “scientific internationalism”. Our historiographical reconsideration will also allow us to revise the scope and limitations of present-day science diplomacy. Non-state actors, power asymmetries and the assertion of geopolitical dominance have acquired renewed importance and force us to reimagine the potential of science diplomacy in international relations

Authors

• Daniel Gamito-Marques, NOVA School of Science and Technology, Lisbon, Portugal

• Lif Lund Jacobsen, Danish Arctic Institute