Science Advice & Science Diplomacy in an Era of Technological and Geopolitical Disruption

New Framework for Science Diplomacy

• 💡 The Royal Society and AAAS released a new conceptual framework for science diplomacy in 2025, updating the 2010 model.
• 🎯 This update aims for a more dynamic and understandable approach, moving away from theoretical categories to better reflect real-world practice.
• 🧠 The report emphasizes that science shapes diplomacy and diplomacy shapes science, a relationship highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Challenges and Necessity of Science Diplomacy

• ⚠️ Science diplomacy faces increasing difficulties due to geopolitical tensions, disinformation, and digital manipulation.
• ✅ Despite challenges, it is more important than ever as science can help reduce tensions between countries and communities.
• 📈 Many governments recognize the need to build capacity in science diplomacy to navigate complex global issues.

Distinguishing Science Advice and Diplomacy

• 🔍 Scientific advice primarily serves as a decision support function for policymakers, clarifying knowledge, uncertainties, and options.
• 🤝 Science diplomacy is a strategic interface between scientific knowledge, power, and international cooperation, influencing global relations.
• 🧩 While overlaps are growing, especially with emerging technologies and global risks, the processes for producing and governing advice must remain distinct.

Credibility and Independence in Advice

• 💡 Credible scientific advice must be open, fair, and based on data, not personal beliefs or political agendas.
• ⚖️ Maintaining institutional independence is crucial for advisory bodies to provide impactful suggestions without being instrumentalized.
• 💬 Avoiding instrumentalization requires procedural transparency, plurality of expert input, and early integration of scientific insights into decision-making.

Impact of Emerging Technologies, especially AI

• 🚀 AI reshapes knowledge production and decision-making, posing a significant governance and epistemic challenge beyond just technology.
• 🤝 Full international cooperation on AI is unrealistic due to its strategic and military importance, but selective cooperation on safeguards like safety standards is necessary.
• 🧠 Scientific and technological literacy for diplomats involves understanding uncertainty and detecting politicization, rather than technical expertise.

Global Governance and Future Outlook

• 🚨 Current multilateral institutions are ill-equipped to handle rapid technological disruption and need to adapt with more expert input.
• 🌱 International networks like INSA play a vital role in building science advice capacity, particularly in the Global South.
• 🌍 The future of science diplomacy requires it to be seen as an essential tool with institutionalized, transparent advisory systems.