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The Hurford Science Diplomacy Initiative

Sponsored by The Hurford Foundation, the Hurford Science Diplomacy Initiative aims to help early career scientists understand the global context for their work and thus enable them to work more effectively at international levels.

Course Title

Science Diplomacy: The Context for Thinking Globally about the Biological and Medical Fields

Instructors

Mandë Holford, Jesse Ausubel, and Rodney Nichols

Synopsis

The shorthand term "Science Diplomacy (SD)" spans wide-ranging activities connecting science and technology with international affairs. Including consideration of global health and medicine, this course considers: the larger context of dealing with nations in conflict; innovation in the public and private sectors; and views of SD from outside the US.

This course will also highlight the challenges of SD, which include: developing a classification of activities and a common language about practices, especially those that work best; identifying tangible initiatives to address changing needs and goals; and convincing governmental agencies that SD should be explicitly part of their long-term roadmaps for action and funding. The increasing interest in SD makes this an opportune time for scientists early in their careers to learn and evaluate its possibilities.

Some SD activities involve international collaboration to mitigate transnational threats such as infectious diseases or biological weapons; technical expertise is needed to operate effective and efficient programs. Science and technology also are central for many national and international negotiations and policies, such as the recent agreement with Iran on nuclear weapons control. Furthermore, open channels of communication among working scientists and physicians, and among science advisers to governments, especially across the borders of nations in conflict, offer valuable means for informal diplomacy. During the 50 years after World War II, such contacts often concerned nuclear arms control. Today, comparable linkages help efforts such as controlling chemical and biological weapons, limiting disease outbreaks, and managing biodiversity. These linkages can also build confidence between wary partners.

In turn, fruitful international relations may help advance and diffuse scientific innovation. Some fields of research cost so much that they flourish only with cooperation to build and manage shared international facilities, to coordinate decentralized research projects, and to conduct clinical trials. Certain fields also need access to sites, specimens, and patients around the world – arrangements that require governmental understanding and often approval. Indeed, leaders of research argue that success hinges on unobstructed international circulation of scientific information and scientists. While the Cold War may have ended, international tensions continue to abound. Further, the Internet and other technological innovations have sharply increased the ability and appetite for global scientific collaborations based on open access and cooperation.

This six-week course of seminars will sample the current landscape of SD issues, programs, and organizations. The goals of the course are to help early career biomedical scientists: (a) think more systematically about the global potential of their work, including ethical, political, and economic implications; and (b) become acquainted with the people, networks, and resources available for scientific cooperation, including those nations with whom cooperation may be especially difficult.

About ten of the most engaged students will be invited to join a field trip 24-25 March to Washington, DC to meet with prominent SD practitioners and tour relevant institutions.

This course is a sequel to the ones previously offered, and participants from prior years are welcome to attend again.

The course is part of the University's Hurford Initiative on Science & Diplomacy, sponsored by the Hurford Foundation. The Initiative aims to help early career scientists understand the global context for their work and thus enable them to work more effectively at international levels.

Course Outline

Week 1
Thursday
Feb 11, 2016

Topic: Handling security in cyberspace

Guest Speakers: Adam Segal, Director, Digital and Cyberspace Policy Program, Council on Foreign Relations
Session Leader: Rod Nichols
Reading:
New Frontiers in Science Diplomacy: Navigating the Changing Balance of Power. A Royal Society Policy Document 2010, ISBN: 978-0-85403-811-4
http://blogs.cfr.org/cyber/
Developing a Proportionate Response to a Cyber Incident
Websites to Browse:
http://www.cfr.org/projects/world/digital-and-cyberspace-policy-program/pr1651
Presentation: Week 1

Week 2
Thursday
Feb 18, 2016

Topic: Science and funding policies of HIV research

Guest Speaker: Thandi Onami, Program Director, Global Health HIV Vaccines, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Paul Bieniasz, HHMI Professor Aaron Diamond AIDS Resarch Center Laboratory of Retrovirology, Head, Laboratory of Retrovirology, The Rockefeller University
Session Leader: Mandë Holford
Reading:
Putting Women and Girls at the Center of Development
Single-Cell and Single-Cycle Analysis of HIV-1 Replication
World Health Statistics – 2015
Websites to Browse:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/How-We-Work
https://www.cavd.org/Pages/default.aspx
Presentations: Onami, Holford, Bieniasz

Week 3
Thursday
Feb 25, 2016

Topic:Science and international policies for viral diseases

Guest Speaker: Jason Rao, Director for International Affairs, American Society for Microbiology, and formerly Senior Policy Advisor for Global Science Engagement in the White House
Session Leader: Mandë Holford
Reading:
A tale of two states. Holford, M, Nichols, R
From Berdsk to Burma
Diplomacy: a powerful force to improve global health
CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force report, The Emerging Global Health Crisis: Noncommunicable Diseases in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
Website to Browse:
http://www.asm.org/
http://www.globalscienceadvice.org/
http://www.cfr.org/NCDs-interactive

Week 4
Thursday
Mar 3, 2016

Topic: Facilitating global scientific exchange and scholar rescue

Guest Speaker: Allan Goodman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Institute of International Education ; Sarah Willcox, Director, Scholar Rescue Fund
Session Leaders: Jesse Ausubel
Reading:
The Refugee Crisis and Higher Ed
Websites to Browse:
IIE Scholar Rescue Fund - Institute of International Education
http://www.iie.org/Programs/Scholar-Rescue-Fund
http://www.iie.org/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scholar_Rescue_Fund

Week 5
Thursday
Mar 10, 2016

Topic:PeaceMaker – Changing the world one game at a time

Guest Speakers: Asi Burak, President, Games For Change
Session Leader: Jesse Ausubel
Reading: Think You Can Solve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict? Play This Game
Games for social good, five years after PeaceMaker
Websites to Browse:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PeaceMaker
http://kotaku.com/what-i-learned-turning-the-israel-palestine-conflict-in-1612148555
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f8DKQqI-YE
Presentation: Week 5

Week 6
Thursday, Mar 17, 2016

Topic: Science in US foreign policy and nuclear energy

Guest Speaker: Richard Meserve, President Emeritus, Carnegie Institution for Science and former Chairman of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Session Leader: Rodney Nichols
Reading:
Diplomacy for the 21st Century: Embedding a Culture of Science and Technology Throughout the Department of State (2015)
Protection of Power Plants from Severe Accidents And External Events, December 16, 2012
The global nuclear safety regime, RA Meserve - Daedalus, 2009 - MIT Press
Websites to Browse:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Regulatory_Commission
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Atomic_Energy_Agency
http://www.wano.info/en-gb
Presentation: Week 6

Week 7
Thursday-Friday
Mar 24-25, 2016

Topic: Field trip to Washington, D.C.

Planned Visits (tentative):: US Department of State; Department of Defense; US Global Change Research Program (NOAA); National Academy of Medicine and/or Fogarty International Center (NIH)
Reading: TBD
Websites to Browse: TBD

Course Schedule

Date: Thursdays, February 11-March 24, 2016
Time: 3-5pm
Location: CRC506

Additional Reading List

The items listed are essential background reading. Two or three additional articles will be distributed each week pertaining to the weekly topics.

1. CFR-sponsored Independent Task Force report, The Emerging Global Health Crisis: Nonco mmunicable Diseases in Low- and Middle-Income Countries
   www.cfr.org/NCDs_Task_Force
   Accompanying web interactive
2. The Science of Science Policy: A Handbook (Innovation and Technology in the World E), by Julia Lane, Kaye Fealing, John Marburger III and Stephanie Shipp (Mar 18, 2011)
3. Scientific Cooperation, State Conflict: The Role of Scientists in Mitigating International Discord, A. L. de Cerreno and A. Keynan, eds, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (866), 1998.
4. New Frontiers in Science Diplomacy: Navigating the Changing Balance of Power.A Royal Society Policy Document 2010, ISBN: 978-0-85403-811-4
5. Science and Two-Armed Diplomats, Rodney Nichols, 1984, Science 226, p123.
6. The Elusive Transformation, Science, Technology and the Evolution of International Politics, Eugene B. Skolnikoff, 1994, Princeton University Press
7. Science and Technology in US International Affairs, Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government, reprinted 1993.
8. Arab Development Report, UN, 2002-2003..
9. World Health Statistics – 2012
10. Science and Two-Armed Diplomats, Rodney Nichols, 1984, Science 226, p.123.
11. Chronic Diseases- The Urgent Need For Action, Henry Greenberg, et al, Routledge Handbook in Public Health. Editors Richard Parker and Marni Sommer
12. National Security Strategy that includes health issues:
    http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/national_security_strategy.pdf
13. National Strategy for Countering Biological Threats:
    http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/National_Strategy_for_Countering_BioThreats.pdf
14. International Health Regulations:
    http://www.who.int/ihr/en
15. Reinventing Phage Therapy, Vincent Fischetti, et al, 2006, Nature 12, P1508
16. Bacteriophage endolysins: A novel anti-infective to control Gram-positive pathogens, Vincent Fischetti, 2010, International Journal of Medical Microbiology, 300 p. 357
17. Sample proposals: Myanmar (microbiology mainly) and North Korea (tuberculosis)
18. Development Science and Science Diplomacy. By Alex Dehgan, E. William Colglazier
19. Arab Development Report, UN, 2002-2003. http://www.arab-hdr.org
20. Sample proposals: Argentina/Bolivia DNA barcoding project; Synchrotron project in Jordan
21. Scientific Cooperation, State Conflict: The Role of Scientists in Mitigating International Discord, A. L. de Cerreno and A. Keynan, eds, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (866), 1998. (Available in the RU Dean’s office)
22. Science and Technology in US International Affairs, Carnegie Commission on Science, technology, and Government, reprinted 1993
    http://www.ccstg.org/pdfs/InternationalAffairs0192.pdf
23. Sample proposals: Dead Sea Net; US NAS cooperation with Iran
24. The Elusive Transformation, Science, Technology and the Evolution of International Politics, Eugene B. Skolnikoff, 1994, Princeton University Press (Available in the Dean’s office)
25. Building a National Science Diplomacy System, Vaughan C. Turekian, Science & Diplomacy, Vol. 1, No. 4 (December 2012)
26. Beyond Reproduction: Women’s health in today’s developing world, Susan Raymond, et al, 2005, International Journal of Epidemiology 34, p.1144
27. Sample proposals: Israel-Palestine Science Organization; Iran-Afghan-Mississippi Delta; Barcoding project on endangered species
28. Science Diplomacy Short Course project proposal form
29. The Science of Science Policy: A Handbook (Innovation and Technology in the World E) by Julia Lane, Kaye Fealing, John Marburger III and Stephanie Shipp (Mar 18, 2011)
30. Science must be seen to bridge the political divide, Daniel Sarewitz, 2013, Nature 493, p.7.
31. Lifting the burden, The Economist, December, 2012
32. Obesity and cardiovascular disease in developing countries: a growing problem and an economic threat, Susan U. Raymond ,et al, 2006, Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care
33. Foreign Assistance in an Aging World, Susan Raymond, 2003, Foreign Affairs p.91
34. Sigma Xi 2012 Assembly of Delegates address by Glenn Schweitzer and William Colglazier on Science Diplomacy: http://www.sigmaxi.org/meetings/annual/index.shtml
35. American Association for the Advancement of Science Science & Technology Policy Fellowship: http://fellowships.aaas.org/