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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. With particular attention to global health and medicine, the six-week course of seminars samples 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 for those nations with whom cooperation may be especially difficult.

Science Diplomacy spans both how science and technology can advance the goals of diplomacy and how international diplomacy can advance scientific progress. Science and technology are central for many national and international negotiations and policies, and SD activities include international collaboration to mitigate transnational threats such as infectious diseases or biological weapons. For example, scientists have played important roles in recent efforts to combat the spread of the Zika virus.

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, as has been the case of the normalization of relations between Israel and Egypt as well as between the U.S. and Cuba. The Internet and other technological innovations have sharply increased capacity and appetite for global scientific collaborations, often based on open access and transparency, and these in turn, like Wikileaks, affect the practice of both diplomacy and science. SD can matter for how we address issues as wide ranging as the weaponization of genetic editing (CRISPR technology), security of cyber spaces, and equitable diffusion of personalized medicine.

Challenges for SD 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 an explicit 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.

About ten of the most engaged course participants (limited to those with RU affiliation) will be invited to join a field trip 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. Several sessions will use clickers, or classroom response systems, to collect and analyze views of the course participants.

This course is a sequel to the ones previously offered, and participants from prior years are welcome to attend again. Several sessions will use clickers, or classroom response systems, to collect and analyze views of the course participants.

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. 8, 2018

Topic: Introduction to Science Diplomacy, Life as a Science Diplomat

Guest Speaker: Marga Gual Soler, Senior Project Director at the Center for Science Diplomacy at AAAS
Session Leaders: Mandë Holford and Rodney Nichols
Reading:
How I became a Science Diplomat
International Collaboration in Connecting Scientists to Policy. Science & Diplomacy, March 2017
Connecting Scientists to Policy Around the World. AAAS February 2017
New Frontiers in Science Diplomacy: Navigating the Changing Balance of Power. A Royal Society Policy Document 2010, ISBN: 978-0-85403-811-4
Science and Technology in US International Affairs, Carnegie Commission on Science, Technology, and Government, reprinted 1993
Websites to Browse:
http://www.sciencediplomacy.org
https://www.aaas.org/program/center-science-diplomacy

Week 2
Thursday
Feb. 15, 2018

Topic: Global Health and Emerging Diseases

Guest Speaker: Laurie Garrett, Author and Former Senior Fellow for Global Health Council on Foreign Relations
Session Leader: Mandë Holford
Reading:
A Lethal Bird Flu Returns to China, CFR, Feb. 2017
A Change of Guard at the WHO, CFR, May 2017
Website to Browse:
http://lauriegarrett.com/blog/

Week 3
Thursday
Feb. 22, 2018

Topic: International Agricultural Research; Counting Human Populations

Guest Speaker:
Kenneth Prewitt, Carnegie Professor of Public Affairs, Columbia University
Session Leader: Rodney Nichols
Reading:
The Future of Scholarly Knowledge K Prewitt 2017
Scholarly Knowledge: At an Inflection Point? K Prewitt - International Journal of African Higher Education, 2016 
The Impact of Social Sciences: How Academics and Their Research Make a Difference Foreword by K Prewitt, 2013
The U.S. Decennial Census: Politics and Political Science Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci. 2010. 13:237–54
Websites to Browse:
https://sipa.columbia.edu/faculty-research/faculty-directory/kenneth-prewitt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CGIAR
http://www.cgiar.org/

Week 4
Thursday
Mar. 1, 2018

Topic: Science Diplomacy and Federal Policy

Guest Speaker: Kerri-Ann Jones  VP Research & Science, The Pew Charitable Trusts
Session Leader: Mandë Holford
Reading:
A Trilateral Partnership for Supporting Research and Relationships
Websites to Browse:
http://www.pewtrusts.org/en
https://www.state.gov/e/oes/

Week 5
Thursday
Mar. 8, 2018

Topic: Science and Foreign Affairs magazine
Field Trip to Council on Foreign Relations headquarters at 68^th Street and Park Avenue

Guest Speakers: Stuart Reid, Deputy Managing Editor, Foreign Affairs and Gideon Rose, Editor, Foreign Affairs
Session Leaders:  Mandë Holford and Jesse Ausubel
Reading:
A tale of two states, Holford, M, Nichols, R
Ready for a Global Pandemic?
The Trump Administration May Be Woefully Underprepared, Tom Inglesby and Benjamin Haas
Blockchain and Global Health
How the Technology Could Cut Waste and Reduce Fraud, Brian M. Till, Salim Afshar, Alex W. Peters, and John G. Meara
Global Health Gets a Checkup
A Conversation With Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Foreign Affairs’ Deputy Managing Editor Stuart Reid interviews the new director-general of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The Precision Agriculture Revolution, J Lowenberg-DeBoer, Foreign Affairs 2015
Websites to Browse:
http://www.cfr.org/
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/topics/health
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/topics/science-technology

Week 6
Thursday
Mar. 15, 2018

Topic: Entry points for Science in the United Nations
Field trip to UN Headquarters at 42^nd Street and 1^st Avenue

Guest Speaker: Richard Alexander Roehrl, Senior Economic Affairs Officer, UN Division for Sustainable Development, UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs
Session Leader: Jesse Ausubel
Reading:
Integrated analysis of climate change, land-use, energy and water strategies, D Wiberg, C Young, RA Roehrl- Nature Climate, 2013 - nature.com
Expert Group Meeting on Exponential Technological Change, Automation, and Their Policy Implications for Sustainable Development
Global Sustainable Development Report 2016
The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2017
Websites to Browse:
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/
Sustainable Development Goals Report 2017 | Multimedia Library
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/globalsdreport/2019

Week 7
Thursday
Mar. 22, 2018

Topic: Forensic Sciences for National and International Security; How New Biological Technologies May Affect Military Strategies and Operations

Guest Speakers: Col. Laura A. Regan, US Air Force, Senior Military Advisor to the Director, Office of Net Assessment, Office of the Secretary of Defense
Session Leader: Jesse Ausubel
Reading:
Secrets of a Pentagon think tank
She finds answers for families of fallen troops
Websites to Browse:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Net_Assessment

Week 8
Thursday-Friday
Mar. 29-30, 2018

Topic: Field trip to Washington, D.C.

Planned Visits:
National Academy of Sciences Nuclear and Radiation Studies Board
National Science Foundation Office of International Science and Engineering
Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) 
Embassy of Costa Rica
Reading: TBD
Websites to Browse: TBD
Chaperones: Jesse Ausubel and Mandë Holford

Course Schedule

Date: Thursdays, February 8-March 22, 2018
Time: 3-5pm
Location: CRC 206

Previous Sessions

2017, 2016, 2015, 2014

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/