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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 an emphasis on global health and medicine, this course will consider 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. Often, technical expertise is needed to operate effective and efficient programs. Science and technology also inform national and international negotiations and policies. Furthermore, open channels of communication among scientists and physicians, and with 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 most 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. And 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 involving nations with whom cooperation may be especially difficult.

Ten to twelve of the most engaged students will be invited to join a field trip 19-20 March to Washington, DC to meet with prominent SD practitioners and tour relevant institutions.

This course is a sequel to the ones offered in winter 2012 and 2013, and participants from prior years are welcome to attend again.

Course Outline

Week 1
Thursday
Feb 5, 2015

Topic: Science in US foreign policy and the State Department

Guest Speaker: Hon. Thomas Pickering, former US Ambassador to Jordan, Nigeria, El Salvador, Israel, India, Russia, and the United Nations, and earlier, Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs
Session Leader: Rodney Nichols Reading:
The Pervasive Role of Science, Technology, and Health in Foreign Policy: Imperatives for the Department of State (1999)
Websites to Browse: http://www.sciencediplomacy.org/issues
http://www.sciencediplomacy.org/topics
http://www.sciencediplomacy.org/regions
Presentations: Presentation

Week 2
Thursday
Feb 12, 2015

Topic:Science and international policies concerning stem cells and viral diseases

Guest Speakers: Jason Rao, Director for International Affairs, American Society for Microbiology, and formerly Senior Policy Advisor for Global Science Engagement in the White House
Ali Hemmati-Brivanlou, Head of the Laboratory of Stem Cell Biology and Molecular Embryology, The Rockefeller University
Session Leader: Mandë Holford Reading:
http://stemcells.nih.gov/
http://www.sciencediplomacy.org/letter-field/2012/berdsk-burma
Websites to Browse:
http://www.asm.org/
http://www.globalscienceadvice.org/

Week 3
Thursday
Feb 19, 2015

Topic:Doing Science with Cuba

Guest Speaker: Peter Agre, Director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2003
Session Leader: Jesse Ausubel Reading:
Aquaporin water channels (Nobel lecture)
Website to Browse:
Malaria Transmission and the Impact of Control Efforts in Southern Africa
Presentations: Agre Part 1, Agre Part 2, Ausubel

Week 4
Thursday
Feb 26, 2015

Topic:Global trends in biotechnology

Guest Speaker: Nina Fedoroff, Evan Pugh Professor, Penn State University, Science and Technology Adviser to Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice and Hillary Clinton and to Administrator of AID, Henrietta Fore, RU alumna, National Medal of Science Laureate
Session Leader: Rodney Nichols Reading:
Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientist's View of Genetically Modified Foods
Fedoroff, N. V. (2012). Transposable elements, epigenetics, and genome evolution. Science 388: 758-767.
Website to Browse:
TEDxCERN talk on Food and Civilization
Presentations: Nichols

Week 5
Thursday
Mar 5, 2015

Topic: Science Diplomacy + You: Interactive survey of views of course participants ranking issues, obstacles, and opportunities in science diplomacy

Session Leaders: Mandë Holford, Jesse Ausubel, and Rodney Nichols Reading:
SD funded projects: Israel-Palestine Science Organization; Iran-Dead Sea; Barcoding project on endangered species-Bolivia/Jordan
Websites to Browse:
www.scidev.net
http://diplomacy.aaas.org/

Week 6
Thursday
Mar 12, 2015

Topic:A view of Science Diplomacy from outside the U.S.

Guest Speakers: Mustafa El Tayeb, Former Director, UNESCO Natural Sciences Sector, Paris, President of the Future University of Sudan
Cameron Bess, USAID Development Labs (Ph.D 2009, The Rockefeller University, Simon lab)
Session Leader: Mandë Holford Reading: http://www.oecd.org/science/Research_Cooperation.pdf Websites to Browse:
http://www.futureu.edu.sd/fupage.php?pgt=1&id=4&pt=1 http://www.usaid.gov/GlobalDevLab
http://www.globalscienceadvice.org/science-and-diplomacy/
http://twas.ictp.it/
http://en.unesco.org/

Week 7
Thursday-Friday
Mar 19-20, 2015

Field trip to Washington, D.C.

Planned Visits: President’s Council of Advisors on Science & Technology (PCAST); National Academy of Sciences Office of International Affairs; Smithsonian Institution (international programs); Woodrow Wilson International Center (program in risk assessment of synthetic biology) Reading:
New Frontiers in Science Diplomacy: Navigating the Changing Balance of Power. A Royal Society Policy Document 2010, ISBN: 978-0-85403-811-4
Websites to Browse:
PCAST (Marjory Blumenthal, Executive Director)
Smithsonian (Scott Miller, Under Secretary, extensive fieldwork in Africa; and David Schindel, Barcode of Wildlife Project, former head of NSF’s European operations)
Woodrow Wilson Center (David Rejeski, Synthetic Biology regulation around the world)
National Academies of Science (John Boright, Executive Director, International Affairs)

Course Schedule

1. Date: The course will run for 7 weeks February 5, 2014-March 12, 2015.
2. Sessions: There will be six sessions, meeting once a week for the duration of six weeks.
3. Duration: Each session will be 2 hours long. The first hour is devoted to overview of the weekly topic, followed by a second hour of discussion with an expert guest speaker.
4. Location and Time: Rockefeller University, CRC 506, 3-5pm

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/