Science and Diplomacy

The subject of science and diplomacy has been growing quickly as a focus at Fletcher in the last few years.  First, we have been fortunate to add a faculty member, Professor Paul Berkman, who is teaching Science Diplomacy: Environmental Security in the Arctic Ocean.  Not unrelated, the School has participated several times in the annual Arctic Circle Assembly and, in February, Fletcher hosted a student-led conference on the Arctic.  But that’s not all!  The Fletcher Science Diplomacy Club (SciDip) has organized participation in a semester’s worth of activities.  Here are a few of the highlights.

The Science Diplomacy Club hosted several talks on relevant topics, including:

⇒  Dr. Frances A. Colón, the Deputy Science and Technology Adviser to Secretary of State John Kerry, spoke at the “Fletcher Disrupts: Dusting Off Diplomacy” conference and the club hosted at a lunch-talk for group members.
⇒  Dr. Roman Macaya, Ambassador of Costa-Rica to the U.S., a science diplomacy practitioner and enthusiast, will speak this month about his work and experience.

The SciDip students were fortunate this year to be able to participate in several sessions when the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) held its annual meeting in Boston in February.  The meeting’s theme was “Serving Society Through Science Policy.”  The group arranged free admission for panels including “Networks of Diasporas in Engineering and Science Forum” and “How do Science, Technology and Engineering Diasporas Contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals?”  Students also participated in “The Science Diplomacy Education Network” event, hosted by AAAS, designed to “highlight institutional and student-driven approaches to science diplomacy education.”

The final AAAS-related event was a panel dialogue at Fletcher among Science & Technology Advisors to Foreign Ministers.  (So interesting!)  Here’s a story about a busy weekend that included both this event and the Arctic Conference.

Those are just a few of the SciDip events that have already taken place or are coming up this semester.  More broadly, in the Boston area, there is a critical mass of graduate schools and universities that focus on science, diplomacy, policy, or science and diplomacy policy.  I expect that this is an area that will continue to grow at Fletcher.