SCIENCE in DIPLOMACY
Everything has been inspired by my experience during the Italian Presidency of the EU Union in 2014, when my colleagues and me worked at the permanent representation as chair and Vice-Chair of the research working party. I realized that the concept of "negotiation and compromise" was rarely associated to impact and solutions to the true challenges.
Nowadays, the global challenges address complexity in the socio-economic system and in the governance, involving a diversity of variables and stakeholders. Complex systems are characterized by the difficulty to make accurate predictions on their evolution, which can result in abrupt changes, faster than the capacity to influence differently, with consequent geo-political shocks hardly to be managed. The deluge of data and news, plus the need to strengthen the stability and the resiliency of the systems, ask for a renewed approach to the role of science in supporting policy decisions.
Often, scientists struggle in providing salient and responsible advice for the adoption of effective action. One of the main challenges is not only a lack of common terminology between different communities but different levels of descriptions of the reality. The same challenge can occur between diverse scientific domains (i.e. medicine and physics) and a logical reduction of theories or opinions appear unrealistic: dialectical and dynamic relations can be more relevant. The introduction of a scientific approach in the negotiation and comprehension of fundamentals in the interaction between information and context dependency, can impact in a cultural transformation of negotiation and decision processes, in a sort of Science Diplomacy 2.0, where science and diplomacy can entangle towards a knowledge-based support to policy.
The concept of “Science Diplomacy” and its perception have changed during last decades. It usually refers to three main types of activities: • “Science in diplomacy”: when scientific advice informs and supports foreign policy action. • “Diplomacy for science”: when diplomacy facilitates international scientific cooperation. • "Science for diplomacy”: when scientific cooperation can facilitate/improve international relations.
In this context, the Mediterranean area, in particular those challenges associated to marine and maritime issue, can show one of the most complex systems in terms of environment, human activities, regulation, governance, industrial sectors, geo-political scenario. An eco-system approach, comprising societal, economic and political variables, is needed to identify appropriate initiatives to tackle the challenges. If the geographical boundaries for an exhaustive approach to a problem should be defined by the problem’s specificities, often the real problems are indeed the political boundaries. As an example, impacts of oils spills, where models of the sea circulation can establish the boundaries of the diffusion of contaminants, but regulation, technological capacity, interests, competencies and agreements can each drastically influence decisions for the intervention. Science can therefore support not only technical solutions but how to build a shared value between research, industry, public authority, civil society and environment.
P.F. Moretti designed a model for training courses and schools, already deposited for protection of IPR, which feeds the project School4SID, whose he is the coordinator. The model has also been presented to representatives of the diplomatic community or experts in negotiation, during a Pilot School. The Pilot School aimed at testing a new approach to Science in Diplomacy, where fundamentals of hard sciences and humanities are analyzed in order 1) to identify what messages are salient in scientific advice to policy decisions, 2) to identify how science can operationally support negotiation processes, 3) to promote the introduction of a scientific method in diplomacy and to pave the way for a effective communication between the scientific and diplomatic communities.
The Pilot School addressed the complexity of the systems as a whole (not only environmental, economic, industrial, cultural, but also socio-relational), the limitations and opportunities that a scientific approach can offer, the ability to discern between lobbies, facts, predictions and perceptions, the evaluation between consensus, impact and feasibility of the actions to be adopted. Participants met in Gaeta from 5 to 7 June 2019 and have been asked to evaluate a training portfolio for diplomats and personnel involved in decision processes.
Many training courses have been implemented and the model presented to the Italian representatives at the European Parliament, in Brussels on 21 January 2020. The concept has been referred as innovative in the process of Science Diplomacy within the European project S4D4C (using science for/in diplomacy for addressing global challenges).
The ultimate goal is at increasing the capacity building of a next generation of diplomats and personnel involved in decision processes: it will not provide solutions but will enable to ask the appropriate questions for option assessments.