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1. Science Diplomacy and Its Engine of Informed Decisionmaking: Operating through Our Global Pandemic with Humanity

   https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191X-bja10034  

   Berkman, Paul Arthur (August 2020, The Hague Journal of Diplomacy)

   Summary Science diplomacy is an international, interdisciplinary and inclusive (holistic) process, involving informed decisionmaking to balance national interests and common interests for the benefit of all on Earth across generations. Informed decisions operate across a ‘continuum of urgencies’, which extends from security to sustainability time scales for peoples, nations and our world. The COVID -19 pandemic is the ‘most challenging crisis we have faced since the Second World War’, as noted in March 2020 by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, when survival is once again a common interest at local-global levels. This essay introduces common-interest-building strategies with science diplomacy to operate short term to long term, before-through-after the ‘inflection point’ of our global pandemic, as the next step in the evolution of our globally interconnected civilisation. 

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2. Evolution of Science Diplomacy and its Local-Global Applications

   Berkman, P.A. (January 2019, European foreign affairs review)

   The unambiguous reality of human civilization is that we now are globally interconnected. This fact is revealed by ‘world wars’, which happened for the first time in the history of humankind only in the last century. In context, global human population size has grown more than 1000% since the advent of the nation-state with the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. During this period, the influence of Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) has been expanding, certainly since the industrial revolution around 1800 when the human population reached 1 billion, accelerating to 8 billion people as we enter the next decade during our digital revolution. The challenges are on a planetary scale, as reflected further by concern about Earth’s climate, crossing the spectrum of sub-national to international jurisdictions with the nation-state at the centre. As an example, science diplomacy from the polar regions illustrates how transatlantic science relations are embedded into a global context. With hope and inspiration from the perspective of a practitioner and observer, the evolution of science diplomacy is shared herein with local-global applications as an international, interdisciplinary and inclusive (holistic) process, involving informed decision-making to balance national interests and common interests for the benefit of all on Earth across generations. 

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3. New Methods in Creating Transdisciplinary Science Policy Research Agendas: The Case of Legislative Science Advice

   https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scaa033  

   Akerlof, Karen; Allegra, Alessandro; Webler, Thomas; Heath, Erin; Cloyd, Emily T; Washbourne, Carla-Leanne; Tyler, Chris (August 2020, Science and Public Policy)

   Abstract In transdisciplinary fields such as science policy, research agendas do not evolve organically from within disciplines but instead require stakeholders to engage in active co-creation. ‘Big questions’ exercises fulfill this need but simultaneously introduce new challenges in their subjectivity and potential bias. By applying Q methodology to an exercise in developing an international collaborative research agenda for legislative science advice (LSA), we demonstrate a technique to illustrate stakeholder perspectives. While the LSA international respondents—academics, practitioners, and policymakers—demonstrated no difference in their research priorities across advisory system roles, the analysis by developing and developed nation status revealed both common interests in institutional- and systems-level research and distinct preferences. Stakeholders in developing nations prioritized the design of advisory systems, especially in low- and middle-income countries, while those in developed countries emphasized policymaker evidence use. These differences illustrate unique regional research needs that should be met through an international agenda for LSA. 

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4. 50 Years of PMEL Tsunami Research and Development

   https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2023.208  

   Bernard, Eddie; Meinig, Christian; Titov, Vasily; Wei, Yong (January 2023, Oceanography)

   This article chronicles the 50-year history of tsunami research and development at the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), beginning with the merger in 1973 of the Joint Tsunami Research Effort and PMEL. It traces the development of instrumentation and modeling that brought a better understanding of tsunamis and improved warning systems. The advantage of having observational engineering and flooding modeling under one roof are highlighted. Deep-ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunami (DART) research and development led to technology transfer to NOAA’s National Data Buoy Center (NDBC) that now operates and maintains 39 buoys and serves as real-time data distributor for other nations. This technology was also patented and licensed by PMEL to meet the needs of the international community. DART licensee Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) has manufactured over 60 buoys for eight different countries. DART data are essential for accurate tsunami warnings, so the global society benefits by receiving lifesaving information before the arrival of a tsunami. PMEL’s tsunami flooding modeling research led to technology transfer to NOAA’s tsunami warning centers, the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, and international tsunami preparedness communities. Short-term flooding modeling research was initiated at PMEL to improve NOAA tsunami warning operations to better serve US coastal communities. The same validated modeling technology was then applied to produce hazard maps for coastal communities in the United States and internationally through the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). Tsunami hazard maps are an essential first step in preparing a community for the next tsunami. Using these maps and other preparedness criteria, a community can become “Tsunami Ready” for the next event. Tsunami Ready has been adopted by the IOC as the global standard for preparedness of at-risk communities with total populations exceeding 890 million people. 

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5. Science and technology in a global commons: the end of techno-nationalism?

   Lynn, Leonard; Salzman, Hal (February 2023, Salem Press/EBSCO)

   The global challenges now facing all nations transcend national boundaries. Summoning the global talent and resources necessary to addresses these problems will require global science, technology, and innovation (STI) collaboration. Whether climate change, global poverty, or the threats from cyber technologies, effectively dealing with these challenges and opportunities will increasingly require advanced industrialized nations to move beyond their historical techno-nationalist STI policies. Currently, STI policies being proposed in the US and elsewhere assume a " zero-sum " competition where one nation's STI successes are assumed to come at the expense of other nations. They seek ways to outcompete other nations in the production of new STI and restrict foreign access to their STI. History suggests that such policies had, at best, limited success, and the current environment for them seems even less promising. When China was a global STI leader, its tecno-nationalistic policies failed to prevent the spread of its advanced technologies and the rise of other nations. England was unable to use techno-nationalist policies to monopolize the skills and technology it pioneered during the industrial revolution. America pursued its own techno-nationalist polices in the post-World War II years, attempting to maintain the leadership it enjoyed as other countries recovered from World War II devastation. Today new centers of STI development are rapidly emerging and expanding in China, India, Southeast Asia, and other parts of the world. In response, many US policy makers and business leaders harken back to prior failed strategies and advocate intensifying the techno-nationalistic STI policies. This paper proposes a more techno-globalistic approach through the development of a global STI commons, an approach that holds the promise of benefiting people all over the world, including those in currently dominant nations. 

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