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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. 

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. 

The 2nd International Dialogue on Science and Technology Advice in Foreign Ministries was co‐convened at the Tufts European Center in Talloires, France, from 15‐17 September 2017 by the International Network for Government Science Advice (INGSA) and the Science Diplomacy Center (Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University). ‘The Talloires Dialogue’ engaged the Foreign Ministries Science and Technology Advice Network (FMSTAN) and other representatives from foreign ministries of sixteen nations to address developments in our globally‐interconnected civilization that require science and technology advice for informed decision‐making. Multi‐stakeholder fora, including INGSA and FMSTAN, provide global and international venues for dialogues among allies and adversaries alike to build common interests with continuous progress, responding to crises and emergencies, disruptive technologies, global spaces and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals beyond 2030 on a planetary scale. Progress with science diplomacy was discussed as an evolving international, interdisciplinary and inclusive process that requires training to balance national interests and common interests for the benefit of all on Earth across generations.