Advancing science diplomacy

Science diplomacy supposedly builds international cooperation through scientific and technical exchange. In practice, however, there are important but often overlooked instances where it might create conflict instead--as with accusations of espionage surrounding the US Naval Medical Research Unit 2 (NAMRU-2) in Indonesia. Did American science diplomacy backfire in Indonesia and, if so, why? Most literature fails to anticipate this possibility, let alone explain it, since science diplomacy is rarely subject to critical analysis. Rather than shun politics or, similarly, simply blame the demise of NAMRU-2 on the military or avian influenza, I consider both the successes and failures of this research unit in the context of Indonesia's transition to democracy and America's legacy from the Cold War. Based on this history, I propose that the effects of science diplomacy depend on strategic communication and exchange, as well as elite influence and material incentives. Therefore, by challenging the conventional wisdom about science diplomacy, NAMRU-2 can help advance the theory and practice of this potentially useful tool of statecraft

Context (archaeology · Delegation · Demise · Diplomacy · Elite · Foreign policy · International relations · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Technoscience · History · International Science and Diplomacy · Law · Science, Research, and Medicine · Twentieth Century Scientific Developments

• Gaining soft power by fostering science, technology,and innovation

  Open Access•Marina Albuquerque Bezerra De Almeida•Sociology International Journal•2022

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• Envisioning a “science diplomacy 2.0”

  Open Access•Simone Turchetti, Roberto Lalli•Humanities and Social Sciences…•2020

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• Lifting the smokescreen of science diplomacy

  Open Access•Elisabeth Epping•Humanities and Social Sciences…•2020

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• Conceptualizing science diplomacy in the practitioner-driven literature

  Open Access•Pierre‐Bruno Ruffini•Humanities and Social Sciences…•2020

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• Science diplomacy

  Open Access•Anna-Lena Rüland, Lise H Andersen et al.•Scientometrics•2025

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• Russia’s arctic science diplomacy

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• Ferreting things out

  Open Access•Natalie Porter, Natalie Hannah Porter•BioSocieties•2016

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• Governmental duty of care for disaster-related science diplomacy

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• The ways and means of Iter

  Open Access•Anna Åberg•History and Technology•2021

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• Exploring Taiwan’s Science Diplomacy in Southeast Asia’s Smart City Development

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• The Sensationalist Discourse of Science Diplomacy

  Open Access•Tim Flink•The Hague Journal of Diplomacy•2020

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• Let’s Just Talk About the Weather

  Open Access•Mariel Borowitz•The Hague Journal of Diplomacy•2023

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• Science diplomacy and transnational governance impact

  Open Access•Tim Legrand, Diane Stone•British Politics•2018

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• European Science Diplomacy in the Southern Neighbourhood

  Open Access•Zane Šime•Politologija•2024

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• Making heart-lung machines work in India

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• After biosovereignty

  Open Access•Sonja Van Wichelen•Social Studies of Science•2023

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• Imagining a ‘Jewish atom bomb’, constructing a scientific diaspora

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• The Unflinching Mr. Smith and the Nuclear Age

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• The uses of disorder in negotiated information orders

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• The Paradox of Scientific Authority

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• Between Politics and Science

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• Scientific expertise and political accountability

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• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

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• The New Public Diplomacy

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• Egypt's Other Wars

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• Freedom in Entangled Worlds

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• Security

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• Health bridges for peace

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• Health, stabilization and securitization

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• Legacy of Scientific Internationalism

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• Emerging Infectious Disease Surveillance in Southeast Asia

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• Insights into surveillance from the influenza virus and benefit sharing controversy

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• Contested Boundaries in Policy-Relevant Science

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• Bioweapons Proliferation

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• Haggling over viruses

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• The Tentacles of Progress

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• Cultural Boundaries of Science

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• Indonesia's Foreign Policy

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• Public Diplomacy and Soft Power

  Open Access•Joseph S Nye•The Annals of the American…•2008

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• Public Diplomacy

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• Unresolved Problems in the Indonesian Killings of 1965–1966

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• Spinning the Globe? U.S. Public Diplomacy and Foreign Public Opinion

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• The Sociology of Science

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• Instrumentalized rationality, cross-cultural mediators, and civil epistemologies of late colonialism

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• Soft power

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• Constructivist Implications of Material Power

  Open Access•Carol Atkinson•International Studies Quarterly•2006

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• Introduction

  Open Access•Peter M Haas•International Organization•1992

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• Security, Disease, Commerce

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• Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-Science

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• Exporting the Bomb

  Open Access•Matthew Kroenig•American Political Science Review•2009

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• Soft Power

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• Curing Their Ills

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• Viral Clouds

  Open Access•Celia Lowe•Cultural Anthropology•2010

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