Building Science Diplomacy in Response to (and in Spite of) Policy
I recently attended an event where representatives of the Embassy of Japan in the United States spoke on their approach to diplomacy, projecting a clear take-home message: diplomacy starts small, requiring one-on-one relationships to build up to something greater. Science often works similarly, bringing together minds from around the world to work on endeavors greater than any one of them could achieve alone. The US has taken a huge stake in many of these endeavors, and it has become a hub for science and technology because of it.
This role may be changing, however, in the wake of new policies that impact the ability for global talent to study and work in the US. For example, a Department of Homeland Security rule dictates that all international students can spend at most four years on a student visa in the US. Additionally, the cost of new H-1B visas given to workers coming from outside the US has increased to $100,000. Both of these rules burden international students—especially PhD-level talent—as well as US science and technology industries.
Just as these rules will hamper American scientific progress, so too will they impact science diplomacy. These policy changes will reduce the amount of international students coming to the US and the amount of international talent working in and advancing American science and technology. A key channel of relationship-building—training alongside global scientists and forging careers together—will be diminished. How can American scientists benefit fully from the core pillars of science diplomacy in the absence of the rich global scientific education and workforce that has for so long been a staple of the US?
This contrasts with the nations that have already implemented a response to the need for international talent. The United Kingdom, Canada, and China all have talent recruitment programs that give individuals with advanced degrees an easier path to immigration, and these are disproportionately awarded to scientists and other technical experts. These nations enrich their academic and industrial atmospheres by diversifying the perspectives within them, and this increases the opportunity for the formation of interpersonal relationships that develop into international conversations. Such a recruitment program would benefit the US as well, bringing global perspectives to a nation built on innovations in science and technology. Even though the current moment leaves the implementation of such programs uncertain, the groundwork for such global community building can be laid now by individual action.
Diplomacy begins with one-on-one relationships. In the face of diminishing science diplomacy capabilities, scientists must reach out to their counterparts overseas to build collaborative projects, international conferences must cultivate ongoing conversations, and organizations of passionate advocates (some of which are listed below) must continue discussing the importance of great global scientific endeavors. Often overlooked is that robust international cooperation in research and industry starts not at the level of policy, but with individuals being active stewards of science and building the global scientific community we wish to see. As policymaking changes our research and innovation environments, the relationships we build as individuals will allow the scientific community to better respond to and shape these changes in the future.
Explore other organizations connecting passionate scientists across borders:
