PrintScience Diplomacy for Conflict Prevention
part of the Science, Technology and Peacebuilding
Global Evaluation of Science & Engineering Collaborations for Peacebuilding
Featured
Event: Reykjavik to New START: Science Diplomacy for Nuclear Security in the 21st Century
The Center, in partnership with the National Academy of Sciences Committee on International Security and Arms Control (CISAC), held a symposium on science and diplomacy in support of international security. As we approach the 25th anniversary of the Reykjavik Summit, CISAC and USIP invited prominent scientists from Russia and the United States to examine the roles of transparency and confidence building in 21st Century nuclear security.
Event: Science Diplomacy and the Prevention of Conflict 
The Center, in collaboration with the Center on Public Diplomacy at USC's Annenberg School for Communication, will be hosting two conferences on "Science Diplomacy and the Prevention of Conflict." At the first conference, held in Los Angeles on February 5, 2010, Sheldon Himelfarb provided introductory remarks, and Joel Whitaker chaired a panel on "Lessons for the Future." The second conference will be held in Washington, D.C. in the fall of 2010.
Peacebrief: The Tigris-Euphrates River Basin: A Science Diplomacy Opportunity
Read a report by Center staff on regional water management in the Tigris-Euphrates river basin and the opportunities it presents for diplomatic engagement between Iraq, Syria, and Turkey.
Partners
USC Center on Public Diplomacy
The Center of Innovation for Science, Technology, and Peacebuilding is evaluating the potential for international scientific and technical collaborations to aid in conflict prevention and resolution.
As a first step in framing this issue, the Center co-hosted “Science Diplomacy and the Prevention of Conflict” with USC’s Center on Public Diplomacy in February 2010. Center staff met with scientists and policy experts in Los Angeles to discuss new science diplomacy initiatives.
The Center is currently focused on two areas of opportunity where international cooperation is critical to enabling political and diplomatic progress:
- Science Diplomacy for Nuclear Threat Reduction: The Center is working with the National Academy of Sciences to explore science diplomacy’s potential to address issues of nuclear security, in alignment with USIP’s support of the Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States.
- Water Scarcity, Environmental Change, and Conflict: The Center is investigating the challenges and opportunities presented by climate change and water scarcity in conflict zones. We are examining how scientific cooperation can create diplomatic breakthroughs in regions like the Tigris-Euphrates river basin and the Hindu Kush mountain ecosystem, where tension over water and other resources are ongoing or imminent.
Why have some instances of scientific collaboration (medical, technological, etc.) transformed themselves into noteworthy Track-Two diplomatic efforts? What is the active ingredient in past successful (and failed) initiatives to involve scientists and technologists in peacebuilding activity? To answer these questions, the Center is proposing the evaluation of select scientific and technical collaborations to identify these active ingredients for inclusion in future collaboration projects.