Science and Technology Diplomacy, Volume I

A Focus on the Americas with Lessons for the World

Hassan A. Vafai, Kevin E. Lansey

• Publisher: Momentum Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781947083479
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Global Warming & Climate Change
• Index: Biological Sciences

Science diplomacy and policy can support collaborative national and international science for advancing knowledge with societal impact in fields such as climate, space, medicine, and the environment.,

Scientific advances made possible by the basic and applied research carried out by government agencies, universities, and nongovernmental organizations create opportunities and challenges with growing impact on policy decisions. Developing structures that produce the best science information to policy makers is becoming more critical in an ever-changing world.

This three-volume set presented by prominent figures from the disciplines of science, engineering, technology, and diplomacy includes their perspectives on potential solutions to opportunities 21st-century scientists, engineers, and diplomats face in the future: To shed light and interface science, technology, and engineering with the realm of policy; To provide a vision for the future by identifying obstacles and opportunities while focusing on several key issues.

PART 1

At the Crossroads of Diplomacy and Science: Where Do We Go from Here?

Introductory Remarks

E. William Colglazier

Honorary Chairman of the Conference

Provost Andrew Comrie has provided an excellent introduction to the purpose of this conference. He has reminded us that America’s research universities, such as the University of Arizona, are a tremendous asset for our nation and a vital force for our engagement with the world. Our research universities have attracted talented creative people from many different countries. Some stay and contribute here; others go back and help their home countries. The enrichment of our country from this diaspora points to the importance of our university system that contributes to America’s vitality. So it is an honor for me to be here at one of our great research universities, the University of Arizona.

You are in for a treat with the three people you will hear in this opening session. All three were role models for me. I learned a tremendous amount from each of them. Two are here in person, and one, who could not be with us, has been downloaded from the cloud. They cover all aspects of the connection between science and technology with diplomacy and international relations. The first speaker has had a distinguished career inside the government, inside our foreign ministry, the Department of State. The second has never served in a government, but has been a terrific science diplomat. The third has moved back and forth between the governmental and nongovernmental sectors. The three illustrate through their stories the rich history of how over several decades American scientists and engineers have engaged across the world to advance the interests of our nation and contributed to the well-being of people throughout the world.

The first speaker, Ambassador Thomas Pickering, could not be here in person, but is able to send his message via a video taken by iPhone. When I talked with Tom, he asked me to remind him of the purpose of the conference. I did so for about 20 seconds, he thought about it for 10 seconds, and then he spoke extemporaneously for an eloquent 13 minutes. Before turning to Tom, a close friend and colleague, John Boright, executive director of international relations at the National Academy of Sciences, will do the introduction. John has worked with Tom over several decades. There is no one better to provide us with a few vignettes of Tom’s history.

Introduction to Thomas Pickering

John Boright

Executive Director of International Affairs, United States National Academies

We are very fortunate to have a contribution to our discussion from Ambassador Thomas Pickering. For me it is a special pleasure to introduce his presentation, since I worked under him many years ago in the State Department and have benefited from his energy and wisdom so many times since then.

Thomas Pickering is clearly one of the (if not THE) most eminent diplomats of his generation. His remarkable series of major positions include Ambassador to Russia, Israel, Jordan, India, Nigeria, and the United Nations, and Undersecretary for Political Affairs (the top career position in the State Department). But at the same time, and of great interest to our discussion, Ambassador Pickering has had the most sustained and decisive interest of any U.S. diplomat in the role of science and technology in the interaction of the United States with the world community. That has included leading the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans, Environment, and Science early in his career, and a key role in the series of advisory reports that the National Academy of Sciences has provided at the request of the State Department and of United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Science as an “Energizer of the World”

Thomas Pickering

Vice President, Hills and Company, Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations

Good day to you all, and by one of the miracles of modern science, I am appearing before you while I have to spend time here in Washington. I apologize for not having the chance to join you in what looks like both a fascinating and a very stimulating conference to look at science and diplomacy.

EVOLUTION OF SCIENCE AND DIPLOMACY

Science is very much an energizer of the world and is increasingly important both internationally and domestically. How we make or fuse science and the world of diplomacy and governance will be one of the principal challenges for all of us in the days ahead.

Most importantly, we need to continue to find ways to use, integrate, and create synergies between science and diplomacy. Since my early days in the American Foreign Service, beginning in the 1950s, I had the great opportunity to be associated with negotiations on, among other things, arms control and disarmament. During these negotiations, there was a clear and intimate knowledge of science brought by people who were vastly adept in this area, such as geophysicist Frank Press. He was able to provide the ideas and create the kinds of innovative solutions that were necessary to deal with everything from nuclear testing to the reduction of weapons of mass destruction. Knowing how to fit the science together with the general directions in which we were moving back was extremely important.

Another outcome of Science policy is the fact that nuclear verification and monitoring in this area has increased many fold and has in many ways been a marriage of the knowledge of how science and technology could provide innovative ways to understand what was going on in a foreign environment on very sensitive questions with diplomatic answers. The task was in a balanced and reciprocal fashion the acceptance by each side of the kinds of obligations that were necessary to assure that their commitments to reduce weapons or stop testing were being carried out.

In this sense, the 2015 Iran nuclear arrangement is one of the latest innovative efforts to make effective this marriage of science and diplomacy in serving our national and world interests. For example, in that particular agreement a wide number of new technologies were implemented by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure real-time photographic and technical monitoring in a way that allowed the IAEA to know and understand what was happening on a regular basis—and to be the driver of regular visits to sites to assure 24/7 knowledge of what was going on in the Iranian nuclear program.

THE IRAN NUCLEAR AGREEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF NUCLEAR ENERGY FOR PEACEFUL PURPOSES

In the Iran Agreement, we had for the first time an opportunity to look at centrifuge production as a way to assure that the Iranians were abiding by the agreement, including the limitations they had accepted on their use and development of centrifuges. Additionally, the fact that the agreement included “cradle-to-grave” monitoring of uranium, from the mine to the disposition of the spent fuel, was very important in ensuring here a solid basis for knowing and understanding precisely what the Iranians are continuing to do with the enrichment of uranium. This in itself was subject to strict limitations, the importance of which we all understand.

Other innovative arrangements are also built on scientific basis. These innovations and, indeed, these restrictions on uranium enrichment and similar arrangements with respect to plutonium production give us a new opportunity to begin to think about how and in what way we should make the agreement the “international gold standard” so that all countries enriching and using plutonium will have the opportunity to develop these particular facets of important activity for the future, and do so in ways that are transparent and keep us assured that they are not going to take off into military programs. This can help close a loophole in the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that makes no restrictions on either the enrichment of uranium or the separation of plutonium.

INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN PUBLIC HEALTH AND AGRICULTURE

There are large questions regarding international health and how and in what ways science and medicine—a long and collaborative effort over generations—can help prepare the world to deal with man-made threats such as biological warfare, as well as evolving problems such as worldwide epidemics. Our recent experiences with Ebola and Zika have educated us on the need to move early and in a cogent and coordinated way. In contexts where the local health infrastructure is weak, we must move internationally to help reinforce the kinds of steps such as treatments to stop the spread, and ultimately bring an end to the impact, of epidemics.

Of high interest to me is international agriculture, which has successfully been promoted by a network of research institutions begun 30 or 40 years ago with the help of American foundations—for example, the development of new varieties of rice at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines, which led to the Green Revolution. I hope that we can expect this continuing contribution, which could bring us to a new level of revolution in agriculture. It would be useful to take a look at world health research and see if the same level of coordination and diversity achieved in agricultural research could be applied to the world health—especially in anticipating and delivering rapidly in the face of new viruses and epidemics that might affect mankind around the world.

Building the science and technology capacity of developing countries is extremely important. I had the experience of serving as an American ambassador in Central America in the midst of a very difficult time. But it is very clear to me that particularly in areas of high overpopulation, the basic need for education and the need to turn education toward the knowledge-based economy are ways in which these countries have a great opportunity of bootstrapping themselves ahead. We need to think about the ways in which they can make a contribution on the employment side.

ROLE OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR IN SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND DIPLOMACY

I had the opportunity after I retired from government to spend some time at a major U.S. company manufacturing aircraft. That experience taught me a great deal about how and in what way scientific research can be applied to modern technological innovation in a creative and useful way. On the one hand, that is important not only in terms of a major company maintaining a high level of technical excellence, but how in a very serious way it draws on international capacities. Boeing has supply chains around the world, many of which are devoted to technological research that could be useful in creating and building future products. It has the ability to draw upon the knowledge base of the rest of the world that was important in helping to promote the creation of new jobs in the United States and overseas. Incidentally, it was not an inhibition in selling airplanes: Countries that participated in the construction of Boeing’s airplanes were interested in how and in what way they were going to play a role as potential customers for these airplanes. These are some of the significant questions and innovative issues that suggest how widely cooperative research as a technique can be applied internationally.

ADDRESSING INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGES THROUGH SCIENCE

There are many other issues that we pay attention to and that we see in terms of the challenges. Science has helped us in places as different as Iran, Russia, and China. The United States’ capacity to maintain the excellence of its science base is clearly supported by the fact that as a country we have continuously welcomed individuals, including scientists, of merit. Some estimate that up to 30 percent of our recent innovations are contributed by recent arrivals in the United States, who have come because they admire what we do and the opportunity to work here. They have made tremendous contributions to the development of a new knowledge base and new capacities for this country. Our future as a country depends upon the strength of our science.

I want to say I appreciate very much the opportunity to be with you and to touch on these few subjects, but to tell you how much I look forward to seeing the results of your conference and to thank you very much for the opportunity to say these few words in the early stages of y...