Containing deep insights into anticipated advances in the relations between Science & Diplomacy over the next 5, 10 and 25 years, the GESDA Pulse of Science provides the expert opinions of leading researchers in topics such as digital security, economics, futures research, group behaviour and language.

Associated Emerging Topics:

Emerging Topic

Science-based Diplomacy

It is now almost impossible to separate diplomacy from the influence of science and technology. Computational modelling, analysis and artificial intelligence are set to play important roles in international relations, especially when it comes to interactions between groups of people. Researchers are already compiling vast databases of historical interactions between actors in various international forums. Mining these databases produces an instant picture of an actor’s past statements and positions and helps to find common ground in negotiations. These databases are the bedrock of science-based diplomacy, a strategy that is likely to become more powerful, more comprehensive and more widely used. Indeed, negotiation engineering aims to “depoliticise” these discussions by automating certain aspects of the process.

Emerging Topic

Economics

A number of factors make traditional economic theories unsuitable for understanding modern societies. These include unrealistic assumptions underlying many economic models at both microeconomic and macroeconomic levels; inadequate recognition of historical processes and their current implications; and insufficient incorporation of power dynamics.¹ As a result, contemporary economic thought is undergoing a significant transformation, moving beyond traditional models to incorporate emerging ideas and understanding about the way (and the context within which) human societies and individuals have operated through history and the processes and mechanisms at work in economies today.

Emerging Topic

Digital Security

Much has been written about the potential of technologies like social media and data analytics to spread disinformation and polarise societies, thus weakening democracy, but there is now a countervailing movement: an effort to create, nourish and grow democracy-affirming technologies. Further advances come from innovations in fact-checking websites and tools that have been designed to help people better assess the validity of information online; digital identity technologies, which are emerging as a critical tool for helping democracy transition into the digital age, and technological means to evade attempts at censorship.

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4.1 - Science-based Diplomacy