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Geo-Economics: the New Science of Regional Powers and Neighbourhoods



The strategy report traces contemporary applications and draws on historical cases to assess science diplomacy as a widely discussed concept and a far-reaching practice. It sketches out what science diplomacy can do for European foreign policy and how the European Union can strengthen its role as a science diplomacy actor.




Geo-Economics: the New Science




The report sketches out what science diplomacy can do for European foreign policy and how the European Union can strengthen its role as a science diplomacy actor. It considers five key EU foreign policy interests, and the past and present role of science diplomacy in these interests: a functioning rules-based order, addressing global challenges, a resilient neighbourhood, the security and well-being of its citizens, and the strategic autonomy of the Union.


Science diplomacy is an area with great potential, especially for the EU. It is also an area with inherent tensions: between academic freedom and the instrumentalisation of science, between the gains of international cooperation and the risks it entails, and between public goods and national gains. A European science diplomacy strategy must bridge these tensions and balance different interests. The history of science diplomacy can be of help in so doing, linking past experience with present policy ambitions to strengthen European science diplomacy for the future.


Part of the success in science is investments in science, but it's also based on respect for science. It's based on a strong education system. We have the best universities, as I said before, but data show that overall, on average, our education performance is mediocre at best. But we are below some of our competitors, especially in key areas of science. You can't play games with science. There is no alternative reality; there are no alternative facts. We have to deal with the scientific realities as they are.


We may not even at this point have dominance in every branch of science. A particular concern is artificial intelligence, AI, which is enormous power. A key input into AI is data. China has more data. It's lack of concern about privacy gives it the access to more data. The answer is not for us to give up on our basic values, our importance of privacy, it's to be smarter and to invest more. Unfortunately, we haven't been doing very much public investment in this area at all.


You know, this also speaks a little bit to what I said before, about the importance of science and health and listening. I met with all the health negotiators of all the TPP countries over this issue, about how you write a good agreement that would maintain access to health, generic medicines. All of the countries except for one agreed to talk and engaged in, you know, a good discussion. That one country was the United States. So it shows that in a sense, the lack of cooperation, that we weren't seeing this as a cooperative enterprise, and I think that when you do that, it undermines our soft power.


Abstract: Based on the introduction of representative Western geopolitical and geoeconomic theories of the late nineteenth century and the twentieth century, this paper analyzes the characteristics of historical and contemporary geopolitics and geoeconomics in China's surrounding areas. It also discusses the basic patterns and trends of geopolitical and geoeconomic situations in the area. The main patterns and characteristics are as follows. China's geopolitical relationship is close and geoeconomic relationship develops at a relatively rapid pace with northern neighboring countries. Its geopolitical relationship continuously develops and prospect of geoeconomic cooperation is very promising with neighboring countries to the west. On the other hand, China's geopolitical relationship with countries to the southwest is very fragile but the geoeconomic relationship has great potential to develop. In the south, China's geopolitical and geoeconomic relationship with neighboring countries is overall healthy, but the issue of South China Sea can be a potential cause of instability. Last but not the least, the geopolitical situation in the area to the east has sensitive and complex hotspots, whereas the structure of geoeconomics maintains relatively stable. This paper puts forward strategies and countermeasures in order to improve the geopolitical and geoeconomic situations, which can be summarized as "Uniting in the North, Advancing in the West, Cooperating in the South, and Extending in the East". More specifically, "Uniting in the North" focuses on building a stable zone geopolitically based on mutual trust, economic and trade ties, science and technology, culture and other fields of cooperation with countries including Russia and Mongolia. "Advancing in the West" means expanding the economic and trade cooperation and cultural exchanges with five Central Asian countries, Russia and West Asia, Eastern Europe and the European Union countries through the development of the "Silk Road Economic Belt", which vigorously promotes the vast development of geoeconomics and creates a favorable geopolitical environment for Western China. "Cooperating in the South" aims at further strengthening traditional cooperative relations with South Asia and Southeast Asia countries by means of negotiation and dialogue, gradually resolving the Sino-Indian border dispute and territorial disputes in South China Sea. It also means promoting regional cooperation between China and ASEAN countries and countries located in the South Asia subcontinent, deepening the strategic friendship relations. All goals under "Cooperating in the South" cannot be accomplished without the development of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area, the China-Burma-India-Bangladesh economic corridor and the twenty-first century maritime Silk Road. At last, "Extending in the East" places emphasis on breaking the first and second island chain encircled China set by USA and Japan and makes an ambitious plan that captures the mastery of the seas in 2020.


From this description and the examples on this page, we can see that science diplomacy is much more than public diplomacy and the one should not be reduced to the other. Having said this, it is important to recognise that for many countries, and in particular the USA, the practice of science diplomacy often has strong elements of public diplomacy.


Science attachés played an important role in the response to COVID-19. In the cases of France and the UK, the science attaché network was particularly important as part of the initial crisis response. This included supporting repatriation efforts and giving advice in the area of medical technologies to colleagues from other fields, such as trade. Later, science attachés were important in collecting information on initiatives and publications in their geographic region.


It is interesting to observe, though, that they mainly supported national efforts while Unsurprisingly, science attachés played an important role in the response to COVID-19. In the cases of France and the UK, the science attaché network was particularly important as part of the initial crisis response. This included supporting repatriation efforts and giving advice in the area of medical technologies to colleagues from other fields, such as trade.


Later, science attachés were important in collecting information on initiatives and publications in their geographic region. It is interesting to observe, though, that they mainly supported national efforts while struggling to maintain contact and collaborate with colleagues from other countries.


Based on this experience, a number of suggestions have been made on how to improve the work of science attachés. You can read more in the article Science Attachés in a Post-COVID-19 World: Taking Stock of the Crisis from Science & Diplomacy. 2ff7e9595c


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