Dr Diane Stone1
1Florence School of Transnational Governance, Firenze, Italy
Biography:
Diane Stone is Chair of Global Policy and a Professor in the Florence School of Transnational Governance. Previously, she was Dean of the School of Public Policy at Central European University in Budapest and Vienna. For 4 years until 2020, she was Centenary Professor at the University of Canberra, and she has held positions earlier at other Australian universities. In the UK, she was Professor of Politics and International Studies at Warwick University.
Abstract:
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) do not stand alone as ‘ivory towers’ separate from society and economy. Nor are they isolated from the foreign policy of their home governments. International Organisations and transnational policy regimes often deal with global concerns requiring scientific input and analysis. This paper addresses the connection of HEIs to the practice of Diplomacy through the lens of three contemporary concepts: i.) Knowledge Diplomacy, ii.) Science Diplomacy and iii.) Multi-Track (or Informal) Diplomacy to examine their roles in (transnational) governance. Neither global knowledge-sharing nor international scientific cooperation can be detached from the institutional settings where such knowledge creation and activity was crafted. Whether science contributes positively or negatively to reaching foreign policy goals or transnational governance objectives will be shaped by this institutional legacy. Addressing these features of HEI roles and functions in diplomacy – indeed, their imbrication in diplomacy – goes beyond treating HEIs as mere governmental ‘tools’ of public or civic diplomacy or as a ‘soft power’ instrument of states. The multi-faceted diplomatic interface of Higher Education requires recognising not only the agency of institutions and scientific communities or other knowledge actors, but also their interests. This means critically interrogating the “de-politicised” ideas of ‘science diplomacy’ and ‘knowledge diplomacy’ to reinstate perspectives from International Relations, Security and Diplomatic Studies, as well as the Policy Sciences, to re-capture the power dynamics within educational exchange, competition in ‘global’ science and the diplomatic dilemmas that can emerge from ‘knowledge-sharing’.