IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/palcom/v7y2020i1d10.1057_s41599-020-00599-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Lifting the smokescreen of science diplomacy: comparing the political instrumentation of science and innovation centres

Author

Listed:
  • Elisabeth Epping

    (University of Luxembourg)

Abstract

The notion of science diplomacy (SD) has increasingly gained momentum in recent years, however, it remains an empirically largely underexplored topic. This paper contributes to the study of SD by taking an instrument-centred perspective and focusses on science and innovation centres (SIC), a novel policy instrument in the science diplomacy toolbox. SIC are distinct units or satellite institutes, established by governments abroad, operating at the nexus of higher education, research, innovation, and diplomacy. Based on a comparative analysis, this article examines the rise of SIC in Germany and Switzerland. By means of applying a policy instrumentation lens, the career and development of the two SIC is retraced and insights are generated into their political instrumentation. Doing so contributes to unfold the blackbox of what is generally labelled as SD. In-depth interviews and analysis serve as the empirical foundation of this study. Ultimately, the results of this policy instrument study uncover the similarities and differences in SIC development and reveal their political instrumentation over time. It becomes evident that the objectives linked to SIC, and hence SD, are clearly motivated by national needs. Furthermore, notions of SD are reflective of a certain Zeitgeist that is mirrored in the design of an overall, new, policy yet also marks a relabelling of long-existing practices. This study, accordingly, contributes to the knowledge base of SD as it enhances the scholarly understanding of SD instruments in terms of history, actors and political instrumentation while also offering a theoretical anchoring.

Suggested Citation

  • Elisabeth Epping, 2020. "Lifting the smokescreen of science diplomacy: comparing the political instrumentation of science and innovation centres," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:7:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-020-00599-4
    DOI: 10.1057/s41599-020-00599-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1057/s41599-020-00599-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/s41599-020-00599-4?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nye, Joseph S., 2008. "Public Diplomacy and Soft Power," Scholarly Articles 11738397, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    2. Tim Flink & Ulrich Schreiterer, 2010. "Science diplomacy at the intersection of S&T policies and foreign affairs: toward a typology of national approaches," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 37(9), pages 665-677, November.
    3. Bendor, Jonathan & Hammond, Thomas H., 1992. "Rethinking Allison's Models," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 86(2), pages 301-322, June.
    4. Michael Evan Goodsite & Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen & Sandra Cassotta Pertoldi-Bianchi & Jingzheng Ren & Lize-Marie van der Watt & Halldor Johannsson, 2016. "The role of science diplomacy: a historical development and international legal framework of arctic research stations under conditions of climate change, post-cold war geopolitics and globalization/po," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 6(4), pages 645-661, December.
    5. Giliberto Capano & Michael Howlett, 2020. "The Knowns and Unknowns of Policy Instrument Analysis: Policy Tools and the Current Research Agenda on Policy Mixes," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(1), pages 21582440199, January.
    6. Pascal Marmier & Marc Fetscherin, 2010. "Case E: A Public–Private Partnership to Foster Science, Higher Education and Innovation – The Case of Switzerland with swissnex Boston," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Frank M. Go & Robert Govers (ed.), International Place Branding Yearbook 2010, chapter 0, pages 97-109, Palgrave Macmillan.
    7. Carlsson, Bo, 2006. "Internationalization of innovation systems: A survey of the literature," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 56-67, February.
    8. Jakob Edler & Jan Fagerberg, 2017. "Innovation policy: what, why, and how," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 33(1), pages 2-23.
    9. Pierre-Bruno Ruffini, 2018. "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and the Science-Diplomacy Nexus," Post-Print hal-02982792, HAL.
    10. J. Battilana & B. Leca & E. Boxenbaum, 2009. "Agency and Institutions: A Review on Institutional Entrepreneurship," Post-Print hal-00802301, HAL.
    11. Gerring, John, 2004. "What Is a Case Study and What Is It Good for?," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 98(2), pages 341-354, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rüffin, Nicolas & Rüland, Anna-Lena, 2022. "Between global collaboration and national competition: Unraveling the many faces of Arctic science diplomacy," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 58((Art. No.), pages 1-12.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Simone Arnaldi & Alessandro Lombardo & Angela Tessarolo, 2021. "A preliminary study of science diplomacy networks in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-9, December.
    2. Acciai, Claudia, 2021. "The politics of research and innovation: Understanding instrument choices in complex governance environments – the case of France and Italy," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    3. Charlotte Rungius & Tim Flink, 2020. "Romancing science for global solutions: on narratives and interpretative schemas of science diplomacy," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Bahruddin, & Macdonald, Kate & Diprose, Rachael & Delgado Pugley, Deborah, 2024. "Scaling-up sustainable commodity governance through jurisdictional initiatives: Political pathways to sector transformation in the Indonesian palm oil sector?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    5. Hu, Hui & Qi, Shaozhou & Chen, Yuanzhi, 2023. "Using green technology for a better tomorrow: How enterprises and government utilize the carbon trading system and incentive policies," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    6. Jessica Weber, 2023. "Coordination Challenges in Wind Energy Development: Lessons from Cross-Case Positive Planning Approaches to Avoid Multi-Level Governance ‘Free-Riding’," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-25, October.
    7. Jonas Heiberg & Bernhard Truffer, 2021. "The emergence of a global innovation system – a case study from the water sector," GEIST - Geography of Innovation and Sustainability Transitions 2021(09), GEIST Working Paper Series.
    8. Petersen, Alexander M. & Rotolo, Daniele & Leydesdorff, Loet, 2016. "A triple helix model of medical innovation: Supply, demand, and technological capabilities in terms of Medical Subject Headings," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 666-681.
    9. Serhat Burmaoglu & Ozcan Saritas, 2019. "An evolutionary analysis of the innovation policy domain: Is there a paradigm shift?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 118(3), pages 823-847, March.
    10. Nyam Elisha Yakubu, 2022. "An Appraisal of Hard Power in Contemporary Practice of Diplomacy," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 6(02), pages 342-351, February.
    11. Anna Hutchens, 2011. "Playing games of governance: How and why Fair Trade pioneers evade corporate capture," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 5(2), pages 221-240, June.
    12. Acosta, Matias & Szlamka, Zsofia & Mostajo-Radji, Mohammed A., 2020. "Transnational youth networks: an evolving form of public diplomacy to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals," SocArXiv 8247s, Center for Open Science.
    13. Švarc, Jadranka & Dabić, Marina, 2021. "Transformative innovation policy or how to escape peripheral policy paradox in European research peripheral countries," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    14. Michail Ploumis, 2018. "A New Way Forward: Rebalancing the U.S. Security Cooperation with Greece in a Fast Changing Geostrategic Environment," Applied Finance and Accounting, Redfame publishing, vol. 4(1), pages 95-111, February.
    15. Daniel Béland & Michael Howlett & Philip Rocco & Alex Waddan, 2020. "Designing policy resilience: lessons from the Affordable Care Act," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 53(2), pages 269-289, June.
    16. Keijzer, Charlotte & Iizuka, Michiko, 2017. "Pathways for capacity building in heterogeneous value chains: Evidence from the case of IT-enabled services in South Africa," MERIT Working Papers 2017-012, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    17. Alastair Stark & Sophie Yates, 2021. "Public inquiries as procedural policy tools [Policy tools theory and implementation networks: understanding state enterprise zone partnerships]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 40(3), pages 345-361.
    18. Park, Han Woo & Leydesdorff, Loet, 2010. "Longitudinal trends in networks of university-industry-government relations in South Korea: The role of programmatic incentives," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 640-649, June.
    19. Rogge, Karoline S. & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2009. "The impact of the EU ETS on the sectoral innovation system for power generation technologies: findings for Germany," Working Papers "Sustainability and Innovation" S2/2009, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI).
    20. Rosina K Foli & Frank L K Ohemeng, 2022. "“Provide our basic needs or we go out”: the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, inequality, and social policy in Ghana [Easing of lockdown a relief to Ghana’s poor—despite fears it is premature]," Policy and Society, Darryl S. Jarvis and M. Ramesh, vol. 41(2), pages 217-230.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:palcom:v:7:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1057_s41599-020-00599-4. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.nature.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.