Abstract
Science and technology influence international affairs by many different mechanisms. Both create new issues, risks and uncertainties. Advances in science alert the international community to new issues and risks. New technological capabilities transform war, diplomacy, commerce, intelligence, and investment. This paper identifies six basic patterns by which advances in science and technology influence international relations: (1) as a juggernaut or escaped genie with rapid and wide-ranging ramifications for the international system; (2) as a game-changer and a conveyer of advantage and disadvantage to different actors in the international system; (3) as a source of risks, issues and problems that must be addressed and managed by the international community; (4) as key dimensions or enablers of international macro phenomena; (5) as instruments of foreign policy or sources of technical information for the management of an ongoing international regime; (6) as the subject of projects and institutions whose planning, design, implementation and management provide grist for the mill of international relations and diplomacy.
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Notes
Global issues may give rise to new coalitions of states with newly discovered common interests, as when negotiations over climate change gave rise to the Alliance of Small Island States, low-lying island-states that share the fear that they will be submerged by rising sea levels if carbon dioxide emissions are not controlled (Barnett and Campbell 2010).
The IPCC’s reports are posted at http://www.ipcc.ch/publications_and_data/publications_and_data_reports.htm.
The Arms Control Association explains the means and methods for verifying the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty at http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2009_09/Toth. It explains the challenges and potential of seismic monitoring at http://www.armscontrol.org/act/1998_05/vimy98.
But see Weiss (2012) for a description of the STIA Program at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.
For a summary of subsequent developments in economics that depict the role of technology more realistically, see Romer (1990).
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The author thanks Georgetown University for research support. He thanks Alexander Olesker, Kate Broderick, Colleen Wood, Agree Ahmed and Gabriel Gorre for excellent research assistance. He thanks an anonymous reviewer for valuable critiques and suggestions. References and URLs are accurate as of 6 October 2015.
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Weiss, C. How Do Science and Technology Affect International Affairs?. Minerva 53, 411–430 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-015-9286-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-015-9286-1