Round table: Science diplomacy in times of war

APRIL 7, 2022, 6:30-8:30 PM CEST

Four days after Russia launched a full-scale military invasion into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that the EU sanctions imposed on Russia as well as the wider political context would make the continuation of the ExoMars program—a joint ESA and Roscosmos (Russian federal space agency) space mission scheduled for September 2022—“very unlikely.” Was this a justified diplomatic proscription or a potential instance in which science diplomacy could operate in a time of war?

How should scientific institutions react to the war in Ukraine? Isolate Russia and exclude it from all scientific collaborations or “do business” as usual? The academic world is divided on this. In a roundtable organized by Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg on April 7, 6:30 p.m. CEST, historians and philosophers of science and technology together with key science administrators and academics will analyze the role of science diplomacy in times of war, historically and today. The discussion will be broadcasted via Zoom and Youtube. The event will be held in English, in cooperation with the EU-funded project InsSciDE– Inventing a Shared Science Diplomacy for Europe and the ERC Consolidator Grant research project HRP-IAEA.

Welcoming:  Prof. Joachim Hornegger, President- Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

Moderators:

Prof. Maria Rentetzi, chair for Science, Technology and Gender Studies, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg

Dr. Matthew Adamson, Director of Academic and Student Affairs, McDaniel College Budapest

Panel members

1. Prof. Emeritus Aristides Baltas, Philosopher of science, National Technical University of Athens, ex- minister of Culture and Sports of Greece and ex- minister of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs in Greece
2. Prof. Kate Brown, Thomas M. Siebel Distinguished Professor in History of Science, MIT.
3. Prof. Susan Buck-Morss, The Jan Rock Zubrow Chair of Government, Cornell University and Distinguished Professor, Department of Political Science, Graduate Center of the City of New York
4. Vito Cecere, Director for Research and Academic Relations Policy, Department for Culture and Communications, Federal Foreign Office
5. Dr. Michael Harms Deputy Secretary General DAAD
6. Prof. Joachim Hornegger, President- Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
7. Prof. Claudio Feijo, Technical University of Madrid, Senior Lecturer on Geopolitics of Technology at Spain’s Diplomatic School