2015 AAAS Annual Meeting (12-16 February 2015)

February 12 - 16, 2015

Science Diplomats Tackling Our Lifestyle Killers

Science-based issues are crucial to the conduct of foreign policy. Countries large and small, developed and developing, express a clear interest in implementing science diplomacy through politics. This is for the purpose of representation, cooperation, resolving disputes, improving systems, and securing the right to science for citizens and our most vulnerable populations. The same applies to global companies and institutions operating in a complex matrix of technical and relational challenges. This symposium will test this theory against the successes and failures of health diplomacy strategies around two challenging issues: global responses to obesity and harm reduction science linked to lifestyle. Elected officials and senior doctors with first-hand insights into real-life best practices and pitfalls encountered in public service will spotlight how new disciplines and voices are being integrated into decision-making. Accepting that societal problems are not necessarily problems with purely scientific solutions, speakers will argue that meeting global challenges demands not only scientific discovery and more data, but greater inclusiveness and dialogue. Their common cause will be to demonstrate that if we accept the potential of science diplomacy as a common currency capable of underpinning today’s multi-stakeholder interactions, we must equally leverage control at the highest levels to remove political barriers that prevent affected populations from accessing services.