Science Diplomacy, Cyberdiplomacy and Techplomacy in EU-LAC Relations

This book explores collaborations between the European Union (EU) and the CELAC ( Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) in science diplomacy, as well as the related areas of cyberdiplomacy and techplomacy. It focuses on how interregional collaboration could strengthen societal resilience in both LAC and EU member countries and contribute to realising the SDGs and Agenda 2030 objectives. The book explores the history of EU relations with LAC, and provides a conceptual basis for science diplomacy, including cyberdiplomacy and techplomacy in the context of international relations and diplomacy studies. It highlights how COVID-19 has accelerated pre-existing trends in diplomacy in EU and LAC, forcing diplomats online and making them confront scientific and technical issues as core parts of foreign policy agendas and future pandemic preparedness. The book also examines the role of science diplomacy between these regions in relation to the climate change debate and reflects on whether the EU-LAC collaboration in science and R&D can be taken to a policy level. It provides suggestions on ways in which the CELAC and the EU could collaborate, both in promoting a ruled-based cyberspace and in strengthening digital resilience, and situates this collaboration in the broader geopolitical, scientific and technological environments. 

Authored by experts in this field, this highly topical book is of interest to a wide readership interested in diplomacy studies, public policy, international relations, regionalism, and S&T studies.

Dr. Mario Torres Jarrín is Director of the Institute of European Studies and Human Rights at the Pontifical University of Salamanca (Spain).  Previously, he was Director at the European Institute of International Studies (Sweden); Research Associate and Adjunct Lecturer in Regionalism in Latin America in the Chair of International Business and Society Relations with focus of Latin America at Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (Germany); Lecturer-Research Associate in the Institute of Latin American Studies and, as well as Adjunct Lecturer in the Department of Romance Studies and Classics, Faculty of Humanities at Stockholm University (Sweden). He has been a Visiting Professor in universities across Europe and diplomatic academies in Europe, Americas and Asia. He holds a PhD in History, a Master in European Union Studies, and a BA in Business Studies from the University of Salamanca (Spain).

Shaun Riordan is Director of the Chair for Diplomacy and Cyberspace at the European Institute of International Studies, Sweden, and a senior fellow of the Charhar Institute, Beijing. He is a senior consultant with UNITAR for Digital and Cyber Diplomacy and a consultant with UNDP on public diplomacy. A member of the European Commission´s advisory commission on encryption, he has advised the GSD Fund on public diplomacy and the UNWTO on security issues. He holds an MA (Hons) in Philosophy from the University of Cambridge. Among his publications are The New Diplomacy (Polity 2003), Cyberdiplomacy: Managing Security and Governance Online (Polity, 2019) and The Geopolitics of Cyberspace: A Diplomatic Perspective (Brill, 2019). He teaches in various diplomatic academies and universities.