For some years now, geopolitical conflicts and global challenges, systemic rivalries, and widespread anti-science discourses have also posed enormous challenges for universities, particularly when it comes to their international relations and also because they themselves are increasingly ascribed a relevant role as an actor in political foreign relations. They are required to advise their researchers on suitable forms and also risks of international cooperation; they are competing – on a highly competitive and borderless market – for international students and academics and should become active in multinational networks in order to research global challenges such as climate change. At the same time, political actors have high expectations of universities because scientific cooperation is often considered to be "untroubled" in comparison to political and economic relations and universities are seen as "soft power" actors. This claim is often expressed under the slogan of "science diplomacy" towards universities, which is itself deemed to be extremely imprecisely defined in social science research (see Flink, T. (2020). The Sensationalist Discourse of Science Diplomacy: A Critical Reflection. The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, 15(3), 359-370. https://doi.org/10.1163/1871191X-BJA10032).

The session will discuss what role universities can play in this conflicting field between the high expectations of political actors on the one hand and the maxim of freedom of research and teaching on the other, and what risks and benefits internationalization entails in the face of these challenges. It will bring together experts from Brazil and its most important partner countries for scientific cooperation, also exploring the nuances between the global north and south experiences.

Format:

Roundtable Discussion with 4 discussants, one chair and one moderator (open, plenary discussion, short input by chair)