Science, diplomacy and the present
One approach for professionals from science, engineering, health or other technology backgrounds to tackle public policy and international affairs, and to understand the context of their work, is to begin with mainstream textbooks on international affairs, and combine them with:
- stories by journalists with recognized qualifications,
- books by current, recognized scholars in international affairs
- journal articles and other outputs from active thinktanks examining science, technology and society
- streams of webinars from reputable sources, including “the inside story” from retired Canadian ambassadors
- regular podcasts from providers who interview globally recognizable, senior public intellectuals with long track records and living memory of the post WW2 decades
For this workshop series, we introduce a mainstream textbook in international affairs, two books by Ms. Chrystia Freeland, a former journalist with the Financial Post, and until recently a Cabinet member of the Government of Canada. The books authored by Ms. Freeland are: Sale of the Century: Russia’s Wild Ride from Communism to Capitalism (2000), and Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-rich and the Fall of Everyone Else (2012). (See a bio of Chrystia Freeland and book reviews here). Since we began this workshop series three years ago, we have added three more books to this list, which we describe at our workshop series. Attendance at numerous webinars and podcast episodes also form part of the references.
The goal of this workshop is to come up with the closest approximation of the true drivers that are forcing dramatic and even existential change in the U.S., using the lens of the science, technology and innovation (STI) enterprise as our main probe. At the beginning of the workshop series, an evolving, draft presentation is made by Meg Barker, as developments take place quickly, even every week. The workshop challenges attendees to do their own investigation(s), providing rationales and references for any positions they may adopt in our Q&A sessions. We may not come up with final answers, but at minimum participants — as peer-peer learners — will be more aware of the outlines of change, reasons for this change, and ideally, how to design counter initiatives that reduce or limit risks to the public and to their own families and communities.
