ДЕЯТЕЛЬНОСТЬ АТТАШЕ ПО НАУКЕ: ОТЕЧЕСТВЕННЫЕ И ЗАРУБЕЖНЫЕ ПРАКТИКИ

Abstract

The article casts light upon science diplomacy conducted by foreign affairs bodies of given countries with the focus on their human resources dimension. Despite the rising interest towards the above topic within the scientific discourse, both in Russia and abroad, the problematics of ministerial science diplomacy does by no means appear to be well elaborated in specialized literature. Still, in line with already existing approaches, these issues can be attributed to the second track of science diplomacy as a science policy construct, i.e. diplomacy for science. In other words, this implies facilitating international scientific cooperation through specialized diplomatic institutes being in this case an integral part of ministries of foreign affairs as coordinating bodies of States’ external relations. Instrumentally, the authors look into the practices of science attaches and counselors in countries with developed science infrastructures and considerable experience in the field in question – USA, France, Swiss and Japan. They describe the specifics of each national model with regard to traditions and recent trends both in foreign and in science policy. Two distinctive features, all the aforementioned models tend to have in common are outlined: sticking to principles of “academic capitalism” and hiring predominantly people with scientific and academic background for the respective work in diplomatic representations abroad. The first trend infers the perception of knowledge and research results basically as commercializable products, while the second appears significant due to the fact that historically science attaches’ positions would be occupied by intelligence agents or civil servants without any academic background rather than by professional scholars. With regard to the ongoing discussion on the necessity to reintroduce, possibly in a new format, this institute in the Russian diplomatic service, the authors recommend to take into consideration the practices of foreign counties and especially the emphasis on “academic capitalism” and professionalism of human resources.