Structure and agent in scientific diplomacy: Institutional design and leadership performance in the science-politics interface of climate change
Abstract
Science constitutes a central component in international environmental policy-making. Scientific advisory bodies have increasingly become integral parts of negotiating efforts to combat common environmental problems. Still, the conditions for, and mechanisms under which, scientific knowledge is transformed into decision premises for policy decisions at the international level has to a very little extent been subject to systematic analysis.
This study takes as its point of departure the internal dynamics of both science and politics in order to explore the character of the interface between them, within which the science-policy dialogue of regime formation processes takes place. In particular, the study investigates, first, the extent to which and how the institutional arrangements of the science-policy dialogue may influence, and serve as instruments for facilitating the transformation of scientific knowledge into decision premises. Second, the paper explores the role and impact of scientific élites in performing leadership functions in the process. The paper explores these questions first theoretically, then empirically in a case study of the regime formation process on global warming.