Why Science Diplomacy Needs a Playbook Now
A practical guide for navigating technology governance, critical minerals, global partnerships, and strategic competition.
Science diplomacy has moved from a specialized practice to a central operating environment for great power competition, industrial strategy, technology governance, and international partnership.
The frameworks being built now on artificial intelligence, critical minerals, technology standards, research security, and global supply chains will shape the next decade of science and technology competition.
That is why I wrote The Science Diplomacy Playbook: 2026 Edition.
Science diplomacy is no longer a field reserved for a small community of researchers, foreign ministry officials, and technical experts. It is now the terrain on which some of the most consequential decisions of the next decade will be made: which countries shape the rules for artificial intelligence, who controls the minerals that power strategic industries, how technology alliances are formed, and which institutions will have the authority to govern technologies with global consequences.
Most practitioners are already operating in this environment. Very few institutions are structured for it.
This Playbook is designed to help close that gap. It is a structured field guide for professionals working at the intersection of science, technology, and international affairs. It is designed for those who must make decisions in real time, in a landscape moving faster than most legacy frameworks can accommodate.
What is inside
Across ten chapters, the Playbook covers the full architecture of science diplomacy as it operates today.
It examines the fundamentals of science diplomacy, its three modes and institutional layers, and how practitioners can move across them with greater fluency.
It looks at the anatomy and lifecycle of bilateral science and technology agreements, the role of minilateral coalitions such as the Quad and AUKUS, and the ways these coalitions are supplementing and, in some domains, bypassing traditional multilateral structures.
It also explores AI governance fragmentation across the United States, the European Union, and China; the critical minerals competition and its implications for diplomatic strategy and supply chain positioning; Africa’s resource sovereignty shift; and the institutional intelligence systems that give practitioners a durable strategic advantage.
Every chapter closes with Put It to Work sections: concrete, sequenced action steps that translate analysis into immediate practice.
Who it is written for
The Playbook is written for foreign ministry officials and science attachés, policy advisors, national security professionals, research institutions, universities, industry strategy leaders navigating global technology markets, and investors working at the science policy interface.
It is also intended for institutions that need to understand how science, technology, markets, and diplomacy are now converging in real time.
If science diplomacy, technology governance, or international partnership strategy is part of your professional work, this book was written for you.
Where to get it
The Science Diplomacy Playbook: 2026 Edition is available now as an ebook and paperback on Amazon, and as an ebook on Apple Books, and Google Play.
Expanded ebook and library distribution is rolling out across North America, the UK, and Europe, including through Tolino, Vivlio, Smashwords, Fable, Gardners, BorrowBox, and cloudLibrary.
Ebook: https://www.amazon.com/Science-Diplomacy-Playbook-2026-ebook/dp/B0GZ54PXBW
Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Science-Diplomacy-Playbook-2026/dp/B0GZCKLMD8
The book is part of the Global Signals Strategic Briefing Series, published by The Global Lens: Science Diplomacy in Focus.
Institutions interested in executive briefings or advisory can reach out via glsd.ai.
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