Science Diplomacy and Foreign Interference in the EU

Foreign interference has put European values and efforts at solving global challenges at risk, and further, threatens to undermine its ideational foundation as a knowledge-based society. One of the possible means for addressing this is through science diplomacy. The EU has invested significant resources into building its science diplomacy capacities; however, science diplomacy is most often understood as a cooperative tool, a means to build and strengthen relationships not resolve conflicts, suggesting that in the face of interference, it may have little to offer. This paper challenges that idea and explores the ways in which science diplomacy efforts are affected by interference and whether and how they have been used to protect and defend European values and approaches to global challenges and efforts at global governance.