Signal Science-diplomacy frameworks were updated in 2025 to reflect research security

Summary

In 2025 the Royal Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science updated the science-diplomacy framework they had published in 2010. The revision reflects a changed environment of geopolitical conflict, technology competition, a rising private sector and research-security threats while aiming to deliver clearer practical messages. It simplifies science diplomacy into two axes based on the two-way relationship between science and diplomacy, with science advice as an example of science shaping diplomacy and research security as an example of diplomacy shaping science. The European Union took a different route, adding 'diplomacy in science', the use of diplomatic skills and tools in science, to the original three-part framework. The essay uses these updates to show that diplomacy now acts directly on research itself.