S&T Trends

Russian Science Diplomacy: The path to global leadership

Zakharov Oleg

Abstract

Science diplomacy serves as both a catalyst for global cooperation, addressing shared challenges, and a reflection 

of national interests, expressing intentions to benefit from cooperation. Such duality is a subject of debate in academic 

community, especially when considering national policy implementation. Russia has always been a participant of 

international cooperation in science and technology, but interest in the study and comprehensive development of 

science diplomacy as an independent concept emerged later than in Western countries. The present paper examines 

the main features of Russian science diplomacy: its changes, related previous and actual policy documents, main actors 

and achievements in this field. Russian science diplomacy is integrated into the system of international scientific and 

technical cooperation (ISTC) and as it stands from review, heavily depends on the foreign policy environment. With 

the newly accepted ISTC Concept in 2019, Russia declares its intention to maintain global leadership in the world, 

including by the means of science diplomacy, which is understood as a direction of public diplomacy. 

Keywords