science, politics, religion --- Ginger, thanks for raising this point. It's a really intriguing and thoughtful question and that for me includes two sub-questions: First, who are the actors in science diplomacy? Second, how do scientific findings become accepted in societies and become policies? Let me start addressing these questions. As Estefania points out, religious leaders can be considered actors in science diplomacy. The second question is partly a science diplomacy question and partly a much broader question. In very general terms, science never gets translated directly into policies ... there is a process of communication, persuasion, and negotiation.

Source author: Katharina Höne KatharinaH@diplomacy.edu