To determine the contours of this new discipline of computational diplomacy, a workshop was organized in Crans-Montana from August 28 to 31, 2022. Co-organized by Prof. Bastien Chopard (UNIGE), Prof. Dirk Elbing (ETHZ) and Prof. Peter Sloot (University of Amsterdam), this event brought together 25 participants with the dual ambition of laying the initial scientific foundations of computational diplomacy by building bridges not only between different disciplines, but also with the community of practitioners involved in scientific diplomacy.
During the workshop, a dozen researchers based at various European universities and coming from either the fields of computational science or international relations were given the opportunity to present their work. This provided an opportunity to compare and contrast different approaches and disciplines. The establishment of a highly promising dialogue with the community of practitioners involved in science diplomacy was also demonstrated by the presence of three ambassadors from the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) (Amb. Alexandre Fasel, Benedikt Wechsler and Thomas Greminger), three GESDA representatives and Mrs Micheline Calmy-Rey. The DFA ambassadors were particularly keen to establish a dialogue with SiDLab in the future.
The workshop was also attended by a representative of the UNIGE Rectorate (Vice-Rector Stephane Berthet), the Dean of the Faculty of Science (Jérôme Lacour), and a representative of the University of Zurich (Christian Simm).