Mermbers of the SiDLab co-organised and contributed to a session on computational diplomacy at the International Conference on Computational Science in Prague in July 2023.
Michael Lees, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, email
Bastian Chopard, University of Geneva, Switzerland, email
Brian Castellani, University of Durham, United Kingdom, email
Description: Uncertainty and Complexity are ubiquitous challenges in modern day politics. Societies and governments worldwide face several impending transitions: infrastructural, geopolitical, environmental, societal, all impacting every aspect of our life and requiring coordination of local, national, and international policy. In many cases governments look to scientists and experts to help reason about these challenges and potentially inform their decisions. Making evidence-based decisions in the face of these urgent complex challenges is an exigent task.
In recent years computational techniques (e.g., modelling and simulation, data science and artificial intelligence) have become a mainstay of the political process. There are also a growing number of international examples of academic-governmental collaborations where solutions are co-created by decisions makers and scientists. However, while the role of computational science is increasing, the academic fields of computational policy/diplomacy are still in their infancy. The CoDiP workshop aims to bring together computational scientists who are applying modelling and computational analysis to help support diplomatic and political decisions. The aim is to build a community around this area and to share experience and knowledge about the fundamental scientific challenges.
These relevant topics include (but not limited to):
- Applications of models in Diplomacy/Policy
- Methods for Knowledge Elicitation (Group Model Building)
- Complex Systems analysis of Policy/Diplomacy
- Uncertainty Quantification/Sensitivity Analysis in decisions
- Machine Learning/AI for policy/diplomacy (including ethics)