The Global Risks Forum (GRF)
The field behind Diplomacy Nexus brings together international relations, international law, policy science and the natural sciences that describe shared systems. It studies how states and institutions cooperate, or fail to, on problems that cross borders. This page defines the field, explains its significance and sets out the institutional issues it raises.
The Diplomacy Nexus field covers scientific, policy and institutional dialogue across jurisdictions and shared global concerns. Experts in it study questions such as science diplomacy and shared water and energy systems, with methods such as policy, institutional and decision science as well as game theory and mechanism design. Its counterparts at GCRI and GRA look at the same systems through science and finance.
Fig.How GCRI, GRF and GRA share one field while the authorities decide. Design, not a record.
The working screen behind this subject: its structure, terms and states. Names are placeholders and values illustrative.
The field covers international cooperation on shared risks: the institutions that structure it, such as treaties, commissions and organizations; the processes through which it happens, such as negotiation, dialogue and joint scientific work; and the conditions under which it succeeds. It includes science diplomacy, the use of scientific collaboration to build relations and inform international decisions.
Its tools include comparative institutional analysis, game theory and mechanism design to understand incentives, and the physical sciences, such as hydrology and water science and ocean and coastal science, that describe what is shared.
Rivers, aquifers, seas and the atmosphere are managed well only when those who share them coordinate.
Conflict, displacement and humanitarian crises often have transboundary causes and consequences.
New technologies create risks and opportunities that no single jurisdiction can govern alone.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Confidence-building measure | A step, such as notification or data exchange, that reduces mistrust between parties. |
| Good offices | Assistance by a third party to bring disputing parties into contact, without proposing terms. |
| Science diplomacy | Scientific cooperation, advice and shared evidence used in relations between states, and diplomacy used to enable scientific cooperation. |
| Systemic risk | Risk arising from interconnections, where failure in one part can cascade through a whole system. |
Physical evidence comes from GCRI platforms such as the Water Nexus and Oceans and Coasts; governance of climate and nature is convened by GRF's Climate and Nature Governance; and financial transmission is studied by GRA's Climate and Nature Financial Risk.
The field gateways for water and climate and hazards list every Consortium platform working on those shared systems.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.