Conference Program

As global competition over quantum technologies intensifies, science diplomacy is becoming increasingly entangled with geopolitical rivalry, raising concerns about its legitimacy and inclusiveness.Science diplomacy has often been recognized as an instrument of high politics rather than a form of participatory governance because of its traditional state-centered negotiation and expert-driven coordination methods.Under the conditions of advanced technological competition, an underexplored question arises: how can democratic forms of deliberation and learning be incorporated into science diplomacy?

A theoretical approach to explore the potential democratization of science diplomacy is presented in this paper by exploring quantum diplomacy games as an emerging analytical entry point.A critical focus of the paper is on initiatives such as the quantum diplomacy game developed by the CERN Open Quantum Institute, which conceptualizes serious games not merely as capacity-building or training tools but as experimental and reflective spaces where alternative governance logics can be simulated and examined.It is through the construction of counterfactual future scenarios characterized by technological scarcity, systemic interdependence, and global risk that these games offer participants the opportunity to engage simultaneously with scientific, political, economic, and societal issues.

It is the purpose of quantum diplomacy games to facilitate multi-role participation rather than prioritizing a single state interest or technological rationality. This involves actors navigating their overlap of responsibilities as scientists, policymakers, industry representatives, and civil society organizations.The objective of this design feature is to disrupt the conventional separation between technical expertise and political judgment, encouraging deliberation, negotiation, and compromise as necessary conditions for collective problem-solving.This approach embeds democratic practices such as dialogue, transparency, and mutual learning into the mechanics of decision-making rather than treating them as external ideals.

According to the paper, quantum diplomacy games can contribute to rethinking democratic practice in science diplomacy by analyzing publicly available project documentation, game design principles, and current scholarship on science diplomacy, democratic governance, and serious games.As part of these efforts, power is being reconfigured by utilizing non-traditional resources including data access and ethical standards, procedural transparency has been foreemphasized through iterative discussion and reflection, and conceptual space has been created for non-state actors to engage meaningfully in highly technical policy domains through iterative discussion and reflection.

There is no claim in the paper that quantum diplomacy games democratize science diplomacy in practice.Instead, it argues that they serve as exploratory tools that facilitate democratic negotiation, make it visible, discussable, and effective within complex technological governance frameworks.As a practice that can be explored and refined rather than as a fixed value that needs to be asserted.