


































Global Research in Higher Education 
ISSN 2576-196X (Print) ISSN 2576-1951 (Online) 

Vol. 3, No. 4, 2020 

www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/grhe 

23 
 

Original Paper 

Building Bridges between Science, Technology, Innovation and 

Global Affairs: A New Graduate Program 

Francisco Del Canto Viterale
1
 

1
 Graduate School, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain  

 

Received: October 9, 2020     Accepted: October 20, 2020    Online Published: November 3, 2020 

doi:10.22158/grhe.v3n4p23                 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/grhe.v3n4p23 

 

Abstract 

The international system has changed rapidly in the last few decades, and Science, Technology, and 

Innovation (STI) has become a new key factor in the world order of the 21st Century. The interaction 

between STI and global affairs has increased because of the relevance and impact of scientific and 

technological development over the main parameters of the international system. Nevertheless, there is 

still a lack of new approaches that examine this global rising phenomenon from the Global and 

International Studies perspective. This article raises the academic and pedagogical needs to build 

bridges between STI and Global and International Studies (GIS) and, especially, the lack of academic 

programs that focus on this intersection. Therefore, the main objectives of this research are to examine 

the pedagogical need in the intersection between STI and international relations and introduce a new 

and original pedagogical proposal. The result is a literature review that confirms the need for 

educational programs in STI and GIS, and the introduction of a new graduate program as an 

innovative educational contribution. 

Keywords 

Global and International Studies, International Scientific Relation, Science, Technology, and 

Innovation, Innovation in Higher Education, Pedagogical Innovation, Emergence and Development of 

Higher Education Areas, International Challenges to Higher Education 

 

1. Introduction 

Since the end of the 20th century, the international system has entered in a process of structural 

transformations that are strongly modifying the world order of the 21st century. In this context of 

systemic changes, the acceleration and intensification of the scientific-technological revolution in the 

last decades have made Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) a critical factor in international 

relations. The scientific-technological revolution has impacted the international global agenda creating 



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a new variety of issues with a high impact on the entire world system. For instance, commercial 

competitiveness, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, Internet governance, renewable energy, cybersecurity, 

space development, genetically modified crops, human cloning, synthetic biology, pandemic diseases, 

climate change, among many others. 

From the Global and International Studies (GIS) the focus on issues in STI is still insufficient. 

Traditionally, little attention has been paid to the role of scientific-technological advances within the 

international system. However, the new relevance of scientific knowledge and its revaluation in the 

international order as a strategic element is awakening a renewed academic interest. In any case, 

despite the increase in the number of researchers and research that address the phenomenon, even the 

offer of educational programs is very limited. 

The research problem that is introduced in this article is the academic and pedagogical need to build 

bridges between STI and the discipline of GIS and, especially, this research focus on the lack of 

educational programs in higher education that approach the strategic interaction between STI and 

international relations. In this context, the main objectives of this research are to describe and explain 

the academic and pedagogical needs to address the issues that link science, technology, and 

international affairs and, at the same time, make a pedagogical contribution by introducing a new 

graduate program. The result is an explanation about the main academic and pedagogical needs in the 

intersection between Science and Technology and Global and International Studies, an extensive 

literature review that proof the lack of educational programs in STI and GIS, and, finally, a pedagogical 

contribution introducing a new experience of a graduate program at the University of Salamanca. 

The essay proceeds in five stages. After the introduction, section 2 describes the main empirical and 

academic changes in the intersection between STI and GIS. Section 3 identifies the pedagogical need 

for educational programs that link STI and international relations. Section 4 introduces a new 

pedagogical experience of an innovative Graduate Program at the University of Salamanca. Finally, in 

the final section, a summary of the main findings is made, and ideas about potential applications are 

included. 

 

2. Empirical and Academic Changes  

2.1 Empirical Transformations  

The profound changes that have taken place within the international system in recent decades have led 

to a new and complex global configuration. The main characteristics of this new international are a 

process of repolarization of the main global actors since the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of 

the Soviet Union (Note 1); the intensification of the processes of globalization, regionalization, and 

nationalism (Note 2); the erosion of the role of the Nation-State (Note 3); the evolution towards a new 

phase of the capitalist economic system characterized by the internationalization of its production and 

global finance (Note 4); the coexistence of a large number and variety of state and non-state actors that 

coexist disorderly and interdependently (Note 5); and the emergence of a new and complex agenda of 



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global issues that include environmental problems, migration, terrorism, poverty (Note 6), among 

others. 

We are living in an era of high complexity, an era of interconnectivity, ambiguity, uncertainty, and 

various kinds of revolutions: military, technological, social, political, economic, and even philosophical 

(Note 7) that require new and more complex scientific approaches. Essentially, the world order is in the 

middle of a systemic transition (Note 8) from the old and simplified bipolar order of the Cold War 

period towards a new, more complex, turbulent, and multipolar global order (Note 9).  

Within this convulsive new international reality of the 21
st
 century, STI (Note 10) has become one of 

the central issues of the new world agenda because of its impact on the main systemic parameters of the 

international order (Note 11). In recent years, the acceleration and expansion of the 

scientific-technological revolution has profoundly changed the landscape of international relations. 

New discoveries and inventions, new scientific areas, the emergence of new technologies, and an 

impressive number of innovations have increased the speed, magnitude, and complexity of the change 

in what can be considered a “turbo change” context (Note 12). The so-called Fourth Industrial 

Revolution is understood as a new scientific-technological revolution that is radically changing the way 

we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be 

unlike anything humankind has experienced before (Note 13). 

Because of this extraordinary scientific-technological revolution, STI has acquired a special and 

strategic relevance as a critical factor in the global agenda. Although scientific-technological advances 

have been an important factor in many advanced societies, the novelty now is that it has become a 

strategic element for this new stage of international relations by becoming the main source of the 

generation of economic benefits, political power, military development, and social innovation. 

The analysis of this new international system helps to recognize the need to fully understand the mutual 

and profound interaction between STI and international relations and their importance for the 

international agenda and global governance. This overlap allows us to explore a new and wide range of 

topics on a global scale with a high impact on the entire international system: 

 The role of science and technology in economic growth and development 

 The impact of science and technology on security and defense policy 

 The rise of science & technology diplomacy in foreign policy strategies 

 New technologies applied to transport systems and mass media 

 New challenges in the global governance of health problems 

 The threat of climate change and the deterioration of the environment 

 The multilevel governance of STI 

 The geographical, political, economic, and social distribution of the benefits generated by the 

new scientific and technological advances 

 The ethical and moral dilemmas that emerge from the new applications of STI 



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These are just some of the new issues on the global agenda linked to STI that are affecting the current 

international dynamics. The interaction between STI with other political, economic, and social factors 

will be essential variables to determine the winning and losing nations of the future international 

system (Note 14). In this sense, the relevance of STI in GIS has increased considerably in recent years 

and has become a necessary point of view to understand in-depth the global challenges that the 

international system is facing in the 21
st
 century. 

2.2 Academic Challenges  

All these scientific and technological changes within the international system have promoted an intense 

and profuse theoretical and methodological debate in Social Sciences, and, particularly, in the 

discipline of Global and International Studies, on how these new empirical phenomena can and should 

be approached and studied in their real dimension from the academy. It is evident that the development 

of new processes of production on STI is not confined only within the national borders and, at the same 

time, it is recognized that the main problems of international relations cannot be understood without an 

appreciation of the scientific and technological development. Therefore, in this new stage of 

international history, the intersection and overlap of STI and international affairs become a new and 

necessary topic of study. 

These changes in the international system in recent decades were not anticipated by any theoretical 

framework and, especially, in GIS, the lack of predictability of the dominant paradigms has put the 

discipline itself in crisis (Note 15). The academic failure to analyze the new global empirical 

phenomena is a deficit well understood by the entire scientific community. In this sense, there is an 

explicit recognition of the need to face the new academic challenges in their total complexity and 

avoiding falling into reductionism. Wallerstein (1996) has led this new perspective through the famous 

“Opening the Social Sciences” report, where he explicitly pointed out that most of the new global 

agenda issues require an approach that studies the new factors in all their complexity, recognizing the 

multiple causal relations and their numerous interrelations (Note 16). 

Historically, International Studies has focused on issues related to security, defense, foreign policy, 

diplomacy, and even economics, but it has paid less attention to topics such as STI. For some experts, 

the lack of attention in issues related to scientific-technological developments is evident and it is 

considered one of the major anomalies of the discipline (Note 17). On the other hand, other experts are 

less pessimistic and, they point out that GIS has always had some sense of the importance of 

scientific-technological developments within international relations (Note 18). 

A brief literature review within the discipline of International Studies allows us to understand that 

several renowned internationalists (Waltz, Rosenau, Nye, Strange, Keohane, etc.), from multiple 

perspectives, have addressed the phenomenon of STI in international affairs. However, this analysis has 

been very tangential and atomized. In recent years, there has been an increase in the interest of 

researchers to understand the impact that the scientific-technological revolution is having on the 

international system approaching the phenomenon holistically (Skolnikoff, 1993, 2002; Weiss, 2005, 



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2015; Deudney, 2000, 2018; Mayer, 2014, 2015; etc.). For their part, Global Studies experts have made 

a greater analytical effort addressing the role and impact of science and technology in the global system, 

analyzing how this affects the balance of global power (Note 19), the effect on climate change or the 

production of natural resources (Note 20) or its consequences in the process of economic globalization 

(Note 21). In any case, even now GIS is poorly equipped to theorize about the impact and 

consequences of scientific-technological changes in the international system (Note 22). 

The intersection between STI and GIS has opened a new and growing research agenda that includes 

topics such as scientific diplomacy, global governance of STI, cybersecurity, new emerging techs, and 

the knowledge gap. This emergent area of study in higher education should be understood as a new 

subdiscipline within GIS that has become a subject of study of great interest to understand the changes 

in the world order of the 21
st
 century (Note 23). 

 

3. Pedagogical Problem  

The profound changes in the international system and the slow evolution of the scientific paradigms 

that address the new phenomena of the global agenda open a mystery regarding educational programs 

in higher education that focus on these empirical transformations. For this reason, it is very important 

to review in-depth the university programs that link issues in STI with GIS to examine and evaluate the 

existing offer worldwide.  

In recent decades, the rise of academic programs in Science, Technology, & Society and Science, 

Technology, & Public Policies have covered part of the academic demand for those issues, although it 

has failed to meet the need to address the scientific-technological problem from a perspective of GIS. 

In light of this reality, schools and departments in GIS have opted for two strategies: on the one hand, 

very few universities have begun to design new pedagogical undergraduate or graduate programs that 

specifically focus on the interaction between science, technology, and international affairs, and, on the 

other hand, a large majority have decided to move more slowly through incorporating only some 

content through courses, seminars, and workshops in STI to their traditional programs. 

Higher education institutions in the United States have been the pioneers and main promoters in 

addressing the critical conjunction between STI and GIS. However, just a few American universities 

have designed new specific programs that link STI and international affairs. The first-degree program 

of this type was established by Georgetown University over a decade ago in the context of the School of 

Foreign Service, with the name of “Major in Science, Technology and International Affairs” (Note 24). 

Currently, this undergraduate program is the only one that fully addresses the problem raised here, and, 

it is the most specialized and complete in terms of knowledge that teaches, linking the new 

scientific-technological development with the impact in the international system. Another pioneer 

institution in the United States has been the Georgia Institute of Technology which, through the Sam 

Nunn School of International Affairs, provides a program in “International Affairs, Science, and 

Technology (Ph.D.)”. This Ph.D. program is the only one to offer a direct link between science, 



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technology, and international relations at the graduate level, with three main concentrations: i) 

International Affairs and Security, ii) Globalization and Development and, iii) Studies Comparative and 

Regional. Parallel to this pedagogical proposal, The Sam Nunn School of International Affairs has 

created the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy (CISTP) as a specific field of 

interdisciplinary research to explore innovative approaches on issues located at the intersection 

between science, technology, and international affairs, with lines of research related to public policies, 

defense, and technological development. Meanwhile, The Elliot School of International Affairs at 

George Washington University has created a new “Master’s in International Science and Technology 

Policy” program that focuses on the study of policies in science and technology with concentrations in 

energy, environment, nuclear safety, space policy, and technological innovation. Although it still has a 

very high public policy component, there is a clear intention to also address the specific issues that link 

science and technology to international relations. Finally, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and 

International Affairs at Princeton University has recently created a “Certificate in Science, Technology 

and Environmental Policy” as its first pedagogical experience in the interaction between international 

affairs and the scientific-technological field. 

On the other hand, other GIS schools in the United States have begun to restructure their undergraduate 

and graduate programs to include courses and seminars related to the vast agenda of topics in STI and 

GIS to address these new issues, as well as the demand of students interested in these topics. Among 

those institutions, we found The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (Johns 

Hopkins University), The School of Global Policy and Strategy (University of California San Diego), 

Center for International Studies (University of Southern California), the School of International 

Service (American University), the School of International and Public Affairs (Columbia University), 

Josef Korbel School of International Studies (University of Denver), among others. 

At the research level, the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, within the John F. 

Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, is one of the most prestigious centers 

worldwide in GIS, nominated in 2019, for the sixth consecutive year, the best Think Tank in the world 

(Mc Gann, 2018). At the Belfer Center, world-class researchers are studying and debating the main 

issues on the international agenda that have emerged precisely because of the intersection between STI, 

and international relations. Among the most relevant research lines are global governance, international 

security, and defense, bioterrorism, new energy matrix, international economy and business, science 

and technology policies, etc. 

Additionally, the International Studies Association (ISA) (Note 25), the main academic organization 

that gathering the scientific community in International Studies, had opened a new section in 2014 

within its organization chart called “Science, Technology and Art in International Relations (STAIR) 

(Note 26)” for considering science and technology as a central part for the study of international affairs. 

This new section within ISA has grown both in the number of researchers and professors on it and in 

the number of presentations and panels at the various ISA conferences worldwide. 



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In Europe, some GIS schools and departments have also begun to include scientific-technological 

topics as part of their research and teaching lines, but still without having acquired the status of 

graduate or postgraduate program itself. A good example is the new “Master of Science in 

Environmental Technology and International Affairs” program promoted by the Vienna School of 

International Studies. Among the European GIS departments and schools that have included science 

and technology in their programs can be considered the Center for Global Studies, Universität Bonn 

(Germany), The London School of Economics and Political Science (United Kingdom), Paris School of 

International Affairs Sciences Po (France) and the Graduate Institute of International and Development 

Studies, Geneva (Switzerland). 

In Spain, two institutions, the Institut Barcelona Estudis Internacionals-IBEI (Barcelona) and the IE 

School of Global and Public Affairs (Madrid), have begun to promote pedagogical spaces for topics in 

science, technology, and international relations. IBEI is an interuniversity institute that offers 

postgraduate programs in international affairs and its main program, the Master’s in International 

Studies, has recently included optional courses related to science and technology. At the same time, in 

2019, IBEI launched a new Summer Program called “Barcelona Science and Technology Diplomacy 

Summer School”. For its part, the IE School of Global and Public Affairs (Madrid) offers undergraduate 

and postgraduate programs in international relations and it has recently included in its degree program 

a concentration in Governance of Emerging Technologies and Innovation, where technological 

processes are studied and its impact on society and international politics. 

Finally, in the rest of the academic world, no specific academic programs have been developed that link 

STI and GIS, although the relevance of the scientific-technological theme, many higher education 

institutions have also begun to be considered through the incorporation of subjects and courses in the 

plans of study of their undergraduate and graduate programs. Examples of this are the Faculty of 

Political and Social Sciences, Autonomous University of Mexico, the School of International Relations 

of the Universidad del Salvador (Argentina), the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies of the 

Nanyang Technological University (Singapore), the Department of International Politics of 

Aberystwyth University (Australia), the Graduate School Of International Studies of Korea University 

(Republic of Korea), the Graduate School of International Relations, Ritsumeikan University (Japan) 

and the School of International Relations and Public Affairs of Fudan University (China). 

To conclude, it could be said that there are many programs in Science, Technology, and Policy or in 

Global and International Studies that have added courses, workshops or classes related to the 

conjunction of STI and GIS, but just a very few numbers of academic programs that offer in bachelor 

or graduate levels the integration between GIS and STI. After an in-depth review, it just was found one 

undergraduate program (Georgetown University) and a recently created Ph.D. Program (Georgia Tech).  

This comprehensive review of undergraduate and graduate programs worldwide allows us to 

understand the state-of-the-art in terms of the academic offer of pedagogical programs that link STI 

with GIS. After this review, it is possible to conclude that although there are first timid attempts at 



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programs that try to address the problem, even the academic offer is very limited and the field of GIS is 

responding very slowly to the critical need of undergraduate and graduate programs to meet the 

demand for this type of training. 

 

4. A New Graduate Program 

The previous analysis has demonstrated the main empirical changes operated in the international 

system in recent decades and the special incidence of STI in the new international order of the 21
st
 

century, the inadequacy of academic approaches within the discipline of Global and International 

Studies to analyze those changes and, finally, the lack of academic programs in the area of 

International Scientific Relations that study the new agenda of topics between GIS and STI. In this 

context, a new graduate program in STI and GIS was proposed with the express goal to address the 

needs that have been observed in the previous analysis. Following a basic and traditional model of 

project management in higher education (Wijnen & Kor, 2000) a new pedagogical program in the 

intersection between STI and GIS was created, and it will be described above. The model divides the 

project into phases that make possible to understand the different stages of development the new 

graduate program went through.  

4.1 Initiation Phase 

During the first phase of the creation of the new graduate program in GIS and STI, the initiation phase, 

many ideas about the project were explored and elaborated. The main goal of this phase was to 

examine the problem, offer potential solutions, and analyze the relevance and feasibility of the project. 

Examining and analyzing in-depth the finding of the previous research, it was clear that the main 

problem raised in this investigation was the lack of academic programs in the area of International 

Scientific Relations that address the new agenda of topics between GIS and STI. After the brainstorm, 

exchange of ideas, and discussions for solving the problem, it was considered the idea to design, 

develop, and implement a new graduate program focus on the intersection between STI and GIS as a 

potential solution to address the problem.  

At this point, the first conversations with Professor Fernando Lopez Alves began. Professor Lopez 

Alves was working on the idea to develop a new graduate program in Global and International Studies 

with different specialization. The idea to add a new “cutting-edge” specialization on STI was 

considered and discussed as a part of the new graduate program in GIS. After those conversations, a 

new phase began with the design and proposal of the new pedagogical program on STI and GIS.    

4.2 Design Phase 

This phase involved the creative process where the architecture of the graduate program was built. The 

program was designed based on extensive literature research, educational policy documents, 

consultation with experts, and the experience of more than fifteen years that the author has in the study 

in the interaction between STI and international relations. The design process is constantly referred to 

as disciplinary, methodological, educational, and pedagogical aspects. During this phase, different 



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stages were taking place in order to design the new pedagogical program. These stages include: 

 Empirical, theoretical, and methodological review regarding the new field of the study is 

constituted by the interaction between STI and GIS: International Scientific Relations. 

 Review of available information on undergraduate and graduate educational programs in higher 

education at the international level that addresses the critical issue in STI and international 

relations. 

 Get advice from key experts in the field of STI and GIS in higher education institutions in the 

United States, Canada, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, and Spain. 

 Work together with Prof. Fernando López-Alves to define the main characteristics of a graduate 

program in Science, Technology, Innovation, and Global Affairs and their fit within the 

broader context of the Global and International Studies Graduate Program of the University 

of Salamanca. 

 Get advice from professors of the University of Salamanca, such as Dr. Fernando López-Alves, 

Dr. Manuel Alcántara, or Dr. Carlos Fortea for the preparation and final configuration of the 

curriculum. 

This pedagogical design process made possible to reach clear conclusions regarding the essential 

foundations that a graduate program requires to address all identified needs. In this sense, the program 

was designed and built based on the following pillars: 

 An innovative program that offers a set of theoretical, methodological, and analytical tools 

combined in a novel way to address the complexity of the new processes and phenomena in 

the area of International Scientific Relations.  

 A holistic program that combines three essential elements: i) a rigorous pedagogical training, ii) a 

strong impulse to research, and iii) the development of practices in international institutions 

and organizations. 

 A program with a truly interdisciplinary sense according to the needs of the study objective 

addressed, combining professors, researchers, practitioners, staff, and students from a wide 

range of disciplines ranging from specialists in Global and International Studies, through other 

Social Sciences, and also experts in technical disciplines in STI. 

 An international and intercultural program, which includes an academic offer aimed at 

international students and a genuinely global teaching staff. For that reason, the postgraduate 

and subjects are taught entirely in English. 

 A program located in an appropriate institutional framework, which implies being part of a 

prestigious university institution, which has a sense of the relevance of international studies 

and, at the same time, it has awareness and interest in STI issues. 

 

 

 



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4.3 Development Phase 

Based on that essential design, a new graduate program named Master in Global and International 

Studies: Science, Technology, and Global Affairs was developed to address directly all identified needs 

and seeking to solve the lack of international pedagogical offer regarding studies on STI and 

international relations. Following those needs, the MA program was developed and built with the 

following characteristics: 

4.3.1 Context 

The Master in Global and International Studies: Science, Technology, and Global Affairs is presented 

as part of the Global and International Studies Graduate Program within the Institute of Global 

Governance and the School of law of the University of Salamanca (Note 27). Both the University of 

Salamanca and the school of Law have a long and proliferating international academic tradition that 

makes it an ideal institutional framework to include a graduate program of these characteristics. In this 

context, the Global and International Studies Graduate Program was created as a new and innovative 

program within the discipline of GIS that offers three Master Programs that are closely related to each 

other. In addition to the specialization in “Science, Technology, and Global Affairs”, there are two 

other tracks in “Nationalism and Conflict Management” and in “Global Business and Negotiation”. 

Additionally, the Graduate Program has a prestigious Think Tank that serves as intellectual support and 

advice for students accessing the graduate program. 

4.3.2 Goals 

The Master in Global and International Studies: Science, Technology, and Global Affairs aims to 

provide students with tools, skills, and competences to study, understand and solve complex problems 

that arise at the intersection of science, technology, and international relations. In order to achieve this 

main goal, the graduate program offers theoretical, methodological, and practical knowledge that will 

allow to address the new phenomena of scientific-technological processes within the current 

international agenda and, at the same time, it will encourage students to reflect on the best scientific 

responses, public policies, and private strategies to face the challenges derived from scientific and 

technological innovation within the international system. 

Besides this main goal, the program curriculum addresses four main specific objectives: 

 Develop in students a critical understanding of the global challenges facing the current 

international system through a detailed analysis of the main scientific-technological 

development of the global agenda. 

 Ensure that students interpret and analyze holistically and systemically how topics in science, 

technology, and innovation are linked to historical, political, economic, social, and cultural 

variables within international relations. 

 Provide students with innovative methods and analysis tools, specially designed to understand the 

close relationship between scientific-technological development and international affairs. 



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 Train new researchers specialized in the analysis and study of science, technology, and 

innovation in the international arena. 

4.3.3 Competences and Skills  

The initial stage of the graduate program development phase needs to identify a list of competences and 

skills the student is supposed to develop, which includes generic, transversal, and specific competences. 

In this case, the graduate program aims to develop the following competences: 

•Generic Competence: 

– Students will possess the skills to understand, evaluate, and apply the key concepts of science, 

technology, and innovation in the field of international relations. 

– Students will possess and understand the theoretical knowledge necessary to identify, interpret, 

and explain the actors, processes, phenomena, and complex events within international science 

and technology. 

– Students may apply advanced techniques and methods in the field of social sciences to analyze 

the intersection of science, technology, and global and international studies. 

•Transversal Competences: 

– Students will develop skills to work in an openly international, multicultural, and diverse context. 

– Students will be able to understand the need for interdisciplinary and systemic work to address 

international analysis. 

– Students will develop their critical thinking, and their ability to identify and solve complex 

problems. 

•Specific Competences: 

– Students will be able to transmit knowledge about the reality of the current international agenda 

of topics and their link to science and technology. 

– Students will be able to assimilate and apply the theoretical, methodological, and practical 

foundations to the current agenda of topics that link science and technology with international 

relations. 

– Students will be able to understand, elaborate, and manage public policies and private strategies 

linked to the best scientific-technological development at national, regional, and international 

levels. 

4.3.4 Program Description 

The competences and skills that a student acquires on completing the program help to identify the list 

of the disciplines which are to be included in the curriculum. The MA Program in Global and 

International Studies: Science, Technology, and Global Affairs extends two years. The program 

consists of required courses, two seminars, an internship program, and a final research project. The 

graduate program was structured in four semesters and required courses are offered in English. 

 

 



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The program includes core courses such as “Methods and Theory in Global and International Studies” 

and “Critical Thinking and Conflict Resolution”, and specialized courses, such as “Global Health, 

Energy and Environment” and “Science, Technology and Innovation Policy”. Additionally, there is an 

online seminar about “Internships, Professional Experience, and Job Searches” and a “Research 

Colloquium in Global and International Studies”. 

In the first semester, a total of five courses are taught (Theory and Methods in Global and International 

Studies; Critical Thinking and Problem Resolution; History of International Relations; Global 

Migration and Negotiation). Those classes are considered core courses within GIS where a general 

theoretical-methodological understanding of international relations is offered. In the second semester 

(Science, Technology, and International Studies; Science, Technology and Innovation Policy; 

International Organizations and Trade and Global Health, Energy and Environment) and the third 

semester (Global Security; Science Diplomacy, and International Project Management) seven specific 

courses are taught that address in depth the special interaction between STI and international relations. 

Additionally, a course on professional practices and job search is included in the third semester 

(Internships, Professional Experience, and Job Searches). Finally, the fourth semester offers the option 

of conducting a professional practice in an international institution or organization in Europe or in the 

United States and, at the same time, is the beginning of the research stage for the achievement of the 

Master‟s Thesis. 

This organization of the curriculum allows combining theoretical and methodological elements of 

Global and International Studies with specific aspects of STI development and, at the same time, 

combine pedagogical elements with professional practices and research tasks. 

4.3.5 Professorate 

One of the keys to the Master in Global and International Studies: Science, Technology, and Global 

Affairs program is the possibility of offering a faculty staff capable of teaching the new and unique 

skills and abilities that the students of the program required. In this sense, the faculty board combines 

different characteristics of great relevance for the success of the program: First, professors from the 

University of Salamanca are mixed with visiting professors from multiple and prestigious international 

universities. Secondly, professors specialized in GIS are combined with experts in technical areas of 

STI. Thirdly, academics and researchers are also mixed with professionals and practitioners from the 

international arena. This composition allows to constitute an excellent body of professors capable of 

offering a high level of teaching, pioneering research lines, innovative teaching methods, and the 

transmission of real skills and competences to apply in the professional future, which guarantees that 

the interaction between STI and international relations will be offered with rigor and academic 

excellence. 

 

 

 



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4.3.6 Research and Practice  

Finally, there are two more relevant components of the graduate program: develop research 

competences and the Applied Learning Internship Program. First, research skills and competences are 

teaching since the beginning of the program, and students are encouraged to do research focusing on 

the new and innovative agenda of topics in the intersection between GIS and STI. Most of the classes 

ask for conduct small research, and a final research project must be done in the last semester as a 

mandatory requirement to get the MA degree. To develop those research skills and competences a 

Think Tank was created with the explicit goal to help, advice, and support students. This Think Tank is 

integrated by a distinguished and well-renamed team of experts, scholars, professionals, and 

practitioners in international affairs and STI. Second, an Applied Learning Internship Program was 

established in the fourth semester of the program as an opportunity for the student to have truly 

international experience and practice and applied their knowledge in an international organization. 

Students can choose to complete an internship during their fourth semester in the program from a long 

list of opportunities in Salamanca, Madrid, Brussels, or Washington DC. Before their internship 

experience, students complete the online, core course, “Internships, Professional Experience, and Job 

Searches”, taught by internationally recognized professional facilitators. 

4.4 Implementation Phase 

The implementation comes in where the pedagogical program become a formal program offered by the 

University of Salamanca. The main goal of this phase was to move the idea from concept to reality. To 

do that, a formal proposal was written and submitted to the creation of a new graduate program in 

Global and International Studies: Science, Technology, and Global Affairs. The Master in Global and 

International Studies: Science, Technology, and Global Affairs program was formally approved by the 

University of Salamanca in April 2016 to be taught within the Graduate Studies Program of the School 

of Law and the Institute of Global Governance. Finally, the program opened its first cohort for the 

2019/2021 cycle in Fall 2019.  

4.5 Follow-up and Assessment Phase 

A final phase was set in order to follow up and assess the academic program which is still a phase in 

progress. During the follow-up phase, everything is arranged that is necessary to bring the project to 

successful completion. Examples of activities in the follow-up phase included writing syllabus, looking 

for professors, coordinating schedules, promoting the specialization, among many others. Additionally, 

an assessment phase is coming with the beginning of the first cohort. After the first semester, several 

types of surveys were conducted with students and faculty to get some feedback about the 

specialization and evaluate potential changes and improvements. 

 

 

 

 



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5. Discussion and Conclusion 

Within an international context of profound transformations, the STI has acquired a new and strategic 

place within international relations. The mutual influence and impact between scientific-technological 

development and international relations in the international system of the 21st century is an 

unquestionable fact that requires greater academic attention. The relevance of STI in GIS has increased 

considerably in recent years and has become a necessary point of view to understand in-depth the 

global challenges facing the international system in the 21st century. 

This research has focused on the links established between STI and the GIS, which has allowed the 

identification of multiple gaps and needs that require academic attention. First, the 

scientific-technological revolution has been installed as a critical dimension of many of the central 

issues of international relations. Second, GIS demonstrates that it is still very poorly prepared to 

address scientific-technological phenomena and analyze their impact on the entire international system. 

While it is true that in recent years attention has grown on this new area of study, even GIS requires 

new and more complete efforts in addressing this new sub-disciplinary field of International Scientific 

Relations. Thirdly, there is a shortage of undergraduate and graduate university educational programs 

that specialize in the intersection between STI and GIS worldwide, which has exposed the deficiencies 

and limitations of the existing educational offering.  

Essentially, this research raises the problem of the lack of academic programs in the area of 

International Scientific Relations that focus on the new agenda of topics between GIS and STI. In light 

of this reality, schools and departments in GIS have opted for two strategies: on the one hand, very few 

universities have begun to design new pedagogical undergraduate or graduate programs that 

specifically focus on the interaction between STI and international affairs, and, on the other hand, a 

large majority have decided to move more slowly through incorporating only some content through 

courses, seminars, and workshops in STI to their traditional programs. 

Based on the needs founds in the literature review, a new graduate program was designed, developed, 

and implemented that directly addresses the gaps identified throughout the investigation. The Master in 

Global and International Studies: Science, Technology, and Global Affairs aims to provide students 

with tools, skills, and competences to study, understand and solve complex problems that arise at the 

intersection of STI and international relations. This graduate program also presents unique 

characteristics: an innovative, holistic, intercultural, and interdisciplinary program located within the 

privileged institutional framework offered by the University of Salamanca. 

This graduate program presented here seeks to cover all the challenges posed by the growing 

intersection between STI and GIS and, at the same time, make a pedagogical contribution to the 

scarcity of degrees in the new subfield of study of International Scientific Relations.  

Following a traditional model of project management in higher education, a new pedagogical program 

in the intersection between STI and GIS was created, designed, developed, and implemented. After the 

implementation, significant challenges were identified that will require further adjustments: 



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 Curricular issues: proportion between core courses in GIS and specific courses that address 

issues on international scientific relations.  

 Understanding a cutting-edge program: let students and the academic community know about 

the existence of a new graduate program focus on the intersection between STI and 

international affairs. 

 Creating partnerships: Promote collaboration with key actors for the success of the program. For 

instance, other departments and schools within the University of Salamanca; other college 

departments and schools worldwide; STI industrial companies; local, national, regional, and 

international governments working in public policies in STI, and think tanks and NGOs 

related to the topic. 

 Follow-up and assessment phase: Considering the program has opened its first cohort in 2019, it 

will crucial to focus on the right implementation and get feedback for future improvement.  

Finally, this experience is expected to serve as academic, pedagogical, didactic material and, also, as a 

source of inspiration for the construction of new and more comprehensive undergraduate and graduate 

programs that address STI and international relations in the field of higher education and to collaborate 

in the creation of new bridges in the necessary link between STI and GIS. 

 

Acknowledgments 

I would like to express my very special gratitude to Professor Fernando Lopez, Professor, Department 

of Sociology, University of California Santa Barbara, and Academic Director, Graduate Program in 

Global and International Studies at the University of Salamanca, for his disinterested collaboration and 

very helpful advice in the elaboration of this paper. 

 

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Notes 

Note 1. Muñiz, Manuel. “Technology, China‟s Rise and the Future of the International Order”. Club de 

Madrid, Working Paper (Nov 2018). 

Note 2. Fernando López-Alves and Diane E. Johnson (Eds.), Populist Nationalism in Europe and the 

Americas (New York: Routledge, 2018). 

Note 3. Susan Strange, The withdrawal of the State: The diffusion of power in the world economy 

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996). 

Note 4. Joseph Stiglitz, Globalization and Its Discontents (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 

2002). 

Note 5. Thomas Risse, “Transnational Actors and World Politics”, in Handbook of International 

Relations, Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse, and Beth Simmons (Second Edition. Los Angeles: SAGE 

Publications, 2013). 

Note 6. Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, Power and Interdependence (London: Longman, 2001). 

Note 7. Amandine Orsini et al., “Forum: Complex systems and international governance”. 

International Studies Review, 0(2019), 2. 

Note 8. The systemic transition process is considered: “the stage that mediates between the „decline‟ of 

a System and the" emergence of a new one” (Dallanegra Pedraza, 2009). 

Note 9. James Rosenau, “The complexities and contradictions of Globalization”, Current History 

Magazine (1997). 

Note 10. Science and Technology is defined here as a set of scientific tasks linked to each other and to 

other socio-economic dimensions with enormous consequences for the actors, interactions, processes 

and global configuration of the international system (Del Canto Viterale, 2019). 

Note 11. The “systemic parameters” are all those elements and parts of the international system (actors, 

interactions, processes, agenda items, etc.) that play a central role in determining the final configuration 

that adapts the world order. 

 

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2005.04.004
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-012-9191-9
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-015-9286-1


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Note 12. Daniel Deudney, “Turbo Change: Accelerating Technological Disruption, Planetary 

Geopolitics, and Architectonic Metaphors”, International Studies Review, 20(2018), 223. 

Note 13. Klaus Schwab, The Fourth Industrial Revolution (New York: Crown Business, 2016), 2. 

Note 14. Eugene Skolnikoff, “Will science and technology undermine the international system?”. 

International Relations of Asia-Pacific, 2(2002), 44. 

Note 15. Mathias Albert, Lars-Erik Cederman, and Alexander Wendt (Edit.), New Systems Theories of 

World Politics (London: Palgrave MacMillan, 2010): 3. 

Note 16. Immanuel Wallerstein, Open the Social Sciences: Report of the Gulbenkian Commission on 

the Restructuring of the Social Sciences (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996): 80. 

Note 17. Cf. Charles Weiss, “Science, Technology and International Relations”, Technology in Society, 

Vol. 27, Issue 3 (2005): 295-313; Charles Weiss, “How Do Science and Technology Affect 

International Affairs?” Minerva, December 2015, Volume 53, Issue 4 (2015): 411-430; Tim Flink and 

Ulrich Schreiterer, “Science diplomacy at the intersection of S&T policies and foreign affairs: toward a 

typology of national approaches”. Science and Public Policy, 37(9), (2010): 665-677. 

Note 18. Cf. Maximilian Mayer, Mariana Carpes and Ruth Knoblich (Eds.), The Global Politics of 

Science and Technology (Vol. 1. Berlin: Springer, 2014); Maximilian Mayer and Michele Acuto, “The 

Global Governance of Large Technical Systems”, Millennium 43(2) (2015), 660-683; Patrick James, 

“What do we know about crisis, escalation, and war? A visual assessment of the International Crisis 

Behavior Project”, Conflict Management and Peace Science, Vol. 36(1) (2019), 3-19. 

Note 19. Richard Haass, A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old 

Order (New York: Penguin Books, 2017). 

Note 20. David M. Kaplan, Philosophy, Technology, and the Environment (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 

2017). 

Note 21. Dani Rodrik, “Globalization‟s Wrong Turn and How It Hurt America”, Foreign Affairs (June 

11, 2019). 

Note 22. Deudney, “Turbo Change: Accelerating Technological Disruption, Planetary Geopolitics, and 

Architectonic Metaphors”, 224. 

Note 23. This new subdiscipline is also known as “International Scientific Relations” (Del Canto 

Viterale, 2019). 

Note 24. Its founder and director until 2014, Charles Weiss, was one of the pioneers in the study of the 

links between science, technology and international affairs, one of the main critics about the lack of 

approach on these issues within the discipline of International Relations (Weiss, 2005; 2015) and also 

one of the precursors in studying and promoting the teaching of these new themes (Weiss, 2012). 

Note 25. ISA was founded in 1959 and currently has more than 7,000 active members in 110 countries. 

Organizationally, it is divided into 6 geographical subdivisions and/or regions, 29 thematic groups 

and/or sections (including STAIR) and 4 Caucuses. 

 



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Note 26. The section “Science, Technology, Art and International Relations (STAIR)” was approved in 

March 2014 by the ISA Governing Council because it is considered that: “Science, Technology and 

Design are at the center of world politics” (ISA, 2015). 

Note 27. The University of Salamanca celebrated its 800th anniversary in 2018, in what is considered 

the second oldest university institution in the world. 

 

 

 


