correspondence
Scientists as non-state actors of public
diplomacy
To the Editor — Establishing trust between
distant nations requires a level of openness
that fosters mutual understandings at
individual and population scales. This
is especially true in countries separated
by degrees of economic development,
where feelings of distrust felt by a less
developed nation may cast perceptions of
imperialistic intents upon the activities of
more industrialized nations. Furthermore,
between countries that do not enjoy
advanced diplomatic relationships, there
may appear to be no clear path to realizing
cross-border connections in a top-down
manner. We present here the argument that,
under conditions of suboptimal diplomatic
ties between developed and developing
governments, there is an opportunity for
non-state actors to fill the void and foster
nationwide trust. The vehicle, in our case?
Science education.
For over a decade, Bolivia and the
United States have not appointed
ambassadors to their respective embassies,
following diplomatic strife in late 2008.
Despite relative economic growth and
political stability in recent years1, Bolivia
remains among the poorest-ranking Latin
American countries in social inequality,
poverty, public health, education and
innovation2. Observing that Bolivian
scientific output accounts for only 0.22%
of that in all Latin America3, we sought to
understand whether alternative teaching
methods might increase Bolivian youth
participation in science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields,
thereby strengthening the next generation’s
potential for competition on a global scale.
• Launch of CdeCBo
• US Department of State
seed funding
2008
2015
• Expulsion of Ambassadors
Fig. 1 | Milestones in Bolivia–United States science initiatives since the two countries cut diplomatic ties.
Nature Human Behaviour | www.nature.com/nathumbehav
We assembled a team of young scientists
from academic institutions across the
United States and Europe, partnering
with local Bolivian educators to design
and execute a series of intensive STEM-
oriented workshops, dubbed Clubes de
Ciencia Bolivia (CdeCBo)4. Nationwide
media exposure allowed us to attract an
applicant pool from across Bolivia, from
which we have competitively selected up to
450 students each year from 2016 to 2019
to participate in workshops held at the
Universidad Privada de Santa Cruz de la
Sierra (UPSA), in Bolivia’s most populous
city. Courses range from Neuroscience and
Genome Engineering to Urban Planning
and Entrepreneurship. By actively cultivating
an atmosphere of participatory learning,
encouraging students to be inquisitive and
engaged, CdeCBo stands in contrast to
traditional norms of Bolivian education,
which have suffered from an overreliance
on memorization-based teaching. The result
has been an increasing public interest year-
on-year, with more competitive application
seasons and concrete outcomes for CdeCBo
alumni, including fellowship awards at
Harvard University and victory in the 2019
NASA Rover Challenge5 (Fig. 1). Most
importantly, by quantifying the efficacy of
these approaches in STEM education in the
highly diverse population of Bolivia, we have
taken first steps toward establishing a robust
rationale for implementing such programs
across other developing nations4.
While sailing has not been entirely
smooth for CdeCBo, we are noticing visible
shifts in public opinions. Initially resisted
by certain segments on national media6,
• CdeCBo hosts HackBo,
largest hackathon in the country
2016
2017
• First edition: CdeCBo • CdeCBo hosts program at the
• Bolivian scientists living abroad summit Bolivian Embassy in Washington DC
• Launch of government-sponsored
graduate fellowships
our continued efforts toward educational
transparency have been recently met with
praise from even top levels of Bolivian
government7–9. These changing tides make
us hopeful that on-the-ground, individual-
level efforts in STEM outreach can
slowly bring real changes in cross-border
understandings, while empowering a future
generation of influential Bolivian scientists
and engineers. ❐
Giovanni A. Carosso   1,2,
Leonardo M. R. Ferreira   1,3,4 and
Mohammed A. Mostajo-Radji   1,5,6*
1
Clubes de Ciencia Bolivia Foundation,
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. 2Predoctoral
Training Program in Human Genetics,
McKusick-Nathans Institute of Genetic Medicine,
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,
Baltimore, Maryland, USA. 3Department of
Surgery, University of California San Francisco,
San Francisco, California, USA. 4Diabetes Center and
Sean N. Parker Autoimmune Research Laboratory,
University of California San Francisco, San Francisco,
California, USA. 5Department of Neurology,
University of California San Francisco, San Francisco,
California, USA. 6The Eli and Edythe Broad Center
of Regeneration Medicine and Stem Cell Research,
University of California San Francisco, San Francisco,
California, USA.
*e-mail: mohammed@clubesdecienciabolivia.com
Published: xx xx xxxx
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0716-1
References
1. The Economist Intelligence Unit. Measuring the middle:
Quantifying market opportunities in Latin America’s cities.
The Economist Group https://www.eiu.com/public/topical_report.
aspx?campaignid=LatAmCities2017 (2017).
• CdeCBo, Bolivian Vice President
and Senate draft Startup Law
• Government to move Science and Technology
Vice Ministry to the Ministry of Planning
• CdeCBo, Bolivian government and US
Embassy to cohost a science event together
2018 Future
2019
• Creation of first technological district
• Creation of Ministry of Science
and Technology
• Opening of science offices
a the Bolivian embassies
correspondence
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B. & de Moya-Anegon, F. BMC Public Health 14, 632 (2014).
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scientists-innovators/ (2018).
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests.