As the COVID-19 pandemic continues into 2021 Dr. Mandë Holford, Roosevelt House Faculty Associate and Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Hunter College Belfer Research Building and CUNY Graduate Center, examines the role of science diplomacy in the global response to the pandemic.

“While international research collaboration on SARS-CoV-2 thrived and achieved unprecedented breakthroughs at record speed, many world leaders ignored scientific recommendations and retreated from multilateral coordination, resulting in fragmented measures that often contradicted those of neighboring nations,” Holford writes. “A crucial task before us, as we enter the next phase of the pandemic, is to capture the lessons from this extraordinary chapter in history to prevent crises of such magnitude in the future, and to rebuild adaptive and resilient systems that prevent the next health and environmental disasters.”

Read the full op-ed here or browse the complete January2021 issue of Science & Diplomacy.