A preliminary study of science diplomacy networks in Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe

This article presents a preliminary study of science diplomacy (SD) networks in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe, focusing on international scientific collaborations between Central European Initiative (CEI) member states. Using social network analysis (SNA), the study explores the prominence of certain countries in these networks and whether EU membership influences cooperation patterns. The findings, while preliminary due to a limited sample size, suggest that SNA is a valuable tool for analyzing SD networks and that economic size does not solely determine network prominence. Furthermore, EU membership does not appear to create distinct subgroups, with cooperation patterns seemingly more geographically determined.

Simone Arnaldi, Alessandro Lombardo, Angela Tessarolo