PALEONTOLOGY, POLICY, AND PUBLIC DIPLOMACY

It is no secret that around the world the Western nations, especially the United States, have an image problem. This problem is most apparent in Arab nations where overall favorability ratings are normally below 20%. One component of these ratings, foreign policy, often garners favorability ratings in the single digits. In contrast, the favorability rating toward U.S. science and technology is as high as 80% in some of the same Arab nations, which approaches the level of appreciation that American people foster toward their own science.

Recent analysis of this issue has led some policy analysts to conclude that the United States Government should engage in less “public diplomacy” in favor of the marketing model that works so well for U.S. corporations in other countries. While accepting the necessity for a balanced application of classic diplomacy and a marketing approach, Western nations should more aggressively employ and promote their strongest asset, which is science, whereupon our role as scientists is to be ever vigilant of the danger of allowing rhetoric to decay from diplomacy to propaganda. We must safeguard the integrity of the scientific process while reaching for the style necessary to inform and influence public opinion.

The science of paleontology offers a unique “deep-time” perspective that can enrich understanding of many current scientific questions on topics ranging from nuclear proliferation to global climate change. With the recent passage of the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act (as a subpart of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009), paleontologists currently have an opportunity to create and mold concepts of policy and diplomacy that will affect the way paleontological resources will be viewed and managed well into the future.