Science Diplomacy, Sustainable Development Goals, and Drug Policy

This article explores the relevance of science diplomacy's capacity to advance the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), applied to global drug policy challenges. The article illustrates how interdisciplinary working across scientific communities and diplomatic posts leads to fresh thinking about transnational issues such as drug trafficking and substance misuse, and the consequent public health challenges. This indepth article demonstrates how scientific collaboration could improve border security with new detection technologies and encourages public health-based drug control. Case studies of international efforts provide examples where science and drug control efforts have combined in successful initiatives, contributing to improved drug interdiction and harm reduction programs. These cases highlight the need to integrate research institutions and policy-making institutions to come up with complete answers to drugrelated problems. The article explores how science diplomacy helps to intercalibrate national drug policies with global SDG targets, specifically SDG Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being), Goal 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions), and Goal 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). The study identifies positive examples of transnational cooperation, such as joint research projects, standardized data gathering, and the creation of multilateral training programs that strengthen security and health responses and enable capacitybuilding measures. The results of the study indicate that the science diplomacy model is a more moderate approach to balancing law enforcement and public health factors in drug policy. The findings of the analysis underscore the imperative for long-term investment in scientific collaboration as a route to more equitable, efficient, and sustainable resolution of global challenges in drugs and the concomitant advancement of wider development goals. This investigation contributes to existing debates over how to promote science in global governance in the service of policy and offers direct implications for stakeholders engaged at the nexus of science, diplomacy, and sustainable development.