How can science prevail when policies fall short?

Sometimes in secret, sometimes as official ambassadors for their governments, scientists trade their white coats for blazers, stepping out of the lab and directly into sensitive, often life-threatening global crises. Think of the Paris Climate Agreement or the Iran Nuclear Deal, the Manhattan Project, and the Antarctic Treaty of 1959. Scientists have played a pivotal role in many of the greatest episodes in political history.

But what prompts their involvement in international affairs, and what are some of the impacts of their efforts? Can Scientists Succeed Where Politicians Fail? recounts Nobel laureate Dr. Peter Agre's career as a physician-scientist who went from studying malaria and other diseases to meeting with Fidel Castro in Cuba, discoursing with North Korean officials, and traveling into the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Fusing science with political diplomacy, Agre and others like him demonstrate that effective science demands collaboration and that scientific collaboration can engender political success. The dynamic results of scientific involvement shift cross-border relationships, reducing global threats such as climate change, famine, conflict, and epidemics. It also results in cross-pollination between politicians and scientists in ways that inform policy and promote peace. The book explores Agre's story alongside those of volcanologists in North Korea, epidemiologists in Latin America, and other scientists who have and are working alongside politicians, from African tribal chiefs to communist leaders, to tackle natural disasters and infectious threats in new ways.

Features
• Combining descriptions of Agre's professional contributions with tales of his encounters in Cuba, Iran, and North Korea, this book provides vivid accounts of lesser-known scientific routes to diplomacy
• Gives readers an intimate understanding of how scientists interact with politicians to resolve crises from pandemics to nuclear threats to volcanic eruptions
• Interviews with leading politicians and scientists enrich the narrative with first-person accounts

Johns Hopkins Wavelengths

In classrooms, field stations, and laboratories in Baltimore and around the world, the Bloomberg Distinguished Professors of Johns Hopkins University are opening the boundaries of our understanding of many of the world's most complex challenges. The Johns Hopkins Wavelengths book series brings readers inside their stories, illustrating how their pioneering discoveries benefit people in their neighborhoods and across the globe in artificial intelligence, cancer research, food systems' environmental impacts, health equity, planetary science, science diplomacy, and other critical arenas of study. Through these compelling narratives, their insights will spark conversations from dorm rooms to dining rooms to boardrooms.

Peter Agre (BALTIMORE, MD) is an American physician, Nobel Laureate, and molecular biologist. A Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, he serves as the director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute and is a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Seema Yasmin (PALO ALTO, CA) is an Emmy Award–winning health reporter, epidemiologist, and medical doctor. The director of the Stanford Health Communication Initiative and a clinical assistant professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, she is the author of Muslim Women Are Everything: Stereotype-Shattering Stories of Courage, Inspiration, and Adventure and Viral BS: Medical Myths and Why We Fall for Them.