Kuala Lampur, May 12 -- The phrase "science diplomacy" conjured a romantic image: a polar bear standing next to a Russian and an American scientist in front of a research vessel, a testament to Cold War cooperation. It was seen as a niche pursuit - a "nice-to-have" soft power tool. But a new, comprehensive analysis published in Scientometrics by Anna-Lena Ruland and her colleagues shatters this outdated notion. Their study, which maps two decades of scholarship, delivers a clear and urgent verdict: science diplomacy is no longer a niche. It has erupted into a full-fledged, global, and strikingly fragmented research field. The question is no longer if science diplomacy matters, but whether our understanding of it can keep pace with its exp...