Global drylands are a significant driver of earth system processes that affect the world’s common resources such as the climate. Their peoples are also among the first to be widely affected by global changes such as land degradation and climate change. Yet drylands are a source of many social and technical innovations, globally, as well as in Australia. As a major developed dryland nation, Australia has previously played a major role in extending these innovations to the rest of the world. The nation has reaped reputational and commercial benefits through major research and practice contributions to dryland agriculture, water management and governance, remote area services, indigenous partnerships, dryland monitoring systems, and ‘desert knowledge’ innovation. Australian researchers continue to contribute to various relevant international processes, yet recognition and support for this within Australia has dropped off markedly in recent years. We analyse the Australian government’s investment in research and in overseas aid for drylands over the last two decades, and explore trends in government’s active involvement in major international processes related to land. These trends are short-sighted, overlooking potential economic benefits for Australian enterprises, and undermining Australia’s stance and scientific leadership in dryland systems globally. In this commentary, we argue that it is time for the trends to be reversed, as this is an area of comparative advantage for Australian diplomacy with significant returns on investment for Australia, both direct and indirect, especially when most emerging economies contain substantial drylands. We identify four major pathways to obtaining benefits from science diplomacy, and four interrelated actions within Australia to enable these – to place a higher emphasis on science diplomacy, to re-forge a bipartisan recognition of Australian drylands expertise, to establish a dedicated Dryland Information Hub, and to create a network of relevant science and technology advisors.

全球干旱地区是影响地球共同资源（例如气候）的地球系统过程的重要驱动力。他们的人民也是最早受到土地退化和气候变化等全球变化广泛影响的国家之一。然而，旱地却是全球以及澳大利亚许多社会和技术创新的源泉。作为一个发达的旱地大国，澳大利亚以前曾在将这些创新推广到世界其他地区方面发挥了重要作用。通过对旱地农业，水管理和治理，偏远地区服务，土著伙伴关系，旱地监测系统和“沙漠知识”创新的重大研究和实践贡献，美国获得了声誉和商业利益。澳大利亚研究人员继续为各种相关的国际程序做出贡献，但近年来澳大利亚对此的认可和支持显着下降。我们分析了澳大利亚政府在过去二十年中对旱地研究和海外援助的投资，并探讨了政府积极参与与土地有关的主要国际进程的趋势。这些趋势是短视的，忽视了澳大利亚企业的潜在经济利益，并且破坏了澳大利亚在全球旱地系统中的立场和科学领导地位。在这篇评论中，我们认为现在是扭转趋势的时候了，因为这是澳大利亚外交的比较优势领域，对澳大利亚的直接和间接投资都有重大回报，尤其是在大多数新兴经济体拥有大量旱地的情况下。我们确定了从科学外交中获得收益的四个主要途径，以及在澳大利亚内部采取的四个相互关联的行动，以使它们–更加重视科学外交，重新建立两党对澳大利亚旱地专业知识的认可，建立专门的旱地信息中心，并建立相关的科学技术顾问网络。