<p>Since its foundation, the university has always been a relevant actor within the international system as the main producer and transmitter of scientific knowledge. Considered as a global actor and historically interrelated with multiple agents at the national and international level, the university must now face new and powerful challenges within the international context. Since the last decades of the 20th Century, the world has entered a vertiginous path of transformation, driven by multiple and profound global processes that have generated significant changes in all the parameters of the international system and have prompted the creation of a new international system. The research problem that arises in this work focuses on studying whether this new international stage will mean an opportunity for the university as an international actor to assume new roles on a global scale or if, on the contrary, whether threats and pressures will erode its global position. The main objective of the present investigation is to analyze the role of the university within the changing world order of the 21st Century and for this purpose it is proposed to know the main changes that operate in the current international system, to decipher how these new global trends affect the university and, understand how the university is reacting to these systemic changes. To achieve these objectives, an extensive literature review has been carried out within the fields of International Studies, Education Sciences, and other Social Sciences. Finally, it is expected to obtain as a result some concrete answers about the context, the impact and the reactions of the university to the modified international system to contribute to a much broader, complex and necessary debate regarding the future of the university as a global actor in the new international system of the 21st Century.</p><p><strong>Received</strong>: 27 September 2018<br /><strong>Accepted</strong>: 12 November 2018<br /><strong>Published online</strong>: 29 November 2018</p>

The international system has changed rapidly in the last thirty years and Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) has become a new critical factor of the world order of the 21st century. The interaction between STI and international affairs has increased, as well as its social and academic interest; however, there is still a lack of new theoretical and methodological approaches that examine this global rising phenomenon. This article is predominantly epistemological and is about how interactions between STI and international relations can be methodologically examined using systems models. This article raises the need for systems science approaches to explaining complex problems in international relations. In this sense, systems science and specifically systemism, offers great potential to study complex issues within a complex social system like the international order. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to develop an original systems framework that provides a comprehensive tool for studying complex topics like STI in the world system. The result is the creation of a Systems Architecture Model that examines the interaction between STI and international affairs from a systemist perspective.

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Since the first launch of an artificial satellite—Sputnik 1—in 1957, space activities have played a significant role as a pioneering technological sector with a high impact on the international scenario. The space system has changed rapidly in the last 30 years, as a result of an intersystemic transition from a bipolar and simplified space system in the 20th century to a new and more complex space system in the 21st century. The post-Cold War space system has undergone multiple changes in its key system parameters—actors, interactions, processes, trends, etc.—that require new scientific approaches. Currently, there is extensive literature that attempts to address these changes, but it is an atomized and fragmented approach that focuses only on particular aspects of space activities, failing to provide a holistic perspective of the systemic changes. This article is analytical and is concerned with how space activities can be empirically examined using a systemic-level approach and systems models, and how the fundaments of systems science are a valuable methodological toolkit to be applied to the field of space studies. Therefore, the main objective of this research is to apply a systems architecture model—previously developed for the author—to the study of the key characteristics of the 21st century space age. The result is a systemic-level study of the new space age in the 21st century, which identifies and describes the intersystemic transition from the Cold War (1947–1991) to the post-Cold War period (1991 to the present), showing the profound changes in the main parameters of the space system and the emergence of new space actors, interactions, processes, and megatrends in space that have a significant impact on the entire world system.

The international system has changed rapidly in the last few decades, and Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) has become a new key factor in the world order of the 21st Century. The interaction between STI and global affairs has increased because of the relevance and impact of scientific and technological development over the main parameters of the international system. Nevertheless, there is still a lack of new approaches that examine this global rising phenomenon from the Global and International Studies perspective. This article raises the academic and pedagogical needs to build bridges between STI and Global and International Studies (GIS) and, especially, the lack of academic programs that focus on this intersection. Therefore, the main objectives of this research are to examine the pedagogical need in the intersection between STI and international relations and introduce a new and original pedagogical proposal. The result is a literature review that confirms the need for educational programs in STI and GIS, and the introduction of a new graduate program as an innovative educational contribution.