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Science for diplomacy
Science for diplomacy
Science can help us answer some of the foreign policy challenges we face.
First, scientific progress can achieve breakthroughs that diplomacy cannot match. The development of commercially viable Carbon Capture and Storage mechanisms, or advances in the technology for low-carbon vehicles can have a major impact on our ability to forge the green revolution we need to avoid climate change. Genetic improvement of crop plants could rescue many millions from the endless cycle of poverty, hunger and violence that infects so much of our world. And in areas such as cyber-security, bio-defence or early warning systems for natural disasters, it is science that holds the key to our future security.
Second, science can help forge consensus where there is political division. As Thomas Paine once said, "An army of principles can penetrate where an army of soldiers cannot". During the Cold War technologies to verify arms control agreements were a rare focus for joint working between the USA and USSR. In Europe, CERN helped rebuild links between nations - establishing the first post war contacts between German and Israeli scientists and keeping open relations between Western and Eastern Europe. Science can and should be used to break down barriers of the twenty-first century, particularly those between the Western and Muslim-majority countries. Projects like the new Synchrotronlight-source in Jordan are leading the way, bringing together scientists from Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, Iran, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, Turkey and Pakistan to build a bright light-source for cutting-edge experiments in materials science and biology.
Third, is science's power to shift debates and catalyse political action. This is critical if we are to protect and promote global public goods for future generations, as climate change illustrates. It was been the convergence of views within the scientific community that has set the political tone of the debate in recent years. Indeed the IPCC rightly won a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 for its efforts to forge global consensus around the science. Although we did not secure from Copenhagen the ambitious, legally binding treaty that this Government and I am sure many of you wanted, no-one can deny how far the global debate has come in the last few years. And with an eye to the future, scientists and diplomats must continue to work together not just on climate but on resource scarcity more generally. I've talked previously about an impending resource crunch - with foreign policy increasingly shaped by shortages of energy, food and water. Scientific collaboration to establish a shared understanding of the risks and solutions will be critical to mobilising action and preventing a world new tensions and stresses from emerging.
© National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 2011
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