Jaber Mohamed Al Shuaibi, Emirati Researcher in Geopolitical Issues
24 June 2020
If crises are highly mobile across geographical borders, then we could discuss crises that its activity centers in countries that lack of real educational systems that make them suffer and delay in the development process. Ignorance feeds the extremist political and religious ideologies as a substitute for peace and stability, while the fruits of scientific and reach progress are shown in the opportunities for property caused by scientific and research progress in the future of societies. In the middle of “Covid-19” pandemic crisis that the world has been witnessing, we can see the importance of science as well as stability. Turkey, for example, calls for the common interest and at the same time its citizens are affected by engaging in wars that only cause chaos, while national states that have civilized messages such as UAE has provided humanitarian aid to more than 60 countries in the world to combat the disease alone with its commitment to provide 8 billion dollar to support global research in developing an effective and safe vaccine, recognizing that the scientific research under the supervision of professional doctors and engineers cannot be isolated form scientific cooperation between nations within the so-called scientific diplomacy, as it is no less important than political and military cooperation.
The Emirati diplomacy has exceeded the cultural and geographical restrictions since it was founded, until it succeeded to transfer the modern knowledge to Emirati cadres in the sector of space, artificial intelligence, peaceful nuclear energy, electronic security, and other promising sectors. As the UAE ranked the second in the world in government spending on education for each student in 2020, which confirmed our priority of education system of our wise leadership. We have lessons and experiences in scientific diplomacy, including the UAE’s declaration to host the permanent headquarters of the international Renewable Energy Agency “IRENA” in 2009, which considered as a platform for international cooperation in exchanging knowledge and solutions to the challenges of climate change and renewable energy. The opportunities have been created for further cooperation in the agency’s areas of specialty.
The future of scientific diplomacy is promising, especially with regard to education and research related to the food and pharmaceutical industries, as the stability of countries became dependent on these industries in the face of common crises. The efficient political leadership has proven its success at all levels, so that it does not consider the changes as a challenge only, but also as an opportunity, which calls for developing a common framework for action for institutions related to education and Emirati diplomacy, so that the latter can manage multidisciplinary scientific alliances, and attract the best scientific minds to country with evidence that the UAE has attracted qualifies scientists from various countries of the world to support the Emirati doctors to combat the spread of the “Covid-19” virus. With that we refer that the UAE has competitive advantage with a more focus on food and health science, thereby ensuring crisis reduction in the short and medium term. As the food and medicine support the living needs of the community in the light of increasing population in the UAE, the matter that explains why they are the priority of the government. They are also two promising sectors that provide job opportunities and support the transition to a non-oil economy by activating rather activities such as tourism, transportation and others. Finally, they support the UAE’s humanitarian message to export food and health products and services to countries that are suffering crises or may have been exposed to natural disasters.
