Farhana Saleem
Pakistan’s national Science Diplomacy narrative as an element of Pakistan’s Foreign Policy started to develop in true sense in 2019 when Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry announced its Science Diplomacy Division. With objectives related to socio-economic development, fostering S&T collaborations, institutional linkages, and technology transfer, engaging scientific diaspora, and science popularization. A very well-articulated Pakistan’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy document (2022) further reinforces Pakistan’s Science Diplomacy agenda. The Chapter 8 ‘Revitalizing Science Diplomacy’ with its policy statements 52 through 59 touches upon a number of related policy matters and visions including those pertaining to mobility of scientists, necessary engagement of Pakistan’s foreign missions and training of assigned foreign office officials, enhanced engagement of relevant international organizations based in Pakistan, enhanced scientific advice on foreign policy; and relevant cooperation agreements.
Pakistan has a strong legacy of Science Diplomacy that is older than the terminology itself. The country has produced some brilliant scientific minds and institutions in the past resulting in a history of Science Diplomacy. A practical example of this is the institutional building in the developing countries owed to Pakistani Nobel Laureates, Prof. Abdus Salam. Salam was a true cience diplomat who employed his stature as a scientist and an academician, and his knowledge of intricacies of government affairs for promotion of scientific institution building in the South. His efforts in early 1960s, resulted in the establishment of the Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (AS-ICTP) in Trieste, Italy, an institution Europe proudly considers a part of its long Science Diplomacy tradition . The Centre along has trained over 160,000 scientists from developing countries, and it is a model for science diplomacy in action. Till his death in the 1990’s Salam had been an ardent science diplomat, having set in motion movement for other such institutions, including Pakistan-based COMSATS.
Science needs to prevail when the word is faced with huge global problems like pandemics and other health challenges, climate change, food and water security, and resources management. In this world of global governance and globalization, none of this is possible without the right use of different facets of Science Diplomacy. It will benefit Pakistan greatly to enhance its international reputation and attract foreign investment and partnerships in science and technology. Pakistan’s strong science diplomacy narrative is important for representation in global relevant fora. Diplomats that are trained in Science Diplomacy and scientists with horizons wider than lab work to include knowledge of science administration, international affairs and policy are key to improving gains from Science Diplomacy.
Regional competitiveness between neighboring countries has long been a source of impetus seen mostly in cases of arms and nuclear weapons race motivated by strategic and deterrence reasons resulting in national nuclear programmes. A healthier competition can be had in scientific excellence motivated by groundbreaking work in science and technology. For instance, India’s moonlanding as a landmark event should be a motivator of development of Pakistan’s space programme. We’ve seen the world’s technology frontiers expanding from similar competitiveness between the world tech giant countries in the past. Regardless of who wins the space race, all in the running have a lot to gain in trying to catch up. We ought to start running.
In addition to effective implementation of envisaged policy agenda for science diplomacy, way forward to having and sustaining a sound legacy in this respect would be to: a) learning from those who embarked on this journey before us, some organizations in the West, such as AAAS, US, and TWAS, Italy, not only have a clear intellectual and academic advantage but also offer collaborations in for scholarly exchanges and trainings; b) development of an indigenous science diplomacy agenda that is to say, while a lot needs to be learnt from the trail-blazers, there needs to be an indigenous narrative to Science for Diplomacy, Diplomacy for Science, and Science in Diplomacy and to better align and achieve national and regional goals. The aforementioned policy statements of ST&I policy are a great start; c) maximum participation of erudite minds of the country and diaspora in international fora and their presence at important tables along-side the top government officials for representing the country as a progressive nation employing intellect for mutual gains to be had from S&T cooperation. Furthermore, it is absolutely crucial to rewind, recap and re-align Pakistan’s achievements in science diplomacy over the last few decades. The country, despite its troubles, has been contributing to scientific institution building and has a notable participation in big science initiatives such as those taking place in CERN, Geneva. A repository of the historical achievements and documentation of ongoing and planned efforts would help best show-case Pakistan’s Science Diplomacy strength and serve well the country’s related interests.
Science Diplomacy has the potential to play an important role in development of Pakistan’s softer image. Socio-political turbulence may be frequent and may have persisted long but it can no more be used as an excuse. With a lag of decades in S&T-development that we are faced with further accentuated by landmarks being achieved by nations with similar beginnings, we have no time to lose. Also, the world has seen the best of knowledge, mightiest of science, and research collaborations produced in the most trying of times.
The Author is a veteran Science Communicator currently associated with an Islamabad-based IGO for over 14 years. A PhD scholar in Government and Public Policy, Ms. Saleem’s research and academic interests include Women in Science, Climate Response, Science Diplomacy, and Science and Civil Society.
