Slightly more than one year ago, US president Barack Obama visited Cairo, Egypt, to give his historic speech, widely seen as an outreach effort to Muslim-majority countries around the world.
As he stood in the fabled, gold-adorned grand hall of Cairo University, one of the oldest secular universities in the region, Obama gave a rousing speech, with several promises to Muslims around the world.
Many of these promises remain unfilled or largely ignored today. But to me, and most of the science community in the region, the most important promise the US president made that day was related to increasing science dialogue, outreach and exchange between the US and Islamic countries.
So one year later, where do we stand on that pivotal promise? What are the hits and misses?
Science envoys
Perhaps the biggest step taken was the formation of “science envoys”. These are made up of prominent American scientists who have knowledge of the Muslim world. They are planned to travel to many of the different Islamic countries and talk about science, as well as gauging the situation in these areas to convey it back home in order to better address the region’s needs.
The choice of the first three envoys was, in my opinion, very well thought out and successful. First off, Ahmed Zewail, an Egyptian American scientist who won the Nobel prize in 1999. To the common Egyptian on the street, he is a national hero and very well received. He is poised to speak to the Middle Eastern region without generating local distrust since he is seen as “one of us”.
The second envoy is the Algerian-born Elias Zerhouni. The previous director of the National Institutes of Health in the US will be reaching out to countries in the Maghreb Region, compromised of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. Once again, his familiarity with the region is a definite plus.
Last, but definitely not least, Bruce Alberts, editor-in-chief of Science magazine, rounds up the list. Alberts past experiences with two six-year terms as president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences means he is best positioned to help fledgling science academies in Islamic countries grow and flourish.
The results of the efforts of the science envoys still remain to be seen, and many people are not sure what the scientists are supposed to do exactly, but it remains a fairly positive step.
The GLORIAD-Taj extension
Earlier this year, the Global Ring Network for Advanced Applications Development (GLORIAD), which is a very high-speed network connecting countries around the world, announced expanding to cover India, Singapore and Egypt. Previously, the network connected most of the Northern hemisphere.
The network aims to promote further collaboration on science, research and education between the US and the Arab world by having a centre based in Egypt.
While the project has much potential, it still remains under-utilised until there are actual projects of collaboration between the US and Arab states. Until then, it is a fancy gimmick that is available to professors and educators in the region, but who don’t know what to do with it really.
NASA outreach
Charles Bolden, current administrator of NASA, generated quite a storm when he announced in an interview that one of his main aims, assigned from Obama, was using NASA for outreach to Muslim-majority countries.
While it is good that an institute as renowned and respected as NASA would be involved in such programmes, I’m unsure exactly how that can work out. Most (if not all) of the countries targeted do not even have the technology to launch satellites into low-orbit. As the previous administrator of NASA, Michael Griffin. told FOXNews, “There is no technology they have that we need.”
So I still remain skeptical as to the nature of this collaboration and outreach attempt. Skeptical, but happy to hear it nonetheless, just because it is NASA.
Exchange programmes
Possibly the most powerful option for science diplomacy, exchange programmes that the president announced didn’t really get off-ground. There is no increase in visiting professors to major universities in the region, nor are there more opportunities for science students and graduates to pursue further education in the US.
The strength of these projects is they can keep scoring points in science diplomacy over a long period of time. Each student trained then becomes a new nucleus for science diplomacy when they go back to their home countries. They also help more than any other approach in building goodwill and trust between the the West and the Islamic world.
Sadly, this is so far the least developed measure. A bill was introduced to the American Congress to fund collaboration projects with Muslim-majority countries, but it has yet to be discussed in detail.
So far, so little is being done on that front unfortunately.
All in all, Obama has lived up to his speech’s promise on science and technology more than any of the other topics he talked about. More or less, the administration is on the right track, and are employing the right people to take their vision forward. However, there is still a long way to go.
It is definitely work keeping an eye on.
How successful has Obama been on the science and technology agenda? Leave a comment below.
