Smart Power Conception

By : Dr. AbdelHak Azzouzi

President and Founder of Moroccan Strategic and International Studies

India as well as many Asian cities and universities succeeded in developing scientific and technological research that enabled them, with very few resources (such as Japan), to achieve the impossible. Worth noting in this regard, that the existence of limitless resources leads to biased self confidence and following wrong strategies, which all, eventually, result in misjudgment. Remember that David killed Goliath because he followed wrong strategies through limitless resources, unlike David who got wisdom and reason.

In this context, the Indian spacecraft, "Mangalian", orbited Mars after a year-long trip of about 666 million kilometers, bringing India to be the first Asian country to enter the Red Planet and fourth, after the United States, Europe and Russia.

The point here is that India began to benefit from the development of its scientific research and investment in human resources and advanced technology. In the same context, I recall Joseph Nye's response to those who claimed that the American power is in continuous decline. The problem of American power in the twenty-first century is not a decline, but  rather choosing what should be done in the light of realizing that even the great state can not achieve the results it wants without the help of others.

There is an increasing number of challenges that will require the United States to use power with others, as much as it uses power against others. This also requires a deeper understanding of the very concept of power, and how it changes, and learning how to develop strategies for smart power that combines both hard and soft power in the information age.

I think that India has become the embodiment of this smart power. In the twenty-first century, being powerful doesn’t mean to possess a number of nuclear warheads or to maintain military control, but rather it is how to find ways to combine resources into successful strategies for development and innovation.

India has a very large population, more than 1.2 billion. All indicators suggest that this country began to enter the Club of the big powers in economy, research and innovation, not to mention, the various military areas.

At the same time, India is expected to rank world's third largest economy in 2030 due to the tremendous development at its private sector. In addition, half of its populations are under the age of 25, which means that the problems of aging experienced by neighboring countries such as China and the economic and social implications, are not concerns for Indian officials.

The power which enabled it to enter the world explorers of the Red Planet lies in its developing scientific research and increasing number of scientists (more than 400,000 engineers graduate, each year, from specialized Indian universities and institutes, at a rate similar to that of American graduates and far more than the number of graduates in Europe). In addition, India is also superior, globally, in leading areas such as modern technologies, Pharmacy and machinery and aerospace industry.

In India, there are more than 50 million investors work on boosting innovation and enhance efficiency, which makes it, eventually, competent to its Chinese neighbor. Indian entrepreneurs and investors are often asked for participatory democracy (governments, pressure groups, citizens, courts, etc.) wherein China, the only actor is the state.

India's access to Mars suggests that the societies that will dominate the world are those established upon knowledge, skill, advanced scientific research and innovation.

Unfortunately, the Arab world is lagging behind in this area. For example, at the international rankings of universities, such as the Shanghai Rankings, one will always find the United States, Britain and Asia leading the top.

This ranking, for instance, adopt indicators of number of scientific papers published in global periodicals, rate of citation, size of the academic performance compared to the size of the institution, the openness, international, regional conference attendance and participation, as well as the number of award winners (graduates and professors), most notably the Nobel Prizes. Arab universities are always in a very late order.

The development of skills, science, research, development and innovation is key to allow our Arab countries to be competitive during globalization era. The challenge of this type requires the adoption of a strong and efficient education system, as well as a clear vision in the field of technological development, which is the basis for achieving development in the Arab world.