Abstract
Editor, JRSM
Can science be a route to peace? The way scientists across the world’s many religious, racial and cultural divides collaborate, you might imagine that it can. Science favours no God, colour or creed. Facts are sacred, commentary is free. But many of the advances in science are propelled by the machinery of war, the technologies of self-defence, and the treatments of the battlefield. When a medical student or doctor is revealed as a bomber, murderer or torturer, the higher ethics of science and medicine are wounded by their treachery.
Advancements in science are no protection against violence or cruelty in any society. A more intuitive hypothesis is that neglect of science damages society – facts become irrelevant and bigotry seems sacred. The starkest example, from my experience, is the scientific decline of Arab and Muslim nations. Once the world considered Arab and Muslim science, including medical science, to be the pinnacle of knowledge and discovery; but few of today’s scientists would seek answers to the mysteries of the universe in the once-mighty seats of learning of Baghdad, Lahore and Timbuktu.
The reasons for this decline are complex although a systematic erosion of education, science and intellectual debate played an important role. Hence, a second reasonable hypothesis is that restoring the status of these disciplines encourages peace. There are no quick wins – the Arab Spring has demonstrated that clearly enough. But there is a move among Arab and Muslim nations, in particular in the Middle East, Iran and Turkey, to reinvigorate science in their societies. Centres of science and technology are beginning to appear. Research papers are more frequently submitted to international medical journals and increasingly published; science may not yet be mainstream but it has become a work stream, not least because the health needs of the region have grown great. These initiatives are to be encouraged.
In this context, Ismail and colleagues assess the state of health research in the Eastern Mediterranean Region of WHO, which covers the Middle East – a difficult task, since defining which countries are included in the region is problematic enough. 1 In a separate paper, Haworth and others explain why the Hajj pilgrimage offers a unique opportunity to test the effectiveness of influenza prevention strategies that require a large sample size. 2 These issues may seem distant but focusing on advances in science and improvements in health can be a unifying force. As such, encouraging a culture of research and science in Arab and Muslim nations may prove to be the greatest contribution to world peace that any medical journal can make.