3rd Meeting of Second Int’l Conference on ‘Post-American World’ Held in Mashhad

The third meeting of a series of preliminary meetings of the 2nd International Conference on "the Decline of the United States: The Post-American World," was held in the holy city of Mashhad in northeast Iran on Monday, September 20, 2021, which was focused on "The Role of Scientific Cooperation of the Resistance in the Realization of the Post-American World," with the participation of Imam Reza International University; Dr. Saeed Shaarbaf, a faculty member of Imam Reza International University and Dr. Ali Soroush, a faculty member of Shahid Sadr Research Institute of Imam Hussein Comprehensive University (pbuh) attended the meeting.

Dr. Saeed Shaarbaf, a faculty member of Imam Reza International University, categorizes the scientific interactions of the countries of the region in two main axes, namely academic-educational interactions, and industrial interactions related to academic education, such as carrying out research and holding conferences and seminars. In his view, by adopting such an approach education of non-Iranian students in domestic universities will have a direct impact on their perception of the country. And the audience living in Iran will get familiar with Iranian society and culture and this, will lead to adoption of a positive approach to Iran in international events.

By tying industry with education, Dr. Saeed Shaarbaf emphasized the high economic benefits for the country; On the other hand, he mentioned this field as the basis of economic relations and considered the technical and engineering services as one of the capacities of this axis. In the last part of his speech, he cited a number of strategies in the field of scientific diplomacy, which include:

1.  The need to pay attention to the upstream documents regarding the details of regional scientific diplomacy, the formulation of a strategic plan for a separate action document for each country in the region
2. Activating and using the scientific and cultural capacities of the Resistance currents in the development of regional scientific diplomacy
3. Selection of cultural advisors with experience in international scientific relations and with the main mission of developing regional scientific diplomacy
4. Increasing short-term academic training courses at any level and discipline that can lead to the exchange of professors.

In the second part of the meeting, Dr. Ali Soroush, a faculty member of Shahid Sadr Research Institute of Imam Hussein Comprehensive University, pointed to the necessity for science and technology diplomacy and said that regional scientific cooperation will facilitate the expulsion of the United States from the region. This will pave the ground for political diplomacy, international scientific cooperation, science for diplomacy and diplomacy for science as soft power, he added. In the final part of his speech, Dr. Soroush, while mentioning the problems of the current situation of science and technology diplomacy in the country, suggested some strategies in this regard, including:

• Establishment of a joint working group to formulate a comprehensive document of scientific diplomacy with a joint structure
• A Multi-sectoral view based on institutionalizing the unified and integrated entry of all domestic and international departments and institutions in line with scientific diplomacy
• Devising a special action plan to operationalize existing documents through branding and modeling
• Facilitation of the science and technology capacities of the countries of the region through the production of soft power
• All-inclusive entry of all ministries and government agencies into the field of science and technology diplomacy
• Utilization of the capacity of science and technology diplomacy to solve common regional problems

The 2nd International Conference on “the Decline of the United States: The Post-American World” will be held on November 2, 2021, by Imam Hussein Comprehensive University and the Secretariat of the Expediency Discernment Council, in cooperation with the universities and research institutes. For more information, interested parties can see the conference website at www.usdecline.ir and the virtual pages of the conference secretariat on social media at @usdecline.