In the Middle East, governments and non-state actors alike have tried all forms of diplomacy to solve the challenges they face, with mixed results: shuttle diplomacy by the United States between the Israelis and Palestinians worked for a time, great-power diplomacy over the Syrian civil war largely hasn’t, and direct negotiations with unsavory groups like the Taliban have moved in fits and starts. 

The planet is facing a bevy of “wicked” problems, which threaten global destabilization. Issues such as climate change, food and water, biodiversity preservation, and pandemic disease cut across disciplines and borders and affect people at all levels of society. This new threat set requires cooperation between countries, but such challenges cannot be resolved by the same type of diplomacy that characterized the 20th century.

United States Ambassador to India, Richard Verma, has said technology and innovation is redefining relations between Washington and New Delhi. [...] The US envoy said science and tech diplomacy is not new - during the Cold War, science served a common language that helped bridge political and cultural divides.

As new challenges such as the critical need for a universal sustainable development agenda confront mankind, science and diplomacy are converging as common tools for trouble-shooting. A new phenomenon is Science Diplomacy involving the role of science in diplomacy.

The purpose of the exhibition is both public diplomacy and making science accessible to Israelis. A recent Ministry of Science survey painted a worrying picture regarding the Israeli public's familiarity with scientific topics and central figures. 

Announcements made by the Russian news agency TASS confirmed that Beijing’s State Oceanic Administration (SOA) would prepare its seventh Arctic exploration mission later this year and would seek a partnership with Russia to conduct a joint exploration and research mission in the Arctic.