thinking about tomorrow
by P. Budinich

In 1964, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), now named the Abdus Salam ICTP after its promoter and first director (1979 Nobel laureate in physics), was created in Trieste. ICTP's success was due in part to the drive of its director and the support of the world's scientific community, and it was in part to the commitment of the local university and the Italian government.

Based on the initial success of ICTP, several additional high level institutions in pure and applied science followed. Some of the newly arrived institutions were aimed, like ICTP, at helping developing countries maintain and foster their own scientific communities. The ensemble of the scientific institutions now in Trieste is known as the Trieste System.

The system's success, in its support of the Third World, is due to a number of instruments developed and refined by its participating institutions. These instruments include travel and research grants, especially for young scientists; access to excellent classroom and laboratory facilities; associateships and visiting professorship programmes; and federated and affiliated institutes for the promotion of South-South and North-South co-operation.

All of this has been designed to overcome the isolation and marginalization that scientists from the developing world often experience at home, driving them to emigrate in search of better working conditions. The instruments that have become synonymous with the Trieste System have been designed to enable scientists from the South to work in their home countries while remaining directly involved in the most advanced research.

The goal is not only to provide scientists with the skills and training that they need to participate effectively in the global scientific community, but also to instill the sense of dignity and confidence that they must have to build their own scientific communities in their home countries. Today the Trieste System is increasingly focusing on issues related to sustainable economic and social development in the Third World, including science communication and science literacy.

In the aftermath of 11 September, the goals of the Trieste System have become more relevant than ever before, as the global community seeks to address regional problems in the Third World, where excessive misery, ignorance, humiliation and anger create a fertile environment for suspicion, intolerance and hatred in which terrorism may take root.

The Trieste System's 38 years of experience in working with scientific communities in the Third World shows how efforts to eliminate feelings of marginalization and humiliation help foster feelings of trust, hope and ultimately dignity. These are all prerequisites for making their home countries a dignified part of a global and peaceful world.

To this end, the Trieste System's myriad channels of North-South and South-South collaborations have enabled tens of thousands of scientists from the South (80,000 have visited ICTP alone) to participate fully in the global scientific enterprise. The system is now poised to serve as a model for others, allowing it to be replicated on an ever-larger scale. Such a global strategy has been recognized in the United Nations, especially by the Group of 77. The European Union has clearly expressed its interest for the same line of action. Similar signs of interest are coming from the world’s most advanced scientific community in the United States.

Such recognition is opening a pathway for convergent action by the North within the framework of the U.N. system that could lead to the creation of a global network modelled after the Trieste System.

Distributed throughout the North and South, such a global network could help close the huge gap in education and economic well-being between the North and South. In our globalized world, this gap is both an anachronism and a source of antagonism, crises and disaster.