With the inevitable changes taking place in different sectors worldwide, the international community must respond with the appropriate tools to defy extremism and crises brought on by ongoing conflicts in the region, experts and veteran statesmen said on Wednesday.

Iraq’s Vice President Ayad Allawi, speaking at the second panel of the 10th Amman Security Colloquium at the University of Jordan, said the crises in the Arab world have led to political, social and economic changes that have had a great impact on the region’s countries.

“The only solution in this situation would be to move forward in the areas of science and technology to achieve development and to regain the region’s political power and stability,” Allawi added.

He said Arab countries have the capability to deal with global issues moderately. “If countries in the Arab world had worked towards strengthening their ties and relations, we would not have witnessed the current conflicts and issues.”

Iraq and Jordan are planning to establish a new gas and oil company in Aqaba to export to Africa and Southeast Asia, the Iraqi vice president said.

HRH Princess Sumaya, who is the president of Royal Scientific Society, said the world is witnessing inevitable changes in the areas of water, energy and climate change, with rising poverty rates.

“It is pointless to analyse conflicts in our region without emphasising these overriding factors and without acknowledging [that] the solutions to these challenges can only be found through science, technology and innovation,” she said.

“We understand that the challenges we face must be tackled in a unified way and at a global level. Our fundamental starting point must be an acknowledgement that true human dignity knows no social, economic, gender or ethnic barriers.”

“We have almost passed the point of no return, where issues such as the current refugee crisis, set up to highlight how ill-prepared we are for cooperation and for humanity. We require nothing less than [the] proactive strengthening of our region’s resilience,” the princess added.

Citing the Global Monitoring Report 2015-2016, “Development Goals in an Era of Demographic Change”, released in Peru, she noted that the planet is undergoing a major population shift that will reshape the economic development for decades.

“More than 90 per cent of global poverty is concentrated in low-income countries with a young population, where more than three-quarters of global growth is generated in richer nations with rising life expectancies,” Princess Sumaya said.

With this backdrop, the movement of people is “not just understandable, but predictable”, she added.

“How we deal with this inevitability will help to define our future.”

The princess called for endorsing policies that anticipate displacement and migration, and thus can address the breakdown of social cohesion.

“We must work together to build consensus on a vision for development in science and space. We must give education the support and position it deserves for engagement and empowerment.”

Education, she said, is the only weapon at hand to end regional unrest, and to assess and tackle the challenges of societies.