Dr Jamal Sanad Al Suwaidi, Director-General of the Emirates Centre of Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR), has won the Fondazione Mediterraneo’s Mediterranean Award for Diplomacy, 2014, one of the most prestigious awards in the Euro-Mediterranean region. He got the commendation in recognition of his efforts to promote dialogue and knowledge-based diplomacy.

Al Suwaidi described the award as “a recognition of the efforts and contributions of the UAE under the leadership of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to the promotion of the culture of global peace and coexistence, security, stability and development across the world.

“The Mediterranean Award for Diplomacy 2014 represents an incentive for me to make more efforts in the future to further promote the goal of this award as well as its mission of promoting the culture of peace, dialogue and inter-cultural coexistence. This goal also represents one of the pillars of the UAE’s foreign policy which considers the achievement of global peace as a top priority based on its strong belief that peace is the key to comprehensive development for the good of peoples. Peace also spurs stronger international co-operation in the face of global and common challenges,” Al Suwaidi stressed.

“Knowledge-based and intellectual diplomacy has become one of the tools of soft power in light of cultural exchanges and the widening use of social networks or new social media,” added Dr Al Suwaidi.

The winners of this award over the years have included highly-acclaimed personalities such as Nobel Prize laureates Shirine Ebadi and Naguib Mahfouz as well as heads of states and leaders, including US President Barack Obama, President Cavaco Silva of Portugal, former French President Nicholas Sarkozy, President Jose Mujica of Uruguay, King Juan Carlos I of Spain, President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, Queen Rania of Jordan, and Princess Lalla Meryem, Chairwoman of National Union of Women of Morocco (UNFM).

The award winners were announced on April 11 by Michele Capasso, President of the Fondazione Mediterraneo, in a televised address from Rome at the Grand Hall of Festivals, in Fez, Morocco, where Dr Jamal Al Suwaidi was attending the signing ceremony for his new book: Prospects for the American Age: Sovereignty and Influence in the New World Order.

The announcement was made in the presence of a distinguished gathering of senior officials, intellectuals, men of letters and culture, and members of the press in Morocco.

ECSSR’s international conferences, strategic studies reports, publications and cultural activities overseen by Dr Jamal Al Suwaidi tackle important issues related to peace, security and development in the region and the world.

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