President criticises Nato’s ‘appalling’ call for increased military spending

President Michael D Higgins meets Orlaith Timmons, Caoimhe Ryan and Dearbhla Horan from Presentation Secondary School Thurles, Co Tipperary, with their project, 'Lonely in a connected world: Exploring Loneliness Among Irish Teenagers' at the BT Young Scientist Exhibition opening day. Photograph: Alan Betson

The world requires a science without borders built on co-operation in the interest of humanity that counters build-up of weaponry and “rhetoric that calls for war as a state of mind”, President Michael D Higgins has said.

The alternative was a science without moral compass; its use as “a tool for the acquisition of unaccountable power and influence in a manner that threatens democracy itself”, he said on Wednesday at the opening ceremony of the 2025 BT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition (BTYSTE) in the RDS attended by more 1,000 student entrants.

As young scientists, “the greatest fulfilment for yourself and others can be when you locate your contribution within a commitment for the welfare of all global citizens”, he said.

The world faced “multiple interlocking challenges and indeed crises, existential in nature itself – rising poverty, deepening inequality and global hunger, catastrophic climate change and biodiversity loss”, he said. Added to this was “the ongoing promulgation of war and an encouraged perception of the impotence of diplomacy”.

While science had revolutionised life and brought multiple benefits, “we must recognise the misuse of scientific knowledge ... that has been and can be disastrous for us all. Exercised and practised in the wrong hands or funded by those of authoritarian tendencies for insidious purposes, science can produce catastrophic results,” Mr Higgins said.

“At present, it is being employed to generate ever more sophisticated weapons and instruments of death and destruction used to generate fear for populations while supporting the insatiable drive of the military-industrial complexes for profits,” he said.

Military expenditure globally had increased for the ninth consecutive year in 2023 to $2.44 trillion, the highest ever recorded; “at the same time, the number of people affected by hunger has risen by 200 million globally”.

“It is important that we respond to this use of science and a rhetoric that calls for war as a state of mind, including the recent appalling comments from Nato calling for ever more armaments spending to be achieved,” Mr Higgins said.

“This may, we were told, cause pain in the present so as to achieve security in the future, in the words of the secretary general of Nato Mr [Mark] Rutte. He said we should have the mentality of war even at the expense of investing in essentials – in education, social protection and health.”

The world had the capacity to eliminate extreme global poverty, he said, but “preparing for war has driven it off the agenda. As I wrote this speech, six infants under four weeks old have died of hypothermia in their tents in Gaza. Having been displaced three times, the grieving father of twins said, ‘There were eight of us, and we had only four blankets.’”

Waterproof tents, food and clothing were available in the region, but organisations were prevented from giving them to starving families in sub-zero conditions, the president noted.

Addressing the BTYSTE for the last time after 14 years of opening the event, he said he had faith “in the ability of young Irish scientists to locate their gifts, their brilliance, in a moral and ethical context ... they are more than willing to work for the benefit of all humanity beyond any well-earned personal reward”.

He paid tribute to the many Irish scientists “who believed that scientific discoveries should benefit all, without borders, state or fiscal”.