Abstract

National power is of various resources and origins like science and technology. This component of the national power has an important key role in this field due to its basic function in producing and enhancing other aspects of power such as economic and military power, etc. Hence, using a descriptive-analytic method and with the strength of library resources and field research, this study seeks to answer the question that what the most important variables and indices in the formation of the scientific and technological power of the countries are. The findings of the study include two parts of library and field studies. As such, in the library studies, the reputable resources were first studied and the most important indices and variables affecting the scientific and technological power of the countries were extracted were categorized in 6 factors of human force, financial- economic, mediator, Information and Communications Technology, scientific output, and performance in strategic sciences according to their nature and role. In the field studies, a questionnaire was developed in the form of 6 factors and 102 indices and was given to the domestic and foreign experts. The most important variables and indices of scientific and technological power were identified based on the analysis of the questionnaires; moreover, the 6 factors were prioritized. As such, the factors of financial-economic, human force, and scientific and innovative output had the first to third priority, respectively. Finally, the proposed conceptual model for evaluating the scientific power of the countries was developed in the form of 6 factors and 44 variables.