Thanks a lot to Gene Vogt for these very enlightening and thorough comments !

Both nations grand strategies involve a shift from a depleting, limited resource to a renewable, more flexible resource. While the UAE focuses on areas it has great experience in – energy and finance, Costa Rica has chosen similarly to continue to develop a familiar resource – it’s young, healthy, literate and well-educated population. Their strategy has moved from customer services, IT and entertainment to high tech manufacturing in computing, aerospace and medical high value added areas while developing improved infrastructure and capacity in traditional tourism areas. To achieve even high-tech engineering and manufacturing, industrial scale energy production is a necessity, and Costa Rica continues to invest in this area. In fact, last week Costa Rica took a step towards this future by achieving Latin America’s first plasma production http://www.ipp.mpg.de/4070844/scr_1 . The Costa Rica Institute of Technology (TEC) in Cartago founded the Plasma Laboratory for Fusion Energy and Applications, which investigates the fields of plasma medicine, industrial plasma technology and fusion research. Previous work had used the small MEDUSA-CR device (Madison Education Small Aspect ratio tokamak) device, and included efforts towards building the Stellarator-1 (SCR-1) using a modular design and build of the plasma vessel and coils made in Costa Rica. The small device aims at attaining plasma temperatures of 300,000 degrees Celsius. SCR-1 as Latin America’s first stellarator now joins the ranks of the stellarators in Australia, Germany, Japan, Spain and the USA. The Institute’s Director Dr. Iván Vargas explained, “Our research aims to benefit future generations… If research like this continues to evolve, in the future this technology could be used at a power plant that would take alternative energy to our communities”.

As in the UAE, the grand vision underlying this grand strategy extends beyond the bounds of Earth. In recent months, Costa Rica crowdfunded an environmental picosatellite to be launched http://www.ticotimes.net/2016/04/19/crowdfunding-campaign-launch-costa-ricas-first-satellite-surpasses-goal and has plans for the excess to fund a project on space materials based on a local beetle. In fact, for years Ad Astra, a US & Costa Rican company founded by Costa Rican-American Astronaut Dr. Franklin Chang-Diaz, has been developing and testing the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR®) http://www.adastrarocket.com/aarc/VASIMR which is now a potential disruptive technology for future space missions, such as a transit to Mars http://www.industrytap.com/nasas-new-vasimr-plasma-engine-reach-mars-39-days/33646 . This type of daring vision offers hope for tiny Costa Rica and for all of us.
Again, the strategic foresight, analysis, grand strategy, and underlying visions present impressive parallels between these two nations. While the future is often considered dark and foreboding, the vision of these two small countries demonstrate that a great future is possible – and on this 4th of July, the 240th Independence Day of the United States of America, my wish is that all the world may look to a brighter future, aiming far above and beyond our limited resources and regional problems, to achieve a more perfect union with liberty, brotherhood, and opportunity for all.