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| conferences - Weighing Terror Threats against Global Mandates. |
| 2016-09-26 |
| PARIS -- The decision by the international Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) to cancel its biennial Scientific Assembly in July -- just 12 days before it was to start in Istanbul -- is a cautionary tale for any conference organizer with a strong international mandate. Founded in 1958, COSPAR’s principal mission is to promote global cooperation in space. Its Assemblies typically attract more than 2,000 participants, forcing the organization to select venues four years in advance to secure conference centers. But while the choice of Turkey -- a rising space power at the crossroads of Europe and Asia -- might have seemed merely adventurous when the decision was made in 2012, by 2016 it had begun to appear risky. The Assembly was scheduled for July 30-August 7. On June 21, reflecting the abundance of caution to which any American receiving U.S. State Department travel advisories becomes accustomed, NASA advised its employees and contractors -- including the Jet Propulsion Laboratory -- that it would not sponsor travel to Istanbul for COSPAR. COSPAR President Lennard A. Fisk, a former NASA Associate Administrator for Space Science and Applications, did not accept NASA’s rationale and, with the COSPAR board, decided to push forward with Assembly preparations. On June 29, a terrorist attack at the Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport left 45 people dead and more than 230 injured. Still, Fisk reasoned, the airport’s security apparatus had succeeded in keeping the terrorists from the airport’s terminal. The meeting was maintained. On July 14, a terrorist attack in Nice, France, during a a Bastille Day celebration killed 86 people and left 434 injured. Fisk and COSPAR persisted. "We cannot let terrorists dissuade us," he would say later. The July 15 attempted military coup in Turkey was the last straw. Fisk wrote COSPAR members on July 18 saying the Assembly had been cancelled. COSPAR’s experience is an extreme example of issues that confront organizations such as the International Astronautical Congress, whose 67th annual meeting starts this week in Guadalajara, Mexico, and whose 66th meeting last year in Jerusalem was a subject of a safety-related debate. How should organizations whose reputations are built on their global reach respond to the terrorism issue? Two months after his decision, Fisk concedes there are no easy answers. |
| Posted by:3dc |
| #2 Just as well -- it's not like Turkey can afford it just now, with so many detainees to house and arrestees ro find guilty. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2016-09-26 20:29 |
| #1 "How many will we lose vs. the cost of stopping it?" |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2016-09-26 16:51 |