Defense and the Environment: Effective Scientific Communication

The NATO Advanced Research Workshop, “Effective Scientific Communication Related to Recent Challenges and Activities in the Military Sector,” was the result of close collaboration between defense and environmental officials in the United States and the Slovak Republic. It was recognized that effective solutions to environmental problems are achieved through the proper application of science, including the communications and the social sciences. Workshop was co-directed by Messrs. Ronald A. Kreizenbeck of US EPA and Lubomir Kušnír of Slovak Ministry of Defense. Workshop topics were grouped into five major topic areas including 1) Environmental Policy Perspectives, 2) Environmental Management Systems and Public Participation, 3) Environmental Security, 4) Environmental Decision Support, and 5) Protection of Nature and Natural Systems. Delegates from nineteen countries assembled to explore these topics at the Hotel Danube in Bratislava from April 22-26, 2003. A total of forty six delegates were in attendance, twenty from NATO countries and twenty six from Partners for Peace countries. The final program included technical sessions using a presentation and dialog format, work groups, field trips, and networking sessions. There were twenty nine technical presentations divided into seven sessions, and these form the basis for these proceedings. xiii Acknowledgments The organizers of this Advanced Research Workshop acknowledge the support of two major financial sponsors, the NATO Science Programme and the U. S. Department of Defense (USDOD) under the Partners for Peace Program (PfP).