The ISS Congress Public BBS

§     [Start a New Thread]     §     [Help and Hints]     §     [Archives]     §

Altering the IGA
<<Prev   |  58  of  71  |   Next>>

Posted by Adam Manning () at 21:16 GMT on 03 Aug 2001

Dear Bob

You have mentioned in the past that you would like the assistance of a lawyer in deciding what changes ought to be made to the IGA to hand over the management of the station to an independent authority. Aside from the technical points I outlined in a previous message, I would like to outline my views on this.

As I believe one of the correspondents of the bulletin board stated previously, this is most likely to be achieved through a treaty between the partner states and the new authority. In most of the Partner States, as far as I am aware, the making of treaties rests with the executive part of government. Directly influencing the executive in the use of its treaty making powers is perhaps difficult for the electorate or public of the partner states (or even special interest groups) but it would seem to me that special interest groups can play a role in promoting, perhaps in a general sense, an atmosphere in which the executive moves towards treaties dealing with certain issues.

A more direct way to influence these treaties is to achieve positions of power within the executive. This could be at two levels, firstly taking positions within those parts of the government advising the executive (for example in the U.S. NASA or in the UK the British National Space Centre) or secondly taking positions within government itself (eg entering Congress or Parliament or, dare I say it, President Werb anybody? :-)).

This is not to underestimate the role of special interest groups in promoting change: in environmental issues for example a broad change in the views of differing governments has taken place over the last ten years due in large part, I would submit, to activists promoting concern in the public at large which elected officials cannot ignore.

Another point is that when the station's management is put in the hands of an independent authority, the legal framework surrounding the station may have changed markedly from the state of affairs at present.

Yours
Adam Manning

The ISSA and the IGA - Adam's cmts and Bob's cmts. Patrick Gibbs (12 Sep 2001 02:59 GMT)

Software ©1997-2001 and Mach 25 Technologies