United States Leadership in International Geographical Science

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Whereas many national and a few regional organizations of geographers engage in cross- and multi-national research, the International Geographical Union (IGU) is the only body that attempts to coordinate, advance, and refine geographical theory, methods, and practice on a global scale. The IGU's evolving complement of commissions, task forces, and special committees provides geographical scientists in every country of the world with opportunities to compare their basic research ideas and assumptions, their techniques, and their research results with those employed or realized by scholars from different ideological, linguistic, social, and political realms, to the mutual benefit of all parties who engage in such exchanges. In the realm of collaboration with other specialists, the IGU offers the world's geographical scientists ready access to the opportunities and projects sponsored by such global interdisciplinary organizations as the International Council for Science (ICSU) and the International Social Science Council (ISSC), among others. The purpose of this project is to augment the infrastructure of international geographical science by enabling the investigator to fulfill the responsibilities of President of the IGU more effectively and more completely than would be feasible in the absence of the financial assistance this award provides. Project support will permit the investigator to work essentially full time on IGU operations, planning, and projects with the goal of sharpening the organization's focus, streamlining its administration, and putting most of its effort into addressing salient multinational multidisciplinary problems. In common with many academic organizations, the IGU has in the past exhibited a tendency to pursue too many projects simultaneously, as opposed to focusing on a small number in depth. The investigator believes that greater intellectual returns will accrue to international geographical science if the IGU can be convinced to establish more stringent priorities for the allocation of the limited funds and human energy such a volunteer organization can muster. He intends to lead the IGU in that direction by insisting, in his capacity as IGU President, that all IGU programs and projects be assessed and selected on the basis of 1) comparative advantage with respect to other specialties in the international science community, and 2) with respect to the opportunity costs each adopted program or project entails.A streamlined, more robust International Geographical Union will be a major infrastructural advance in the international geographical sciences. As the dilemmas arising from human use and abuse of natural earth systems become ever more pressing, the insights geographical scientists are superbly qualified to produce regarding the operations of coupled human-natural systems become increasingly trenchant, especially at the continental and global scales that are the IGU's primary purview. Geographical science in the United States will be enhanced and enriched by the investigator's role in augmenting the familiarity of domestic scientists with the contrasting viewpoints, experience, and case studies produced by overseas scientists. The investigator's leadership of the organization will also provide increased opportunities for United States scientists to serve as chairpersons or steering committee members of IGU commissions and task forces, as the IGU president plays a key role in the nomination of individuals for such positions. This project will thus contribute substantially to maintaining and enlarging United States leadership in the international geographical sciences and related specialties.