Abstract
Meteorology has long played an important role as the subject of educational exchanges not only between countries with friendly relations but also between those whose relations are characterized by tensions or conflict. Meteorological educational exchanges have taken place between national weather services, higher education institutions, and other research organizations throughout the world and have managed to endure where other exchanges would otherwise be difficult or impossible to maintain. This chapter first explores the reasons for meteorology’s capacity to serve as a medium for institutional and people-to-people exchanges, even between rival states or societies. It then focuses on the two major case studies of Cuba–US and China–Taiwan–US meteorological educational exchanges. Each case study highlights the historical context of the exchanges, the reasons that they could take place amid diplomatic and political tensions, the challenges in implementation, and their impacts on people-to-people and institutional relations. These are complemented by firsthand, empirical evidence from personal communications with the institutional leaders, scientists, and educators directly involved in these exchanges. The chapter then concludes with a discussion of the extent to which international cooperation on meteorological education and training between rival states can continue to serve a constructive role in the future.
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Notes
- 1.
Among other discussions of meteorological phenomena, Aristotle discusses the hydrologic cycle: “Now the earth remains but the moisture surrounding it is made to evaporate by the sun’s rays and the other heat from above, and rises. But when the heat which was raising it leaves it, in part dispersing to the higher region, in part quenched through rising so far into the upper air, then the vapour cools because its heat is gone and because the place is cold, and condenses again and turns from air into water. And after the water has formed it falls down again to the earth” (Aristotle c. BCE 350).
- 2.
Timothy Spangler, one of the authors of this chapter, served as the Director of COMET from 1992 to 2013.
- 3.
For example, Rick Anthes served as President of UCAR from 1988 to 2012 and President of the American Meteorological Society in 2007, and Alan Robock was a contributing author to the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) , for which it won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Books and other publications by those involved in the exchanges have also been influential and widely disseminated.
- 4.
William W. Kellogg et al. (1974), members of the AMS delegation to China, offer a detailed account of their visit in an article published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society .
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Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Richard Anthes, Bill Kuo, and Jeff Wilson for their valuable research contributions and insight, without which this chapter would not have been possible. They would also like to acknowledge the many meteorologists and other scientists around the world that have overcome the political and bureaucratic obstacles involved in leading educational exchanges and scientific cooperation initiatives between the people and institutions of rival states.
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Spangler, J., Spangler, T. (2018). Meteorological Educational Exchanges Between Rival States: Cuba–US and China–Taiwan–US Cooperation. In: Chou, C., Spangler, J. (eds) Cultural and Educational Exchanges between Rival Societies. Education Innovation Series. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1547-3_8
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