Citizen Advisory Boards and Public Involvement: The Role of Citizens in Public Decision Making, Post–Cold War Demilitarization, and Environmental Cleanup

Abstract

AbstractThe demise of the Cold War in the late 1980s catalyzed a dramatic reduction in standing armies and widespread closure of military bases throughout the two competing alliances, the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO), also known as the Warsaw Pact, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Similarly, the dismemberment of the WTO and the breakup of the Soviet Union have led to major reductions in Russian and East European forces. These historic contractions in Russian, American, and allied militaries at the end of the twentieth century and the Cold War have presented a number of major challenges to each country. One major challenge is environmental—how to destroy millions of tons of obsolete, dangerous, and costly war munitions and weapons inventories, and how to clean up the polluted legacies that capital‐intensive militaries have left behind on military bases and civilian communities. This article traces the development of mechanisms to increase the role of citizens in public decision making involving post–Cold War demilitarization and environmental cleanup. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.