Leigh Boske's expertise in transportation policy takes him around the globe

Associate Dean Leigh Boske has traveled the globe this past year in an effort to increase the LBJ School's international involvement as well as lend his expertise in transportation finance, economics, and planning. From Beijing to Port-of-Spain, Boske's extensive travel itinerary reflects the growing importance of academic policy research in global economic integration and transportation.

The first stop on Boske's tour last summer was Maastricht, the Netherlands, where he attended a meeting of the Transatlantic Consortium for Public Policy Analysis and Education. The recently established consortium is trying to develop collaborative research efforts and exchanges between leading U.S. and European Community public affairs schools by defining emergent transatlantic public policy issues. Topics discussed included governance, regulation, and immigration. Boske's current post on the consortium's six-person executive committee will likely result in increased opportunities for LBJ School faculty, staff, and student exchanges with European partner institutions.

Next, Boske was off to Brussels, where he attended a meeting with members of the European Union (E.U.) Parliament. The central areas of discussion included telecommunications and the expansion of E.U. membership. Boske was primarily interested in discussions concerning bilateral negotiations of a U.S.-E.U. open skies air policy.

Within a month of returning home to Austin, Boske headed to Beijing, People's Republic of China, where he participated in an international forum of transportation professionals sponsored by the China Association for Science and Technology. One aspect of his presentation, titled "Global Diversity in Public Transport Policies, Plans, and Programs," defined the need for international collaboration among the private and public sectors in developing transportation policy.

The next leg of Boske's travels led him to the Caribbean island of Trinidad in early September, where he attended two official meetings in Port-of-Spain dealing with hemispheric transportation policy development. The first, sponsored by the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), was designed to draft a common air policy and streamline the maritime policy of the ACS's 25 member states. Boske then participated in the Experts' Meeting on Maritime Transport in the Caribbean, sponsored by the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). Boske said he soon discovered that he was the only academic at these meetings, which were otherwise comprised of voting delegates from member states. He soon became known as the "nonvoting delegate of the University of Texas."

In late September, Boske's expertise in transportation policy drew him to Fort Worth, Texas, where he participated in a visioning session hosted by the U.S. Department of Transportation to discuss the future of transportation in the United States. In March he attended two conferences in Mendoza, Argentina--the first, hosted by the Organization of American States (OAS), on socionatural disasters and trade corridors, and the second, hosted by MERCOSUR, on trade corridor development. In May he will attend the Building a Network World conference hosted by the European Universities Continuing Education Network in Spain.

In addition to his involvement in international conferences and consortiums, Boske continues to lead policy research initiatives that respond to real-world transportation policy issues and that are commissioned by international organizations. A prime example is his most recent policy research project report, Transportation in the Americas: Its Role in International Trade, Economic Integration, and Sustainable Development, which was funded by OAS. He is also conducting research on Western Hemispheric maritime transportation and ports in collaboration with ECLAC.

Boske's international travels demonstrate that he is not only a world-class transportation expert but also an essential link between academia and governments in the growing arena of global economic integration.

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May 14, 2001

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