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IS TRANSPARENCY A LUXURY ITEM? . SECURITY THREATS Prof Al Roberts CLIMATE CHANGE Joseph Foti, WRI GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS Sean Moulton, OMB Watch RESPONDENT Tom Susman, ABA. Transparency may be ‘delivering’, but won’t it sometimes ‘get in the way’?.
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IS TRANSPARENCY ALUXURY ITEM? • SECURITY THREATS Prof Al Roberts • CLIMATE CHANGE Joseph Foti, WRI • GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS Sean Moulton, OMB Watch • RESPONDENT Tom Susman, ABA
Transparency may be ‘delivering’, but won’t it sometimes ‘get in the way’?
SECURITY THREATS, CLIMATE CHANGE & ECONOMIC CRISIS…Competing Public Interest Concerns • ‘Higher Public Interest Concerns’: safety; global warming; economic growth/jobs… • Secrecy ‘Trumps’ Transparency… • Public demand for transparency is less • If they are determined to keep it secret they will anyway… • All highly technical anyway…no point, and no need to know
ISSUES: • Openness in the ‘wrong’ places may undermine the ‘cause’ of transparency • Some ‘Strategic’ Secrecy is necessary to win the overall war for openness? • Higher Test to satisfy…. • Avoid glib arguments; need to be specific about the competing public interest concerns
TEST • To see if we can make the case for transparency even in most demanding of cases/policy areas • If we can’t win the argument here, not much point winning it elsewhere • Equally: proponents of secrecy, must be specific about why transparency is counter-productive or has unintended consequences