Suchergebnisse

U.S. officials are moving away from supporting international law as a mechanism for preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. For example, the Bush Administration recently refused to sign the Protocol to the Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone ("SEANWFZ"). U.S. officials, relying on a policy of nuclear deterrence, maintain that this treaty unnecessarily limits freedom of navigation, creates the possibility of territorial disputes, and accords overly broad negative security assurances to the region. This Comment argues that these concerns are unfounded, and that signing the Protocol would promote U.S. and world security. Successful implementation of SEANWFZ, which requires support from nuclear-weapons states, would promote Southeast Asian security by stabilizing a regime that enhances regional confidence and cooperation. Moreover, signing this protocol is in accord with the United States' duties under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons to support the spread of regional nuclear-weapon free zones and provide legally binding negative security assurances to non-nuclear-weapons states. This Comment concludes that the United States government should sign the Protocol to the Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone because international law is a more effective mechanism than nuclear deterrence for preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

Who handles American foreign relations?The question has been answered and discussed in terms of the Executive and the Congress in several recent books. We shall attempt here to answer the question in terms of the people who occupy the higher, or policy-making, positions in the Department of State and Foreign Service. Biographical data is published for individuals in this group in the Biographic Register of the Department of State and its supplements.This type of "Who's Who" sketch is limited, of course, to the bare skeletons of men's lives and is worthless as a test of faith and gumption. One of the tragedies, indeed, in the public service since the loyalty program began in 1947 is the fact that loyalty and security risk cannot be proved by social analysis in a time when loyalty and safeness in matters of security are the great questions that overshadow other concerns in any consideration of public personnel. Of the main reasons for finding an employee a poor security risk—wrong political association, bad character, sexual deviation, excessive drinking, or talking too much—none can be measured by any objective standard. Guilt is a matter of degree, and the degree is a matter of opinion among security officers and others who are urged by their climate to be as suspicious as possible.

"This book focuses on what is arguably the most devastating phenomenon in the history of modern civilization, the COVID-19 pandemic. It shows how, on the one hand, the pandemic has exposed governments the world over to deal with a major health crisis; and, on the other, efforts by the ruling forces to enforce surveillance on people and disciplining them by maneuvering cutting-edge digital technology in the name of security and safety. Second, it explores how the mainstream versions of crisis communication and risk communication face huge challenges during a pandemic. Finally, it analyses how the pandemic propels an extraordinary expansion of infodemic - rapid spread of excessive quantities of misinformation and disinformation of the fake and false variety - and how social media in particular becomes its main tool in causing subversion of the prevalent information order. Engaging, comprehensive and accessible, this book will be of immense importance to scholars and researchers of politics, especially governance and political communication, communication studies, and public health management. It will be vital for public policy professionals, experts in thinktanks, career bureaucrats, and non-governmental organizations"--

The international political situation in the second half of the first decade of the 21st century offered greater opportunities than in the past for middle powers to have an impact on multilateral policy. With this in mind, the paper reviews three multilateral experiences Mexico was involved in over the 2006-2013 period: the initiative to create the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), its role on the UN Security Council, and hosting the 16th Conference of the Parties (COP 16). Analysis of these cases casts light on the potential and limitations of Mexico's foreign policy. Moreover, it enables evaluation of the significance of its multilateral action on the consolidation of its role as a middle power. Adapted from the source document.

"Basic income is an innovative, powerful egalitarian response to widening global inequalities and poverty experiences in society, one that runs counter to the neoliberal transformations of modern welfare states, social security, and labor market programs. This book is the first collective volume of its kind to ask whether a basic income offers a viable solution to the income support systems in Australia and New Zealand. Though often neglected in discussions of basic income, both countries are advanced liberal democracies dominated by neoliberal transformations of the welfare state, and therefore have great potential to advance debates on the topic. The contributors' essays and case studies explore the historical basis on which a basic income program might stand in these two countries, the ideological nuances and complexities of implementing such a policy, and ideas for future development that might allow the program to be put into practice regionally and applied internationally"--

This book provides a thorough introduction to and examination of agricultural value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa. First, the authors introduce the economic theory of agri-food value chains and value chain governance, focusing on domestic and regional trade in (and consumption of) food crops in a low-income country context. In addition to mainstream and heterodox thinking about value chain development, the book pays attention to political economy considerations. The book also reviews the empirical evidence on value chain development and performance in Africa. It adopts multiple lenses to examine agricultural value chains, zooming out from the micro level (e.g., relational contracting in a context of market imperfections) to the meso level (e.g., distributional implications of various value chain interventions, inclusion of specific social groups) and the macro level (underlying income, population and urbanization trends, volumes and prices, etc.).Furthermore, this book places value chain development in the context of a process the authors refer to as structural transformation 2.0, which refers to a process where production factors (labor, land and capital) move from low-productivity agriculture to high-productivity agriculture. Finally, throughout the book the authors interpret the evidence in light of three important debates: (i) how competitive are rural factor and product markets, and what does this imply for distribution and innovation? (ii) what role do foreign investment and factor proportions play in the development of agri-food value chains in Africa? (iii) what complementary government policies can help facilitate a process of agricultural value chain transformation, towards high-productive activities and enhancing the capacity of value chains to generate employment opportunities and food security for a growing population.

Abstract
The policing and security community globally is in a race against time to develop strategies for improving mental health well-being amongst the profession. For professionals across the multiple contributing areas supporting police officer well-being, i.e. medical practitioners, psychologists, management professionals, mentors, coaches, counsellors, understanding contributing factors from the experience, and perception of police officers is a critical contributing area of research (Baker et al., 2020; Deschênes et al., 2018. Psychosocial factors linked to the occupational psychological health of police officers: preliminary study. Cogent Psychology 5(1): 1426271; Purba and Demou, 2019. The relationship between organisational stressors and mental wellbeing within police officers: a systematic review. BMC Public Health 19(1): 1286) The aim of the study reported in this paper was to evaluate the influence of work factors of organizational rewards, job characteristics, and factors relating to working in a public service agency on an officer's perception of happiness. A survey was distributed to police officers in the Abu Dhabi police force, with an inferential analysis conducted to examine the relationships between work factors and levels of officer happiness. The findings identified employee perception of organizational rewards, job control, task significance, frequency of feedback, desire for helping others as primary reasons to work in the police, and opportunities available to help others in society were all predictors of police happiness. This article discusses specifically the employees' perception of rewards at work and job characteristics as determinants of happiness. The findings contributing to development of future organizational response for enhancing officer well-being and importantly inform in building resilience to mental health illness for police officers.

The unification of the two Yemeni states?the northern Yemen Arab Republic (YAR) and the southern People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY), respectively?in 1990 has been a resounding failure. Merging the tribal-dominated northern and state-party dominated southern regimes meant increasing the number of factions competing for access to state resources to satisfy material and security needs of their respective networks of influence. In particular, efforts at growing the resource base of the unified state after 1990, by means of an expansion of oil and gas exploration and extraction, raised the revenue base of the state in an unsustainable manner. Such growth in national oil and gas rents increased rather than decreased competition over state authority to control the spoils. The major subsequent events, such as the 1994 civil war, the 2004-2010 "Saada wars" against the Houthi movement, the Yemeni version of the "Arab Spring" in 2011, the failure of the National Dialogue Conference (March 2013-January 2014), and the start of the Saudi and Emirati bombing campaign and subsequent ground war in Yemen since March 2015 all triggered major clashes between different factions of the Yemeni state bureaucracy, army, and civil society. On each of these occasions, efforts to freeze out some Yemeni actors produced escalating conflict between the remaining factions instead of a winning coalition that could have reestablished a degree of stability. The article explains how local, regional, and global factors have jointly overwhelmed the Yemeni actors, and how foreign intervention has led to the further deterioration of the pre-existing national crisis.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to summarize the literature of electronic government frameworks and models to identify various constructs and their relationship to measure the performance of e-government projects.


Design/methodology/approach
In total, 77 publications were identified from Scopus database after using exclusion and inclusion criteria. A total of 136 constructs were mapped across five categories. Further using network science, communities of usage of these constructs across different studies were identified.


Findings
Dominant constructs used across studies were ease of use, usefulness, user satisfaction, infrastructure, website maturity, security, user trust, transparency, empowerment, operational efficiency, service quality and information quality. This review offers directions for future research in terms of potential for constructs, which have been explored lesser in the existing literature.


Research limitations/implications
The study provides direction for the usage of theoretical lenses, constructs and association among usage for the evaluation of e-government projects, which have been used less in existing literature, and thus, has higher needs for greater exploration. Search scope is limited to Scopus database, which is one of the largest citation database.


Practical implications
It gives information to the policymakers about the importance of the dominant constructs such as user satisfaction, usefulness, ease of use, efficiency and quality, which have been used across the spectrum of studies of e-government performance assessment frameworks and models. Practitioners need to accommodate the relevance of these factors while designing processes and key performance indicators.


Originality/value
This study analyzes the e-government assessment frameworks and gives direction to theory building for future studies.

Small states throughout the Asia-Pacific are confronted by a growing dilemma over how to balance their traditional security ties with the US and rapidly growing trade with China. This gives Washington and Beijing potential leverage over small states to use within their competition with one another. This article explores the implications of this for New Zealand – a small South Pacific state that prides itself on maintaining an independent foreign policy. Situated within the small state literature, it utilises a material-based strategic triangle to illustrate the fundamental facets of New Zealand's position. Relatedly, the article examines how Wellington has managed its burgeoning relations with China and the US over the past decade and critically considers New Zealand's independent foreign policy. It finds that New Zealand has adopted a mixed set of strategies to manage its position between the US and China, closely aligning itself with Washington while remaining nonaligned on some key security issues in the Asia-Pacific region. New Zealand has certainly not opted for neutrality. The article concludes that New Zealand and other small states must remain vigilant, may want to consider alternative strategies of alignment, and outlines a number of areas where additional research could prove fruitful. (Pac Rev/GIGA)

The paper theoretically substantiates and outlines the key areas of implementation of the gender approach in the public management of the educational process. In connection with the democratization of Ukrainian society and integration into the European educational space, the need to implement a number of international and domestic normative acts on gender equality issues, the role of the gender approach in education is growing as an effective means of implementing the principles of gender equality, which will contribute to the realization of the rights of each individual, activation its participation in economic, political, social and cultural development. The gender approach in education involves liberating the professional vision of the manager, teacher from gender-role stereotypes as specific and serious barriers to the perception of the individual, helps to focus attention on the real gifts and abilities of students regardless of gender. The main directions of the implementation of the gender approach in the management of the educational process are defined as the management of educational activities, during which students acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and abilities, on the basis of which they form their own values and attitudes; application by scientific and pedagogical workers in their professional activities of forms, methods and technologies of organizing the educational process, which would stimulate the development of creative, strategic thinking, leadership, and a sense of responsibility; taking into account the gender component in the management of educational institutions, which implies the observance of gender balance in the personnel policy of the institution and the system in general, the neutralization of gender stereotypes and prejudices. The need to conduct a gender audit of educational institutions in order to assess the state of ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men in educational institutions, identifying existing problems, as well as implementing gender competence to the standards of higher education has been proven.

The American model is considered to be one of the most developed systems of public administration. The United States is one of the most developed democracies in the world. It should be noted that the leading countries of socio-economic development have high sports results. In general, the interaction of different public administrations is the basis of an effective system of public administration in the United States, which is reflected in the relationship between public authorities, the private sector, local governments and public associations. The United States is one of the leaders in world sports. The amount of funding for sports in the United States is one of the largest in the world. It is important to note that the specifics of the public sports management system in the United States is its interaction with the private sector. Each state has its own specifics of sports policy-making, but they are all based on the commercialization of sports development processes. The article identifies priorities for the development of physical culture and sports, the effectiveness of such development, leading countries, analyzes the classical approaches to building public administration systems, conducted a retrospective analysis, which identified effective models of public management of physical culture and sports. Thus, in the United States, sport is a multiplier industry that affects the development of other sectors of the economy: trade, hotels and restaurants, tourism, infrastructure construction and more. The country is developing primarily professional sports, focused on results. Professional sports are a profitable business that operates under the laws of the open market. This allows you to attract additional investment and increase the achievements of athletes. It was determined that the American model is characterized by the development of sports as a business structure, which determines the increase in compliance of the results with the costs involved in the development of physical culture and sports.