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A yearlong nightmare for the European Monetary System (EMS) began in September 1992. Amid name–calling, finger–pointing, and hand–wringing, the British pound and the Italian lira dropped out of the Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM). In succeeding months, virtually every other ERM currency came under attack.1 Three of them—the Spanish peseta, the Portuguese escudo, and the Irish punt—devalued within the system. Three others—the French franc, the Belgian franc, and the Danish krone—avoided devaluation, but only at the price of recurrent and costly rounds of intervention by multiple central banks. Finally, in August 1993, the defenders of the parities surrendered. The twelve EMS countries agreed to expand the fluctuation margins from 2.25 per cent on either side of parity (6 per cent for Spain, Portugal and the UK) to 15 per cent on either side of parity. The wider margins eliminated the potential for speculative attacks, but left the system only the thinnest veneer of exchange rate coordination. This article seeks not to assess the causes of the crisis but rather to explain why the EMS governments did not defuse it with a realignment—the mechanism built into the ERM for precisely such occasions.

The subject of nonverbal communication, or signalling, as it is usually called, between states, has received some attention in the literature in the past, usually within the context of conflict or crisis studies. John W. Burton argues that 'military smoke signals' are used by parties to conflict when direct communication is ruled out. James Cable, in a study of gunboat diplomacy, suggests that displays of naval power can perform the 'expressive function' of emphasizing attitudes, lending verisimilitude to otherwise unconvincing statements or providing an outlet for emotion. Specific examples of nonverbal signalling are common: among others Charles McClelland describes its use in the Berlin and Quemoy crises; Coral Bell shows how the superpowers have developed the mechanism to a fine degree of sophistication.

Vietnam is one of the main developing countries experiencing rapid growth in East Asia. As part of ASEAN and strategically located near China and the Mekong region, Vietnam is considered a leading market between Asian and South Asian countries. Its fiscal system has recently been reformed in order to better align rules with the country's economic development. Vietnam grants tax incentives and fiscal holidays to foreign investors and has concluded a significant number of double taxation treaties with other nations. This book describes in detail Vietnam's complex tax system and policies, as well as major bilateral treaties in which Vietnam has entered into using country-by-country analysis. Lorenzo Riccardi is a Tax Advisor and Certified Public Accountant specializing in international taxation. He is based in Shanghai, where he focuses on business and tax law, assisting those looking to make foreign investments in East Asia. He is an auditor and an advisor for several corporate groups and a partner and Head of Tax of the consulting firm GWA, specializing in emerging markets

"This study uses panel data describing about 6,500 employees in a large international company to study the incentive effects of performance related pay. The company uses two performance related remuneration mechanisms. One is an individual "surprise" bonus payment. The other is a more structured system, where part of the salary is determined by individual performance evaluations. We hypothesize that effort is higher in departments where (i) performance evaluation results are more spread out, (ii) person-specific performance evaluations are more flexible over time, (iii) surprise bonuses are used more frequently. These hypotheses are tested using days of absence and overtime work as effort indicators. The tests yield that hypotheses (ii) and (iii) are supported, and that (i) cannot be tested reliably due to possible simultaneity bias in our data. We investigate and confirm the robustness of these findings. They suggest that surprise bonus payments and flexibility in the evaluation of individual performances over time provide effective incentives for employee effort"--Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit web site

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYContext: The March 24, 2013, seizing of power by a coalition of rebels (Séléka) triggered a political and security crisis that resulted in a sharp contraction of economic activity, budgetary pressures, widespread destruction of administrative and economic infrastructures, a paralysis of the public administration, intercommunity conflicts, and a major humanitarian crisis. The new transitional government in place since the beginning of 2014 is facing significant challenges, including restoring security, reviving economic activity, and rebuilding the democratic process. As

ABSTRACTIn the discourse of business and global corporations, the study of ethics in business and globalcorporations are rarely found. Hence, this paper will discuss the ethics in business and globalcorporations. This paper firstly examines the theories and conceptual backrounds of ethics inthe discipline of International Relations. Then the paper starts to discuss the business ethics interms of international political economy. Authors found that the discourse of ethics in businessand global corporations could be examined through three paths. They are ethics and CSR,ethics and global governance, and also ethics and the new millennium. Last, the paperconcludes that business ethics are important. They are vital because the operations and thebehaviors of the global corporations reflect their business and economical interests.Keywords: The Ethics, Business and Global Corporations, International Political Economy,CSR, Global Governance, and The New Milenium.

"This book provides an alternative perspective on how social interest-groups form and interact to affect interventions. It combines historic, sociological and international relations perspectives in a framework through which to view the relevant socio-political dynamics in 'target societies'. At a time when American foreign policy seeks to redefine its objectives and its methods of intervention, the monolithic ideological assumptions of the state as the panacea to all social ailments, both as a format and a vehicle of norm delivery, seemingly dooms American foreign policy and European allies, to the repetition of old mistakes. In environments where interests and priorities are shaped on a highly localised basis, interventionist agendas often lack relevant meaning. The book focuses in particular on the contrast between the assumptions inherent in 'Western' interventionist strategies and social interest formation in Afghanistan, Somaliland, and Somalia. Based on extensive fieldwork, the book draws on available literature and on interviews with local population or international aid and development workers. The conclusion is that in the cases examined, the agency of local interest groups largely controls the outcome of external strategies. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of US Foreign Policy, International Relations and Security Studies"--