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The article engages in a critical reading of the political pattern of Sino-Sri Lankan bilateral engagement. China offers an alternate global order for Sri Lanka by underscoring political discourses like "harmonious world" and "building a community with a shared destiny or future for mankind." Through these discourses, China attempts to present a "fair and equitable" international system to small states such as Sri Lanka to mobilize them against the universalization of the liberal order. This is part of China's goal to challenge the universalization of liberal values to indicate the Chinese economic and political model as aspirational for developing countries. However, it culminates as the "hegemony of harmony," as China dictates the terms to protect its national interests, dissimulating cultural relativism and exceptionalism as the foundation of the Chinese-led global order. This article employs historical and descriptive analysis to explain the political nature of Sino-Sri Lankan engagement, elucidating China's specific strategies to harmonize Sri Lanka.

Dans la Turquie post-2016, les universitaires révoqué·es de leurs postes à cause de leur participation à la pétition « pour la paix » tentent de poursuivre leur métier d'enseignant-chercheur dans des instances alternatives d'enseignement et de recherche, désignées sous le nom d'« académies de solidarités ». Dans ce contexte de fortes contraintes politiques, comment parviennent-ils et elles à reconstituer une communauté scientifique en dehors des institutions publiques ? Avec l'internationalisation de la résistance qui se développe en réaction aux dispositifs autoritaires du régime actuel, le champ académique turc connaît une division entre un espace officiel et un espace alternatif. Ce dernier présente les caractéristiques d'un sous-champ transnational en voie de constitution, à l'intersection de l'espace des organisations internationales et du champ scientifique. Si l'internationalisation apparaît comme indispensable pour produire des connaissances critiques sur le territoire national, de nouvelles contraintes se font jour à cette échelle, d'ordre économique et politique. Au final, c'est l'ensemble des modes d'investissement dans la production scientifique qui sont ainsi reconfigurés, tout comme les principes d'opposition qui structurent le champ académique.

Purpose
The reality of emergency preparedness for older adults has not been quite satisfactory in many regions. This paper aimed to study how to improve emergency preparedness for older adults in the viewpoint of emergency culture.


Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review was used to contrast internationally voiced emergency preparedness (i.e. the principles of emergency preparedness) with culturally adapted emergency preparedness (e.g. values, games, arts, outdoor activities, etc.) via international organizations in both developing and developed countries. For data flow, the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses was also used in a supplementary way.


Findings
An encompassing tenet states that all stakeholders need to divert the internationally voiced emergency preparedness into culturally adapted emergency preparedness while addressing the effects of culture, self-preparedness, integration, diversity, tailored intervention, etc.


Originality/value
This paper has probed into the frame of emergency preparedness for older adults more comprehensively than the previous literature. In doing so, the aspect of emergency culture has been much supported.

AbstractThe International Monetary Fund's Articles of Agreement give countries wide latitude to regulate cross-border capital movements, subject mainly to the proviso that such regulations not be used to manipulate the exchange rate for the purpose of gaining an unfair competitive advantage. Beginning from the 1990s, however, the IMF has seemed far more supportive of fully open capital accounts than its legal framework. This can be seen not only in the institutional push to amend the Articles to enshrine fully open capital accounts in the mid-1990s, but also in subsequent speeches by IMF managing directors impugning capital controls and recent attempts to codify a set of highly restrictive circumstances under which countries may avail themselves of external financial regulations. This history suggests that, institutionally, the IMF would be far more comfortable with an architecture in which countries (strive to) eliminate restrictions on cross-border capital movements than with the vision of capital controls enshrined in its constitution by the IMF's founding fathers, Keynes and White.

Early internationalization and success in foreign markets play an important role in both a firm's growth and its impact on the global economy. We conducted a study on Japanese high-tech startups to investigate the factors that derive early internationalization in firms founded in countries with a large domestic market, despite the absence of strong incentives to operate overseas. Quantitative data were collected from 71 startups and analyzed with PLS-SEM (Partial least squares path modeling). Our result showed that the factors we extracted from the previous studies on the internationalization process in small-size markets would also apply in countries with large domestic markets. In addition, considerations and the types of technology, which we extracted from qualitative research, verified the effect. According to our mediator analysis, an entrepreneur's international orientation explains certain conditions related to a domestic market that affect a firms' decision to pursue early internationalization. Our study makes contributions at multiple levels, benefiting entrepreneurs who are considering overseas expansion as well as policymakers who aim to promote early internationalization efforts.

À la suite d'une projection de l'évolution de la population québécoise d'origine ethnique française couvrant huit décennies (1971-2050), l'auteur examine plus particulièrement les résultats obtenus par M. Charles Gaudreault pour la période rétrospective 1971-2014. À partir de ce que nous connaissons sur notre passé démographique récent, concernant notamment l'immigration internationale et la fécondité, il s'avère que Charles Gaudreault a nettement surestimé (de près de 40 %) la croissance de la population immigrée, de ses enfants et de ses descendants, et sous-estimé (de près de 7 %) la majorité d'origine ethnique française. Mystifié par une « loi de puissance » qui ne tient nul compte de la structure par âge de la population, M. Gaudreault a cru faire la démonstration que le déclin des Canadiens français ne s'expliquerait que par une « immigration de masse ». À l'aide des projections démographiques de l'Institut de la statistique du Québec, l'auteur de cette note critique démontre qu'il n'en est rien, bien que par ailleurs notre fécondité demeure insuffisante pour assurer le remplacement des générations.

The structured inequalities built into our sociotechnical institutions shape access to knowledge. During the COVID-19 pandemic, knowledge acquisition was shaped by news sources, class, and race. Through analysis of nationally representative data using logistic models, this study reveals how the use of different news sources differentially shapes access to accurate knowledge about COVID-19 topics for different demographics. Those who rely on informal and local news sources have the largest knowledge gaps about these topics, while those who seek information from national or international news outlets and politicians have the most accurate knowledge. Race and class influence knowledge of government operations, public health, and science of COVID-19. In particular, Black people, people with less education, and those with lower incomes are significantly less likely to have accurate knowledge about COVID-19, all else equal. These findings have implications for knowledge dissemination that impacts public health, as well as for how news media target different audiences in an increasingly fractured landscape.

AbstractThis article argues that the COVID‐19 pandemic has incited the collision of norms in sectoral European Union (EU) governance and provided an open juncture for the European Commission to engage in norm reconfiguration. Herewith, the paper expands the conceptual scope of EU‐related norm research, which by focussing on the diffusion of norms within and beyond the EU has largely omitted dynamic perspectives on norms so far. We combine International Relations norm research with EU governance literature to scrutinise the normative underpinnings of the immediate crisis response within Commission sectoral strategies and working programs. Empirically, the paper focuses on the higher education and transport sectors, which have been particularly impacted by the COVID‐19 crisis and targeted by the EU crisis response. The interpretative‐qualitative analysis uncovers COVID‐19‐related collisions within the ideational constellation of EU governance and shows that the European Commission has engaged in different reconfiguration practices, potentially altering the norm constellation in the investigated sectoral governance areas.

The present work continues the previous article published in the International Journal of Energy (Elsevier, 2019). Our previous study aimed to develop a new and innovative method based on neural network algorithms to predict an instantaneous command. A new control strategy for photovoltaic systems was presented in [1]. This command is based on the neuronal network (NN) technique. To the best of our knowledge, this technique has never been used in this field for that objective. The authors of this work used it to synthesize control laws for electronic power converters.It should be noted that the newly designed algorithm based on neural networks is expected to be more robust with a good performance concerning tracking speed and precision. Moreover, the present research work aims at providing a robust neural structure against noisy empirical data, thus allowing the prediction of a new command. Indeed, in the present work, we will examine the parameters affecting four MPPT controls in addition to the new neural network-based algorithm developed in [1].

AbstractMany consider research and development (R&D) a crucial pillar of decarbonization, yet few have investigated what actually drives investment. What drives public investment in renewable energy R&D in wealthy democracies? Using OECD data, this research note tests a number of hypotheses from the literature and finds that public investment in renewable energy R&D is most closely associated with growth regimes and their related characteristics. Furthermore, the 'most invested' are dynamic services export‐led growth regimes who are deindustrializing and moving towards knowledge‐based sectors like information and communications technology and finance. In short, economies investing the most in renewable energy R&D have the least structurally carbon‐intensive growth regime. As international economic integration locks many countries into specific path‐dependent roles, these findings suggest that there is a comparative advantage to the green transition. It concludes with a discussion of the asymmetric green capacities between core and periphery countries in the European Union.

AbstractThe Russian aggression against Ukraine has unleashed new fears of a nuclear war and also due to direct and indirect threats by the Russian side. As a consequence, it seems appropriate to re‐open the debate about the legality of the threat or use of nuclear weapons, a debate led to somewhat inconclusive results by the ICJ Opinion of 1996 on the 'Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons'. If some elements of rationality are left in this war, nuclear weapons will not be employed in Ukraine. The major casualty of this rhetoric could, however, be the far‐reaching de‐legitimisation of nuclear warfare achieved in the past. Therefore, the time has come to re‐examine the ICJ assessments of 1996 and to take a clearer stance in this regard which should be more appropriate as to the exigencies of modern international society. It is argued here that now the ICJ would come to different conclusions if seized again with the same questions as in 1996.

Internationalization of doctoral study means more doctoral writers working across language and cultural borderlands. How can their access to a self-reliant understanding of English language be enabled? How can they acquire the confidence to find their textual voice? How can academics supporting these writers help them to adapt to western cultures of thinking, learning, and communicating? Behind this article sits an extensive investigation into how to support international doctoral candidates to make such crossings pleasurably: eight doctoral candidates from across disciplines at the University of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand, collectively close-read literary items, and Banksy's street art. The purpose was to deepen understanding of argumentation, critical analysis, rhetoric that persuades, voice and creative positioning. Two interactive classroom sessions used Banksy's street art to promote creative thinking about powerful communication. Here, we explain how Banksy's graffiti gave a good foundation for the development of analytical skill, socio-political confidence, and cultural learning—and doctoral participants found the courage to be more creative thinkers and thesis writers.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, science has been prominently featured in institutional communication and political agendas as never before. Governments substantially relied on scientific experts to analyze pandemic trends, develop anti-COVID-19 vaccines and adopt containment strategies. In this paper, we analyze speeches by three political leaders–Boris Johnson (Prime Minister, UK), Sergio Mattarella (President of the Republic, Italy), and Ursula von der Leyen (President, European Commission)–between February 20, 2020, and February 20, 2022, to identify how science was addressed and framed. The results of the quantitative and qualitative exploration of the speeches highlight three main ways in which political leaders view science: a national pride narrative–i.e., science as an instrument and indicator of national pride and international standing of the country; an ethical narrative–i.e., science as an agent of social growth; an integration narrative–i.e., science as a driving force of both European integration and stronger collaboration between knowledge production and industry. The predominant narrative varies in relation to the political leaders' different institutional contexts and roles.

This paper attempts to explain the middle-income trap from the lens of an amended world-systems theory, in which capitalists within the semi-periphery are taken into account. It rejects that developing countries should pursue an import-substitution industrialization strategy, and instead argues developing countries should pursue a strategy similar to South Korea's. An export-oriented industrialization strategy, with tight limits on foreign direct investment (FDI) and multinational corporations (MNCs) operating within the economy, building up state capacity in order to form a close collaborative, not corrupting relationship between private businesses and the state, and calls for heavy investments in human capital and industrial upgrading. This would ensure that surplus value does not leave the country nor does it lay idle in the hands of domestic capitalists. It also calls for changes to the global economic governance regime, such as common rules for FDI and taxes on MNCs, on the part of developing countries in order to create a more development friendly international economic system.

European defence cooperation is one of the projects with a specific dynamism demonstrated in recent years through concrete initiatives with a certain multidisciplinary character. In this context, how European armaments cooperation supports the political objectives of sustaining an enhanced EU profile in the field of crisis management has been a priority. The practical reflection of this approach is related with a temporal perspective whose initial landmarks are set in the immediate post-Second World War. The development process evolved towards a European model of armaments cooperation based on two typologies. Firstly, they aim at associating armaments cooperation to the institutional framework of international organizations, as is the case with the Western European Union, NATO and the European Union. In addition, there are formulas of cooperation between European states developed outside the EU or NATO framework. Recent achievements indicate the feasibility of this solution, which also reflects the progress made in the overall process of developing the EU's profile and contribution as a relevant actor in the security context.