The participation of small states at the Summer Olympic Games

Despite having gone through a marathon 18 days full of events against all odds due to the pandemic, the glamour of the Summer Olympic Games lived on as the entire world got together in a true show of force and unity with athletes battling it out to the least shot, millimetre and point to return back home as Olympic heroes. The starting lists and medals’ table have, as in previous editions, served as an ideal platform for the traditional powerhouses in world sport to further demonstrate their dominance with a few surprises making the headlines from time to time.peer-reviewe

A comparative assessment of the role of energy in Qatar's East Asian foreign relations: case studies on China, Japan and South Korea

Energy is an important factor in international relations and recently the global energy paradigm has been seen to be shifting towards the East. In light of such change, a comparative assessment of the role of energy in Qatar’ East Asian foreign relations will be conducted by taking China, Japan and South Korea as case studies. The research aimed to assess each of the bilateral relationship in terms of their origin and development in the energy sector generating an interpretation of their growing interdependence, taking into consideration the various domestic, regional and international influencing factors. At this level, LNG development and trade was adopted to see the extent of energy cooperation. In general, energy cooperation played the leading role in the three relationships, but to different degrees. Furthermore, all three bilateral relationship pertain to the ‘complex interdependence approach’ that is supported by the use of institutionalism and soft power

Energy security and Chinese influence in Kazakhstan

Energy security has been for decades one of the most important issues for the world economy. Since the 1970s, the supply of energy has meant a sure basis for the economic development of a country, it does not matter whether the country was an exporter or an importer. This problem is paramount for those countries that must sustain a huge economy like China, but it is likewise important for those countries that based their export sector -and their economies- on an energy resource. Oil is the energy resources of this dissertation -and to be more precise, crude oil- that represents the first good exported by Kazakhstan, the second country analyzed in this work. What I analyze are the relations in the oil sector between these two countries in the period 2014-2018. This period is crucial for the history of China because represents the first five years of the Belt and Road Initiative and the moment during the Kazakh economy was tested by the fall of the oil prices and the action of the Chinese oil firm in its own oil assets. My research question is: in a situation of economic asymmetry between two countries trading energy resource -one with a strong developed economy and one with a weak national economy based on the export of natural resource- will the importer country with the stronger economy able to increase its power over the exporter country? The answer to this question is negative, because despite the economic asymmetry between two countries, if the exporting country bases its economy on the natural resource traded, an importing country will meet resistance from the exporting country and will not be able to increase its power over it. To verify this hypothesis, I will apply the Asymmetry Theory theorized by Brantley Womack. This theory has been used to analyze the relations between China and Vietnam, and this application to the relations between China and Kazakhstan represents a novelty. To each of the key concepts -energy security, power, and multi-vector policy- is dedicated a deep analysis.https://www.ester.ee/record=b5380279*es

Global sporting performance of nations - A method for measuring the level of national sport's policies

[But de la recherche et questions] Cette étude vise à donner aux organisations nationales sportives dirigeantes des conseils approuvés et reconnus afin qu’elles puissent assurer leur gestion avec succès et obtenir un outil de mesure pour améliorer niveau de performance. Les questions de recherches (RQ) cherchent à atteindre cet objectif: RQ 1. Comment mesure-t-on les performances sportives des nations? et RQ 2. Comment les performances nationales des sports sont-elles mesurées? Les études 1 et 2 sont construites de façon à répondre respectivement aux RQ 1. et RQ. 2. [Etude 1] L’analyse de la littérature a conduit à comprendre le système sportif actuel, les aspects fondamentaux du succès des sports nationaux, et les conseils théoriques pour créer des critères et extraire des indicateurs. L’échantillonnage en boule de neige est employé afin de composer un panel d’experts et les entretiens semi-directifs sont mis en place avec la méthode Delphi. La Structure Durable du Système Sportif (SSOSS), le cadre compréhensif du système sportif, est développé depuis peu et l’Index de la Structure Durable du Système Sportif (ISSOSS) est établit sur ce fondement solide comme outil de mesure du degré de gestion sportive. [Etude 2] La révision de la littérature est centrée sur la compétitivité et l’attractivité pour comprendre les performances des nations. Les résultats des Objectifs du millénaire pour le développement (MDGs), publié par l’ONU, sont analysés en niveaux et appliqués aux 24 pays d’accueil des Jeux Olympiques. Utilisés pour voir le degré de développement des nations dans l’aide aux sports supprimer puissante. [Résultat Application] La performance sportive globale des nations (GSPN) est proposée en combinant l’ISSOSS (Etude 1) et l’analyse du MDGs (Etude 2). Ceci est appliqué à la Corée du Sud et à la Suisse pour évaluer et comparer l’état et la visibilité du niveau de gestion des sports dans chaque pays. [Implications et Contributions] Les implications et les contributions des aspects théoriques et pratiques sont considérées cela peut être supprimer (2 par 2). Les limites et les directions de futures recherches sont données à la fin. ABSTRACT [Research purpose and questions] This study is designed to let national sports governing bodies have a globally acknowledged guideline to achieve their management success and secure a measurable tool to upgrade the degree of performance. The research questions (RQ) are followed to attain the aim: RQ 1. How is the sporting performance of nations measured? And RQ 2. How is the nations' performance for sports measured? Study 1 and Study 2 are constructed to answer the RQ 1 and RQ 2 respectively. [Study 1] The literature analysis is conducted to comprehend the current sports system, the fundamental aspects of national sports success, and the theoretical guidelines for creating criteria and extracting indicators. The Snowball sampling is employed to compose the panel of experts, and the semi-structured interviews are performed with the Delphi method. The Sustainable Structure of Sports System (SSOSS), the comprehensive framework of sports galaxy, is newly developed and the Index for Sustainable Structure of Sports System (ISSOSS) is established on that sound foundation as a tool for measuring the degree of sports management. [Study 2] The literature review is carried out with a focus on competitiveness and attractiveness to understand the nations' performance. The results of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), published by the United Nations, are analysed in levels and applied to 24 Olympic host countries. It is employed to see the degree of nations' development for supporting sports under the dominant method of the Evidence-Based Management. [Result and Application] The Global Sporting Performance of Nations (GSPN) is invented by combining the ISSOSS (Study 1) and the analysed MDGs (Study 2). It is applied to the Republic of Korea and Switzerland to evaluate the degree of their sports management state and visibly compare each other. [Implications and Contributions] The implications and contributions of both academic and practical aspects are considered order (2 by 2). The limitations and the directions for future research are provided at the end

Establishing a World Anti-Doping Code: WADA\u27s impact on the development of an international strategy for anti-doping in sport.

The use and prevalence of performance enhancing drugs is not unique to modern sport. Reports of athletes striving to improve their physical abilities date back to third century BCE. Endeavoring to address the growing problem of doping in sport, WADA was created in 1999. This study evaluated how the formation of WADA impacted the development of an international strategy for anti-doping in sport. Conclusions were reached through the analysis of three primary sources of data: personal and organizational archives; media articles; and exploratory interviews. As revealed by the data, the formation of WADA brought together the necessary players to reach a solution for doping in sport. It provided a forum for sport and government to work co-operatively generating ideas and focusing thinking. It led to an awakening within government and sport to the complexities of doping; and it embodied an independent/credible organization while raising/maintaining global awareness and interest in doping. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2006 .J46. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-01, page: 0306. Thesis (M.H.K.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2006

Cities as command and control centres of the world economy: An empirical analysis, 2006-2015

As a result of their rapid economic growth, several powerful corporate giants have emerged in developing countries, especially in China, operating not only in the traditional manufacturing sector, but also in high-tech industries and finance. Major cities in developing countries have gradually become important command and control centres of the global economy, and have also become powerful enough to be in the same tier as major cities of developed countries around the world. In this paper, I examine the position of cities as command and control centres on the basis of the power of their headquartered corporations. The result shows that until 2012, New York, London, Tokyo, and Paris; i.e., the global cities, were the leading command and control centres. However, the gap between these global cities and Beijing gradually closed, and by 2015, the Chinese capital outranked all the global cities. The outstanding performance of Beijing-based corporations that operate in financial, energy, and construction services sectors is the driving force behind Beijing’s increasing global power. In addition, the leading position of the global cities as command and control centres has been threatened by the San Francisco-San Jose metropolitan region, a newly emerging economic hub in the United States

Olympic singularity: the rise of a new breed of actor in international peace and security?

The Olympic Movement has a constantly expanding mandate which has seen it venture into many fields other than simple staging of the Olympic Games. For example, it has extended its mandate into the equal representation of women in sport, but more importantly, this thesis examines its new mandate of building peace through sport, which is contained in the Olympic Charter’s 2nd Fundamental Principle of Olympism. It has also indirectly influenced the production of the UNGA Olympic Truce Resolutions, by calling on the UN to revive the ‘concept of ekecheiria’. However, the Olympic Truce Resolutions are frequently flouted, and more often than not, by the Host Nation itself, including the UK and the USA in recent years. This thesis examines a possible solution to this failing, which is the Olympic Truce Resolutions codification into a binding Treaty where states and the entire Movement are party to it. This thesis recognises that there is the inherent problem in this, in that the Olympic Movement is not comprised of states. Its core actors are the International Olympic Committee, National Olympic Committees, and International Sporting Federations (and to a lesser extent OCOGs). Hence this thesis submits the novel concept of Olympic Singularity, eight unusual features that amplify the EU doctrine of the specificity of sport on the Olympic playing field. These eight cumulative features unite to allow the Movement to be co-signatories to the Truce Treaty, alongside states. It also enables the Movement to govern the Truce Treaty and any sanctions thereof. Again, this is because of the features of Olympic Singularity, the most notable of which is that the Movement is unusual because of its universal singular webbed framework which necessitates its consideration as a single powerful organ capable of action on the international stage equivalent to states. Olympic Singularity justifies the Movement’s special treatment before law, in the form of an atypical international law subject, in that it unites independent actors into one organ, enabling them to have capacity on a par with those reserved to states and international governmental organisations. This would only take the form of governing and sanctioning a Truce Treaty. This thesis examines precedent for this in that the ancient Olympic Games were governed by a single state who dispensed real sanctions for the breach of ekecheiria. It also examines in a case study, South Africa which shows that the end of apartheid was assisted by the UN and the Movement uniting and using sport by way of a binding international Treaty, ICAAS 1985. Hence the capacity of the state system was required alongside the recognition of all involved that it was a Treaty

Sustainability of the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics

The main aim of this study is to investigate how to deliver a sustainable legacy from the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games. The research sets forth to look into the case of the 2018 Olympics compared to SMEs held in other states. The overall goal of this research is to find the ideal model for the sustainable legacy, which could be adopted after hosting the SME in Korea. The three research questions of the study are: 1) What legacy strategies did the two previous Olympics in Vancouver and London use to develop sustainability?; 2) What are the discrepancies in the plan for a sustainable legacy of the PyeongChang Olympics between the bid proposal and actual realisation? Why? and 3) What are the factors to consider for sustainable post-SME legacy in Korea?. To answer the research questions, the specific methods used to collect the data are semistructure interviews and document analysis; 10 interviews were conducted with various stakeholder of PyeongChang Olympic Games. In addition, multiple case studies are employed as a triangulation technique to enhance the reliability and validation of this study. There are three cases: the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, the 2012 London Summer Olympic Games and the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games. The data collection identified all factors of the sustainability of the last three Olympics were aggregated to establish a new sustainable legacy strategy for potential sports megaevents in Korea in terms of Triple Bottom Line framework: 1) definite plans with stakeholder consultation in advance for economic, social and environmental sustainability; 2) active communication among stakeholders related to sports mega-events for economic and social sustainability; 3) efficient governance for sports events for economic, social and environmental sustainability and 4) strict management and regulation for environmental legacy for environmental sustainability

Energy-Efficient GPU Clusters Scheduling for Deep Learning

Training deep neural networks (DNNs) is a major workload in datacenters today, resulting in a tremendously fast growth of energy consumption. It is important to reduce the energy consumption while completing the DL training jobs early in data centers. In this paper, we propose PowerFlow, a GPU clusters scheduler that reduces the average Job Completion Time (JCT) under an energy budget. We first present performance models for DL training jobs to predict the throughput and energy consumption performance with different configurations. Based on the performance models, PowerFlow dynamically allocates GPUs and adjusts the GPU-level or job-level configurations of DL training jobs. PowerFlow applies network packing and buddy allocation to job placement, thus avoiding extra energy consumed by cluster fragmentations. Evaluation results show that under the same energy consumption, PowerFlow improves the average JCT by 1.57 - 3.39 x at most, compared to competitive baselines