Do We Value Our Cars More Than Our Kids? The Conundrum of Care for Children

Formal child care workers in the United States earn about $21,110 per year. Parking lot attendants, in contrast, make$21,250. These relative wages are telling: the market values the people who look after our cars more than the people who look after our kids. This article delves below the surface of these numbers to explore the systemic disadvantages of those who care for children—and children themselves. The article first illuminates the precarious economic position of U.S. children, a disproportionate number of whom live in poverty. The article then shows both that substantial care for children is provided on an unpaid basis in households, predominantly by women, and that care for children is undervalued when provided through the market. After presenting three distinct perspectives on market payments for care for children—(1) a public goods analysis, (2) a patriarchy analysis, and (3) a gift analysis— the article proposes a set of income tax breaks for jobs involving care for children

DIPL 6181 NA Statecraft: Designing Foreign Policy

This course is devoted to examining statecraft: the design of strategies to achieve foreign policy goals; the choice of policy instruments within these strategies; and an assessment of their relative utility in achieving national aims. The course is designed to introduce you to the subject-matter and to help you design a foreign policy strategy for a designated country. Throughout the semester you will simultaneously have to (1) read the assigned texts, (2) conduct research on foreign (and domestic) policy of an assigned state, and (3) gradually design a viable cost-effective strategy. In order to accomplish the task of designing a strategy we will devote the first part of each class to analyzing the assigned texts. The second part of the class will be devoted to applying what we learned in that class to your concrete case. Thus, you will not only have to closely read the assigned texts before each class but you will also have to know whether a specific goal is desirable/viable and whether a specific foreign policy tool is available and useful for achieving your country\u27s specific goal(s). I will assess your progress weekly because each week at least 30% of students will discuss their work, accomplishments as well as challenges. We will closely read two books. Terry Deibel\u27s book offers a blueprint for crafting foreign policy. It focuses on US foreign policy but the author\u27s model is applicable to other countries as well. Vijay Prashad\u27 s study analyzes the Global South\u27s post-World War II development strategies. It introduces the reader to South\u27s continuing attempts to make the global economic system more equitable and offers an explanation of the rise of the liberal international order. This course is designed to combine absorbing and applying knowledge. It is not too heavy on required readings because I expect you to think creatively and to conduct research on your assigned case study from week three (1/27). Throughout the course we will try to link the readings with contemporary events. Hence, students should keep informed about relevant current events by regularly following news. IPS News Agency (www.ipsnews.net ) has very good coverage of the Global South. English language newspapers like The New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian provide good coverage of international news. Guardian is a very good British newspaper and you can follow it for free at: http://www.theguardian.com. You may also want to watch news on the web or TV. BBC (UK), CNN International (USA), Al Jazeera (Qatar), CCTV (China), and Russia Today, provide good insight into current events. You will get a better insight if you follow news from different countries

DIPL 6181 NA Statecraft: Designing Foreign Policy

This course is devoted to examining statecraft: the design of strategies to achieve foreign policy goals; the choice of policy instruments within these strategies; and an assessment of their relative utility in achieving national aims. The course is designed to introduce you to the subject-matter and to help you design a foreign policy strategy for a designated country. Throughout the semester you will simultaneously have to (1) read the assigned texts, (2) conduct research on foreign (and domestic) policy of an assigned state, and (3) gradually design a viable cost-effective strategy. In order to accomplish the task of designing a strategy we will devote the first part of each class to analyzing the assigned texts. The second part of the class will be devoted to applying what we learned in that class to your concrete case. Thus, you will not only have to closely read the assigned texts before each class but you will also have to know whether a specific goal is desirable/viable and whether a specific foreign policy tool is available and useful for achieving your country’s specific goal(s). I will assess your progress weekly because each week at least 30% of students will discuss their work, accomplishments as well as challenges. We will closely read two books. Terry Deibel’s book offers a blueprint for crafting foreign policy. It focuses on US foreign policy but the author’s model is applicable to other countries as well. Vijay Prashad’s study analyzes the Global South’s post-World War II development strategies. It introduces the reader to South’s continuing attempts to make the global economic system more equitable and offers an explanation of the rise of the liberal international order

Beyond Bullets and Bombs: Fixing the U.S. Approach to Development in Pakistan

Explains the rationale for a clear U.S. strategy for Pakistan's development, ways to improve planning and implementation, and policy recommendations for supporting the private sector through trade and investment and targeting aid for long-term impact

Integrated Planning and Campaigning for Complex Problems

Shortfalls and inefficiencies in traditional planning and campaigning have become increasingly clear in the current hyperconnected security environment. US military planners can mitigate these deficiencies by embracing integrated planning and campaigning approaches including the development of new organizational structures and processes. These improvements will give senior leaders increased options as the US military and US Allies and partners address complex problems with better effect and to greater advantage

Hidden in plain sight? The human resource management practitioner's role in dealing with workplace conflict as a source of organisational–professional power

This article examines the perceived importance of human resource (HR) practitioners' role as ‘organisational professionals’ at national and organisational levels. Informed by institutionalist theory and drawing upon interviews at national and organisational levels, a dissonance is identified in the degree to where HR's non-substitutable expertise lies. It is concluded that HR's role in dealing with workplace conflict is under-recognised at national level as it does not fit with the proactive ‘strategic’ narrative seen to be what HR needs to achieve to be influential. At organisational level, however, conflict management is a source of power because, unlike many other HR roles—valued as they may be—conflict management is the role that can least be substituted by non-specialist HR practitioners because of its unpredictability

A National Security Staff for the 21st Century

View the Executive SummaryOur legacy 1947/1989 national security system is unsuited for the dynamic and complex global security environment that has developed since the end of the Cold War. Over time, the National Security Council has evolved from the very limited advisory group initially imagined by President Truman to that of a vast network of interagency groups that were developed since 1989. These interagency groups view themselves as deeply involved in integrating policy development, crisis management, and staffing for the President. However, the National Security Staff (NSS) and the national security system are relics of the industrial age—vertical stovepipes—in an age that demands that the management of the national security system be conducted at the strategic level. What is required is a true national security strategy based on ends, ways, and means; the alignment of resources with integrated national security missions; and the assessment and accountability of management functions that should be performed by a properly resourced NSS unburdened from the urgency of the 24/7 news cycle. The President’s National Security Strategy of May 2010 calls for reform in many of these areas. Section 1072 of the 2012 Defense Authorization Act calls upon the President to outline the changes and resources that are needed in both the executive branch and in Congress to implement his national security strategy. The President’s response to this legislative mandate can and should be the first step in a strategic partnership for transforming our national security system, in both the executive branch and the Congress, to that of a system that can meet and anticipate the challenges and opportunities for ensuring our security and well-being.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1535/thumbnail.jp

Information Sciences Department Newsletter / Volume 9, Issue 1 - 2, October - March AY 2014

Includes publications, articles and books by the Information Sciences Department at the Naval Postgraduate School. Sponsor: Dan Boger, Editor: Mark Nisse

The Promise and Pitfalls of Grand Strategy

What is “grand strategy,” and why is it seemingly so important and so difficult? This monograph explores the concept of grand strategy as it has developed over the past several decades. It explains why the concept is so ubiquitous in discussions of present-day foreign policy, examines why American officials often find the formulation of a successful grand strategy to be such an exacting task, and explores the ways in which having a grand strategy can be both useful and problematic. It illustrates these points via an analysis of two key periods in modern American grand strategy—the Truman years at the outset of the Cold War, and the Nixon-Kissinger years in the late 1960s and 1970s—and provides several suggestions for how U.S. officials might approach the challenges of grand strategy in the 21st century.https://press.armywarcollege.edu/monographs/1547/thumbnail.jp

CLARIFYING RESILIENCE IN THE CONTEXT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

CHDS State/LocalThe term resilience is frequently used in the context of homeland security. The definition continues to emerge within the evolving homeland security enterprise. The purpose of this thesis is to clarify the concept of resilience in the context of homeland security. Existing homeland security polices of the federal government of the United States were synthesized with resilience-based research obtained from various sciences. The synthesis of research and policy concluded that resilience is a process of adaptability influenced by complexity, interaction, and experience. In the homeland security context, resilience is a continual process of adaptation based upon a variety of man made, natural, and economic adversities. Resilience is a vision of homeland security rather than a policy of the enterprise. The homeland security practitioners understanding of resilience is influenced through the clarification, introduction, and application of the concept. Developing a clear understanding of resilience is accomplished through the development of a resilience narrative for the enterprise, the introduction of the concept into new and existing training programs of the homeland security enterprise, and the application of the concept as an approach of the enterprise. The exploration of the homeland security enterprise at the academic and practitioner level requires a directional heading. The concept of resilience recommended by this thesis establishes a directional heading for the homeland security practitioner.http://archive.org/details/clarifyingresili1094532872Preparedness Section Chief, Louisiana-Governor_s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, Baton Rouge, Louisian