Business in the World of Water

The book aims to: 1) clarify and enhance understanding by business of the key issues and drivers of change related to water; 2) promote mutual understanding between the business community and non-business stakeholders on water management issues; and 3) support effective business action as part of the solution to sustainable water management. The report poses three scenarios about the possible future of water in 2025 which serve as catalysts for exploration into how businesses can contribute to sustainable water management

The Mobile Generation: Global Transformations at the Cellular Level

Every year we see a new dimension of the ongoing Digital Revolution, which is enabling an abundance of information to move faster, cheaper, in more intelligible forms, in more directions, and across borders of every kind. The exciting new dimension on which the Aspen Institute focused its 2006 Roundtable on Information Technology was mobility, which is making the Digital Revolution ubiquitous. As of this writing, there are over two billion wireless subscribers worldwide and that number is growing rapidly. People are constantly innovating in the use of mobile technologies to allow them to be more interconnected. Almost a half century ago, Ralph Lee Smith conjured up "The Wired Nation," foretelling a world of interactive communication to and from the home that seems commonplace in developed countries today. Now we have a "Wireless World" of communications potentially connecting two billion people to each other with interactive personal communications devices. Widespead adoption of wireless handsets, the increasing use of wireless internet, and the new, on-the-go content that characterizes the new generation of users are changing behaviors in social, political and economic spheres. The devices are easy to use, pervasive and personal. The affordable cell phone has the potential to break down the barriers of poverty and accessibility previously posed by other communications devices. An entire generation that is dependant on ubiquitous mobile technologies is changing the way it works, plays and thinks. Businesses, governments, educational institutions, religious and other organizations in turn are adapting to reach out to this mobile generation via wireless technologies -- from SMS-enabled vending machines in Finland to tech-savvy priests in India willing to conduct prayers transmitted via cell phones. Cellular devices are providing developing economies with opportunities unlike any others previously available. By opening the lines of communication, previously disenfranchised groups can have access to information relating to markets, economic opportunities, jobs, and weather to name just a few. When poor village farmers from Bangladesh can auction their crops on a craigslist-type service over the mobile phone, or government officials gain instantaneous information on contagious diseases via text message, the miracles of mobile connectivity move us from luxury to necessity. And we are only in the early stages of what the mobile electronic communications will mean for mankind. We are now "The Mobile Generation." Aspen Institute Roundtable on Information Technology. To explore the implications of these phenomena, the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program convened 27 leaders from business, academia, government and the non-profit sector to engage in three days of dialogue on related topics. Some are experts in information and communications technologies, others are leaders in the broader society affected by these innovations. Together, they examined the profound changes ahead as a result of the convergence of wireless technologies and the Internet. In the following report of the Roundtable meeting held August 1-4, 2006, J. D. Lasica, author of Darknet and co-founder of Ourmedia.org, deftly sets up, contextualizes, and captures the dialogue on the impact of the new mobility on economic models for businesses and governments, social services, economic development, and personal identity

Global Risks 2012, Seventh Edition

The World Economic Forum's Global Risks 2012 report is based on a survey of 469 experts from industry, government, academia and civil society that examines 50 global risks across five categories. The report emphasizes the singular effect of a particular constellation of global risks rather than focusing on a single existential risk. Three distinct constellations of risks that present a very serious threat to our future prosperity and security emerged from a review of this year's set of risks. Includes a special review of the important lessons learned from the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and the subsequent nuclear crisis at Fukushima, Japan. It focuses on therole of leadership, challenges to effective communication in this information age and resilient business models in response to crises of unforeseen magnitude

Global Systems Science and Energy Systems

In the present globally interconnected world energy is generated, stored, transmitted and consumed and its related waste disposed or recycled- through a complex and dynamic system of systems. A central challenge for Global System Science is to focus on the multiple interactions of different scales of the energy systems: from smart micro-grids to super grids. To what extent can these two approaches coexist? How do these two apparently divergent trends and configuration relate to each other and be managed for a better coordination and efficiency? Global System Science should be able to identify what kinds of factors are most relevant for the global energy systems and to what particular pressures are they more sensitive (e.g. not necessarily prices but perhaps to other variables outside the energy systems). This report present the key points and open issues in emerging energy systems and highlights questions and challenges to global system science applied to energy systems. It is based on the discussions and results of the workshop on "Vision in global system science: energy futures" held in Brussels on 18th and 19th March 2013 and organized by DG Connect in collaboration with Joint Research Centre, Institute for Energy and Transport, Petten.JRC.F.3-Energy securit

Cybersecurity: mapping the ethical terrain

This edited collection examines the ethical trade-offs involved in cybersecurity: between security and privacy; individual rights and the good of a society; and between the types of burdens placed on particular groups in order to protect others. Foreword Governments and society are increasingly reliant on cyber systems. Yet the more reliant we are upon cyber systems, the more vulnerable we are to serious harm should these systems be attacked or used in an attack. This problem of reliance and vulnerability is driving a concern with securing cyberspace. For example, a ‘cybersecurity’ team now forms part of the US Secret Service. Its job is to respond to cyber-attacks in specific environments such as elevators in a building that hosts politically vulnerable individuals, for example, state representatives. Cybersecurity aims to protect cyberinfrastructure from cyber-attacks; the concerning aspect of the threat from cyber-attack is the potential for serious harm that damage to cyber-infrastructure presents to resources and people. These types of threats to cybersecurity might simply target information and communication systems: a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack on a government website does not harm a website in any direct way, but prevents its normal use by stifling the ability of users to connect to the site. Alternatively, cyber-attacks might disrupt physical devices or resources, such as the Stuxnet virus, which caused the malfunction and destruction of Iranian nuclear centrifuges. Cyber-attacks might also enhance activities that are enabled through cyberspace, such as the use of online media by extremists to recruit members and promote radicalisation. Cyber-attacks are diverse: as a result, cybersecurity requires a comparable diversity of approaches. Cyber-attacks can have powerful impacts on people’s lives, and so—in liberal democratic societies at least—governments have a duty to ensure cybersecurity in order to protect the inhabitants within their own jurisdiction and, arguably, the people of other nations. But, as recent events following the revelations of Edward Snowden have demonstrated, there is a risk that the governmental pursuit of cybersecurity might overstep the mark and subvert fundamental privacy rights. Popular comment on these episodes advocates transparency of government processes, yet given that cybersecurity risks represent major challenges to national security, it is unlikely that simple transparency will suffice. Managing the risks of cybersecurity involves trade-offs: between security and privacy; individual rights and the good of a society; and types of burdens placed on particular groups in order to protect others. These trade-offs are often ethical trade-offs, involving questions of how we act, what values we should aim to promote, and what means of anticipating and responding to the risks are reasonably—and publicly—justifiable. This Occasional Paper (prepared for the National Security College) provides a brief conceptual analysis of cybersecurity, demonstrates the relevance of ethics to cybersecurity and outlines various ways in which to approach ethical decision-making when responding to cyber-attacks

Taming governance with legality? Critical reflections upon global administrative law as small-c global constitutionalism

The project of global administrative law has stood out from various efforts to tame global governance with the rule of law. By enhancing transparency and accountability, global administrative law is expected to improve the policy output of global administration, giving legitimacy to global governance. In this way, global administrative law evolves into a small-c global constitutionalism. In this paper, I trace the trajectory of global administrative law as small-c global constitutionalism and how the concept of legitimacy is recast in relation to global governance. I first point out that originally embedded in the practice of global governance, global administrative law effectively functions as the small-c constitutional law of global governance, echoing the trends toward constitutionalization. As it takes on constitutional character, however, global administrative law faces the challenges of legality and legitimacy. Turning away from state consent, global administrative law turns to the idea of publicness as solution to its double challenges. My inspection of the notion of publicness in global administrative law shows that the strategy of resting the legitimacy of global administrative law as small-c global constitutionalism on the idea of publicness turns out to be the privatization of legitimacy, suggesting a post-public concept of legitimacy. -- Das Projekt des globalen Verwaltungsrechts sticht unter vielen Versuchen Global Governance durch Rechtsstaatlichkeit im Zaum zu halten hervor. Durch die Erhöhung von Transparenz und Verantwortung, werden mit dem globalen Verwaltungsrecht Erwartungen bezüglich einer Verbesserung der politischen Leistung globaler Verwaltung verbunden, die Legitimität von Global Governance voraussetzt. In diesem Prozess entwickelt sich aus dem Verwaltungsrecht eine konservative globale Rechtsstaatlichkeit. Die vorliegende Arbeit zeichnet den Wandel globalen Verwaltungsrechts in Form einer konservativen globalen Rechtsstaatlichkeit nach und eruiert Veränderungen des Legitimitätskonzeptes in Beziehung zu Global Governance. Zunächst hebe ich hervor, dass globales Verwaltungsrecht, ursprünglich in die Praktiken des Global Governance eingebettet, effektiv als konservatives Staatsrecht des Global Governance funktioniert und damit die Trends hin zu rechtsstaatlichen Strukturen spiegelt. Sobald globales Verwaltungsrecht rechtsstaatlichen Charakter annimmt, sieht es sich mit der Frage nach Legalität und Legitimität konfrontiert. Globales Verwaltungsrecht wendet sich von staatlicher Zustimmung hin zu der Idee von Öffentlichkeit als mögliche Lösung für die doppelte Herausforderung. Meine Analyse der Bedeutung von Öffentlichkeit für globales Verwaltungsrecht zeigt, dass die Strategie, die Legitimität des globalen Verwaltungsrechts in Form konservativer globaler Rechtsstaatlichkeit auf der Idee von Öffentlichkeit aufzubauen eine Privatisierung von Legitimität ist und ein post-öffentliches Konzept von Legitimität nahelegt.