ASEAN and the non-traditional regional security agenda

Without a doubt, the whole area of non-traditional security – whether it be threats, issues or challenges (the three are more or less used interchangeably in ASEAN statements and documents on the subject) – has come to occupy a prominent place on the regional security agenda in recent years.1 This is very much in keeping with the ‘widening’, or ‘broadening’, of the security agenda which has occurred internationally in both the academic literature and, crucially, in the policy sphere

Something new under the Rising Sun: expanding Australia–Japan defence cooperation

A number of recent policy documents signal the Australian Government’s intent to deepen defence engagement in the Asia–Pacific, and future defence policy statements are likely to reinforce that objective. The Australia in the Asian century White Paper clearly established Asia as our primary economic and strategic focus. Australia’s first National Security Strategy gave as the first of its three priorities ‘strengthening regional engagement to support security’, and the 2013 Defence White Paper—released in May 2013—sets out an ambitious plan to strengthen defence relations with Japan. There are several factors working to make the strategic environment more uncertain for Australia and other countries in the Asia–Pacific. First, and more quickly than was expected, there’s been the emergence of a sharper-toned China–US strategic competition. Military-to-military relations, in particular, are difficult. Second, there’s a curious blending of elements of cooperation and competition in Asia–Pacific affairs. The region’s tied together by economic and trade relations, but in important respects there’s an absence of trust between countries, particularly on military matters. Third, a number of middle-sized powers are emerging with stronger voices on security matters, particularly Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, India and even Australia. Fourth, there’s been a broad increase in the capabilities of many regional military forces and with it the growing risk of military incidents, particularly in the maritime domain. Taken together, these developments point to an increasingly complex region where competitive multipolarity is the defining characteristic of international engagement. Even with an ensured American presence, because Australia’s resources are limited we can’t hope to achieve all of our strategic objectives in the region without engaging other players and finding innovative ways to develop a cooperative approach to building security. As the most capable of American partners in the region, Japan offers much as a closer partner to Australia. The bilateral relationship’s already strong—Japan’s now one of our closest Asian security partners

The use of DoD medical assets in international humanitarian and disaster relief operations

The use of U.S. DoD medical assets in International Humanitarian and Disaster Relief Operations (IH/DRO) has been extensive in the past and has grown markedly since the end of the Cold War. It is important that DoD personnel understand the complex interagency coordination and political ramifications of their participation in IH/DRO. This thesis examines the history, current planning, interagency coordination, law, DoD doctrine, and budgeting issues affecting the use of DoD medical assets for IH/DRO. To research the current state of IH/DRO execution by the DoD, Federal laws, DoD doctrine, professional journals, and current periodicals were reviewed. Additionally, interviews were conducted with personnel in OSD, USCENTCOM, and the DoD medical community to obtain insight from recent participants in IH/DRO. Research indicated that three levels of control, coordination, and planning exist within the U.S. government to conduct IH/DRO. The strategic level consists of the U.S. Congress, the NCA, USAID, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff: The operational level consists of the Unified Combatant Commands, who conduct contingency planning for their Areas of Responsibility (AOR). Finally, the tactical level consists of the Joint Task Force (JTF) stood up by the Unified Combatant Command to execute the operation. Doctrine to execute these operations is lacking and acknowledged by DoD Doctrine Commands, who are working to address this shortcoming. The current command and coordinating structure documented in this thesis is in a dynamic state of evolution and development as the DoD strives to meet the demands of IH/DRO in a downsizing military.http://archive.org/details/useofdodmedicala00gillLieutenant Commander, United States Naval ReserveApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

The social preferences of local citizens and spontaneous volunteerism during disaster relief operations

Existing studies on disaster relief operations (DRO) pay limited attention to acts of spontaneous volunteerism by local citizens in the aftermath of disasters. The purpose of this paper is to explore how social preferences motivate citizens to help during post-disaster situations; above and beyond their own self-regarding interests. The paper begins by synthesizing the literature on social preferences from the field of behavioral economics and social psychology with the discourse surrounding behavioral operations management and humanitarian operations management (HOM). By doing so, we identify the motivators, enablers and barriers of local citizen response during disaster relief operations. These factors inform a theoretical framework of the social preferences motivating spontaneous volunteerism in post-disaster situations. We evidence facets of the framework using archival and unstructured data retrieved from Twitter feeds generated by local citizens during the floods that hit Chennai, India in 2015. Our model highlights the importance of individual level action during disaster relief operations and the enabling role of social media as a coordination mechanism for such efforts

Forecasting for Social Good

Forecasting plays a critical role in the development of organisational business strategies. Despite a considerable body of research in the area of forecasting, the focus has largely been on the financial and economic outcomes of the forecasting process as opposed to societal benefits. Our motivation in this study is to promote the latter, with a view to using the forecasting process to advance social and environmental objectives such as equality, social justice and sustainability. We refer to such forecasting practices as Forecasting for Social Good (FSG) where the benefits to society and the environment take precedence over economic and financial outcomes. We conceptualise FSG and discuss its scope and boundaries in the context of the "Doughnut theory". We present some key attributes that qualify a forecasting process as FSG: it is concerned with a real problem, it is focused on advancing social and environmental goals and prioritises these over conventional measures of economic success, and it has a broad societal impact. We also position FSG in the wider literature on forecasting and social good practices. We propose an FSG maturity framework as the means to engage academics and practitioners with research in this area. Finally, we highlight that FSG: (i) cannot be distilled to a prescriptive set of guidelines, (ii) is scalable, and (iii) has the potential to make significant contributions to advancing social objectives.Comment: 28 pages, 6 figure

Disclosure of corporate social responsibility practices

This study aimed to depict the disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of commercial banks in Bangladesh. The sample included annual reports for the year 2018 of twenty-eight commercial banks out of thirty commercial banks listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) as of June 30, 2019. The data were analyzed using the content analysis technique. The findings indicate that commercial banks have made CSR contributions to eight sectors and disclosed CSR information through thirteen sections of the annual report covering a mixture of four tools. Moreover, although most of the commercial banks have disclosed some quantitative data, the aggregate amount of qualitative and mixed types of CSR disclosure is higher than that of purely quantitative ones. Additionally, all commercial banks have utilized ‘other expense' section for CSR expenditures in the body of ‘financial statements', but most of the commercial banks have ignored ‘corporate social responsibility' sub-head and preferred ‘Donation' or ‘Subscription and Donation' sub-heads in the ‘notes to financial statements'. The overall finding indicates that the CSR disclosure issue in Bangladesh has not received sufficient attention from the commercial banks. This study, therefore, recommends that CSR reporting should be formalized and regulated to enhance stakeholders' confidence in an entity's CSR practice

Disclosure of Corporate Social Responsibility Practices

This study aimed to depict the disclosure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of commercial banks in Bangladesh. The sample included annual reports for the year 2018 of twenty-eight commercial banks out of thirty commercial banks listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) as of June 30, 2019. The data were analyzed using the content analysis technique. The findings indicate that commercial banks have made CSR contributions to eight sectors and disclosed CSR information through thirteen sections of the annual report covering a mixture of four tools. Moreover, although most of the commercial banks have disclosed some quantitative data, the aggregate amount of qualitative and mixed types of CSR disclosure is higher than that of purely quantitative ones. Additionally, all commercial banks have utilized ‘other expense' section for CSR expenditures in the body of ‘financial statements', but most of the commercial banks have ignored ‘corporate social responsibility' sub-head and preferred ‘Donation' or ‘Subscription and Donation' sub-heads in the ‘notes to financial statements'. The overall finding indicates that the CSR disclosure issue in Bangladesh has not received sufficient attention from the commercial banks. This study, therefore, recommends that CSR reporting should be formalized and regulated to enhance stakeholders' confidence in an entity's CSR practice