Innovation in the management of upstream state oil contracts in the Republic of Congo : from transaction to Cooperation for Economic Development

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2010.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-78).This thesis examines the often competitive interests involved in oil contracts and the ensuing strategic dilemmas faced by both the Republic of Congo and international oil companies that operate in that country. Throughout this thesis, we use the Issues-Frameworks-Actions approach to identify, analyze and propose solutions to key problems facing Congo and IOCs. The paper first analyses the historical, legal and institutional background of oil contracting in the Republic of Congo. The production sharing contract (PSC) is the prevailing contractual framework for oil business between the Congolese government and international oil companies (IOCs). The national oil company, SNPC, has received a mandate from the government to act in its name vis-a-vis IOCs. In a second step, the paper develops new analytical frameworks and discusses the strategic challenges posed by the current PSCs to both Congo and IOCs. Multiple levels of information and skills asymmetries challenge Congo's ability to effectively negotiate and implement oil contracts. On the other hand, transforming IOCs into active corporate citizens of Congo would guarantee them contract stability and business sustainability. Finally, against the background of identified problems, the paper makes recommendations as to how Congo and IOCs could address those problems and build lasting partnership. In light of the growing international competition for the African oil and the huge development needs for oil producing countries like Congo, the paper argues that in the best interest of both the IOCs and the host country, oil contracts should evolve from simple transactions to long term cooperation tools that address each side's expectations and needs. The thesis indeed supports the idea of shifting the contract focus from the traditional oil profit split and government take to broader value creation in the host country.by Yaya Moussa.M.B.A

Minutes of a Regular Meeting, The University of Oklahoma Board of Regents, July 23, 1987

19810-1989

Between Crown and Commerce

Between Crown and Commerce examines the relationship between French royal statecraft, mercantilism, and civic republicanism in the context of the globalizing economy of the early modern Mediterranean world. This is the story of how the French Crown and local institutions accommodated one another as they sought to forge acceptable political and commercial relationships with one another for the common goal of economic prosperity. Junko Thérèse Takeda tells this tale through the particular experience of Marseille, a port the monarchy saw as key to commercial expansion in the Mediterranean.At first, Marseille’s commercial and political elites were strongly opposed to the Crown’s encroaching influence. Rather than dismiss their concerns, the monarchy cleverly co-opted their civic traditions, practices, and institutions to convince the city’s elite of their important role in Levantine commerce. Chief among such traditions were local ideas of citizenship and civic virtue. As the city’s stature throughout the Mediterranean grew, however, so too did the dangers of commercial expansion as exemplified by the arrival of the bubonic plague. Marseille’s citizens reevaluated citizenship and merchant virtue during the epidemic, while the French monarchy's use of the crisis as an opportunity to further extend its power reanimated republican vocabulary.Between Crown and Commerce deftly combines a political and intellectual history of state-building, mercantilism, and republicanism with a cultural history of medical crisis. In doing so, the book highlights the conjoined history of broad transnational processes and local political change

Networks of change: extending Alaska-based communication networks to meet the challenges of the anthropocene

Thesis (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2017The Anthropocene is a contested term. As I conceptualize it throughout this dissertation, the Anthropocene is defined by an increased coupling of social and environmental systems at the global scale such that the by-products of human processes dominate the global stratigraphic record. Additionally, I connect the term to a worldview that sees this increased coupling as an existential threat to humanity's ability to sustain life on the planet. Awareness that the planet-wide scale of this coupling is fundamentally a new element in earth history is implicit in both understandings. How individuals and communities are impacted by this change varies greatly depending on a host of locally specific cross-scale factors. The range of scales (physical and social) that must be negotiated to manage these impacts places novel demands on the communication networks that shape human agency. Concern for how these demands are being met, and whose interests are being served in doing so, are the primary motivation for my research. My work is grounded in the communication-oriented theoretical traditions of media ecology and the more recent social-ecological system conceptualizations promoted in the study of resilience. I combine these ideas through a mixed methodology of digital ethnography and social network analysis to explore the communication dynamics of four Alaska-based social-ecological systems. The first two examples capture communication networks that formed in response to singular, rapid change environmental events (a coastal storm and river flood). The latter two map communication networks that have formed in response to more diffuse, slower acting environmental changes (a regional webinar series and an international arctic change conference). In each example, individuals or organizations enter and exit the mapped network(s) as they engage in the issue and specific communication channel being observed. Under these parameters a cyclic pattern of network expansion and contraction is identified. Expansion events are heavily influenced by established relationships retained during previous contraction periods. Many organizational outreach efforts are focused on triggering and participating in expansion events, however my observations highlight the role of legacy networks in system change. I suggest that for organizations interested in fostering sustainable socialecological relationships in the Anthropocene, strategic intervention may best be accomplished through careful consideration of how communicative relationships are maintained immediately following and in between expansion events. In the final sections of my dissertation I present a process template to support organizations interested in doing so. I include a complete set of learning activities to facilitate organizational use as well as examples of how the Alaska Native Knowledge Network is currently applying the process to meet their unique organizational needs

A history of the Nigerian federal government’s national tourism governance system 1962 - 2006

Thesis (PhD (History))--University of Pretoria, 2023.This study explores the history of governance institutions and policies of the Nigerian Federal Government from the country’s independence in 1960 until 2006 a topic, hitherto, not subjected to scholarly historical analysis. Endowed with a rich cultural heritage and natural beauty, Nigeria possesses immense potential for tourism development. However, despite its potential, the Nigerian tourism industry has struggled to generate substantial revenue since independence because of a number of challenges, including almost continuous instability arising from several military coups and the periodic episodes of military rule. Political instability discouraged international visitors as they deemed the country unsafe. Despite these challenges, successive administrations made efforts to promote the tourism sector by establishing governance institutions and policies conducive to the development of the sector. This study examines these measures, focusing mostly on the origins and development of the various supervisory structures responsible for overseeing the Nigerian tourism industry in the period under study. It examines the legal framework governing the creation and operations of these structures, providing essential insights into their formation and operations. Furthermore, the study analyses the contributions of these administrative bodies to the overall development of the tourism sector. Apart from the already noted political instability, the sector also suffered from inadequate infrastructure and security concerns to marketing and promotion issues. The study, thus, also analyses the role of successive administrative structures in addressing these challenges and in regulating, governing, and promoting tourism within Nigeria. The work examines the Nigerian experience also in the context of developments in other African countries facing similar challenges and their efforts to attract tourists and investors. The study, thus, seeks to fill a critical gap in the understanding of the Nigerian Federal Government's tourism governance structures and initiatives by providing the historical context of the evolution of successive governing structures, evaluating their contributions to the industry's development, and identifying key challenges that have hindered the sector's growth. It also offers policymakers and stakeholders valuable insights into potential strategies to unlock the full potential of Nigeria's tourism industry.UP BursaryHistorical and Heritage StudiesPhD (History)UnrestrictedFaculty of HumanitiesSDG-08: Decent work and economic growthSDG-09: Industry, innovation and infrastructureSDG-10: Reduces inequalitiesSDG-11: Sustainable cities and communitie

Woman between Two Kingdoms

"Woman Between Two Kingdoms explores the story of Dara Rasami, one of 153 wives of King Chulalongkorn of Siam in Thailand during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Born in a kingdom near Siam called Lan Na, Dara served as both hostage and diplomat for her family and nation. Thought of as a ""harem"" by the West, Siam's Inner Palace actually formed a nexus between the domestic and the political. Dara's role as an ethnic ""other"" among the royal concubines assisted the Siamese in both consolidating the kingdom's territory and building a local version of Europe's hierarchy of civilizations. Dara Rasami's story provides a fresh perspective on both the socio-political roles played by Siamese palace women, and how Siam responded to the intense imperialist pressures it faced in the late nineteenth century.

Prospects for crisis prediction: a South Pacific case study

This monograph considers the ability of intelligence assess,emts to predict important developments, particularly political crises. It surveys the published literature and draws on the author's decade as an analyst specialising on the South Pacific. Intelligence analysis is explained and the considerable limitations on predicting crises are highlighted with the intent to establish more realistically what policy-makers and the public can expect of intelligence organisations. The importance of top-calibre analysts is emphasised as a most important element in obtaining the best possible assessments. Most South Pacific countries change their Prime Ministers and governments within a peaceful constitutional succession convention. Fiji has been the only exception. Vanuatu, where the Lini government has been in power since 1979, is regarded by some observers as next most probable exception. A general election is due in late 1991 and it is thought there could be political turmoil regardless of who wins because of discontent with the result. This general election is developed into a case study to illustrate how an intelligence analyst might prepare assessments endeavouring to determine the likelihood of a crisis occuring then. The tentativeness of the assessment is stressed by the value of its being done hinges on the assertion that ministers and senior officials, we policy-makers, will be more alert and better briefed to face the eventual outcome, whether it lives up to the prediction or not

Britishness from a linguistic prespective in school textbooks

Mestrado em Estudos InglesesO presente trabalho teve como objectivo apresentar a nacionalidade britânica como um grupo étnico e cultural que possui uma herança histórica e tradicional e que tem representações fixas nas outras culturas onde a língua inglesa surge no curriculum escolar como língua estrangeira. O estereótipo da nacionalidade abrange muitas características que, recebidas através da língua, formam futuras atitudes em relação ao ambiente social e à comunidade da cultura materna. Os estereótipos culturais existem como resultado do conhecimento da cultura estrangeira através dos manuais escolares e também como forma de entender a outra cultura, pois antes de entrar em comunicação com “os outros”, a criança tem certas opiniões sobre pessoas que pertencem a outra cultura. Os alunos, quando trabalham textos sobre o povo británico e analisam outros tópicos ligados à nacionalidade britânica com a ajuda do professor, recebem a informação, armazenam-na e aplicam-na total ou parcialmente a qualquer pessoa britânica, evidenciando, assim, a informação que lhes foi fornecida. ABSTRACT: The present work has as its objective to focus on British nationality as an ethnic and cultural group that possesses a historical and traditional heritage. The stereotype of nationality includes a very wide range of characteristics that are expressed through the language and thus form attitudes towards the surrounding environment and community. Stereotypes are created because even before having any contact with another culture; children have already formed an idea of what that culture is. Information about “others” is very important in itself; important in terms of providing information about the other culture and responsible at the same time for further development of ideas in learners’ minds. Working with textbooks and analysing the texts about British people and their way of life or other topics linked to British nationality, learners fix the information, store it and are able to apply it in future to any person categorised as British thus expressing their awareness based on previous knowledge

James Michael Curley Scrapbooks Volume 5

The James Michael Curley Scrapbook Collection consists of digitized microfilmed copies of notebooks kept by Curley from 1914-1937. These notebooks contain news clippings that were drawn primarily from Boston newspapers. Curley was born in Roxbury, MA in 1874. He served four terms as Mayor of Boston: 1914–1918, 1922–1926, 1930–1934 and 1946–1950. He also served as Governor of Massachusetts from 1935-1937. In addition to Curley’s political career, the scrapbooks also include clippings about his first wife Mrs. Mary Herlihy Curley (1884-1930) and their daughter Mary D. Curley (1909-1950). A selection of the notebooks were microfilmed in 1962. The microfilm can be found in the holdings of Dinand Library, Holy Cross’s main library. This volume includes news clippings from 1929.https://crossworks.holycross.edu/curley_scrapbooks/1035/thumbnail.jp

Data-Driven Sourcing: How Journalists Use Digital Search Tools to Decide What's News

This dissertation examines the efforts of journalists to expand their pool of potential sources beyond a group of people often called "the usual suspects." This group consists of public officials, business leaders, experts, spokespeople, and other people who are in the news often. Using interviews, participant observation, a survey, and online ethnography, this research investigates how a growing skepticism of the usual suspects and increasingly powerful technology have led to innovations in the source search process. Some journalists have seen potential in digital search tools, including databases and social media, for finding sources that had once been too difficult or time-consuming to find. Journalists themselves have created two source-finding initiatives: a database called the Public Insight Network, and Storyful, which calls itself the "world's first social news agency." Storyful journalists specialize in finding and verifying social media content from the scenes of breaking news events. Journalists have also used other tools created by public relations professionals and technologists. How did the availability of these tools change the reporting process? It varied by tool, and by journalist. Although the tools were designed to do similar things, journalists used them in different ways. This dissertation examines how journalists used these tools in three stages of the reporting process: finding sources, verifying sources, and managing sources. Ultimately, most journalists used these tools not to find new sources, but to follow and research sources they had already identified by name or location. Few journalists had discovered new sources and story ideas with the help of digital search tools. So while these tools opened new possibilities for finding sources, journalists were still more likely to cover some people and topics over others