Power, Techno-economics, and Transatlantic Relations in 1987-1999

This essay suggests that in 1987-1999 European elites, in their efforts of asymmetric balancing against the United States hegemony, decided to trade-off military capability for economic competitiveness. Thus, it documents a correlation between a) the reluctance of especially France and Germany during the 1990s to fully embrace and pursue the US-led RMA; and, b) the European Union's efforts since the late 1980s to challenge America's technological and economic supremacy in the aerospace sector. Two projects (Airbus and Galileo) indicate that the quest for strategic independence and the fear of reduced influence in international affairs were the driving forces behind European efforts to challenge the US commercial and technological supremacy in the aerospace sector in 1987-99. Furthermore, the article tries to identify what role the RMA played in this context (focusing in particular on Germany and France). It argues also that since the late 1980s (and especially during the 1990s), the European Commission and countries such as France and Germany perceived US policies in high-technology sectors (accentuated also by vigorous pursuit of the RMA) as limiting Europe’s abilities to advance its own agenda in international economic and security affairs

Implications for the U.S. of Anglo-French Defense Cooperation

The paper analyzes, from a predominantly UK perspective, the implications for the U.S. of the November 2, 2010, Anglo-French Defence Cooperation Treaty. The current pressures on British and French defence budgets were the primary driving force behind this cooperative effort. London and Paris have made steps toward improving joint efforts in a number of areas, with defence acquisition and industrial cooperation being prominent. In the UK, there appears to be strong political support at the highest levels, which has permeated to lower levels in the bureaucracy, while the UK defence industry appears to be cautiously optimistic about future business opportunities. The impact of enhanced Anglo-French cooperation on the U.S. would appear to be largely favourable for Washington. Rather than providing a basis for weakened UK attention to the U.S., as some fear, the efforts by London and Paris will potentially generate greater national military capability from scarce resources and could serve as a vehicle for broader European efforts to enhance their defence capabilities. While multinational European military development projects are viewed with scepticism in the UK, the Anglo-French arrangement could strengthen the prospects for bilateral projects in which other European states may elect to participate

Strategic Human Capital Management: NRC Could Better Manage the Size and Composition of Its Workforce by Further Incorporating Leading Practices

[Excerpt] After the passage of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which included tax incentives for nuclear energy, NRC significantly expanded its workforce to meet the demands of an anticipated increase in workload that ultimately did not occur. More recently, a forecast for reduced growth in the nuclear industry prompted NRC to develop plans for changing its structure and workforce to better respond to changes in the nuclear industry. Strategic human capital planning is one of several actions the agency is taking. The explanatory statement accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2016 included a provision for GAO to report on NRC’s workforce management. GAO examined NRC’s strategic human capital management efforts and the extent to which these efforts incorporate leading practices. GAO reviewed NRC’s strategic workforce plan and other related documents and interviewed knowledgeable NRC officials

Risk Management in the Arctic Offshore: Wicked Problems Require New Paradigms

Recent project-management literature and high-profile disasters—the financial crisis, the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the Fukushima nuclear accident—illustrate the flaws of traditional risk models for complex projects. This research examines how various groups with interests in the Arctic offshore define risks. The findings link the wicked problem framework and the emerging paradigm of Project Management of the Second Order (PM-2). Wicked problems are problems that are unstructured, complex, irregular, interactive, adaptive, and novel. The authors synthesize literature on the topic to offer strategies for navigating wicked problems, provide new variables to deconstruct traditional risk models, and integrate objective and subjective schools of risk analysis

Re-nuclearization or Disarmament: A Fateful Choice for Humanity

In light of the real possibility that terrorists could acquire and use nuclear weapons to kill hundreds of thousands of innocent people, never has the need to eliminate the threat posed by nuclear weapons been more urgent. Tragically, this sense of urgency was not shared by many delegates to thethird and final meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the 2005 Review Conference of the NonProliferation Treaty (NPT). The meeting at the U.N. in New York ended May 7, 2004 in disarray, the delegates unable to agree even on an agenda and background documentation for the Review Conference. Acrimony and weak leadership characterized the PrepComm. Issues of substance concerning the future of nuclear weapons were lost in the procedural wrangling that dominated the final two days of the two-week meeting. This is the last of three reports on the meetings in 2002, 2003 and 2004, of the Preparatory Committee for the 2005 Review Conference of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The first two reports, "The NPT: Crisis and Challenge" (2002) and "Ritualistic Facade" (2003), are available on Senator Roche's website (http://www.sen.parl.gc.ca/droche)

Liberalisation and Regulation in Electricity Systems: How can we get the balance right?

This paper explores the issue of the balance between liberalisation and regulation in electricity systems, which is the essence of much of the detailed policies which are implemented in the sector. By liberalisation I take to mean the use of market or quasi-market mechanisms as part of a reform of the sector, by regulation I take to mean regulatory intervention to restrain the operation of market signals which would otherwise have operated in the absence of regulation. The paper takes an international perspective to look at the case for liberalisation, the case for regulation and the evidence on the effects of liberalisation. It concludes with an assessment on the future for electricity liberalisation. This paper forms the foreward to Sioshansi, F.P. (2008) (ed.), Competitive Electricity Markets: Design, Implementation, Performance, Oxford: Elsevier and makes reference to the papers in that volume