Crisis management and regional security systems in Southeast Asia

This thesis examines what the management of crises can reveal about the type and the nature of regional security systems in Southeast Asia. It seeks to evaluate whether or not crisis management conducted by the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN) member countries helps to provide ways of conceptualising regional security systems, namely a security community, a balance of power, or a classical concert of powers. While there is a growing body of literature examining the relevance of the first two concepts for explaining the type of regional security system in Southeast Asia, there is a very limited literature that explores whether or not a regional classical concert of powers can provide a relevant explanation. Given that historically the notion of crisis management has been a useful indicator that sheds light the international system, this thesis specifically examines a possible connection between crisis management and security systems in Southeast Asia. The study approaches this task by investigating three case studies: the 1978-1991 Cambodian crisis, the 1999-2002 East Timor crisis and the 2008-2010 Cyclone Nargis crisis. The thesis has two key arguments. First, whether or not the three conceptualisations of regional security systems examined and their variations in the thesis have explanatory value depends on at least two conditions, namely the phase of the crisis - whether it is in an escalating, acute, or de-escalating period - and the nature of the crisis - whether it is traditional or non traditional. Second, the thesis argues that under the same conditions, there are times when the regional security system can best be conceptualised as a 'quasi concert of regional leading powers'. The introduction of this concept contributes to ongoing debate within academic literature about the nature of the regional security systems that operate in Southeast Asia. These two arguments also have additional implications for policy development in Southeast Asia. The first is that the management of crises in Southeast Asia needs to be reviewed and ways found to establish more robust policies and structures for managing crises. ASEAN member states need to set up formal dispute settlement and crisis management mechanisms and the role of the Secretary-General of ASEAN should be strengthened with monitoring and evaluation. The second policy direction that the findings point to is that the burdens of the crisis management should be shared by the regional leading powers and all ASEAN member states. Regional security requires dedicated effort by every Southeast Asian country

Knowledge and Management Models for Sustainable Growth

In the last years sustainability has become a topic of global concern and a key issue in the strategic agenda of both business organizations and public authorities and organisations. Significant changes in business landscape, the emergence of new technology, including social media, the pressure of new social concerns, have called into question established conceptualizations of competitiveness, wealth creation and growth. New and unaddressed set of issues regarding how private and public organisations manage and invest their resources to create sustainable value have brought to light. In particular the increasing focus on environmental and social themes has suggested new dimensions to be taken into account in the value creation dynamics, both at organisations and communities level. For companies the need of integrating corporate social and environmental responsibility issues into strategy and daily business operations, pose profound challenges, which, in turn, involve numerous processes and complex decisions influenced by many stakeholders. Facing these challenges calls for the creation, use and exploitation of new knowledge as well as the development of proper management models, approaches and tools aimed to contribute to the development and realization of environmentally and socially sustainable business strategies and practices

Beyond the atmosphere: Early years of space science

From the rocket measurements of the upper atmosphere and Sun that began in 1946, space science gradually emerged as a new field of scientific activity. The course of the United State space program is viewed in an historical context. Major emphasis is on NASA and its programs. The funding, staffing, organization, and priorities of the space program were reviewed

Transport and communications in industrial mobility: The UK experience with particular reference to Scotland and Northern Ireland

Induced interregional industrial mobility has been at the heart of UK regional policy almost from the beginning. A fundamental difference of opinion has emerged recently over the extent to which mobility is affected by transport and communications considerations and, a cognate point, the proper role of infrastructure in regional policy. According to one line of reasoning, distance costs for most types of industry have largely lost whatever locational significance they may once have had, infrastructural expenditure in regional policy. According to one line of reasoning, distance costs for most types of industry have largely lost whatever locational significance they may once have had, infrastructural expenditure is essentially permissive rather than stimulatory, and historical deficiencies in the peripheral areas' stock of transport capital have, with possibly a few more or less trifling exceptions, been eliminated. Others hold that migrant-generators attach a great deal of significance to the adequacy of the transport and communications facilities in potential destination areas, a state of affairs insufficiently recognised heretofore by regional policymakers with the result that transport and communications infrastructure in the official 'areas for expansion' has been in chronically short supply. Not only is the issue sketched here highly topical, it has strong political overtones. Its exploration is the purpose of this study. Three hypotheses, bases upon commonsense and previous work in the field, are set forth in order to focus the research effort. It is postulated first that good transport and communication systems are essential to the success of most interregional industrial movements, secondly that private distance costs are not an important constraint on interregional industrial mobility for most types of manufacturing industry, and thirdly that the quality of intra-firm communications and organisational flexibility can often be more critical to the long-term viability of industrial migrants than distance costs. In essence, the study comprises an appraisal of relevant economic theory, a detailed look at the evolution of regional policy in Great Britain and Northern Ireland focussing on the role assigned to transport and communications, a selective evaluation of previous UK research on industrial mobility, an original analysis of industrial survey questionnaires sent out in 1960 under the auspices of the Toothill Committee, an examination of postwar industrial migrant flows to Scotland and NI, extensive analyses of the transport and communications cost data from the 1963 Censes of Production distinguishing between the UK as a whole and its Scottish and NI members, and six case studies of postwar industrial migration to Scotland. That private transport costs have been much more of a constraint on postwar interregional industrial mobility than generally realized is the most important single conclusion to emerge from the study. In contrast to this unexpected verdict, ample support is presented for the other two hypotheses suggesting that potential migrant-generators may exaggerate the adverse transport cost implications of a peripheral location while underestimating the significance of non-cost communications considerations. It is also concluded that existing theory is of remarkably little value in pragmatic terms, that transport and communications were virtually ignored by regional policymakers between 1934 when policy began and 1963, that the emphasis upon improved infrastructure by successive governments both nationally and in NI since about 1963 has not been misplaced, that the integration of regional with transport and communications policies has not yet gone as far as it should, that scope remains for further expenditure on transport and communications in pursuance of regional objectives, and that more research is needed on a host of germane topics