Power industry restructuring and eco-efficiency changes:a new slacks-based model in Malmquist-Luenberger Index measurement

Measuring variations in efficiency and its extension, eco-efficiency, during a restructuring period in different industries has always been a point of interest for regulators and policy makers. This paper assesses the impacts of restructuring of procurement in the Iranian power industry on the performance of power plants. We introduce a new slacks-based model for Malmquist-Luenberger (ML) Index measurement and apply it to the power plants to calculate the efficiency, eco-efficiency, and technological changes over the 8-year period (2003-2010) of restructuring in the power industry. The results reveal that although the restructuring had different effects on the individual power plants, the overall growth in the eco-efficiency of the sector was mainly due to advances in pure technology. We also assess the correlation between efficiency and eco-efficiency of the power plants, which indicates a close relationship between these two steps, thus lending support to the incorporation of environmental factors in efficiency analysis

Factors Affecting Sustainable Consumer Behavior in the MENA Region: A Systematic Review

Sustainable consumer behavior (SCB) gained significant attention given the relevance it bears for a broad set of actors. Since most of the relevant literature is rooted in western countries, researchers and policymakers implicitly assume that behaviors in developing countries tend to replicate those in developed countries. This review, based on seventy-one articles published since 2000, questions such assumption by analyzing the empirical research on SCBs in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a distinctive region that has been so far overlooked by mainstream research. Results reveal that most MENA-based papers are rooted in traditional frameworks of the rationalistic stream and that environmental values represent a key driver of SCB, while habits and socio-demographics are relegated to a negligible role. This study provides an added value by synthesizing the fragmented evidence on the topic and discussing aspects emerging as peculiar of the MENA and differentiating the latter from other societies

Role of governmental policies in forest degradation and sediment transportation to the Caspian Sea

Deforestation in Iran has been more rapid in the past 50 years than at any time in Iran’s history. Forests play a vital role in sustaining water resources and aquatic ecosystems. Forest disturbance, both natural (e.g. wildfire, insects, disease, wind-storms, drought) and human (e.g. timber harvesting, land conversion) caused, can have a profound effect on hydrologic, geomorphic and ecologic processes. With climate change, natural disturbances are becoming more frequent and catastrophic. This, together with growing human disturbance, will undoubtedly affect water re-sources and consequently have significant implications for land managers and pol-icy makers. Intensive cultivation and mismanagement have caused environmental problems and soil degradation. Soils which developed under natural forests in north Iran have been degraded by land-use changes. Forests protect water quality by slowing runoff, stabilizing soils and filtering pollutants. Conversion of forest land to other uses interrupts these natural processes and increases the potential for water quality impairment. Since soil erosion and sediment redistribution have implications for both soil and water resources, and scientists have established that the movements of soil, sediment and water are intrinsically linked, it is critical to im-plement integrated resource protection strategies. Erosion, transport and sedimen-tation processes gain increasingly importance in socio – economic and ecological respect. In this research land use, land cover maps were prepared, using satellite imagery and aerial photos during the last 50 year. The rate of land use changes was compared with rate of sedimentation. Parallel with this work forest policy in Iran during different development plans using policy cycle method was analyzed and actors were recognized. Then the policies in development plans before and after Islamic revolution compared with prepared maps, results showed that government development plans didn’t apply according to the program and forest degradation and consequently sedimentation was increased in study area during the time

Cyber-Attacks and the Use of Force: Back to the Future of Article 2(4)

Cyber-attacks – efforts to alter, disrupt, or destroy computer systems, networks, or the information or programs on them – pose difficult interpretive issues with respect to the U.N. Charter, including when, if ever, such activities constitute prohibited “force” or an “armed attack” justifying military force in self-defense. In exploring these issues, and by drawing on lessons from Cold War legal debates about the U.N. Charter, this Article makes two overarching arguments. First, strategy is a major driver of legal evolution. Whereas most scholarship and commentary on cyber-attacks has focused on how international law might be interpreted or amended to take account of new technologies and threats, this Article focuses on the dynamic interplay of law and strategy – strategy generates reappraisal and revision of law, while law itself shapes strategy – and the moves and countermoves among actors with varying interests, capabilities, and vulnerabilities. Second, this Article argues that it will be difficult to achieve international agreement on legal interpretation and to enforce it with respect to cyber-attacks. The current trajectory of U.S. interpretation – which emphasizes the effects of cyber-attacks in analyzing whether they cross the U.N. Charter’s legal thresholds – is a reasonable effort to overcome translation problems of a Charter built for a different era of conflict. However, certain features of cyber-activities make international legal regulation very difficult, and major actors have divergent strategic interests that will pull their preferred doctrinal interpretations and aspirations in different directions, impeding formation of a stable international consensus. The prescription is not to abandon interpretive or multilateral legal efforts to regulate cyber-attacks, but to recognize the likely limits of these efforts and to consider the implications of legal proposals or negotiations in the context of broader security strategy

Cyber-Attacks and the Use of Force: Back to the Future of Article 2(4)

This Article makes two overarching arguments. First, strategy is a major driver of legal evolution. Most scholarship and commentary on cyber-attacks capture only one dimension of this point, focusing on how international law might be interpreted or amended to take account of new technologies and threats. The focus here, however, is on the dynamic interplay of law and strategy – strategy generates reappraisal and revision of law, while law itself shapes strategy – and the moves and countermoves among actors with varying interests, capabilities, and vulnerabilities. The purpose is not to come down in favor of one legal interpretation or another, and the conclusions are necessarily speculative because no governments speak in much detail about their cyberwarfare capabilities and strategies at this point. There are downside risks and tensions inherent in any plausible approach, though, and this analysis helps in understanding their implications. Second, it will be difficult to achieve international agreement on legal interpretation and to enforce it with respect to cyber-attacks. The current trajectory of U.S. interpretation is a reasonable effort to overcome the translation problems inherent in a U.N. Charter built for a different era of conflict. However, not only do certain features of cyber-activities make international legal regulation very difficult, but major actors also have divergent strategic interests that will pull their preferred doctrinal interpretations and aspirations in different directions, impeding formation of a stable international consensus. U.S. policymakers should therefore prepare to operate in a highly contested and uncertain legal environment. The prescription is not to abandon interpretive or multilateral legal efforts to regulate cyberattacks; rather, it is to recognize the likely limits of these efforts and to consider the implications of legal proposals or negotiations in the context of broader security strategy