The Open method of coordination in European Education and Training Policy: New forms of integration through soft policy-making

New forms of governance, such as the Open Method of Coordination have become more and more popular within European policy-making. This paper discusses an example of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) under-analysed so far by the literature, namely the OMC in Education and Training. The argument presented here is that exactly this policy area has experienced through the use of the OMC significant developments over the last 10 years resulting in a fundamentally changed EU involvement in the education and training policy. Understanding the sometimes contradictory motivation of the different actors when creating the OMC in E&T is essential in order to correctly analyse the consequences at national and European level of its use, which led to a new way of integration

Implementing a Biblical model of leadership through the 3L vision leader of leaders of leaders

https://place.asburyseminary.edu/ecommonsatsdissertations/1531/thumbnail.jp

Evidence from the education and training policy

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Since the European Council in Lisbon, the use of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) and OMC-type processes have become widespread across policy areas of the European Union, and also spilled over to non-governmental actors. This PhD thesis will compare and contrast two examples of OMC-like governance in the field of Education and Training which so far have been under-researched, namely the Open Method of Coordination in E&T and the Framework of Actions on the lifelong development of competencies and qualifications by the European social partners. In order to explain the creation, functioning and impact of these forms of governance, different European integration theories are tested on how they explain the results. It is expected that different theoretical approaches can explain certain aspects better than others. To fully understand all of these aspects of OMC-type governance, the combined use of rationalist and constructivist approaches is promoted. The results will show that OMC-type governance is a third way between intergovernmental and supranational policy-making and significantly contributed to the deepening of E&T policy at EU level, while at the same time guaranteeing national sovereignty, leading to a new form of integration. This thesis argues that OMC-like tools are able to serve diverse interests with respect to speed and nature of European integration. By being soft and flexible policy-tools, OMC-like tools are ideal for sensitive policy areas with very diverse national situations and represent rather a complementary form of policy-making than an alternative to the Community Method. Consequently, European integration theories need to adapt to the possibility of EU policy-making methods that are neither purely intergovernmental nor fully supranational and lead to new types of integration. OMC-like tools also illustrate the need to return to the ambition of grand theories i.e. explaining the whole picture, without relying only on one theory but rather using various approaches in a complementary fashion

Ultra High Density Spectral Beam Combining By Thermal Tuning Of Volume Bragg Gratings In Photo-thermo-refractive Glass

High power lasers with diffraction limited beam quality are desired for many applications in defense and manufacturing. A lot of applications require laser beams at the 100 kW power level along with divergence close to the diffraction limit. The figure of merit for a beam used in such applications should be radiance which determines the laser power delivered to a remote target. One of the primary limiting factors is thermal distortion of a laser beam caused by excessive heat generated in the laser media. Combination of multiple laser beams is usually considered as a method to mitigate these limitations. Spectral beam combining (SBC) by volume Bragg gratings (VBGs) is a very promising method for the future of high radiance lasers that needs to achieve 100 kW-level power. This work is dedicated to development of methods to increase spectral density of combined beams keeping their divergence at an acceptably low level. A new figure of merit for a beam combining system is proposed, the Beam Combining Factor (BCF), which makes it possible to distinguish the quality of the individual beams from the quality of beam combining. Also presented is a method of including the effect of beam divergence and spectral bandwidth on the performance of VBGs, as well as a method to optimize VBG parameters in terms of thickness and refractive index modulation for an arbitrary number of beams. A novel thermal tuning technique and apparatus is presented with which the SBC system can be tuned for peak efficiency from low to high power without the need for mechanical re- iv alignment. Finally, a thermally tuned SBC system with five beams, with a spectral separation between beams of 0.25 nm at a total power of 685 W is presented. The results show the highest power spectral density and highest spectral radiance of any SBC system to date. Recent demonstrations in SBC by multiplexed VBGs and the use of super Gaussian beams for beam quality improvement are also discussed