Assessing the Effectiveness of the EU’s and Russia’s Cultural Diplomacy towards Central Asia. EL-CSID Working Paper Issue 2018/9 • February 2018

This paper attempts to analyse the European Union’s (EU) cultural diplomacy (CD) efforts in five Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, hereinafter ‘Central Asia’). Beginning in the early 2000s, EU Member States looked at the region with increased interest. Aside from major engagements on trade, energy and security, education and intercultural dialogue were stressed as priority areas in the 2007 EU Strategy for Central Asia. To measure EU effectiveness as a CD actor in Central Asia, a comparative dimension is proposed by analysing the role Russia has pursued. At law and policy level, since Putin’s return to the Presidency in 2012, Russia has reaffirmed its ambitions to strengthen both hard and soft presence in Central Asia, viewing the region within its sphere of influence. This engagement was reiterated in the 2015 Strategy of National Security and in the 2016 Foreign Policy Concept. To draw a comparison, actors’ CD effectiveness is measured in terms of willingness, capacity, and acceptance, based on the theoretical framework proposed by Kingah, Amaya and Van Langenhove1. This paper finds that European CD efforts had mixed results due to an inconsistent policy towards the region. Although EU cultural heritage and educational influence are widely acknowledged, Russia remains today the major foreign actor in Central Asia, displaying strong levels of attractiveness among citizenry and elites. Historical and cultural ties, but also institutional and economic efforts allowed Moscow to keep its leading position. However, Russia’s future regional leadership should not be taken for granted, as all Central Asian states have been looking at Moscow’s cultural engagement with increased scepticism

Spatiotemporal neurodynamics of automatic temporal expectancy in 9-month old infants

open2noAnticipating events occurrence (Temporal Expectancy) is a crucial capacity for survival. Yet, there is little evidence about the presence of cortical anticipatory activity from infancy. In this study we recorded the High-density electrophysiological activity in 9 month-old infants and adults undergoing an audio-visual S1-S2 paradigm simulating a lifelike "Peekaboo" game inducing automatic temporal expectancy of smiling faces. The results indicate in the S2-preceding Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) an early electrophysiological signature of expectancy-based anticipatory cortical activity. Moreover, the progressive CNV amplitude increasing across the task suggested that implicit temporal rule learning is at the basis of expectancy building-up over time. Cortical source reconstruction suggested a common CNV generator between adults and infants in the right prefrontal cortex. The decrease in the activity of this area across the task (time-on-task effect) further implied an early, core role of this region in implicit temporal rule learning. By contrast, a time-on-task activity boost was found in the supplementary motor area (SMA) in adults and in the temporoparietal regions in infants. Altogether, our findings suggest that the capacity of the human brain to translate temporal predictions into anticipatory neural activity emerges ontogenetically early, although the underlying spatiotemporal cortical dynamics change across development. © 2016 The Author(s).openMento, Giovanni; Valenza, EloisaMento, Giovanni; Valenza, Elois

EU’s civil society bias in the neighbourhood : a case study on culture

This article attempts to analyse the European Union's (EU) financial and technical support to cultural actors in EU Neighbourhood countries. In particular, it enquires whether the boundaries of what cultural sector means for the EU are based on a Eurocentric understanding of civil society or rather on a more inclusive definition mediated with partner countries' societies. The work hypothesises that the EU tends to support cultural civil society organisations on the basis of their closeness to European standards, norms and values. Findings highlight a mixed picture. On the one hand. a Eurocentric understanding of civil society tends to prevail in EU discourses and is enforced by technical means addressing the status and capacity of the organisations involved, with some exceptions. On the other hand, the EU does not seem to impose strong prerequisites concerning the agenda of organisations and aims to be as inclusive as possible

Effectiveness evaluation of the ICE (Italian institute of foreing trade) promotional programme: case study

Evaluation and monitoring approaches and methodologies are spreading within the national and regional administrations directly involved in the management of the programmes co-financed by Structural Funds as well as within other institutional contexts where public policies are planned and implemented. The purpose of the present paper is to illustrate some results from a still ongoing training and consultancy project, on behalf of the ICE (Foreign Trade Institute), aiming at integrating ICE programming with evaluation and monitoring practices. Indeed, during the last year the ICE Programming Unit has been engaged in training and consultancy activities involving the application of evaluation and monitoring methodologies to the activities promoting ICE. The recipients of such initiative belong to the ICE Programming and Control Unit and they already gained experience in the evaluation area in the past within ad hoc working groups. More specifically, the purpose of this activity is to provide the opportunity to develop the means for a more effective management of the projects and start a broader process leading to organizational change and improvement.programme evaluation, effectiveness measure, customer satisfaction

A model for the analysis of security policies in service function chains

Two emerging architectural paradigms, i.e., Software Defined Networking (SDN) and Network Function Virtualization (NFV), enable the deployment and management of Service Function Chains (SFCs). A SFC is an ordered sequence of abstract Service Functions (SFs), e.g., firewalls, VPN-gateways,traffic monitors, that packets have to traverse in the route from source to destination. While this appealing solution offers significant advantages in terms of flexibility, it also introduces new challenges such as the correct configuration and ordering of SFs in the chain to satisfy overall security requirements. This paper presents a formal model conceived to enable the verification of correct policy enforcements in SFCs. Software tools based on the model can then be designed to cope with unwanted network behaviors (e.g., security flaws) deriving from incorrect interactions of SFs in the same SFC

How to have an effective online teamwork training, engaging employees through a supportive environment, in times of Covid-19

Nowadays online training is becoming crucial in employee’slife, this phenomenon already started in the last decade, however due to the current pandemic situation, companies had to improve and to update their tools to provide efficient training even during lockdown. This cross-sectional study (N=200) aims to identify the elements that, in online training settings, can be applied to implement the effectiveness of the training. We hypothesized that interactivity, as a characteristic of training, was positively related to the effectiveness of online teamwork training. Therefore, we supposed that a supportive working environment was positively connected to the efficacy of the training process. A regression analysis between those variables demonstrated the existence of these relations. Moreover, we hypothesized that the variable engagement was working as a mediator between interactivity and the effectiveness of training, but also between the variable supporting working environment and the training efficacy. The mediation model supported these hypotheses though with some limitations. Further, we discuss the practical implications of these findings and suggest directions for future research.Atualmente a formação por via digital está a tornar-se crucial na vida dos empregados, este fenómeno já começou na última década, contudo, devido à atual situação pandêmica, as empresas tiveram de melhorar e atualizar as suas ferramentas a fim de proporcionar uma formação eficiente mesmo durante o período de confinamento. Este estudo transversal (N=200) visa identificar os elementos que, em cenários de formação por via digital ou telemática, podem ser aplicados para implementar a eficácia da formação. Levantamos a hipótese de que a interatividade, como característica da formação, estava positivamente relacionada com a eficácia da formação on line relativa a trabalho em equipa. Portanto, equacionámos que um ambiente de trabalho de apoio estava positivamente relacionado com a eficácia do processo de formação. Uma análise de regressão entre estas variáveis demonstrou a existência destasrelações. Além disso, colocamos a hipótese de que a variável compromisso estava a funcionar como mediador entre a interatividade e a eficácia da formação, mas também entre a variável de apoio no ambiente de trabalho e a eficácia da formação. O modelo de mediação apoiou estas hipóteses, embora com algumas limitações. Além disso, discutimos as implicações práticas destes resultados e sugerimos orientações para futuras investigações

The New EU Strategy for Central Asia: A Case for Cultural Diplomacy. IES Policy Brief No. 6, April 2018 Issue

In June 2017, on the tenth anniversary of the first Central Asia Strategy, the Council of the European Union invited High Representative Federica Mogherini and the European Commission (EC) to draw a proposal for a new Strategy by late 2019. The Council's decision provides a pivotal opportunity to review the significant shortcomings of the previous Strategy and to assess the evolving regional environment, in which Russia and China have consolidated their influence. By presenting four possible strategies for future EU engagement, this policy brief argues that rather than increasing or reducing ‘hard’ commitments or keeping the same agenda, the new Strategy should enhance EU cultural diplomacy in the region. In line with the increased emphasis on the role of culture in European external action, EU cultural diplomacy should meet local citizenry’s aspirations and demands, and give Brussels a comparative advantage over other regional powers