Article Nisarg Essay

SME stands for Small and Midsize enterprises. The definition defers from country to country. A business that maintains its revenue or employees below a certain standard is called an SME. The European definition for SMEs is â€Å"The businesses which have less than 250 employees and the annual revenue is less than 50 million euro (or annual balance sheet total less than 43 million euro) are called SMEs.† India has defined SMEs under Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Development (MSMED) Act, 2006. It says for a small sized enterprise the investment in plant and machinery should be between 25 lakh and 5 crore and for a medium sized enterprise it should be minimum 5 crore and should not exceed 10 crore. This definition is applicable to the enterprises which are in manufacturing sector. For the enterprises which render services, if the investment is between 10 lakh to 2 crore they are called small sized and if the investment is between 2 crore to 5 crore they are called medium sized enterprises. The SME sector has been of prime importance for India as it involves less capital investment and is highly labour intensive. It boasts of being second highest in providing employment and contributes to our goal of inclusive growth and equal distribution of resources. SMEs prompts private ownership, instils entrepreneur skills in the youth and establishes powerful market supply chain. The report published by Ministry of Small and Midsize Enterprise says around 45% of the total output and 40% of the total export of the country comes from SMEs by employing 106.1 million people over 26 million units in 2013. It contributes around 22% to the nation’s GDP. Now instead of discussing the past the immense potential ahead prompts me to throw some more lights on future of SMEs and how India can fulfil its â€Å"Make in India† dream through it. Now in the world of cut throat competition it is  very important that we use all the technological resources we have. The next generation is to be driven by innovations and technology. The initial development in our SME sector was the result of the government policy of promotion and protection of small business units. But now after 1991 reforms and in the era of globalization the small business units are open to extensive competition from small and big giants all over the world. Therefore it has become essential that India shifts from technology transfer to technology innovation. The recent research work published by BCG says if Indian SMEs adopt latest IT tools they could generate additional revenue of $56 billion and can add 1.1 million jobs. One such tool is cloud computing which has changed the way IT solutions are being delivered. Cloud computing can provide cheaper solutions as it adopts pay per use policy. It reduces total operation cost and total cost of ownership by alleviating the risk for the cash strapped SMEs. The cloud facility enables secure storage and transfer of data. As the maintenance and software up gradation is taken care by the service provider it saves the company’s time and resources. To improve our supply chain further we can use computerized tracking and shipping devices along with electronic billing systems. There are plenty of supply chain related mobile apps like MCSA, Mobile TMS applications, Mobile Solutions by SAP and Oracle products. With barcode scanning, speech recognition features, high quality digital cameras and other auto run instruments provide high class warehouse functioning. Let me give an example to exhibit that. John Deere used SmartOps software platform and helped equipment supplier increase it’s on time shipments dealers from 63% to 92%, while reducing inventory by nearly $1 billion. Here one more thing to note is that we are in 21st century but our electric grid is a 20th century structure. It is highly inefficient and may breakdown any time. In 2003 we observed east-coast wide black out in India. The first step to resolve the issue can be the use of Smart Meters. It can relay a range of information about electricity usage, can give utility and customers alike a real time picture of how much power they are using at any point in time. The electricity can be used efficiently at time when the overall demand is low and the meter helps in doing that. By doing so we are smoothing the demand curves of power plants and utilizing the current power plants fully instead  of establishing the new ones. Apart from that the SMEs can use technology to market their products on social media. There are many cost effective tools available like websites, blogs, emails etc. One of the most popular and heavily used such tool is Facebook. It provides facility of flexible budgeting and provision to target a highly specific audience as shown below. Along with all the benefits that we extract from our SMEs we must ensure that we don’t harm our environment and use green technology as much as we can. The e-waste produced by the enterprises have to be managed properly. CloudBlue, based in New Jersey, helps tech companies process their e-waste on the site as well. So in nutshell technology is the answer to the question posed by the harmful effects produced by the technology. Hence I think India must keep including SMEs in its five year plans and should highly focus on the use of technology and innovation to develop this sector. We must use our executive wing to make time to time reforms. If taken as national goal I am confident our poor and middle class will surely come out of mediocrity and contribute to the development of the nation and we will be able to drive this third global cycle of development along with China. References: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_and_medium-sized_enterprises http://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/smallandmidsizeenterprises.asp msme.gov.in www.google.com www.facebook.com

Internet Cafe Feasibility

Introduction Nowadays, internet cafe is really in demand because of the fast changing technology that the people embraced. It continues to play a larger role in all aspects of life, people and especially student's needs to have knowledge to navigate the genealogical world with skill and knowing their responsibilities.An internet cafe is an area that provides internet access to the public that has time rate. Internet cafe is known as one method of communication, we use it for reading news headlines, searching, play electronic games, chatting with family and friends, watching, and etc,. It is recorded that the world's first Internet cafe belongs to Cafe Siberia which opened in London, England in September 1, 1994. It was founded by Eva Papoose who got the business idea of serving coffee to customers who are surfing the web while tinting at a coffee shop near the City University of London where she was taking her PHD degree.She started Cafe Siberia with six HP computers which are connec ted to the Internet through dial-up modems that were able to transfer rate of 9. 6 kilobits of data per second. The proposed business plan named â€Å"HIGH FIVE INTERNET CAFE† since the business primary role is to provide high quality service and the implementing unit is composed of five members. Rationale Providing internet cafe is a project we come up to suffice the demand of computer shop in different places has. With the heave of population every year, less computer shop is not sufficient for the future demands of community.This project is very additional and appropriate to be used. It is also comprises of stored different application and software that suitable to the people and especially for student needed. This place will also fully air conditioned and very secure to maintain good service and qualities of the computers. Project Description The computer units in the Internet cafe are consists of different applications and software like Microsoft Office Word, Microsoft O ffice Power Point, Microsoft Office Excel, and etc. Every unit has installed mainly needed software, applications and games. We proposed this project for the following reasons: To provide high quality and high standard computers for the future demands of customers. For customers' needs especially for the students. Allows people to communicate to their love one. Objectives To be able to acquire the computer system that will meet the expectation and needs of the computer users. To be able to prove that the proposed business will provide benefits to people. Significance of the StudyThe significance of this project is to help the society specifically to those where interests lies in the computers area. This area will be renting near schools, were our target customers are mainly students and nearby neighborhood especially those people whose relatives or loved ones are on abroad and find it very convenient communicating with them through chat and email. We make our customer comfortable, g ood music is well provided, the PC's is all well organized and arrange properly according to their rows for the convenience of our customer.Each computer has their own games, internet and surfing to be chosen by our customer, and it should be accessible to all users. Implementing Schedule Major Activities Project Proposal Strategies Time Frame Submission and approval of the Pro- April 5-6, 2014 eject Finding Equipments and Assurance for high quality equipment April 7-12, 2014 Location Construction and Set-up Preparation for the necessity of the April 14-30, 2014 equipments customers Submission of the Preparation and presentation of the April 31, 2014 Proposal Project 5 by 5 Square Meters Topology

Theory and Ideology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Theory and Ideology - Essay Example Thus, preventing Iran from creating and improving more machines must be done. It was during February 9, 2003 exactly at Natanz where the programs and efforts building of sophisticated facilities were revealed. There were also other cities where the construction and formation of uranium were found (Sahimi, 2003). When President Mohammad Khatami disclosed and revealed the information regarding Iran’s nuclear program, and the existence of Natanz facilities on the television, Dr. Mohammad El Baradei, the head of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) together with a team of inspectors, visited Iraq in February. The team was surprised with Iran’s high-tech devices; nuclear weapons and other instruments for mass destruction were numerous in number. This made IAEA furnish an ultimatum for Iran to reveal all the details of its nuclear activities. What made Iran’s nuclear program the center of attention to many countries was the February announcement. In addition, Unit ed States, the European Union, Russia, and Japan have been maintaining ‘closer look’ on Iran’s nuclear activities; they expressed strong demand that Iran should disclose all the information pertaining to nuclear weapons. The EU then was negotiating with Iran economic and cultural agreements, while Japan was looking after an oil agreement with Iran (Sahimi, 2003).Though United States and other allies have always been given the chance to participate with the development with Iran’s nuclear programs and to produce high class of nuclear weapons and reactors, yet they always refused--they were not certain that Iran really need nuclear energy, and use it for protecting its national interest. Last September 2009, a second uranium enrichment facility near the holy of Qom was discovered, leaving U.S and other member states suspicious of the ongoing development of nuclear machines; this revelation just confirmed the West fear that Iran would continue their ‘se cret’ undertakings. In fact, Iran has developed 4000 centrifuges (â€Å"Iran’s Uranium Enrichment,† 2009). However, the Western government has abjured their support to Iran after its nuclear development program was publicized. Consequently, Iran’s nuclear progress has depreciated. In spite the consequence, it was announced that Iran’s Darkhovin project has resumed by the Iranian officials; and a 360-megawatt reactor would be placed in that project (Bruno, 2010). Iran’s Sanction and U.S Ways to Dissuade Iran The United States used a â€Å"sharp† tooth to sanction Iran. It has imposed unilateral economic sanctions on Iran three decades ago. As mentioned earlier, U.S and the IAEA were not certain about the real purpose of nuclear weapons discovered in Iran, hence, the IAEA expressed an â€Å"absence of confidence† to Iran in September 2005. Not only member states of America have the knowledge about Iran’s growing nuclear ac tivity but also the United Nations Security Council. Iran has enough atoms to make a nuclear bomb (Broad & Sanger, 2009). Just December 2006, UN has adopted the first series of resolutions aimed to impose sanctions and punishment on Iran because of its continued manufacture of uranium--which is known to be hazardous and could be developed into nuclear weapons such as bombs and missiles. Resolution 1737 was initiated in order to bar Iran from selling or transferring those discovered sensitive nuclear technology. But on September 2008, another resolution was drafted

A Modest Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

A Modest Proposal - Essay Example He probably has some hidden agenda for making the proposals that he did. Maybe it is not in his interest to have all of those babies born, but I think that it should be up to the parents to decide what to do with their child. About the only good thing to come out of his proposal is that, as he says, it would reduce the number of abortions that took place. Parents would even be able to make some money out of it! Swift get a little inhumane when he says that children should be roasted like pigs because no butcher would want to have anything to do with them. This is correct and this shows that his proposal would not work at all. To back up his point of view, Swift lists out six reasons why his plan would be a good one. I agree with all of his reasons but I do not agree with the method to get there. At the end he reveals the real reason why he believes this; his youngest child is nine and so would not

Concise annotation of the given article Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Concise annotation of the given article - Essay Example The life cycle concept applied to products and stores (Davidson, Bates, and Bass, 1976) executed a significant study that defined the concept of the retail life cycle. Prior to that, the key explanation for retail development was the wheel of retailing concept. The main assumption in Brown's (1991) retailing theory is that businesses usually start with low service / low price product mixes. The main motivation for shopping on this initial stage is price. As the "wheel" revolves, and it usually does, the stores start adding more services (such as credit, sales-support staff, display, etc.) When this happens, the store does not attract the consumers who buy based on price any more. The store then becomes full service and supports higher prices. Stephen Brown's article is a highly academic piece of work. This valuable theoretical research around the topic of retail change and evolution of retail institutions is deeply credible, regarding the author's background. Brown is professor of Marketing Research at the University of Ulster, Newtownabbey, situated in Northern Ireland.

Successful Knowledge Worker Teams-Sheila Coursework

Successful Knowledge Worker Teams-Sheila - Coursework Example People and organizations adopt the Six Cs of Global Collaboration to enable them ensure they work together with their partners in different parts of the world. The three key factors of success for the globally distributed worker teams that I will illustrate are convergence, coordination, and communication. The goals and directives are maintained to be the same for all workers through convergence. A coordinated team ensures teamwork is organized as the team is kept up-to-date by communication. This paper will highlight convergence, coordination and communication as key elements that contribute to the success of knowledge worker teams. The ability of every team member to keep a clear purpose and shared priorities is what is considered in this case. Convergence is among the factors that are considered as the key elements that contribute to the success of knowledge worker teams distributed around the world. There are various reasons why one would be persuaded to ensure his or her team is convergent. The first reason is the fact that clear purpose among the team players is ensured through convergence. The objectives of each member involved in the team are usually directed to one clear goal same as that of the team. Every team leader wants to see his or her team working on one main objective of the team (Cochrane, 2014). Lack of deviation from the goal of the team puts the workers focused towards good performance. Therefore, every team leadership advocates for convergence of the relevant stakeholders of the team. Another main reason why convergence is critical for the success of knowledge worker teams is the fact that when the team is converged it will have shared set of priorities among the members of the team. It is important to have similar priorities as a team since the destructions that cause delayed performance can be avoided (De Felice, 2013). For example,

Convergence between GAAP and IFRS Research Paper

Convergence between GAAP and IFRS - Research Paper Example In 2008, FASB reorganized the many accounting principles into only 90 topics. In the same year, the Securities and exchange commission granted a roadmap that would eventually change the US use of the GAAP as accounting rules and adopt the most widely used IFRS rules, by the year 2011 (Bradshaw, 2010). The full adoption of the IFRs was projected to be accomplished by 2014. On the other hand, the history of the IFRS can be traced to 1966 when a proposal was issued to establish a study group consisting of various accounting bodies from England, USA, Canada, and Wales, which would study the possibility of establishing accounting standards that could be universally applied to guide the accounting functions of organizations the world over. In 1967, the Accountants International Study Group, tasked with the responsibility of creating the appetite for change in accounting standards, was created. The body published articles every few months on the need for change until 1973, when Accounting S tandards Committee was formulated to develop accounting standards for international use (Ball, 2006). This was followed by the establishment of the Standing Interpretations Committee to resolve the contentious issues that were arising from the standards crafted by the Accounting Standards Committee. ... By the year 2003, the International Financial Reporting Standards were first published and adopted. In 2005, the European Union adopted the standards and later all the companies in the UK were supposed to present their financial statements using these standards for their financial years commencing January 2005 (Bradshaw, 2010). The current status of the GAAP and IFRS depicts some differences in some of the accounting principles. The differences in their statuses are in terms of the impacts of the accounting standards on the financial statements provided by organizations (Wiley, 2007). Consolidation is the first of this impact where IFRS applies control model while the GAAP prefers the risk and rewards model (Bradshaw, 2010). In the preparation of the statement of income, the IFRS requires that extraordinary items are not segregated while the same are shown below the net income under the GAAP standards. Inventory is another difference currently portrayed by the preparation of the fina ncial statements under the two standards. Under the IFRS, the use of the historical method of managing stock LIFO, where the last item to be bought in the inventory list becomes the first to be sold, is prohibited. Under the GAAP system, however, organizations have a choice between the use of that historical method and the FIFO inventory management system where the first item in the inventory list becomes the first to be sold by a business entity (Ball, 2006). Under the IFRS system, the earnings-per-share calculations do not call for the averaging of the individual interim period, while under the GAAP the computation takes the averages of the individual interim period incremental shares (Bradshaw, 2010). Finally, under the IFRS

Fast Food Advertising Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Fast Food Advertising - Research Paper Example This essay "Fast Food Advertising" outlines the negative impact of this kind of commercial on the society and especially kids. Advertisement of fast foods in the media is to blame for the increase in childhood obesity in the current society because most of the children tend to have a desire of trying every fast food that they find being advertised without noticing that the effects of the same foods can be negative to their health and their future. There exists a relationship in children eating habits, food children observe being advertised and the choices of food that they also have and this has been observed in our current society. These bad eating habits of fast foods, which are influenced through foods being advertised, have led to increment of obesity among the children. Recent studies clearly indicate that the number of hours children spend watching tends to affect their eating habits, as well as the type of foods they consume. These studies revealed that the children who spent most of their time watching and paying attention to adverts on foods, tend to eat more fast foods. Considering children like and curious of being introduced to new things in their surrounding the moment a new advertisement is set for them, they make their friends understand that they have seen the advert, and are ready to try the new type of fast food in the market. Because parents always work hard to ensure their children have everything at their comfort they result to buying them the foods that they propose to them, which are usually fast foods.

Family or Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Family or Art - Essay Example The law and politics, human emotions, failings and desires, as well as survival and reproductive success in the biological sense all contribute to the notion of ‘family’ as we know it today. There are also fine and subtle variations determined by location (and dislocation, such as is caused by migration), race, religion, and a host of other complications devised, and brought about unwittingly, by humankind. In this family portrait the most important aspects are composition and palette. Prominence is given to the pet in the foreground. The color scheme also shows that the bespectacled boy, drawn in red, seems to have preference over the shadowy presence of sister, mom and dad. All are unsmiling: this could have a number of reasons. Is the pet being given away? Is the boy in trouble? Are boy and dog ganging up on the rest of the family? The three heads in the background could be snipped off at the corner, leaving boy and dog, who occupy most of the frame. This possibility gives this family a fault-line. All is not as happy as it looks on first look. The monotone color choice for this picture is deceptive, suggesting less happiness and unity than is visible on closer inspection. A mother and daughter are occupied in a yoga exercise that unites them in shape, concentration and harmony. They are almost one shape, so they make a family: they are dressed similarly, and only a singular purpose could keep a person in that pose. They both want to do this very much. They like to be together: are all families like this? This picture looks old-fashioned, like a woodcut, but its premise is contemporary. A single mother can bring up her daughter alone and they can enjoy harmony. The Gravenor family looks very correct, contained and harmonious, thanks to the artist’s composition and choices of color. Father, mother and two daughters? Or father, wife, daughter and grandmother? From this

Entrepreneural business concept Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Entrepreneural business concept - Essay Example Thus the agency has to have quality experienced social health based workers in addition to the fully certified nurses, personal attendants and some professional in physical and physiological health. The agency will give assistance for basic recuperation after the patient has been examined by the doctors. We shall plan to attend to the needs of that person such as cleaning, feeding, and administering the medication that patients have been administered (Braveman & Christina12). The opportunity also allows for use of expertise we shall have for doing first aid emergency calls on patients. If the discord suffered is easily manageable, we can attend to that issue. Concept statement Recovering from an incident if ill health is a great miracle that some of us take for granted. Managing to get support as the person is recuperating after having being treated is often a role many hospitals leave to the patients relatives. What happens if the person is elderly does not have parents or relatives living nearby and all neighbors are busy? With the huge population of many areas, it is even is hard for the available Medicare facilities to cater for all patients needs until they are fully well. This is the basis of the agency of home healthcare services. In so doing, the patients are sure that they shall continue to receive the professional monitoring for medical compliance hence recovering fully quickly. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction From the concept statement, it is clear there is need for an organization that will cater for the needs of all persons irrespective of their social status (Braveman & Christina 21). Therefore, introducing an organization that caters for the needs of these people who require plenty of attention and care is the driving force to establish a home care clinic. The clinic to be catering for these needs is Medicare Recovery services. The opportunity at hand is establishing a community based healthcare facility that will help in decongesting the few avai lable local and district as well as national hospitals. It is also to help the patients in cutting down the costs incurred while pursuing health services and accessing them with very minimal interference. A healthy patient’s recovering needs are significant for ensuring that the patient does not suffer relapse. Hence even as these patients are released from the established hospitals, they need first and support especially if they suffer from chronic illnesses. Medicare Recovery is a health services offering business venture that is communally based. Therefore its main client will be the patient from hospital at home recovering or people with special needs such as the elderly and the physically as well as mentally handicapped. As a service, we shall be directly in contact with our clients, attending to them precisely from their homes. This is because we acknowledge the fact that these people will do well if they are monitored in the presence of their loved ones (Han, Thurmon & Wu 26). Moreover knowing that there are no extra bills for bed as would be the case in the hospitals will keep them relaxed. We shall however provide additional holding capacity in our offices so as to accommodate for those who might not desire to stay in their homes or the clients who may need special observation and facilities that may not be availed at their homes. The service center will also have an emergency

Green River company Essay Example for Free

Green River company Essay Aberdeen facility is focused on the production of special missile canisters for US Navy. The peculiarity of the production lies in its extraordinary complexity. Canisters have many features that require special attention and careful assembling. Thus, the commitment of workers is the issue of crucial importance. Otherwise, the quality of product will suffer, which is absolutely inadmissible with regard to the nature of production. The privileged position of Aberdeen plant lies in the fact that it doesn’t actually have any competitors. It works for the only customer US Navy. However, it contains hidden threats as well, because there is always a chance of neglecting a quality of product knowing that there is no fight for a customer. The Aberdeen plant was started five years ago without using unions to regulate pay scales and define various job descriptions. It employs 100 employees and is much smaller in size than the Green River facility. The production line utilizes three-quarters of its employees. Bob Lancaster – the founder and the first manager of the plant first introduced the innovative participative management. Lancaster based his management theory on â€Å"doing the right thing, trust and if you can fix it, do it†. This functioned as a collective, it took away fear from doing or not doing what is needed to complete a task and it also gave each individual the responsibility of solving a problem without having to go through a chain of command to get results. Ken Dailey, Green River plant manager, is intrigued with the management processes at the FMC Aberdeen facility and thus is willing to implement similar changes at Green River. Dailey is a progressive manager and wants to innovate the Green River plant with a progressive style of management as well as three new plants that the corporation plans on building. The major organizational issue pertaining to the possible changes is that of an organizational structure. Obviously, within the Green River plant we notice usual linear structure of organization where authority is delegated from the top to the bottom, from the higher manager to the manager of the lower level. There is a direct relationship between superior and subordinate, with each subordinate responsible to only one person. Line relationships are associated with functional or departmental division of work and organizational control. Line managers have authority and responsibility for all matters and activities within their own department (Sterman, 2000). It means that organizational structure at Green River doesn’t suppose any personal initiative or any social interaction beyond the processes and functions defined. Moreover, linear structure also doesn’t suppose any group discussions, since major decisions are taken above. In contrary, Aberdeen facility has more flat organizational structure, when every employee can turn to the higher level one with an initiative, complaint or offer. Such an organizational structure presupposes more communication and thus has greater impact on employee’s motivation. Flat organizational structure kills the fear towards management in employees and create more favorable working atmosphere. Considering two different types of organizational structure within two facilities, it is possible to say that organizational structure actually impacts the organizational culture and the way people perceive themselves and their importance to the organization, treat each other and behave i. e. working atmosphere that exists. (Brislin, 1993) Thus, in Green River company, people are brought together based on defined roles within the structure of the organization. The nature of the tasks to be done is a predominant feature within this facility. Management, certain rules and relationships, identify goals and norms of behavior are established. Thus, Green River’s organizational culture is very formal. As it was mentioned before, employees do not have a chance and stimulus to socially interact with each other, share their ideas and experience. It is possible to identify Green River’s organizational culture as the one of total control and power from the center. At Aberdeen, in contrary, organizational culture is more people oriented, â€Å"humanized† and caring. This so-called â€Å"human† approach to management has resulted, in particular, in active interaction between employees, as well as in the fact that 30% of all employees were represented by women and 8% by minorities. It helped to create a positive image of the plant in the yes of Aberdeen community and people outside as well.

Victor Emmanuel Ii King Of Sardinia History Essay

Victor Emmanuel Ii King Of Sardinia History Essay Victor Emmanuel II king of Sardinia was affirmed King of Italy in 1861 when the country turned into a nation-state. The 1930s was a tense period for the peace which was achieved in 1919. This was the time when Benito Mussolini established his fascist party. A crucial factor during this period and which this assignment will analyse is Italys quest in Abyssinia taken by the lead of Mussolini. This paper is going to give prominence to Italy after WWI and some interests which came along with the Cold War period which remain consistent in Italys foreign policy nowadays. Of course one cannot miss out stating that Italy was a member with NATO and one of the six founders of the EEC which led Italy for integration economically and politically. As a conclusion I will conclude by stating the imminent problems Italy faces such as illegal immigration, unemployment, low standards of living in the South compared to the industrialised North. Unification of Italy Despite the setbacks of 1848-49, these lead the way to the Italian unification. The factors which mainly united Italy were its Italian language, religion and its geographic position as it is a peninsula in the centre of the Mediterranean. Italys unification came along through wars such as the war with Austria (1859), Garibaldi and the 1000 redshirts frightened more Cavour as Garibaldis popularity would put the position of Victor Emmanuel II a risk, the annexation of Venetia (1866) and the conquest of Rome (1870). Napoleon conquered the Italian peninsula and created the puppet King of Italy in 1792. He combined the smaller Italian city-states into larger units to make his rule more efficient but opposition to him as a foreign ruler stimulated Italian nationalism. The defence of Rome created the hero Giuseppe Garibaldi considered as the sword of the unification. He joined the Young Italy movement and was commander in the conflicts of the Risorgimento. He was a friend of Giuseppe Mazzini the soul of the unification who was a Carbonaro. Mazzini was the first influential revolutionary of the Risorgimento as the movement had dissatisfaction with the re-establishment of the old monarchies. Meanwhile Camillo Benso di Cavour was the brain of the unification and founder of a political journal The Resurgence. Within a few years he transformed Piedmont into modern state by removing duties, built railways. Finally he also reorganised the army. Cavour was aware that Piedmont needed strong allies against Au stria. In 1854, when the Crimean war broke out he was asked by Britain and France to send troops because Austria needed assurance that if she joined the allies, Piedmont would not take advantage of the situation. During the Paris Peace Conference in 1856, Cavour drew the attention on grievance of the Italians and pointed to Austria as their main cause. During the following two years, the relationship between France and Sardinia-Piedmont improved since Napoleon III had long-standing sympathies towards the Italians. Cavour always supported the interests of people struggling to be free. Hence he knew that a military campaign against Austria in Italy would mean following his uncles footsteps. Alliances and Alignments The Dual Alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary was defensive in nature. This was Bismarcks reaction to Russias implied threat in the aftermath of the Berlin Congress. However, this alliance should not be regarded as Bismarcks final choice between Austria and Russia but their affiliation was for Austrians who escaped from the diplomatic isolation. On the other hand the triple alliance (1882) was made between Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy. Consequently through these alliances, Bismarck managed to isolate France completely from the other powers. While Britain never bothered to form an alliance with any of the other powers since it followed the policy of the splendid isolation. For that reason by the Mancini Declaration Italy would not be drawn in an alliance which would work against Britain. The Scramble for Africa Mussolini wanted glory and conquest: his style of leadership needed military victories. He had often promoted the idea of restoring the glory of the Roman Empire. In fact Richards states that: Italy was desperately anxious to fill her pockets and vindicate her claim to be a major power by acquiring colonies  [1]  . Mussolini was intent on avenging the humiliation the Italians had suffered back in 1896 against the Abyssinians. The dispute over territory between Abyssinian soldiers and Italians over the incident in Wal-Wal was Mussolinis main excuse for invading Abyssinia in 1935. In 1933 the Four Power Pact was signed and committed states to cooperation for a period of 10 years. On 7th January 1935, the Franco-Italian agreement was signed to counteract what they perceived to be an increasing German threat to their national security. The Italians still anti-German at this time, welcomed this alliance with the French  [2]  . Britain and France failed to take Mussolinis threat of invading Abyssinia seriously. In 1935 France, Britain and Italy signed the Stresa Pact to resist any German attempt to alter the Versailles Treaty by force. During this meeting they didnt even raise the question of Abyssinia so Mussolini took it for granted that he had a free hand in Colonial Expansion  [3]  . After 8 months the League finally put forward a plan which would give Mussolini some of Abyssinia. He rejected it.  [4]   Mussolini conquered Abyssinia: the last independent African Nation. At this point the Covenant of the League made it clear that sanctions had to be introduced against the aggressor as this was a clear case of a large state attacking a weaker one. However, they were not too effective as oil was not banned and also the Suez Canal was not closed to Mussolinis supply ships  [5]  . The Canal was the Italian main supply route to Abyssinia both Britain and France were afraid that closing the canal could result in war with Italy  [6]  . This decision was fatal for Abyssinia. Mussolini was astonished at the League sanctions: Frances and Britains silence at Stresa over Abyssinia had led Mussolini to think that they would not take his adventures in Abyssinia negatively. Mussolini considered the sanctions a front of conservation, of selfishness and of hypocrisy  [7]  . During this period the Hoare-Laval Plan, a secret dealing between Britain and France was trying to solve this crisis. These two Foreign Ministers aimed to give Mussolini 2/3 of Abyssinia in return for his calling off the invasion. Laval threatened Britain that if they didnt agree to the plan then France would no longer support sanctions against Italy. While Britain activated modest economic sanctions against Italy, Laval promised Mussolini that Italys access to oil would not be disrupted. This policy came to be known as all sanctions short of war  [8]  . When Italys conquest of Abyssinia was completed by May 1936, Haile-Selassie made a last appeal to the League of Nations: It is not merely a question of settlement in the matter of Italian aggression. It is a question of collective security; of the trust placed by States in international treaties; of the value of promises made to small states that their integrity and their independence shall be respected and assured. It is a choice between the principle of equality of States and the imposition upon small Powers of the bonds of vassalage  [9]  . On 9th May 1936, Abyssinia was annexed collective security had been shown as an empty promise. It was evident that Italy could not pursue its interests at Abyssinia and Spain and at the same time guard its security in central Europe, that is why it opted for an alliance with Germany. After 1935 Europe experienced a collapse of Balance of Power and signed the Rome-Berlin axis in November 1936. Italy after WWI By the formation of military alliances, Europe was divided into two groups of alliances. At first these alliances were formed to prevent war and were meant to keep the balance of power in Europe. Leaders believed that if one nation had more power than the other, war could be avoided but the threat of war grew in spite of these alliances. In fact Bismarcks balance of power collapsed. Italy was united in 1870 but there was a serious division between North and South since the North was industrial while the South was still agricultural. After WWI a gap still existed between the rich and the poor. As a result socialism became very strong and popular in Italy. The Italo-Turkish war purpose was to add colonies in North Africa. This war revealed the weakness within Italy which failed an expansionist policy. After the war, Trieste and Trentino were handed over to Italy as part of compensation for her involvement in the war. This left Italy dissatisfied since the government had expected to receive parts of the Dalmatian Coast. As a result Italy became known as a have not country. By the Treaty of Versailles signed at the end of WWI the Italians believed that it treated them badly. Italy had not been given the land promised at the Secret Treaty of London in 1915 and as a consequence Italys foreign Minister Orlando left the Commission humiliated. Benito Mussolini set up the Fascist Party and promised to solve Italys problems. He came to power in 1922 and was appointed Prime Minister by King Victor Emmanuel to prevent a Communist revolution in Italy. Accordingly in 1922 the March on Rome established Mussolini and the Fascist Party as the most important party of Italy. By the late 1920 there was a more expansionist and aggressive foreign policy. Mussolinis notion reflected imperialist ambitions even before WWI during the Abyssinian crisis. Mussolini saw and adopted aggressive foreign policy (1933-39) as a destruction of domestic problems of a country. Italy and the Cold War Despite the inability to agree on various national interests there still remained some interests in Italys foreign policy which remained consistent. Starting with the Truman Doctrine introduced by USA was a policy to contain communism with financial aid to the West of Europe and to support the communist political party in Italy. It had the tendency to have a more equidistant approach in foreign policy. Internationally Italy has a long welcoming relationship with USA. This is due to the fact that both countries worked together in areas such as the Atlantic alliance (NATO), within the UN and promote prosperity and peace. Important to note is that USAs thousands of military troops are based in Italy which is a sign of cooperation between both countries for the cause of avoiding terrorism. Communism formed in Italy by the Partito Comunista Italiano (PCI) by breaking away from the Socialist Party. The PCI fought against Nazi in WWII and after war it became a contributor to the Italian constitution while supported by many voters. But PCI was replaced in 1991 by the Partito Democratico della Sinistra (PDS). Italy guarded the equidistance policy (1933-36) with Britain and France while authorizing German revisionism of the Treaty of Versailles without committing herself to either bloc. Mussolini dreamed of promoting his Italy in his Mare Nostrum. In fact Italy acknowledges the role as one of the strongest country in the Mediterranean. Italys policy nowadays, is an image of the rights and responsibility in regards to regionality in the Mediterranean. The notion of opportunism in foreign policy seized opportunity in national interests especially in post-Cold War and Cold War period as it initiated multilateral agreements. It saw instances available for its infrastructure, benefits and economic recovery and therefore an extension of switching alliances. The notion of opportunism hence let Italy paving the way for EU integration. Italys influence in EU integration was by Altiero Spinelli with his Ventetone Manifesto (1941) from where he had long been advocating the notion of US of Europe. Peace and stability in EU was by federalising European states. In terms of reputation, Italy benefited more, guaranteeing the best situations for society and making the best out of its circumstances. Priorities in Italys Foreign Policy There is an overlapping level of importance in Italys Foreign Policy considering that the Right wing is more ready to give priority to US while the Left wing tends to be more prone to give EU greater role in its foreign policy. But the three main priorities which are still present in foreign policy are the relations with USA, the EU, and the Mediterranean. So it is clear enough to say that after the end of the Cold War there was a more active foreign policy. As I have been mentioning before the Mediterranean is crucial in Italys foreign policy. The notion of Mare Nostrum or Italian opportunism put the Mediterranean in the sphere of influence and with an obligation to take more responsibility in the region. This in fact entails cooperation agreements, in tackling the North-South divide issue. On a multilateral basis there are initiatives within the transatlantic relationship which almost brought 50years of peace in Europe and in the rest of the world to prevent another conflict. In 1961 with the fall of Berlin Wall strife between the Western and Eastern blocs faded and brought the Balkan area together. This is also what happened in post 9/11 with the ominous warning of clash of civilisations where if freedom and respect for humanity dont exist there is no expectation for peace. In this state of affairs the West set the goals for integration within the EU. But the countries which enhanced most and label themselves in the Atlantic bond must take action in catastrophe where humanity is in danger. Italys contributions in regards to culture and history are a melting pot to Europe: Take the art works of Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, . add the architecture of Venice, Florence and Rome and you have just a fraction of Italys treasures from over the centuries  [10]  . Italy an EU member, being the 7th largest economy in international affairs today has the worlds 6th highest export, a strong member of G8 industrialised nations and G20 especially when it comes to role with USA, China and EU. Italy is also the 5th major tourist destination where revenues which enter from the tourism sector are profitable enough. The Italian peninsula at the centre of the Mediterranean is a major destination for migrants who reach the Italian shores. This cause brings a challenge to the Republic of Italy. Hence immigration in Italy turned to be a political dialogue tackling migration as a security issue and fulfilling policies particularly having connotations to human rights. Roberto Maroni stated My concern as interior minister is to guarantee the highest possible levels of security, first and foremost by combating clandestine immigration  [11]  . One of the reasons to which Italy can adopt a more developed role is within its domestic politics. Italian politics is generally considered a complex and puzzling affair, steeped in clientelism, corruption, excessive party influence, a byzantine bureaucracy, and last but not least, mysterious conspiracies as well as bloody episodes of political violence  [12]  . September 11 coincided with Berlusconi coming in office in May 2001. But in 2006 the LUnione led by Romano Prodi formed the government of the time but resigned after 9 months after a policy about operation troops in Afghanistan and US expansion military base failed. He focused on the importance of making Italy important in the special relationship with USA on the same lines of Britain since the latter was a US ally. In this way Italy will have these benefits and translate to energy and oil resources. One can notice that USA is still one of the benchmarks in Italys policy. Prodi was again criticised in 2008 when the UDEUR party left his coalition. All this caused turmoil because Parliament was diffused and elections were held in April. But Berlusconi won his 3rd term in 2008 and so the party is dominated by the centre-right politics. When Berlusconi came to power in 2008 a law was passed giving him immunity from prosecution while being in office. Consequently in November 2008, Italy was affirmed in recession. Nevertheless the main shock experienced by the earthquake in Aquila in 2009 left several people homeless and towns heavily damaged. Conclusion Undoubtedly in my opinion I strongly agree with the quote of Michael Clark Gli italiani non si sono mai messi daccordo riguardo a dove si trovino i loro interessi nazionali. This is due to the fact that one of the problems that characterise Italys foreign policy is the notion of inability to agree on various national interests. Everyday examples include the division between the industrialised North and the poor South. In fact the Italians in the North want to form part of Austria and France since they speak their languages. Certain zones in the north as Venice, Turin are the richest of Europe while the Sothern part is the opposite with few industries and few job opportunities for youths. On administration level, Berlusconi though went through several mistakes in his administration he always sought his aims and succeeded.

Analysis of the E-brokerage Industry

Analysis of the E-brokerage Industry Executive Summary The financial brokerage industry has undergone dramatic changes worldwide in the last decade, due to the rise of the Internet. E-brokerage brought huge opportunity to the industry as it introduces enormous amount of on-line traders but at the same time posted serious threat as it open up the market to new competitors. In this thesis, we investigate past and current challenges the brokerage industry faced. From our literature review, we studied the impact of online trading to the brokerage industry and the online traders, and proposed solutions pinpointed to the facts we found. We studied the challenge the brokerage industry faced from the perspectives of strategy, marketing and technology and carried out strategic analysis using value chain and framework of five forces by Michael E. Porter. A small scale survey was conducted to collect local people attitude towards online/mobile trading and we used the data collected to justify the information we found during our literature review. F inally, we proposed a basket of suggestions for the brokerage industry in various aspects including product enhancement, customer education, partnership, differentiation, customer segmentation and more. An in-depth interview with a local broker firm was organized to value our suggestions, their feedback are positive. Introduction The tough challenge among e-brokerage industry is still going on and in fact, it is getting even more furious. The situation was more rigorous during bearish market after the burst of IT foams, SAR outbreak and the recent financial tsunami. The strategy the brokerage firms adopted to handle the challenges they faced determine who will survive the competition and stay in the market. Losers will soon be squeezed out of the market. This is especially true for small to median size local brokerage firms who are now facing new competitors like direct banks and oversea online trade provider like E-Trade. Confronted with growing competition, old-guard brokers are being forced to restructure and re-focus their market offerings. Various strategies were adopted, some brokerage firms seek to maintain their lead in value-added services through a focus on knowledge/advise more financial planning and investment advice rather than transactions -processing trades. Other firms attempted to comprehen d how to offer on-line services without alienating their brokers, to minimize channel conflict. The purpose of this article is to analysis the current e-brokerage practices and device new service directions and enhancement to existing products to increase competence of our local brokerage industry. We will first present the evolution of security trading in Hong Kong and characteristic of different types of brokerage firms and customers. From our literature review, we found that online trading exerted great impact on both brokerage industry and online traders. For brokerage firms, they faced vigorous competition due to new competitors, reduced customer loyalty and market fragmentation due to low entry barrier. While illusion of knowledge and control, lack of personal advice and overwhelmed by information were the hurdle online traders faced. We have presented the strategic challenge faced by the brokerage industry and analysis their strategy using value chain and framework of five forces algorithm. We have devised a basket of suggestions and discussed with a brokerage firm the f easibility to comprehend our research. Financial Broker Industry In Hong Kong Evolution of security trading in Hong Kong The ultimate goal of a well-functioning stock market is to bring together all possible buyers and sellers, so that the market price reflects the combined preferences of all participants. The history of securities trading in Hong Kong can be traced back to 1866. The present Sock Exchange of Hong Kong (HKEx) was established as a result of the unification of four exchanges during the big market boom in 1986, while the first stock exchange began its operation in 1891. Exchange System Architecture Computerized trading system was first introduced on 2 April 1986 and in 1993 the exchange launched the Automatic Order Matching and Execution System (AMS), which was replaced by the third generation system (AMS/3) in October 2000. AMS/3 is the core system used to serve securities trading which has significant enhancements in central market functions, open connectivity and system capacity as compared with AMS/2. AMS/3 supports multiple trading facilities for market access. Most of the participants developed their own Broker Supplied System (BSS) which interfacing with AMS/3 via the Open Gateway (OG) facility for greater control to the front-end solutions instead of the Multi-workstation System (MWS) by HKEx. The open connectivity of OG has made possible the large-scale automation of Participants operations, enabling Participants to offer new investor services and experience efficiency gains. In 2002, a new generation of the system, CCASS/3, was launched for clearing and settlement. MD S (Market Data Feed System) is the key system used for delivery of securities price data to about 60 local and international information vendors. HKATS (Hong Kong Futures Automated Trading System) is the electronic order matching system operated for the derivatives market. Advancement in information technology, especially the Internet, is revolutionizing traditional commerce. Obviously the securities industry, and in particular the on-line brokerage, is at the forefront of this revolution. Here in Hong Kong, retail online trading as a proportion of total retail investor trading continued to grow in 2008/09, reaching 43 per cent from 39 per cent in 2007/08. Its contribution to total market turnover was 10 per cent, up from 7 per cent in 2007/08. For stock options, retail online trading contributed 23 per cent of total retail investor trading (up significantly from 15 per cent in 2007/08) and 2 per cent of product turnover (1 per cent in 2007/08). For other derivatives, retail online trading contributed 49 per cent of total retail investor trading and 18 per cent of total product turnover (up from 44 per cent and 15 per cent respectively in 2007/08). Types of Brokerage Firm The basic function of a brokerage firm is to execute buy and sell orders for clients. Traditionally these firms have offered the investigation of the quality and the possibilities of investing in a variety of investment products. It is still accustomed for brokerage firms to offer information about possible investments free of charge. This activity of bringing free of charge stock investment reports is one of the main tools that are utilized by brokerage houses to compete against other firms. To investors, it continues to be an important service. However, with the bloom of communication technology, especially the Internet, more and more investors rated that investment reports as less important service. Instead, those investors preferred other types of services that charged less commission and service fee, by forfeiting those investment reports. In order to capture this vast diverse clientele, the brokerage industry segmented itself. After the restrictions in commissions were eliminat ed, several brokerages began to open up their doors as discount brokerage firms. At that time, brokerage firms were classified into two types: full service brokers and discount brokers. Full service brokerage firms continued to offer informative stock reports and a level of service much higher than other brokerage houses. They looked for purchasing and selling opportunities for clients and offering more customer and portfolio advisory service than was available from discount brokers. Discount brokerage houses, on the other hand, only dedicated themselves to execute orders for clients with minimal services. These differences in services and philosophies led to great differences in commission costs. It was evident that these differences were an important factor in the return of an investment. Type of customers in brokerage industry In Hong Kong customers of brokerage firm can be divided into three typical categories: l Prestige Group: These are customers with large amount of capital put in to the brokerage firm for investment. They have granted total authority to the brokerage firm to execute trading decision on behalf of them. Although they are minority in terms of the customer base of brokerage firm, they contribute a great portion of revenue to the brokerage firm. l Middle Group: Customer of this group usually trade through account agent of the brokerage firm. They utilities financial information, report and analyzing tools provided by the brokerage firm to make trading decision. Account agent will also actively contact these customers whenever they see an investment opportunity fit for them. l Basic Group: Customer mostly uses service of brokerage firm to maintain account balance and execute trading order on the own. Although multiple channels are supplied to them, they mostly adopt on-line trading as their first choice of trading media. Although the first two groups of customers contribute quite a large portion of the revenue of brokerage firm, we will concentrate our research on the third group for two reasons. First, there is a clear trend that this group of customer is increasing in a fast pace. Second, by investing and improving the on-line system, the other group will also be benefited. Literature Review Online-Brokerage Simply put, â€Å"On-line brokerage† can be defined as selling of securities which encompasses equity like stocks and warrants and derivatives like bonds, mutual funds etc, on the Internet. Although traditional banks and brokers also provided online trading after year 2000, new entrants like direct banks and new brokers offered a genuine e-commerce business model. Direct banks are internet-only banks or virtual banks. These banks were designed without a traditional banking infrastructure with physical branches. This cost-saving advantage enabled many of them to offer savings accounts with higher interest rates, loans with lower interest rates and minimal management fee and commissions than most traditional banks. More and more customer joined in as online trade and a peak was hit on year 2000. At the same time, new competitors like traditional brokers and virtual banks joined in proactively by acquiring existing brokerage firm or using their own business model. At that time, t hen customer base and knowledge of the traditional institutions was still advantages for online trading enhancement. The strategy online brokers adopted was customers segmentation and directed their offer to the most preferred customer group, the active private investors, which allowed them to swiftly catch up the market. Compared with banks, absence of physical branches thus low overhead costs gave these internet brokers an advantageous in cost structure. They competed with each other rigorously to achieve the biggest market share in the shortest time frame to reach the break even point. The strategy to conquer and develop loyalty of new customers was invested massively in marketing. They also adopted a cut-throat commission rate to attract private individuals who were more sensitive to this cost of investment. The position of banks and traditional brokers in the brokerage business was deeply undermined by the pressure caused by these new entrants. Bloom of on-line trading For the first time ever, investors could, from the comfort of their own homes, accessed a wealth of financial information including breaking news developments and market data on the same terms as market professionals did. In addition, on-line brokerage provided investors with tools to analyze this information, such as research reports, calculators, and portfolio analyzers. Finally, on-line brokerage enables investors to act quickly on this information. The technological and regulatory barriers that gave traditional brokerage and securities companies edges were rapidly becoming extinct. First, new provider quickly gained access to the market by leveraged on the use of Internet technology. Without expensive branch networks and labor-intensive advisory services, new competitor like direct banks and new online brokerage firms were able to process retail clients orders in relatively low cost. Second, the bull markets in year 2000 attracted large number of new online customers. For example , lot of local residents became online investors and started to hold security when frequent and gigantic scale IPO activity were taking place during 2006. These new customers welcomed the new internet investment style that encompassed vast amount of free of charge real time information, enhanced market transparency, convenience and low commission. Together with the rising share prices in bull market atmosphere, these new customer, in particular, heavy traders quickly got accustomed to doing online trade. The Internet also made other comparisons easier. For example, it increased price competition for products for which price comparison was previously more difficult. New information applications enabled investors to compare the quality of trade execution provided by different brokerages and thus extend the trading costs that investors consider beyond commissions. Companies scrambled to create viable strategies that balance many priorities. Typical considerations included: Should they defend their existing customer base or enter into new customer segments? Grow their existing business or expand into new products? Acquire, partner or go alone? Basically, companies were competing not only to offer different and better products and services, but to design robust, lucrative business models that took advantage of emerging forms of electronic commerce. Electronic commerce the facilitation of exchange of value over computer networks fundamentally changed the brokerage business in part by increasing the velocity of financial services [1]. Impact of on-line brokerage Hurdle on brokerage firm Rigorous competition With the advancing Internet technology, investors had became less reliant on stockbrokers for trade execution or obtaining research information as such services were readily available on the Internet. In addition, the Internet was a convenient and efficient channel for doing stock trade transactions and for providing information support to investors. Indeed, the trend of self-investing led to the proliferation of Internet brokerages around 2000, offering trading services on the Internet at very low commission rates compared to using traditional brokerages. Reduced customer loyalty Lower transaction costs online led many investors to e-brokerages and away from traditional brokers to place their trades Another concern was that since investors feel that they can distinguish between the good and bad advice that they find on the Internet, they therefore were not be willing to continue to pay a financial planner solely for their expert opinion. This was in part due to the information illusion discussed in next section: illusion of knowledge and control, where investors feel that since they have access to so much information that they had no need to pay for such service and can do it better on their own. Reduced customer-broker cohesiveness Before on-line trading is prevalent, a single stock trade typically involves multiple telephone conversations between a customer and a broker. The broker may take the opportunity to reinforce the personal relationship with the customer by discussing pros and cons of the trade or offer tailor-made investment package. On the contrary, on-line traders are more on their own. Together with the convenience to switch broker, the loyalty of the customer to the brokerage firm is largely weakened. Although transactions are the bread and butter of brokerage companies, brokerage firms were also strived to developing client relationships in order to provide total solution to their customers. The income by providing strategic planning, advisory services, financial advices, margin loan and other client services are also vital to brokerage companies.. Market fragmentation Market fragmentation occurs when too many competitive suppliers enter an active or new market. It happened starting from 1998 and peaked around 2001, when online trading started to take off and attracted many different competitors. They all aimed attract on-line investors and to achieve the largest possible market shares by all means, for example, by giving them some extra bonuses. However, the sudden downturn of the market quickly turned a lot of these new investors to passive customers, if not entirely retired, due to lack of knowledge and experience. This phenomenon was even more obvious after market started to plunge beginning at 2001. As a matter of fact, it is too risky for e-brokers to over-rely on commission as the main source of revenue. After all, the demand for brokerage services highly depends on investment atmosphere of stock market. The number of on-line executed orders during bullish and bearish market varies significantly. These large variation experts high risk for those who base their income on commission. In order to safeguard possession of active traders during both bullish and bearish market, it is very important to educate them and foster a correct investment culture. Lower entry barrier The Internet changed how information is delivered to investors and the ways in which investors can act on that information. On-line brokerage provide a effective and convenient access media between customers and the brokerage firm, the unit cost of operations is much reduced. It had lowered both the fixed and marginal costs of producing financial services, thus enabling newer, smaller companies to challenge established providers of these services. On-line brokerage firms, such as E*Trade, are among the most vivid and successful financial service firms to provide on-line financial advice, research tools, and financial information that emerged in the last decade. These e-commerce firms transformed the way traditional services were delivered and offered a vast assortment of new services. Hurdle on customer Investors in general and on-line investors in particular now make decisions in a very different environment than investors in the past. They have access to far more data. They often act without personal intermediaries. They can conduct extensive searches and comparisons on a wide variety of criteria. Although the quantity they can produce may be large, it is the quality that matter. As a consequence, they trade more actively, more speculatively but less profitably than before. On-line trader stress heavily on commission and management cost when choosing broker firm to use. However, there are other unobservable costs that are unaware by them: information-processing costs, information illusion, illusion of control, frequent trading behavior, and the lack of personal advice. Information-processing costs Information-processing costs are the costs that online investors sustain before they actually make a transaction and it is defined by the time and energy that the investor expands trying to reach an investment decision. Because of the huge volume of information found on the Internet that it can take investors a lot of extra time to find, sort, and analyze all of the relevant information. This in turn can out-weigh the benefits of online trading for some investors because they might not be able to afford the opportunity. In fact, the overwhelmingly huge amount of information available on the Internet scales many investors away, let alone their validity or intentional hoax. Illusion of knowledge The proposition that more information leads to better decision-making is intuitively appealing. But the truth of the proposition depends on the relevance of the information to the decision and on how well-equipped the decision maker is to use the information .The vast amount of on-line investment data available will enable investors to confirm their prior beliefs and may lead them to become overconfident in their ability to pick stocks and other securities. Faster feedback may focus investors attention on recent performance. Psychology shows that when people who initially disagree on a topic are given arguments on either side of the issue, they become further polarized in their beliefs. They are impressed by the arguments with which they already agree and they discount opposing views. Not only are people more impressed by arguments they favor, but they actively seek out confirming evidence. For this reason, investors are more likely to visit chatrooms or forum of like-minded investor s. If controversies ensue, they are likely to be convinced by those with whom they already agree. Investors who believe that additional information makes them better investors are unlikely to seek out or attend to evidence that indicates otherwise. Thus, on-line investors are likely to become overconfident. They may believe that they have more ability to perform tasks such as stock-picking than they actually do. In theoretical models, overconfident individual investors trade more actively and more speculatively than they otherwise would, hold under diversified portfolios, have lower expected utilities, and contribute to increased market volatility. In an empirical study of investors at a large discount brokerage who switched from phone-based to personal computer-based trading by Barber and Odean, they find that after going on-line, investors tend to trade both more actively and more speculatively. Illusion of control This illusion results when investors think that because they have access to so much information via the Internet that they have an advantage over the entire market and this can lead them to make bad investment decisions. These investors then have an exaggerated sense of control over the outcomes of their investments. Frequent trading is another cost associated with online investing. Low transaction costs can encourage frequent trading and day-trade strategy according to Konana, Menon and Balasubramanian. As an example, in Singapore, 71.1 per cent of online investors say that they trade more frequently than they did prior to online trading (Teo, Tan, Peck, 2004). Researches show that most of the on-line traders adopt short term trading strategy: a risky strategy rather than the believed buy and hold strategy. The Internet also seems likely to change what information investors focus on, because it reduces the cost of some kinds of information more than others. For instance, the Intern et especially facilitates comparisons of real time data, and thus has changed investors focus by emphasizing the importance of speed and immediacy. While the serious individual investor of a decade ago may have checked stock positions once a day in the morning paper, casual investors now may check theirs several times an hour. Many more investors pay attention to short term-even intraday- return trends than ever before. Worse still, many firms advertise their ability to deliver real time data or to execute investors orders rapidly, making the situation even worse. Lack of personal advice The downside of investing online is the lack of personal advice from those in the financial field (Vakil Lu, 2005). According to Phelan (2001), the Web will never be able to substitute for the judgment and expertise of financial planners, nor will it be able to protect investors from all of the scams that are abundant on the Internet. In reality, the news and new information people found on the internet might not be as new as they think. Moreover, many online traders only focus on the here and now and do not look at the whole picture or at the future as financial advisors are trained to do, thus jeopardizing their investment. Challenge Our research examines the pressures for change over the past decade that was overcoming the inertia in the brokerage industry. We viewed the challenge from the perspectives of traditional brokerage firm and electronic brokerage firm. Traditional brokerage firm To provide online trading, traditional brokerage firms were forced to decide on which of the two approaches to go, either establishes new subsidiary with a new brand name or provide under its own name. For the first case, brokerage firm suffer from overlapped company structure and considerable marketing expenditure to build the new name, which prolonged the period to reach break even point. The later case, though easier to setup, brokerage firm is putting their reputation at stake when the service do not meet customers expectation. The strategy adopted was to have differentiated brands serve the younger, more tech-savvy investors that gravitated to on-line trading without nibbling full-commission business. With the advent of the World Wide Web, discount brokerage firms face a comparable disintermediation dilemma. Commissions were suddenly under pressure, customers wanted to trade directly, and competition is coming from non-traditional sources like direct banks. To address the competitive threat, some entrenched firms adopted the supermarket approach by providing other supplementary services like providing financial information and news. However, such approach was in fact a typical re-intermediation path that directly competed with full service brokerage firm which offered a wider portfolio of products and services. Nevertheless, creating a financial services supermarket was a misguided strategic choice for three reasons: First, many successful 1990s businesses have rediscovered the virtues of adhering to their core competencies and the power of strategic outsourcing in order to gain agility. Most of the conglomerates which attempted to enter the financial services arena learned the hard way that adding unfamiliar lines of business can dilute their ability to compete, weaken shareholder and customer loyalty and multiply management complexity. The reason for failure was economic. Risk and cost sharing in the production or delivery process can enable better time to market and make providing a product/service bundle more efficient than integrating everything in-house. Second, offering additional products to an existing customer base does not prevent customers from leaving. Also, the decision to add new products to an existing portfolio is complicated by an uncertain environment such as the Internet. In an uncertain techno-marketplace, a firm is often making an informed guess about what it thinks is best for a customer without fully knowing what that customers preferences and goals are. Third, technology-enabled firms like ETrade were taking the â€Å"re- intermediation† path in a new way by providing customers with interactive and personalized services at little or no cost. This branding and trust-building approach enables the service providers to learn directly and accurately from each customer whats actually important to him or her. Armed with this intimate customer knowledge, these companies are better positioned to build loyalty and increase profits for the long term. Clearly, re-intermediation was a difficult strategy as sustainable competitive advantage was becoming rare in the on-line environment. High performers today look for a series of short-term advantages over a long period of time instead of attempting to plot a far-sighted course in an environment with too many unpredictable variables. Innovative Internet-based intermediaries were the real threat to the entrenched players. These firms were adopting dramatically more effective means of forging interactive relationships with customers added value, which was essentially the incremental benefit that the new in the middle firm brings to the customer. They were looking to exploit synergism across different product lines. They innovated more frequently and organized to seize opportunities much faster than their competitors. The reason was: concentrated focus on traditional sources of competitive advantage such as cost, technology, and differentiation was inadequate because competitors were quick to replicate advantages. They seek to identify and rapidly responded to subtle changes to the finest ingredient: the individual customer. To sustain competitive advantage, it was important to embrace business practices that encourage deep customer insight and thinking about how to materially improved the customers value proposition. Electronic brokerage firm Online brokers rushed to pour money to increase their capacity to absorb the fast growing demand during dot.com boom in 2000. The only way considered effective to increase market share at that time was advantageous offers and promotions, combined with enormous marketing expenses exposing them to a very high costs. The development of the online brokerage market was highly dominated by such marketing approach. Absence of physical branches and thus reduced operation cost entitle internet brokers the advantageous cost structure. Instead, they allocated this saving and invested on massive marketing campaign in order to achieve the biggest market share as soon as possible. By attracting and developing the loyalty of new customers, these brokerage firms were expecting soon to reach the break-even point. The bull market during the dot.com boom had dusted the eye of these online brokers. They failed to anticipated adverse situation when significant downturn in capital investments occurred and stroke their over investment. The stock markets had proved its volatility in a year time, when the dot.com boom burst in 2001. The serious regression caused by global slump of economy and the later SAR outbreak during 2003 had made the situation even steeper for the industry. The depression lasted for a couple of years before reaching a rising track started on 2007. Stock market transaction was drastically dropped from hundreds of billion down to tens of billions and last for years. Investors were either scared away or suffered from great lost by the sudden market plunge and prolonged recession. The once admirable capacity had turned into the biggest burden for brokerage firm. Naturally, all of them suffered from great investment lost, if not bankrupted altogether. All the internet brokerage firms had paid a huge price for this costly experience. The lesson they learnt made them re-evaluated the challenges ahead and the goals to attain. They have learnt that low commission rates or excessive marketing expenses would not give them competitive advantages and made the break-even point harder to reach. Instead, they had to revise the services they offered and discover alternative source of revenue. Suffered from the great impact of market volatility, they were looking for a flexible enough business models that is able to cope with the huge capacity demand during a bull market while enable them to safely transit bearish market. We can classify the challenges facing online brokerage firms into three categories: strategy, marketing and technology. Strategic challenge The characteristic of online brokerage had fundamentally changed the brokerage industry. New competitors like insurance companies, banks and financial portal had entered the arena. With the competitive advantage in possessing technology, a large customer bases and knowledge of their customers, they posted great threat to traditional brokerage player who want to participant in online brokerage. The large customer bases not only significantly reduced marketing cost but also helped to minimize development and operation cost due to economy of scale. Coupled with the open standard characteristics, traditional brokerage players had an up hill battle to fight. The value chain of the brokerage was invaded by these new competitors, forcing traditional p

Imperfect Faith in The Merchant of Venice Essay -- Merchant of Venice

Imperfect Faith in The Merchant of Venice      Ã‚   Though William Shakespeare accurately portrays both Christianity and Judaism in his play The Merchant of Venice, the characters in the play do not represent their religions well. A reader unfamiliar with these religions could easily misinterpret flaws in a character's nature as the teachings of his religion. After a preliminary glance at the play, one would assume that Shakespeare wrote unjustly of the two religions depicted therein. However, Shakespeare had to write the play to please his audience, so he added a twist. By making characters not wholly perfect in their faith, in compliance with reality, Shakespeare was able to add the insults and bigotry and anti-Semitic feelings that would please the crowd, were true to society, and yet did not change the teachings of the religions themselves.    Shakespeare does not change the principles of the two religions in this play. Even the characters in his play who do not always follow the teachings of their religions speak of these beliefs. In the courtroom scene, the Duke says to Shylock, "We all expect a gentle answer, Jew." (IV, i, 35). He means he expects Shylock to show the mercy of a gentile, more specifically a Christian, who would show mercy to Antonio and waive the bond. In the very same scene, when the table turns and Antonio controls the fate of Shylock, Antonio releases the Jew. As for Judaism being portrayed correctly, throughout the play Shylock makes countless references to his religion. When Antonio and Shylock argue the exact teachings of the Bible concerning loans and collecting interest, Shylock refers the story of Jacob and Laban. Shylock also refers to the "holy Sabbath" in the courtroo... ...ains." (II, vi, 34).    William Shakespeare's work The Merchant of Venice shows the intellectual power behind his writings. Shakespeare interwove many plots perfectly to please the audience, offer a deeper look at the conflict concerning Shylock, and still respect the religions he used. His characters, the players of this story, contained the flaws which served as the basis for the play. It was not Christianity or Judaism which caused the conflict. In fact, if every character in The Merchant of Venice had been true to his religion, there would be no conflict to write of at all. It is because of works like these that Shakespeare is considered one of the greatest writers of all time. Work Cited    Shakespeare, William. The Merchant of Venice. 1967. Ed. W. Moelwyn Merchant. The New Penguin Shakespeare. London: Penguin Books, 1996.      

Our Food Has Feelings Too :: social issues

Our Food Has Feelings Too A piece of meat, a glass of milk, or even an egg might seem pretty harmless. Everyone knows where they come from but most choose not to think about it. The truth is that the piece of meat sitting on your plate at dinner came from an animal that was tormented and put through enormous stress and pain to get from the ‘farm’ to the dinner table. Farms that breed and raise animals for meat and other such things aren’t at all what we picture. Green meadows where the animals graze in peace for the few short years of their lives have been replaced by â€Å"fresh produce factories†. Animals not being treated with any respect or humanity, instead seen only as profitable meat products. Cows sheep and pigs don’t just suffer at the slaughterhouse but throughout their lives. Feedlots, the place they are sent to fatten up before being killed are full of harmful bacteria and are extremely crowded. What the animals are fed is also very harmful. Steroids and unnaturally rich diets are used to fatten them quickly, thereby maximising profitability. Metabolic disorders are the result of this. In modern dairies, cows also forced to endure calfing every year, whilst producing milk for seven months of their nine-month gestation period. Cows live up to twenty-five years in a healthy environment, but in these dairies only live three or four years. Like beef cows they are fed unnaturally rich diets to make them produce more milk. Milk production can be as much as ten times more than that of a natural grazed animal. But if you thought that only grown cows suffer, that these farmers at least take care of the babies, you were wrong. Veal is a very profitable meat, the calf usually only living to sixteen weeks in a small wooden crate where it can’t move properly or even lie down comfortably. Some are killed just after a few days, then sold as low grade frozen TV dinners. Chickens and other poultry also suffer in small cages (usually two hens in a cage sixteen inches wide). After having their beaks cut off to reduce pecking their feathers usually fall out, from the constant rubbing against the wire cage. Eventually with bruises and sores covering their bodies, the hens die from fatty liver syndrome, lack of calcium, heat prostration, infectious disease and cancer.

Basilica San Zeno Maggiore: Vernona, Italy Essay -- Italy Monuments Ge

Basilica San Zeno Maggiore: Vernona, Italy ?On the west side of Verona Italy stands one of the city?s two beautiful basilicas, the Basilica San Zeno Maggiore.? The older of the two basilicas, San Zeno dates back to the year 1030.? Notable for her Romanesque style, San Zeno is equally fascinating to the modern viewer as she is historically significant.? There are two regional forms of Italian basilicas of the Medieval period: Tuscan and southern.? San Zeon is considered to be the most Romanesque basilica in Northern Italy. ? Origin and Contributors ?The basilica was first constructed in honor of the city of Verona?s patron saint, San Zeno.? Paleo-Christian in origin, the church is commonly stated to have been constructed from 1120 to 1138.? However, some of the oldest parts of the building are assumed to have been worked on as early as the 4th century.? Several reconstructions were done from the 4th to the 14th centuries (at least three that are known of) because of damage by natural disasters.? The building underwent reconstruction after the earthquake of 1137 and was finished in 1386 with the addition of the nave ceiling.? It is unclear who the original architect was, but it is known that Andrea Mantegna was the constructor responsible for the altarpiece, on account of writing on it that would signify his work.? However, many historians suggest that Mantegna played a larger role in the development of the building than just the altarpiece.? The Bronze door panels on the West entrance are said to reflect the work of three separ ate craftsmen from the 11th and 12th centuries. ?Several structures of the church are worth mentioning and make San Zeno unique for her time period.? The main plan of the church was modeled aft... ...zes with beauty the Italian fervor for highly developed, highly detailed art and craftsmanship.? ?Today, the church of San Zeno attracts tourists from all areas.? However, it seems that this particular basilica is greatly overlooked by the broad interest in Roman architecture and culture.? Though Rome certainly contains the richest heritage of the Catholic faith, San Zeno Maggiore should be considered an important site for both Romanesque architecture and religious history.? [1] Smith, G. E. Kiddler.? Looking at Architecture, p. 48. [2] Porter, Darwin & Prince, Danforth (2000).? Frommer?s 2000 Italy.? MacMillan: USA. [3] Italy: Eyewitness Travel Guides.? DK Publishing. [4] Leyerle, John (1997).? The Rose-Wheel Design and Dante?s Paradiso.? UTQ, 156 [5]Kain, Evelyn (1981).? The Marble Reliefs on the Faà »ze of S. Zeno, Verona.? The Art Bulletin,63.

The Acl Injury Pathology Health And Social Care Essay

Before we begin to measure Mr. Lachmans hurt, we foremost need to hold an apprehension of the ligament that we suspect has been affected ; the anterior cruciate liagament ( ACL ) . The ACL is one of four major ligaments found in the articulatio genus, the others being the Posterior Cruciate Ligament ( PCL ) , Medial Collateral Ligament ( MCL ) and Lateral Collateral Ligament ( LCL ) , and it ‘s function is to forestall anterior tibial supplanting ; or send on motion of the shinbone from underneath the thighbone. ( Gray ‘s Anatomy )DefinitionAn anterior cruciate ligament hurt ( ACL ) is the overstretching or lacrimation of the anterior cruciate ligament located in the articulatio genus articulation. It is the most often lacerate ligament of the articulatio genus harmonizing to a reappraisal of the literature by ( Beynnon et al 2005 )EtiologyAn ACL hurt normally takes topographic point in athleticss that require crisp motions and sudden fillet gestures. Mr Lachman plays hoc key and this is decidedly a athletics that would fall into that class. The existent hurt, normally occurs when you all of a sudden decelerate down or change your way whilst your pes is planted steadfastly on the land, which can take to writhing of the articulatio genus. Other incidents Landing awkwardly from a leap can besides wound your ACL, as can falls during declivitous skiing. A football tackle or motor vehicle accident besides can do an ACL hurt. However, most ACL hurts occur without such contactSigns and symptomsImmediately post hurt, the country around the articulatio genus may exhibit swelling. The topic will besides most likely experience instability of the articulatio genus and will happen weight bearing unbearable due to trouble. Many people have described an hearable popping noise in their articulatio genus at the minute of hurt.DiagnosisA thorough subjective and nonsubjective scrutiny from a physical therapist is normally sufficient to name an ACL tear. Probes such as an X ray, MRI scan or CT scan may be required to corroborate diagnosing and find the extent of harm or engagement of other constructions within the articulatio genusTreatmentDepending on the badness of your ACL hurt, intervention may include surgery to replace the lacerate ligament follo wed by rehabilitation exercisings to assist you recover strength and stableness.ComplicationsPeoples who experience an ACL hurt are at higher hazard of developing articulatio genus degenerative arthritis, in which joint gristle deteriorates and its smooth surface roughens. Arthritis may happen even if you have surgery to retrace the ligament.PrognosisWith appropriate direction, most patients with a minor to chair ACL tear ( grades 1 and 2 ) can return to feature or normal activity within 2 – 8 hebdomads. Patients with a complete rupture of the ACL will often necessitate surgical Reconstruction followed by a drawn-out rehabilitation period of 6 – 12 months or longer to derive optimal map. Patients who besides have harm to other constructions of the articulatio genus such as the semilunar cartilage or collateral ligaments are likely to hold an drawn-out rehabilitation period. Beynnon B D Johnson R J Abate J A Fleming B C Nichols C E ( 2005 ) ‘Treatment of Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injuries, Part I. ‘ The ACL is the most often, wholly disrupted ligament in the knee,196 and although this hurt is comparatively uncommon in the general population,64 it occurs often in sports, peculiarly among female jocks. 19,20,120 Although the incidence rate of ACL cryings for female jocks scopes between 2.4 and 9.7 times greater than that of male jocks viing in similar activities ( Table 1 ) , Â § overall, there are more ACL Reconstructions performed on males in the United States because more males take part in at-risk athleticss, for illustration, American football.227 The lone survey on the prevalence of ACL hurts in the general population has estimated the one-year incidence rate as 1 hurt for every 3500 people, ensuing in about 95 000 new ACL breaks per twelvemonth in the United States.64,191 This estimation is low because more than 100 000 ACL Reconstructions are performed per twelvemonth in the United States.227 The ACL is one of the most of import ligaments of the articulatio genus, giving it stableness. The ACL achieves this function by forestalling inordinate distortion, straightening of the articulatio genus ( hyperextension ) and forward motion of the shinbone on the thighbone. When these motions are inordinate and beyond what the ACL can defy, rupturing to the ACL occurs. This status is known as an ACL tear and may run from a little partial tear ensuing in minimum hurting, to a complete rupture of the ACL ensuing in important hurting and disablement, and, potentially necessitating surgery. An ACL tear can be graded as follows: Grade 1 tear: a little figure of fibers are lacerate ensuing in some hurting but leting full map Grade 2 tear: a important figure of fibers are torn with moderate loss of map. Grade 3 tear: all fibers are ruptured ensuing in articulatio genus instability and major loss of map. Often other constructions are besides injured such as the semilunar cartilage or indirect ligaments. Surgery is frequently required.

Irregular warfare / future war Essay

The Pentagons b ar-assed Map is a groundbreaking scoopseller of doubting doubting Thomas Barnett, which became i of the well-nigh talked- nearly prevails of the 2004 year. It combined economic, political, and earnest accompanimentors to provide a key re- interrogative of con die hard and ease in the flow-9/11. Also its become vision of the futurity. It consists of preface, 8 chapters and acknowledgements. This penning is devoted to how Mr. Barnett sees the global credential landscape painting and is built on the works of Fukuyama, Huntington and Friedman.In this hold in rootage describes recent U. S. outline and discusses where armed ramps forces get out likely be cope in the near succeeding(a) day. Barnett estates I engraft myself instinctively exploring the personal line of credit amid struggle and peace, locating it first-class honours degree in U. S. host crisis responses and then the Statess immaterial aid, and last(a)ly steering on its leader ship edge the spread of the global deliverance itself (p. 5). This hold in ascertains a unseas iodind meter reading of national security for the twenty-first century, scrams primal suggestions to the G everywherenment on actions the the States should channelise, and theorizes what could legislate in the attached 50 eld concerning the global landscape.The reference of the discussion synopsiss the of import infinite the linked States acquires to diddle in establishing supranational stability. Thomas P. M. Barnett, outline for carry out A Future cost Creating (New York, NY Berkley Books, 2005). This carry is a sequel to Barnetts The Pentagons New Map. The first script dealt with the quondam(prenominal) and invention for follow by dint of A Future Worth Creating is a futuristic romp through the next 25 years. It consists of preface, 5 chapters, remnant and aft(prenominal) warf beds. set bump off chapter preceded by the glossary of key terms.From Chapt er 1, What the serviceman Needs Now, Blueprint for Action is an exploration of a three-tiered argument concerning dodge and individual struggle to understand the seam betwixt war and peace. If the first book was compelling vision of the early, now armed run analyst Barnett presents his vision of the future. Careers will be made and lost, industries will rise and fall, and waging peace will finally prioritized everyplace waging war (p. 2). He explores both(prenominal) the long- and petty-term pathways for governments, institutions, and individuals. salaried particular attention to regions as Iran, Iraq, and the middle(a) East, China, North Korea he outlines the strategies to pursue, the entities to create, the pitfalls to overcome. His favorite concept is the theory of anti-access. in stageant states that instead of concentrate oning on classified black bear to facilitate the Leviathans lofty ambitions, the Pentagon moderates cabalistic talks with allies on how they d exterity better shoulder the SysAdmins some(prenominal) burdens (p. 2). The battle space is Leviathan and SysAdmin takes over in transition and peace, also considered the areas of e reallything else.So Blueprint for Action is something like a pass map through a chaotic and uncertain innovation to a future worth creating. Joseph R. Cerami, Richard A. Chilcoat, and Patrick B. Baetjer, eds. The Future of Transatlantic pledge Relations (Carlisle Barracks, PA strategic Studies comprise of the U. S. regular army react College, 2006). This writing is a compiling of reports and materials from the conference almost the future of transatlantic security relations sway on March 8, 2006, Annenberg Presidential group Center in College Station in Texas.Materials of the conference was modify by Richard A. (Dick) Chilcoat (Dean, provide naturalize of Government and universe Service) and Joseph Cerami (Director, Public Service Leadership political program, Bush School of Government and Public Service) as members of the administrator Committee. The book consists of unveiling preceded by a warm-up and a letter from President, 4 chapters (panels). subsequently the main text go extra materials list of anticipatees, remarks, conference papers, biographies and garter information.The purpose of the conference was to examine the future of the NATO. Conference panels examined U. S. and European outside(prenominal) policies and the probable for forging a new consensus on U. S. and European foreign policy and war machine strategy. Dr. Steinberg stated that The bafflingy remains that the United States and Europe do not befool a sense of a compelling need for cooperation, thus even the smallest differences tend to divide them (p. 14). It is needed to stick a deeper rationality of key security issues veneer the U.S. and Europe at this critical time. jam S. Corum, Training autochthonal Forces in pacification A Tale of Two Insurgencies (Carlisle Barracks, PA S trategic Studies fetch of the U. S. array war College, 2006). Book by James Corum tales about training natal police and force forces for peace campaigns. The book consists of introduction preceded by a foreword, summary, biographical subject area of the author. After introduction go case news report Cyprus, case study Malaya, conclusion and recommendations.Author states that epoch e very insurgency has its rummy aspects, there are also great deal that a great deal are repeated in other insurgencies. This conclusion offers a a couple of(prenominal)er general insights to help understand the constitution of counterinsurgency operations, as well as some specific recommendations to change U. S. armed services doctrine and policy for training endemic police and military forces in counterinsurgency(p. 34). This monograph aims to help fill the information fling about how natal security forces should be trained for counterinsurgency.Corum outlines the take of training whic h security forces need to conduct effectual counterinsurgency operations, defines the role of the police in counterinsurgency, and discovers the role of ir unshakable security organizations. Besides this the author splits about opposite training programs for producing effective military leaders. Martin Van Crevald, The Transformation of war (New York, NY The Free Press, 1991). Israeli military historiographer Van Creveld advances a new rationality of the ends and pith of war in his book The renewal of war.There were mayhap 160 armed divergences around the military personnel since the end of WWII. Those bouts were not global. and then author speaks about low-intensity conflict (LIC) which is the true spirit of contemporary war. Its read/write head lawsuitistics are as follows initiatory, they tend to unfold in less(prenominal) developed split of the world. Second, very ra assert do they involve regular armies on both sides, though often it is a question of regulars o n one side fighting guerrillas, terrorists, even civilians, including women and children, on the other.Third, most LICs do not rely in the main on the high-technology collective weapons that are the pride and joy of any modern-day armed force (p. 42). Israeli historian states that existing of empires made impossible for the subjects to take the conflict to the heart of the empire. Van Creveld compares clashes between Hindus and Muslims in 1947-49, Nigerian Civil fight from 1966 to 1969, Vietnamese conflict analyses conflicts which taking place in the Sri Lanka, Iraq, Kurdistan, Sudan, Angola and half a xii other countries. Book of Van Creveld get along a question what war is today.Thomas A. Dempsey, Counterterrorism in African Failed States Challenges and Potential Solutions (Carlisle Barracks, PA Strategic Studies Institute of the U. S. Army struggle College, 2006). The book of Thomas Dempsey examines three failed states in Sub-Saharan Africa Somalia, Liberia, and sierra Leo ne to give an outline of the terrorist groups operating there. Counterterrorism in African Failed States consists of introduction preceded by a foreword, summary, biographical sketch of the author. Then go defining state failure, case study methodology.Dempsey states that criminalization and insubordination of administrative structure of the failed state, crumple of unexclusive security forces provide advantageous component part for terrorists. The author focuses on the current the characteristics of a nedeucerk of terroristic organizations and covers up two very different types of cells terrorist nodes and terrorist hubs. Hubs provide underlyingized tutelage and communication linkages among nodes that are decentralized and largely, if not entirely, independent of each other (p. 6). query reveals presence of both types of cells in those states.To fight with terrorist groups operating from failed states Dempsey suggests new strategy that combines both military and law enforcem ent efforts, supported by intelligence capabilities and intelligence-led policing. Thomas X. Hammes, The Sling and the rock n roll On struggle in the twenty-first Century (St. Paul, MN Zenith Press, 2006). Colonel Thomas X. Hammes contends that American military forces are engaging in a fourth contemporaries of warfare, which he labels 4GW (Fourth Generation warfarefare) throughout The Sling and the perdition On warfare in the 21st Century.Thats the sole(prenominal) broad of war America has ever lost. First propagation of war, Hammes sees, was conflicts of Napoleonic era, the second generation was World state of war I, and the third generation was World War II, focuses on precedents of the phylogenesis of 4GW. In the writing are analysed conflicts in Afghanistan, Vietnam and Iraq. And a new, forth, form of warfare at present attacks the minds of foeman decision makers to destroy the adversarys political will (p. 11). Hammes contends monoamine oxidase Tse-tung was the fir st who started a new form of war and Vietnamese general Vo Nguyen Giap grant been make up ones mindd by Mao.The main authors concept is that expanding of 4GW encouraged the fact that only unconventional warfare works against realized powers (p. 103). The author asserts that current concentration on advanced technology is incorrect because the wars are long term struggles that will be won or lost primarily with human skills and knowledge (p. 14), because high-tech weapons prevail a little meaning when the enemy has a different concept of conflict. Samuel P. Huntingdon, The coming upon of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World station (New York, NY Simon & Schuster, 1996). In The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order Samuel P.Huntington suggests a new view world(prenominal)istic political theory, contending that in modern world the most important distinctions among peoples are pagan, further not political or ideological. While nation states will remai n the principal units of analysis in global affairs, their demeanor will be shaped most decisively not by the inquisition of power and wealth (as realism suggests), scarcely by cultural preferences, commonalities, and differences (p. 21). The author argues nicety divides people of the similar race, plainly at the same time people of different races are united by the same refining.Huntington understands religion as a central uniting characteristic of civilizations. The global alive(p) will be one of the civilizational find fault lines along which civilizational blocs would engage each other. harmonise to an author view civilizations clash because conflict is naturally prevalent in the international system. Therefore there are two levels of conflict between civilizations micro-level (conflicts between adjacent states from different civilizations) and at macro-level (conflicts occur between major states of different civilizations).But to deliver the goods cultural cohesion every civilization should develop its values, institutions and culture. Mark D. Mandeles, The Future of War Organizations as Weapons (Dulles, VA Potomac Books, Inc. , 2005). Mark D. Mandeles analyses major post-9/11 military events in his book to make consideration about future of warfare. The book consists of seven chapters. Its main reputation is influence of organization upon military operations, and Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) plays centrally into it. A qualitative improvement in weapons transforms the character of warfare.Mandeles states that military organizations will have to fit in fundamental ways to apprehend the advantages offered by technological superiority, seeking optimum usance of technology. But the optimum utilization can occur only through optimum organization. Author insists on human relationship between the difficulties of coordinating large organizations dispassionate of many people and offices having specialized roles, and the challenges of cal culation, attention, and storehouse that face individuals making decisions with inadequate or ambiguous information under short deadlines or stressful situations (p 3).The Future of War gives information how command and control should be organized in the context of the ever-changing new technology. Jerry Mander and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, eds. Paradigm Wars Indigenous Peoples Resistance to Globalization (San Francisco, CA Sierra Club Books, 2006). Paradigm Wars is an anthology, modify by Jerry Mander and Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, which is dedicated to modern international relations.In this book twenty-seven intellectuals tell about globalization and how native peoples stretch out to it, about economic institutions and the indigenous nations. It records examples of how indigenous communities have used the global sparing to create sustainable industry (such as ecotourist programs by communities in Belize and Australia), the role play by American Indians in a safer energy future and ho w the World cunning Organization (WTO) and the International Monetary gunstock struggle for resources (wood, genetic materials, oil) situated on the native peoples lands.Paradigm Wars details impacts of extr lively industries and bioprospecting on the purlieu, damage done by saving groups. It gives information about degrading of cultural artifacts and languages and how indigenous communities protect their sovereignties as no community is more than directly squeeze by globalization than 350 million indigenous peoples. Anthology assures us that indigenous nations continue to stand fast against the New World regularise. Michael McClintoc, Instruments of Statecraft U. S. guerilla Warfare, Counter-insurgency, and Counter-terrorism, 1940-1990 (New York, NY Pantheon Books, 1992). The book of Michael McClintoc is a study of how the U. S military applied special-warfare doctrine in third world nations. Scope of the book consists of introduction, 18 chapters divided to three parts and an epilogue. McClintoc tells about unconventional warfare, which in fact is state supported terrorism waged against ideological adversaries, from the Truman administration up to the recent war in the Persian Gulf.The author gives an break away of the dark side of American foreign policy, narrates about using of terroristic activities (torture, kidnapping, sabotage and assassination) to terminate the foreign governments. The writing provides interesting facts for example that CIA helped to develop the infrastructure for state terrorism that appeared in Latin America during the 60s. It examinates tactical roots of U. S policy from the pronouncements of Clausewitz and Raymond Aron, to its ideological basis in the Monroe Doctrine and Woodrow Wilsons post-colonialist crusade.And its continued nowadays. Michael McClintoc states that special operations in the new world order would have a new put of objectives, with their missionsand pretextsadjusted to the end of the stone-cold War. T he new missions, such as drug enforcement, will provide a vehicle for continuing some of the old missions that persist from the Cold War and the counterinsurgency era. Steven Metz and Raymond A. Millen, Future War/Future Battlespace The Strategic Role of American Landpower (Carlisle Barracks, PA Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, 2003). In monograph by Steven Metz and Raymond A. Millen, authors examine new trends in the strategic environment in their development in a future war. They outline tremendous challenges in war fighting in the post 9-11 era and insist on the need that U. S. Landpower should adapt to new type of conflict. As transformation must continuously develop new operating(a) and strategic concepts, give instruction soldiers and police officers to implement them, and develop organizations and technologies to get a line they function (p. x).To make that adaptation real, the monograph gives a desktop of what will be the shape and characterist ics of the future international security environment, responds characteristics of the future battlefield, and outlines the authorisation or probable roles and missions of the Army. After transformation the Army is vital to the type of strategy that would best promote American interests over the long term (p. 33). Williamson Murray, ed. National guarantor Challenges for the 21st Century (Carlisle Barracks, PA Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College, 2003). An anthology edited by Williamson Murray consists of reports written by officers who participated in the Advanced Strategic Art plan (ASAP) during their year at the U. S. Army War College. ASAP is a course instructing in theater strategy. Essays included in this ledger provide insights into challenges facing the defense make-up in the United States at the beginning of the 21st century in the post 9-11 era.In the foreword of the anthology Murray states that America needfully officers who possess a deep underst anding of the difficulties involved in the use of force in the international arena as well as understand the multifactorial problems involved in the political and strategic challenges confronted by the United States(p. 1). So the authors speak about present army problems address such issues as the development of officers carrier and make predictions about how could be combined tactical and operational excellence with intellectual curiosity in their careers (p.15).Williamson Murray, ed. A Nation at War in an Era of Strategic convert (Carlisle Barracks, PA Strategic Studies Institute of the U. S. Army War College, 2004). This book is a compilation of essays, edited by Williamson Murray, written by the students enrolled in the Army War Colleges Advanced Strategic Art Program (ASAP). It consists of 14 essays preceded by a foreword and an introduction. The authors give coverage to some issues machine-accessible with transforming the U. S. Army to engaging in active combat operations associated against terrorists.The main theme of the anthology is lessons of Iraq conflict. Dr. Murray states in foreword that the victory over Saddam Husseins forces underlined that the fundamental nature of war is not leaving to change, because of the technological monism of American forces has quite solely foundered on the realities of the battlefields in Iraq (p. 2). The editor observes that the conflict also suggests that the American military of necessity to think in a more holistic fashion about the conduct of war at the operational level (p.3).The authors of the compilation provide thorough examination of the lessons from the battlefield, outline the U. S. national strategies, rise up the problem questions and offer ways to resolve. The final conclusions of the compilation states The United States needs to focus on learning the right lessons from its past conflicts by examining not only what went right, but also by examining what went wrong and what adjustments electromotiv e force adversaries have made as a result of U. S.actions (p. 361). Henry E. Sokolski, ed. Taming the Next situate of Strategic Weapons Sets (Carlisle Barracks, PA Strategic Studies Institute of the U. S. Army War College, 2006). This volume edited by Henry Sokolski features research the nonproliferation Policy Education Center commissioned. It consists of 9 chapters divided into three sections, preceded by an introduction. The book starts with the statement that nowadays nu agnize technologies have become much more difficult to control.Attempts to develop a legally concealment inspections protocol to the Biological Weapons Convention were of late rejected by U. S. officials as organism inadequate to catch serious violators term being prone to set off false al ordnance against perfectly innocent actors. Therefore the anthology is designed to illustrate what office meet if these emerging threats go unattended and how best to mitigate them. Patrick Clawson of the Washington Ins titute makes clear the issue of further proliferation is Iran in Chapter 2, Proliferation in the Middle East Who is Next after Iran? By the end of the chapter Sokolski argues that the greatest security danger renewed strategic arms proliferation presents is not the increased chance of thermonuclear theft or terrorism (p. 6). The book explains how the United States and other advanced states might share unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) services and turn-key missile systems rather than handing over the means for their production. Strobe Talbott and Nayan Chanda, eds. The Age of Terror America and the World After family 11 (New York, NY Basic Books, 2001).The Age of Terror America and the World After September 11 was written just a few months after the terrorist attacks. But each of the octonary chapters provide critical analyses of the American and international developments and events that are as helpful in explaining 9/11. The authors of the book placed events of September 11 into hi ghlighting political and diachronic contexts. The post-cold war era began with the collapse of one structure, the Berlin wall on November 9,1989, and ended with the collapse of another, the World Trade Centers twin towers on September 11 (p.3).Ideas shared by Strobe Talbott and Nayan Chanda publish serious discourse about American post-9/11 policies. The authors states that Americans were not responsible for the osseous tissue Harbour, but they would have been irresponsible in the extreme if they had not, as a outcome of that attack, dramatically altered their policies(p. 5). And the crucial conclusion which is drawn in the book is that the geographical position and the military power of the U. S. are no longer sufficient to ensure its security.