Articles

Details

Hits: 2598

Positive equilibrium in USA - China relations: durable or not?

PDF full text 

Robert Sutter
 

Robert Sutter has been a Visiting Professor in the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown

University since 2001. Professor Sutter specialized in Asian and Pacific Affairs and US foreign policy

in a US government career. He held a variety of analytical and supervisory positions

with the Library of Congress, and also worked with the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department

of State, and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. After leaving the Library of Congress

where he was for many years the Senior Specialist in International Politics for the Congressional Research Service, served as the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia and the Pacific at the US

Government’s National Intelligence Council. He received a Ph.D. in History and East Asian

Languages from Harvard University. He has held adjunct faculty positions with Georgetown, George

Washington, and Johns Hopkins Universities and the University of Virginia.  He has

published 18 books, numerous articles and several hundred government reports dealing with

contemporary East Asian and pacific Countries and their relations with the United States.

Abstract

Repeated episodes of Chinese public pressure against the United States during 2009 and 2010 on a wide range of issues involving seas near China, Taiwan, Tibet, and economic disputes are subject to different interpretations but on balance they do not seem to seriously upset the prevailing positive equilibrium between the US and Chinese governments.

Keywords

The United States; China; engagement; assertiveness; push-back

How to cite this article

Sutter, Robert (2011). "Positive equilibrium in U.S. - China Relations: Durable or not?”. JANUS.NET e-journal of International Relations, Vol. 2, N.º 1, Spring 2011. Consulted [online] on date of last visit, observare.ual.pt/janus.net/en_vol2_n1_art1.

Article received in December 2010 and accepted for publication in March 2011

Details

Hits: 2620

NATO'S new strategic concept: a critical view

PDF full text
 

Rafael Calduch Cervera
 

He is a Full Professor in International Law and International Relations, and Director of the Faculty

of Information Sciences (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Director of the Complutense Institute of International Studies and a member of the Governing Council of the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He has held various academic positions, including that of Professor “Jean Monnet” in the EU Institutions Course, Director of the Master Degree in International Relations and Communication, Director of the Specialised Course in International Information on Southern Countries (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), and Area Coordinator for Central and Eastern Europe in the Master offered by the Centre for Advanced Defence Studies (CESEDEN). He is a Doctor in Political and Economic Science (Universidad Complutense de Madrid). He was awarded the honour “Cruz al Mérito Aeronáutico con distintivo blanco” ("Cross of Aeronautical Merit with white emblem”).

Abstract

The changes that followed the adoption of the previous NATO's strategic concept in 1999 forced a review of its goals, threats and risks,  as well as a new look at the capabilities of the organization at a time dominated by the economic crisis and cuts in its members’ defence budgets.

On this occasion, the development of a strategic concept begun with a proposal made by a commission of experts, and a public debate which transformed the final text into a diplomatic document, not into a true useful document capable of guiding strategic planning over the next decade.

These differences between the goals established by the document and the actual resources available to NATO were noted immediately with regard to the crisis management system, for which the organization does not possess the structures and civil means. It is not clear either that this limitation can be solved through cooperation with the EU. The involvement of NATO in the international mission in Libya will be the first test to ascertain the validity and effectiveness of this new strategic concept.

Keywords

NATO; New Strategic Concept; Defence; World Security, Crisis Management

How to cite this article

Cervera, Rafael Calduch (2011). "NATO’s new strategic concept: a critical view”. JANUS.NET e-journal of International Relations, Vol. 2, N.º 1, Spring 2011. Consulted [online] on date of last visit, observare.ual.pt/janus.net/en_vol2_n1_art4.

Article received in April 2011 and accepted for publication in May 2011

Details

Hits: 2100

People and Knowledge management in organizations: challenges of the next decades

PDF full text

João Paulo Feijoo

Independent consultant in the areas of Quality, Business Process, Human Capital and Change Management, and Country Manager for Portugal of Finalta. Guest lecturer in executive education and postgraduate programmes (UAL). He was senior manager of the Millennium bcp (1990-2005), where he headed the areas of quality, training and career development, recruitment, agency coordination, and internal communication. He founded and directed the Eureko Academy (194-96). He was also member and president of Eureko Human Resources Activity Group (1997-2002). He studied Mechanical Engineering at IST, Lisbon. Professionally, he has attended a large number of courses and seminars in the field of Human Resources and general management in Portugal and abroad, especially the Seminar for Senior Management of BCP (INSEAD) and

Programa de Alta Direcção de Empresa / Company Senior Management Programme (AESE).

Abstract

In the next fifteen years the characteristics of organizations and the way they manage human capital will be conditioned by the development of eight processes with global presence: pre-eminence of knowledge, globalization, population ageing, importance of the role of women, psychological contract, erosion of traditional authority, and the emergence of new organizational values. These eight factors are analyzed here, and their evolving tendencies are addressed.

These processes are combining to transform the organizations of the second and third decades of the XXI century into more complex and pluralistic structures, with more diffuse frontiers, open and disperse structures, and with work forces organized into different levels of involvement which communicate among themselves and with the outside world through global networks.

These organizations present new challenges to people management, including the consequences of rising retirement age, occupation and productivity of older workers, coexistence of three generations in the work force, intercultural intelligence, motivational development, merit significance, talent management in open organizations, and new leadership styles required in a more fluid, more spread out, and more egalitarian environment.

We approach the Portuguese situation in the light of similarities and differences with regard to the evolution of the conditioning factors analyzed here and in the light of measures recommended for this issue in general. We identify its specific characteristics and discuss the effect they may have on people management policies and practices to be adopted in the period under consideration.

Keywords

People management; human capital; knowledge economy; global networks; open organizations

How to cite this article

Feijoo, João Paulo (2011). "People and knowledge management in organizations. Challenges of the next decades”. JANUS.NET e-journal of International Relations, Vol. 2, N.º 1, Spring 2011. Consulted [online] on date of last visit, observare.ual.pt/janus.net/en_vol2_n1_art7.

Article received in September 2010 and accepted for publication in March 2011

Details

Hits: 2094

Learning to build a sustainable peace: "local ownership" and peacebuilding practices. The case of justice reform in Haiti 

PDF fulll text

Amélie Gauthier

Independent consultant working for the Norwegian Peacebuilding Center (Noref) on a project focused on Youth and Armed Violence in post-conflict settings. She was previously a researcher in the peace, security and human rights area of FRIDE. She holds an MA in International Cooperation and Project Management from the Ortega and Gasset Institute in Madrid and a BA in International Management and Finance from the École des Hautes Études Commerciales (HEC) in Montreal. Prior to joining FRIDE, she worked as a political analyst for the Canadian Embassy in Madrid. She was assistant researcher for the book Perspectives from the Front Lines by George E. Irani, Vamik D. Volkan, Judy Carter (2006).
 

Madalena Moita
 

Researcher currently finishing her PhD Thesis on “The United Nations and Peacebuilding - the cases of Haiti and Guatemala”, at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid (Spain). She holds a MA in Peace and War Studies in New International Relations (Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa, Portugal) and a Graduate Studies degree in Political Science and International Relations (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal). She has worked for FRIDE (Fundación para las Relaciones Internacionales y el Diálogo Exterior) as a consultant – as well as for some other institutions, like NOREF (Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre) or the International Peace Institute – always with a focus on peace processes and post-conflict reconstruction. Currently she is working for the European Commission on several projects on Civil Society.

Abstract

The debate on local ownership in peacebuilding policies is relatively recent, inherited from the reflection on aid efficiency and sustainability. When focusing on its application at the field level, like in the Haitian case, it becomes evident that its inclusion in the peacebuilding doctrine of all major donors has not had a correspondence at the strategic and operative levels. This article is the result of a research in the field on how the concept of “local ownership” in peacebuilding efforts is put into practice and perceived by different stakeholders. The authors focused on the on-going Justice reform in Haiti before the Earthquake of January 2010 to better understand the dynamics between international and local actors, from the policy definition stage to their application at the country level.

Keywords

Peacebuilding; Rule of Law; Justice; Haiti; Ownership

How to cite this article

Gauthier, Amélie; Moita, Madalena (2011). "Learning to build a sustainable peace: "local ownership" and peacebuilding practices. The case of Justice Reform in Haiti”. JANUS.NET e-journal of International Relations, Vol. 2, N.º 1, Spring 2011. Consulted [online] on date of last visit,  observare.ual.pt/janus.net/en_vol2_n1_art5.

Article received in October 2010 and accepted for publication in March 2011