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Policy design in zero-trust distributed networks: challenges and solutions
No full textTraditional security architectures are becoming more vulnerable to distributed attacks due to significant dependence on trust. This will further escalate when implementing agentic AI within the systems, as more components must be secured over a similar distributed space. These scenarios can be observed in consumer technologies, such as the dense Internet of things (IoT). Here, zero-trust architecture (ZTA) can be seen as a potential solution, which relies on a key principle of not giving users explicit trust, instead always verifying their privileges whenever a request is made. However, the overall security in ZTA is managed through its policies, and unverified policies can lead to unauthorized access. Thus, this paper explores challenges and solutions for ZTA policy design in the context of distributed networks, which is referred to as zero-trust distributed networks(ZTDN). This is followed by a case-study on formal verification of policies using UPPAAL. Subsequently, the importance of accountability and responsibility in the system’s security is discusse
To be or not to be (aligned with elites): navigating systemic power within informal institutions
No full textSocial intermediaries play a critical role in addressing exclusion but must navigate entrenched power relations within informal institutions. Drawing on comparative case studies of three social intermediaries, this study examines how intermediaries negotiate systemic power—manifested through domination and discipline—across intersecting caste–gender hierarchies. We identify three distinct approaches to elite engagement: elite delegation, elite cooptation, and creative accommodation, each reflecting a specific combination of communal positioning and power frame adopted by intermediaries. Elite delegation, grounded in a detached communal positioning and a zero-sum power frame, prioritizes rapid scaling but reproduces existing hierarchies. Elite cooptation, marked by pragmatic communal positioning and a conditional positive-sum power frame, fosters short-term cooperation yet achieves only partial inclusion. In contrast, creative accommodation, characterized by embedded communal positioning and a positive-sum power frame, enables social transformation by simultaneously empowering marginalized groups and constructively engaging elites. By demonstrating how communal positioning and power frames shape these approaches, the study advances understanding of how systemic power sustains exclusion and how it can be reconfigured from within. We contribute to research on informal institutions and inclusion by elucidating how intermediaries can leverage positive-sum engagements to reshape domination and discipline, fostering more equitable and enduring informal institutional change
Trapped in the MNE matrix: Liminal identity at the local-corporate-global nexus
No full textManagers’ identities in large matrixed MNE structures are complex and pliable. While research has examined the identities of individual actors located in headquarters (HQ) or local subsidiaries, the unique identity challenges faced by those operating outside these conventional units are unpredictable. Our study explores how managers experience and manage a ‘liminal identity’ – feeling ‘betwixt and between’ multiple identities. Focusing on US MNEs in the life sciences sector, we interviewed managers who assumed global responsibilities from corporate HQ while remaining situated in their local (Irish) subsidiary. We find that operating between corporate HQ, a global network, and the local subsidiary forged a liminal identity. Straddling this local-corporate-global nexus was a profoundly ambiguous, precarious and destabilizing experience. Yet, individuals also sought to leverage their liminal identity by adopting multiple identities, depending on the audience. This involved ‘switching’ between renouncing a local identity, assimilating a corporate identity and co-constructing a global identity. However, this produced an intense identity struggle, eroding a clear sense of self and belonging. Our study cautions firms to be attentive when supporting managers in these ‘in-between’ spaces to avoid the trap of ‘identity limbo’, where individuals risk becoming disconnected and isolated
Book Review: Adult Social Care Law and Policy: Lessons from the Pandemic by Jean V. McHale and Laura Noszlopy (Bristol University Press, 2025)
No full textMaking it worse: productive failure as global common sense
No full textThis paper examines how our collective responses to global challenges like war, migration, and climate change are being shaped by the desire to transform failure into a productive experience. It argues that productive failure has become a powerful formation of ‘global common sense’ that is prefiguring the intractable problems of global political life as always solvable. In a context of late liberalism, this formation is very difficult to contest because it instrumentalises ‘learning from failure’ as both an imperative and a universal moral good (indeed, how could you be against learning from failure?) The paper traces how productive failure works through a circuit of restorative, preventive and redemptive arcs – an apparatus that constantly disavows failure’s difficulties and turns them into something productive. In considering the limitations of that circuit, the paper reconfigures failure’s ‘toxic positivity’ through its constitutive unruliness and follows it into the wastelands – the ruined ground of bodies, socialities and life-worlds that have been jettisoned from, or barred entry into, the normative infrastructure of productivity. Drawing on an archive of the already-failed, the paper proposes ideas of endurance and muddling through to make sense of everyday practices that are not prefigured by the lures of improvement
HierarNet: independent interactive hierarchical disease outbreak forecasting
No full textEarly warning systems for disease outbreaks play a crucial role in public health for management and contingency planning. However, most predictive modeling works focus on flat models that incorporate exogenous inputs (e.g. climate, demographics) to predict future outbreaks at different locations, but do not jointly model multiple spatial aggregation levels. In this paper, we introduce \emph{HierarNet}, a unique \emph{independent-interactive hierarchical} forecasting framework that aims to predict disease outbreaks at different levels of spatial resolution, such as provinces, regions, and nations. HierarNet consists of two main phases. In the \emph{local} phase, we train \emph{independent} forecasting models for all locations at all levels. In the \emph{global} phase, all models \emph{iteratively interact} with others across different levels via their hierarchical relationships under an \emph{ensemble} fashion to maximize their agreements. This \emph{global local hierarchical interactive} scheme makes HierarNet a highly effective and \emph{flexible} method (i.e. it can work with an arbitrary base prediction model and available exogenous data for each location independently). Extensive experiments are conducted on various disease datasets (e.g., Dengue fever, flu, diarrhea, and Bluetongue) in different countries (e.g., France, Vietnam, and USA) to show the performance of HierarNet compared to 19 state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods such as MinT, DYCHEM, WITRAN, SegRNN, TSMixer, PatchTST, or iTransformer. We also illustrate the \emph{generability} of HierarNet in other domains, e.g., web traffic forecasting