57 research outputs found
Technogeopolitics of militarization and security in cyberspace:
No full textBased on democratic principles that encourage creation and transmission of information and knowledge using information and communication technologies, the Information Society has become the organizing paradigm for a digital age. Humans residing in digital rich regions of the world rely on cyberspace, the Information Society’s enabling environment, for their business, commerce, education, socialization. Governments and industry are migrating their critical processes into this domain. These trends will intensify as more people realize cyberspace’s utility. However, the promises of the Information Society may never transpire since there is a lack of trust and security in cyberspace. These two concepts are the foundation on which the utility of inter-networked ICTs, such as the Internet, are built. The increasing rate in the occurrence and sophistication of cybercrimes erodes users’ trust in subscribing to networked services Further the militarization of cyberspace by states as a new domain through which they conduct their operations also presents challenges to the Information Society. Both crime and conflict in cyberspace erode trust in digital networks.
The development of a comprehensive international law for cyberspace is essential to govern state and non-state actor behavior in this global commonage. The formation of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in the early twenty-first century marks the first time that state and non-state actors convened to develop plans of action to guide the development of in the digital world. This project examines the negotiating positions of the United States, Russia and China in the area of cybersecurity through the lens of technogeopolitics. It is shown how the political and military interests of each affect their negotiating positions in the WSIS. The methods of content analyses on material from diplomatic archives, participant-observation at international conferences and interview surveys of participants at these conferences are used to investigate the reasons why decision are made or not made in the field of international cybersecurity cooperation.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical references (p. 225-248)by Panayotis Alexander Yannakogeorgo
Impact of the International Coffee Agreement's export quota system on the World's coffee market
No full textEx-post simulations of the global coffee model over the recent period of operation of the International Coffee Agreement's export quota system, (1981-86) show the following. The quota system had a stabilizing effect on world coffee prices in the 1981-85 period. In 1986, when coffee prices increased sharply due to the drought in Brazil and the export quotas were suspended, prices would have been 24 percent higher in the absence of quotas over the 1981-85 period. However, the quotas have reduced export revenues (in real terms), except for such large producers as Brazil and Colombia. These countries gained form the scheme because they face very small or even zero marginal export revenues from increased exports, due to their large market shares. In projections of the coffee market, with and without the export quota system, prices would be substantially lower during the first half of the 1990s if the quota system were suspended in 1990. But prices would recover in the second half of the decade as production and exports declined in lagged response to the very low prices of the first half.Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Markets and Market Access,Access to Markets,Crops&Crop Management Systems
Tropical timber trade policies : what impact will eco-labeling have?
No full textAbout 20 percent of the total production of tropical timber is traded internationally. But for Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, and some countries in West-Central Africa, tropical timber trade accounts for more than 50 percent of production. Although the tropical timber trade has often been blamed for deforestation, the authors find that it contributes much less to deforestation than do poor policies for the production of tropical timber. Lack of tenure rights, short and uncertain logging concessions, low stumpage values, and inadequate monitoring of logging activities are among the major policy failures that help deplete the tropical forests. Trade policies, often identified as an instrument for enforcing environmental objectives internationally, are inefficient instruments for correcting domestic distortions, and in the case of tropical timber trade, may affect the environment perversely. Export and import restrictions ultimately depress the value of an already underpriced resource - the forest. Restrictions on log exports, for example, encourage wasteful processing of logs. Unless sound forest management policies are enforced domestically, the net effect could even be an increase in the rate of deforestation. Import restrictions may have a marginal impact, since trade accounts for less than 20 percent of production and most of the tropical timber is imported in Asia, where such restrictions currently do not exist. Even if import restrictions had a significant impact, it would be in a reduction in value of tropical logs that would make alternative uses of the forest lands more profitable - so the rate of deforestation might not be reduced. Eco-labeling's main strength is its capacity to discriminate (through market signals) in favor of timber produced under sound environmental practices. By contrast, bans and boycotts have an indiscriminate, perverse impact. But if eco-labeling is imposed unilaterally by a subset of countries, its effectiveness will be doubtful. It will lead to trade diversion and potentially perverse environmental results, not to mention an increase in GATT trade disputes. Even if eco-labeling is adopted by all importing countries, there could still be trade diversion in tropical timber products because some consumers may not prefer certified timber, given its higher price. Eco-labeling programs should be designed so that producers see them not as a nontariff barrier but as an instrument for capturing the rents associated with prevailing environmental concerns in the developed world. Consumer education is important to the success of such programs, and eco-labeling programs should be designed accordingly.Environmental Economics&Policies,Forestry,Silviculture,Forests and Forestry,Economic Theory&Research
Costs and benefits of debt and debt service reduction
No full textThe author evaluates the costs and benefits of debt and debt service reduction (DDSR) from the point of view of five countries that have concluded Brady deals: Costa Rica, Mexico, the Philippines, Uruguay, and Venezuela. He concludes that, contrary to widely held views, commercial banks have probably benefited from the operations. Commercial bank participation in DDSR is voluntary, so direct financial savings to the country are probably negative at present values. The benefit from DDSR is not that debt is bought at"bargain prices"at the expense of commercial banks. It appears difficult to justify a DDSR operation on purely financial grounds. A more realistic way to look at a DDSR operation is to view it as a"project"that involves a certain financial cost. The return on such a project is how the DDSR operation improves the macroeconomy, or contributes to development. The main purpose of DDSR is to establish a more efficient arrangement between debtor countries and commercial banks, leading to improved conditions for development. A DDSR operation that does not help development is costly and should not be undertaken. The impact of DDSR on development is usually measured by the increase in the growth rate of GDP, but it is too soon to measure that for these five countries. A suitable alternative is to look at the change in investment patterns. A strong policy framework is needed if debt and debt service reduction are to significantly improve development. In Mexico and, to a lesser extent, Venezuela, improved and sustained strong adjustment policies have generated the greatest development benefits. Gains have been less in smaller countries where policies were not as supportive. The author concludes that for a country to benefit from DDSR, it needs significant indirect benefits (such as increased domestic and foreign savings). Direct benefits are likely to be negative because of the commercial banks'financial gains and because DDSR operations are frontloaded. DDSR operations cannot be justified solely by direct benefits and savings in cash flow.Strategic Debt Management,Banks&Banking Reform,Economic Theory&Research,Environmental Economics&Policies,Financial Intermediation
Alexandros Papadiamantis: Easter chanter
No full textTitle: Λαμπριάτικος Ψάλτης (Easter chanter) Originally published: newspaper ’Aκρόπολις, 1893 Language: Greek The excerpt used is from Panayotis Moullas, Α.Παπαδιαμάντης Αυτοβιογραφούμενος (Athens: Εστία 1999), pp. 100–103. About the author Alexandros Papadiamantis: [Skiathos (central Greece) 1851 – Skiathos 1911]: short story writer and translator. He was the third son of the priest Adamantios, hence the family name (papa-Diamantis). His mother was the offspring of a well-off family from the ..
Alexandros Papadiamantis: Easter chanter
No full textTitle: Λαμπριάτικος Ψάλτης (Easter chanter) Originally published: newspaper ’Aκρόπολις, 1893 Language: Greek The excerpt used is from Panayotis Moullas, Α.Παπαδιαμάντης Αυτοβιογραφούμενος (Athens: Εστία 1999), pp. 100–103. About the author Alexandros Papadiamantis: [Skiathos (central Greece) 1851 – Skiathos 1911]: short story writer and translator. He was the third son of the priest Adamantios, hence the family name (papa-Diamantis). His mother was the offspring of a well-off family from the ..
ICT ownership and the right to the hybrid city
No full textThe core premise of this work is that for information and communication technologies (ICTs) to fulfil their promises for increased self-organization, civic engagement, and participation in planning, among others, they must be owned by the parties involved and customized according to their needs, values and objectives through a dynamic social learning process. The ownership of an ICT framework could range from its social software, to the storage and management of all content and information produced, all the way to the underlying network infrastructure. For example, by choosing a customizable ICT system built according to the FOSS (free and open source software) paradigm, a local community can define itself the rules that shape the communication between the inhabitants of the produced hybrid space at the city or neighbourhood level. If additionally there is the option to deploy user-owned wireless technology as in wireless community networks, one can further ensure the de facto physical proximity, grant easy access for everyone, and allow the choice of the desired level of anonymity. In this paper I will review existing platforms encouraging information flows between citizens and governments, and between people residing in physical proximity, as a function of their ownership structure and discuss the corresponding trade-offs. I will then describe a very simple information sharing game and its variations subject to different framing, ownership and design options. I will argue that there are many crucial details that can play a decisive role in shaping the behaviour of the participants and reaching the agreed upon social objectives. Finally, combining concepts and knowledge from the fields of computer science, behavioural economics, and urban planning, I will propose a bottom-up social learning methodology for allowing local communities to define their own hybrid space, exchange experiences and knowledge, and compete with global corporations such as Google and Facebook for the “right to the hybrid city”
Incentives for Resource Sharing in Ad Hoc Networks
No full textThe goal of this chapter is to analyze the incentive issues that arise in multi-hop ad hoc networks when their nodes are potentially mobile devices controlled by independent self-interested end-users. The author decomposes the problem into its economic and technological dimensions according to which he categorizes the numerous proposed solutions. He then analyzes certain drawbacks of the economics oriented approach and argues for the need to go beyond the rationality assumption. This is to exploit a variety of powerful more intrinsic, social, human motivations for encouraging participation and resource sharing in ad hoc networks. Existing successful online communities provide a good starting point for designing social software that can provide cross-layer social incentives for resource sharing. In this chapter, the author motivates this novel but challenging approach and provides some insights toward coming closer to its ambitious objective.</jats:p
Agricultural trade liberalization in the Uruguay Round : one step forward, one step back?
No full textAfter evaluating the Uruguay Round's impact on agriculture and border protection in the next decade, the author concludes that while there was significant reform of the rules - particularly the conversion of nontariff barriers into tariffs and the reduction and binding of all tariffs - in practice, trade will probably be liberalized less than expected. The objective of the Round was to reverse protectionism and remove trade distortions. This may not be achieved in practice, at least not until further reductions are carried out in future rounds of negotiations. The major exception to this conclusion is in high-income Asian countries, where protection for major commodities will be significantly reduced. The tariffication and binding of all tariffs on agricultural products represents a significant step forward. Liberalization is implicit because countries are prohhibited from arbitrarily raising tariffs to new higher levels. But many of the newly established tariffs are so high in many countries as to effectively prohibit trade. Patterns of liberalization vary considerably by commodity and by country. Generally, the extent of liberalization was diminished by binding tariffs to the base period of 1986-88, when border protection was at a high point. In most OECD countries, this was worsened by"dirty tariffication:"the new base tariffs offered even greater protection than the nontariff barriers they replaced. Even after the commitments to tariff reductions in the Round, the ad valorem measure of the final binding tariffs will remain higher than the average rate of protection in 1982-93. A number of developing countries in East Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East chose to lock in prior liberalization efforts on some products. But for most commodities, there will be little actual liberalization, since most developing countries chose to bind their tariffs at a maximum level. Even when countries reduced already-bound rates, bound tariffs remained significantly higher than current applied rates, giving countries the flexibility to raise tariffs later. The high level of bound tariffs may allow countries to apply variable tariffs below the bound level, thus failing to stabilize tariffs and improve market access. Moreover, the Round did not touch many of the worst distortions in developing countries, such as import subsidies, export taxes, state-trading monopolies, and domestic policies that implicitly tax agriculture.Trade Policy,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research,Export Competitiveness,Rules of Origin,Trade Policy,Rules of Origin,TF054105-DONOR FUNDED OPERATION ADMINISTRATION FEE INCOME AND EXPENSE ACCOUNT,Environmental Economics&Policies,Economic Theory&Research
Microscopic Numerical Simulation of Convective Currents in Aquatic Canopies
No full textAbstractIn the present study, convective currents between open water and aquatic canopies are investigated numerically. These currents are produced due to differential radiation absorption between the two regions. The unsteady three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations are solved together with the energy equation, using the Boussinesq approximation. The vegetation is simulated by rigid cylinders. The absorption of radiation during the daytime is simulated by an additional source term in the energy equation. Three cases with different vegetation porosity are examined for comparison purposes. Numerical results for the current velocity and the water temperature are presented and compared for cases with different vegetation porosity
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