Saturday, January 25, 2020

Analysis Of National Interest And Foreign Policy Politics Essay

Analysis Of National Interest And Foreign Policy Politics Essay At the heart of any national interest lays its security, in order states to survive they must protect their security, by any means available to them, the treats to national security can be both external and internal. External treats can include any treat that comes from competing nations and enemies of the state. Internal treats can come from groups with political aims of overthrowing the government, even though the aim of security in national interest doesnt always mean protecting the states territorial boundaries, nor the repulsion of foreign attack. In some cases nation may be required to sacrifice some of its territory, or renounce some of its claims, in order to preserve another, more intrinsic element of the state(Orme,5). States create economic developments by promoting foreign investment, modernising their economy from low-income based economy to high-income based economy, such as building infrastructure, investing in technology, research and development. Without social development economic development cant be fulfilled. States invest in education, access to public health, gender equalities, and civil societies. States dont further their national interest by becoming self centred , in this day and age where the world is a global village states cant afford to ignore the rest of the world, therefore states look far beyond their states and consider other factors that are important to their national interest, economically, socially and politically. The above mentioned characteristics identifies national interest of a state and its components, the question is how do states promote their national interest?, states promote their national interest through foreign policy, thus foreign policy is the sum of an actors goals and purposive actions in global politics. Foreign policy consists of those discrete official actions of the authoritative decision makers of a nations government, or their agents, which are intended by the decision makers to influence the behaviour of international actors external to their own polity. In practice, foreign decisions are not made by single leaders in isolation, but it is a cumulative process that involves, interest groups, domestic issues, bureaucracies, leadership, and so on. Therefore foreign policy is the means and national interest is the end. Countries conduct their foreign policy through many channels that are available to them, namely diplomacy, force, track11 diplomacy, communication, and so on. Countries when shaping their foreign policy take into account many factors that are important, such as, geography, the size of the population, the level of economic development, political tradition, domestic environment, internal environment, military capability, and national character. Diplomacy: Diplomacy is the main channel through which foreign policy is conducted, diplomacy has existed throughout the history from the ancient Greeks to the African tribal systems all used diplomacy to solve disputes and to defuse potential conflicts. Diplomacy involves negotiation to manage relations among states. It is perhaps the most prominent tool in foreign policy available to actors for managing disputes. Diplomats in foreign offices and ministries often argue exhausting peaceful efforts to achieve goals before resorting to war and try to achieve compromises with adversaries to prevent conflict(Mansbach, Rafferty :363). Countries that have the means such as the United States appoint ambassadors virtually anywhere in the world to represent their interest, poor countries that dont have the means rely on their UN ambassador to meet and discuss issues in New York with other UN ambassadors from all over the world. Over time diplomats come and go but countries maintain diplomatic missions abroad. The role of the diplomats is to assess their countrys objectives given its actual and potential power to gauge other states objectives in light to their power. Diplomats must also assess the extent to which their countrys objectives are compatible with those of other countries and then decide whether to use persuasion, compromise, or treat of force to pursue their countrys end. (Mansbach, Rafferty: 365). Force: If diplomacy fails then the use of force is the last resort. It is the choice of last resort because of the destructive nature of wars, on humans and economies. The following are the three strategies for managing conflict that require the treat to use military force; defence, deterrence, and compliance. Each of these involve to a different degree, using force in a different way. Defence is to repel an attack, defence may be passive or active, passive defence employs civil defences, bunkers, hardening of weapons systems, and increasing weaponry systems. While active defence involves directing military force against a potential or an actual attacker and may include missile defence, pre-emptive and preventive war. In pre-emptive strike state anticipates an imminent attack and strikes first to gain the upper-hand, whereas in preventive strike it anticipates an attack in the distant future, and therefore attacks the adversary before they gain the capability to strike. Deterrence is to prevent an enemy to attack in the first place. Deterrence is less expensive than defence, because it may not always lead to war, but the threat of war may influence an adversary to take a different course of action, rather than confrontation. Actors usually exercise the three Cs of deterrence, namely communication, capabilities and credibility, which means actors communicate to their adversary and inform them the path they have chosen will indeed lead to conflict, and demonstrate their capabilities if they dont change course, third the treats must be credible. Compliance unlike deterrence, which involves the passive use of force, compliance also called coercive diplomacy, uses limited force to make an actor alter its behaviour or undo certain thing already done. Successful compliance convinces an enemy of the following. There is urgency about complying with the demand to alter its behaviour The coercing actor is more highly motivated than the opponent; and The consequences of staying the course will be escalation and still greater pain for the adversary. This is called bargaining in simple terms, if the enemy fails to comply, the coercing actor must decide whether to back down or intensify the use of force. This is precisely what the United States and its allies are doing in relation to Iran, to convince the Iranian regime to abandon their nuclear ambitions. Track II diplomacy: States use un-official channels to conduct their foreign policy and further their national interest, these include cultural exchanges, people to people movements, conducting this type of diplomacy states show that their government is not hostile to the others. For example some may argue that if the line that divides the Indian sub-continent was removed and the follow of people is allowed between Pakistan and India that would have reduced a lot of the tension between the two nuclear armed nations and could create an atmosphere of understanding, co-operation, interaction and mutual respect. Communication: Communication is a major instrument of foreign policy, it can be in the form of propaganda, or what is called external publicity, the purpose of propaganda is to inform people and governments abroad of the policies, achievements, institutions, and values of the state concerned and to convert international public opinion, as far as possible, to its own point of view (Bandyopadhyay: 24). For example United States uses Voice of America to broadcast their messages, in many different languages around the globe. Other components that contribute the making of foreign policy are Geography and Size: shaping foreign policy states consider their geographic locations, and also the size of their population. Level of economic development: states take into account when shaping their foreign policy according to their economic capabilities. Political tradition: how states conduct their foreign policy is dictated by the political tradition of that state Domestic environment: International environment: Military strength: military capability is the ultimate decision to go to war. National character: In considering all these factors mentioned above. Foreign policy is the means in which national interest has to be promoted, and according to the realist, the success and failure of foreign policy must be judged, by, if the national interest of the state was promoted. Realist argue, the nature of international politics, revolves around power, in a self help environment; states seek to further their national interest by acquiring sufficient military capabilities, to deter attacks by potential enemies, any actor in international politics their aim is to demonstrate their power, or to maintain their power, or to further their power, with power actors can only maintain their position and influence by it. Thus the priority of every state is to promote national interest and for that matter to acquire power. I agree with the realist point of view when it comes to power and prestige, Americans dominate the rest of the world not because they have the largest population in the world, but they are the strongest nation, economically, militarily, technologically and the US president is often referred to as the most powerful man in the world. American influence in the world touches every part of this globe, shaping policies, furthering their interest.

Friday, January 17, 2020

Bureaucracy is No Longer Appropriate Today

Bureaucracy, first proposed by Weber, was once considered as the best form of administration, coordination and control (Stazyk and Goerdel 2011). It was generally adopted by many large social organizations and gradually became their mode of administration (Adler 1999). During the initial period of bureaucracy, it made great contribution to the proper organizing of large social or corporate system through specialization of roles, standardization of procedures and coordination of employees (Balle 1999). However, with time going by, the shortages and problems inside bureaucracy were exposed.It was revised and improved by many people. A model called post-bureaucracy was proposed to avoid and revise the disadvantage of bureaucracy (Johnson et al. 2009). The aim of this essay is to discuss the major advantages and disadvantages of bureaucratic systems in the past and the present. This essay argues that bureaucracies are definitely not appropriate in workplaces today for effective and effic ient management. At first, this essay will give an appropriate definition of bureaucracy and illuminate who has contributed to its development by referring Dwyer (2005) and Hodgson (2004).After that, based on the research of Balle (1999), Adler (1999), Hodgson (2004),Walton (2005), Sorensen (2007), Dwyer (2005) , Hales (2002), Stazyk and Goerdel (2011), this essay will critically analyze the advantages and disadvantages of bureaucracy in the past and present, and in particular, impacts on managers and employees. Following that, this easy will analyze how bureaucratic management may be viewed differently today from the past by referring Johnson et al. (2009). What’s more, this easy will explore the context of management situations.It will also critically analyze whether bureaucracies are appropriate for today’s management based on the research of Walton (2005) and Hales (2002). At last this essay will sum up the core arguments this essay presents. Definition of bureaucr acy and its development Bureaucracy is a kind of rational organization of management, which is centralized and hierarchically organized. It is characterized by a rigid division of labor, layers of authority, impersonal relationships and formalistic rules and procedures (Dwyer 2005).The historical process of bureaucracy theory, from proposal to evolution, was integrated with the contribution of numerous theorists and practitioners. In the early 20th century, Weber first proposed his ideal type of bureaucracy (Adler 1999). His idea laid the foundation of organization theory. The ideal type of bureaucracy had a profound effect on the way large social organizations organized. It helped large-scale organizations avoid chaos and assure efficiency.However, as an ideal model, many scholars criticized, revised and improved Weber’s ideal type of bureaucracy and made their own contribution to the development of it (Dwyer 2005; Hodgson 2004). For example, Taylor founded the Scientific Ma nagement School and it emphasizes maximum productivity and compact division of labor (Dwyer 2005). Mayo began and developed human relations school and it emphasizes the free of constraints of bureaucracy (Dwyer 2005). Heckscher proposed post-bureaucracy and postulated specific difference between the traditional bureaucracy and the post-bureaucratic model (Hodgson 2004).All these schools above, as well as many other advanced theories and approaches, have contributed to the development of bureaucracy. The inherent advantages and disadvantages of bureaucratic system in the past and the present will be discussed as follows. Advantages of bureaucracy Bureaucracy provides a good way to deal with large organizations. In the past, organizations were lack of theoretical guidelines of management. Balle (1999) claims that duplication of labor, low level of resources utilization and inefficiency of work existed in large-scale organizations before the proposal of bureaucratic management.At prese nt, many large organizations still organize their management in the form of bureaucracy to avoid chaos (Adler 1999). Bureaucracy provides a series of documents that describe the working procedures as well as rigid rules and regulations to make organizations run properly (Hodgson 2004). Even in today’s organization, documents and manuals are provided to make employees know exactly their roles. Organizations operate as a machine. Managers give orders while employees act as components and parts of the machine with the guidance of bureaucratic management.They work cooperatively, concertedly and thus effectively. According to the guidance, employees know exactly what they should do and managers would have a chance of supervising everyone in the company. For example, the long-lasting feudal model has proved the advantage of bureaucratic system to manage such a large whale (Balle 1999). The effective control of organizations and efficient use of resources make large-scale production possible. Specialization is another feature of bureaucratic organizations as every employee is allocated to a particular task to perform.In the past, it was human resources not machines that constructed the basic productive force in organizations. So it is of great importance to deploy the human resources (Johnson et al. 2009). Even today, employees in the large organizations have clear assignment of work and responsibility. Bureaucratic management emphasizes the clear division of work and specific boundaries to responsibilities. So employees can concentrate more on his or her specialized trade and learn more about it (Balle 1999). The result is more, better and cheaper productions.For example, like a flow production, employees just focus on their own part of work and need not take care of others. A production is completed when all the work of employee is combined. The coordination of employees and explicit division of work will increase the speed of production and save more time ( Adler 1999). The result is the improvement of the efficiency of the production system. What’s more, with the clear awareness of the role of employees, managers can properly manage employees and allocate resources. Then the effectiveness of management can be improved.Bureaucratic system needs fewer individuals to make strategic decisions based on its hierarchical structure and decision-making time can be shorter. Nowadays, quick response to the market and rapid decision-making are possible because of the hierarchical structure of bureaucratic system. The hierarchical structure is like a pyramid with employees on its bottom and managers on its top (Hales 2002). In the past, in traditional organizations many relevant individuals took part in the decision-making meeting. The meeting might be held one round and another to reach a common agreement.It is a waste of time and may be inefficient. In contrast, fewer individuals from the top of pyramid are involved in making strategic de cision with the bureaucratic management (Stazyk and Goerdel 2011). This will shorten the decision-making time and free the organizations of the risk of missing opportunities. As a consequence, the response time to the market is reduced and the timeliness of production is improved (Adler 1999). In this way the efficiency of production can be improved. However, as an ideal type of mode, bureaucracy also has some inherent disadvantages. Disadvantages of bureaucracyBureaucratic organizations are generally found to be rigid and inflexible because employees should strictly abide by the formalized rules, regulations and documents. Nowadays, the society is changing with the time and bureaucratic systems are viewed as red tape and rule proliferation (Stazyk and Goerdel 2011). With the changing conditions in the marketplace or industry, organizations constrained by rigid and inflexible rules and regulations can find themselves less able to fit the rapid changing environment (Walton 2005). The change of rules and regulations may be much slower than the variation of marketing or industrial environment.Much of the urgencies may fail to be dealt with because of the constraint of rigid and inflexible rules and regulations. The result is an inefficient management. In the past, to make the large-scale organization operate normally, the human side of things is ignored and rules and regulations are emphasized. But nowadays, people-oriented management emphasizes the empowerment and autonomy instead of rules and regulations (Dwyer 2005). Bureaucratic organizations may discourage creativity and innovation because employees must perform the task according to a set of rigid procedures.As the key factors to compete with various counterparts, creativity and innovation are emphasized more today than the past in organizations (Hales 2002). But to bureaucratic organizations, rigid or even outdated rules and regulations place so many unnecessary limits on employees (Adler 1999). They can h ardly think and act of their own. When employees confront problems that need a new solution, their new ideas may be prevented by the restrictiveness of bureaucracy. What’s more, in bureaucratic systems employees are lack of initiative, passion and sharing of ideas. This will lead to a lack of creativity and innovation.These two factors are of significant importance for organizations to survive and keep the core competitiveness in such a rapid changing environment (Sorensen 2007). Without creativity and innovation, organizations can no longer achieve the quality goals and enhance the ability to survive and complete effectively in the changing business environment. The result is the ineffectiveness of management. Impersonality is the feature of bureaucracy and it emphasizes a mechanical way of performing task. In the past, organizations needed management based on rational and impersonal rules and regulations.The rules and regulations have been legally established to minimize co st and maximize control (Hales 2002). The result was that employees worked like robots according to the impersonal rules and regulations. They had no emotions and belongingness of organizations. Thus their attitudes and mental dispositions may be influenced by bureaucracy (Sorensen 2007). Nowadays, organizations emphasize more on employee’s needs and emotions, rather than impersonal rules and regulations. Organizations that stick to impersonality may lead to dehumanization, what’s more, the friction between employees and manages (Dwyer 2005).The result is the depression of employee’s personality and weak belongingness to their workplace. They may do their job without full of passion or even conflict with the order of managers. This will lead to an effectiveness of management. After the discussion about the advantages and disadvantages of bureaucratic management in the past and present, discussion below will analyze the differences of bureaucratic management toda y from the past. Difference of bureaucracy nowadays and in the past Bureaucratic management is different today from the past.Firstly, Organizations emphasize more on quick response and less hierarchical structure than a set of rigid procedures. To keep up with the changing business environment, much of the unnecessary rigid and inflexible rules and regulations must be changed or removed (Hodgson 2004). Empowerment and responsible autonomy of employees are needed rather than the rigid procedures (Johnson et al. 2009). The result is a remarkable improvement of efficiency in management.Secondly, creativity and innovation are the core competitiveness for organizations to compete with their counterparts and  therefore those limits of bureaucratic systems on employees should be eliminated (Hales 2002). Employees are encouraged to propose or experiment their new ideas regardless of the constraint of rigid procedures because rigid procedures may bring effectiveness to organizations (Stazy k and Goerdel 2011). Last but not least, human-based management has been widely accepted in organizations and the impersonality of bureaucracy is no longer encouraged. Employees can feel the care and warmth of human-based management and improve their belongingness and the well-being of the organization.The result is more hard-working employees and the improvement of effective management. After discussing the differences of bureaucratic management today from the past, an analysis of bureaucracy’s inappropriateness for today’s management will be given as follows. Bureaucracy’s appropriateness for today’s management The context of management situations is different from past and bureaucracy is definitely no longer appropriate today. It is true that bureaucracy made great contribution to the progress of management when it was first proposed by Weber (Walton 2005).But with the development of society, the disadvantages of bureaucracy gradually appeared. Nowaday s organizations call for flexible and humanized rules and regulations, quick response to the changing environment and employees, creativity and innovation and belongingness of employees (Hales 2002). In other words, organizations need the effective and efficient management that can make them survive and compete in this rapidly changing world. All of these above are conflicted with bureaucracy. So bureaucracy is no longer appropriate for today’s management. However, there are still a lot of places can be learnt from bureaucratic system.Conclusion In conclusion, bureaucracies are definitely not appropriate in workplaces today for effective and efficient management. The following statements sum up the finding of this essay to support the conclusion. Firstly, the rigid and inflexible rules and regulations of bureaucratic system often result in a failure of quick response to the changing environment. It may lead to an inefficient management especially for large-scale organizations . Secondly, creativity and innovation may be discouraged by a set of rigid procedures of bureaucratic system and therefore lead to an ineffective management.Thirdly, employees perform task in a mechanical way according to the impersonal rules of bureaucratic system. The result is that employees can hardly feel the belongingness to their workplace. This may lead to a failure of work and an ineffective management. All of these above demonstrate that bureaucracy is not appropriate for today’s management. However, there are still shining points that can be learnt from bureaucratic management. When dealing with the management of large-scale organizations, bureaucracy and modern management methods can be mixed to insure a better control of organization and an effective and efficient management.

Thursday, January 9, 2020

The Economic Impacts Of The Economy - 1145 Words

Today, there is a noteworthy and consistent fear of a future recession within our barely stable economy. A recession happens when the economy cannot produce an equal amount of output as input and livelihood are failing for six month timeframe. This is because of various elements: individuals purchasing less, a decline in processing plant generation, developing unemployment, a drop in individual wage, or a horrible securities exchange. These components including lack, decision, and opportunity expense are the reasons that an economy is considered in a subsidence and how something like this happens. One fundamental effect on what happens in and to the economy is the factor of decision. The economy cannot thrive at its own; it need consumers†¦show more content†¦Keeping the end goal to attempt to recover misfortunes, the costs of assets that the producers need to buy to make items will rise. This generally will divert from the whole steadiness of the financial framework. Short age/scarcity results in exchange-offs which then prompt an open door expense. Due to the shortage of items, producers must spend more to get required materials, which constrains them to raise the costs that the customers must pay, which prompts the following point: the decision of the consumer. As expressed some time recently, the economy keeps running by the choices that the customer makes; decisions, whether to purchase or not to purchase. The decision to perform a sure activity incorporates the decision of not performing a sure activity. The decision to purchase a food from one fast food franchise incorporates the decision of not purchasing fast food from another one. Individual decision is incorporated into both the producer and consumer classification. The producers must settle on a choice on which asset to utilize, which items will be made, sum that will be made, the amount it will cost, and where it will be sold. Then again, consumers additionally have decisions to make, for instance, what to purchase, when to purchase, the amount to purchase, and where to get it. These variables of individual decision likewise overflow into the domain of chance expense, or what one must surrender keeping in mind the end goal to get an item.

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Assassin Bugs in the Garden

Assassin bugs get their name from their predatory habits. Gardeners consider them beneficial insects because their voracious appetites for other bugs keep pests under control. All About Assassin Bugs Assassin bugs use piercing, sucking mouthparts to feed and have long, slender antennae. A short, three-segmented beak distinguishes Reduviids from other true bugs, which generally have beaks with four segments. Their heads are often tapered behind the eyes, so they look like they have a long neck. Reduviids vary in size, from just a few millimeters in length to over three centimeters. Some assassin bugs seem rather bland in brown or black, while others sport elaborate markings and brighter colors. The front legs of assassin bugs are designed for catching prey. When threatened, assassin bugs may inflict a painful bite, so be careful handling them. Classification of Assassin Bugs Kingdom – AnimaliaPhylum – ArthropodaClass – InsectaOrder – HemipteraFamily – Reduviidae The Assassin Bug Diet Most assassin bugs prey on other small invertebrates. A few parasitic Reduviids, like the well-known kissing bugs, suck the blood of vertebrates, including humans. The Assasin Bug Life Cycle Assassin bugs, like other Hemipterans, undergo incomplete metamorphosis with three stages—egg, nymph, and adult. The female lays clusters of eggs on plants. Wingless nymphs hatch from the eggs and molt several times to reach adulthood in about two months. Assassin bugs living in colder climates usually overwinter as adults. Special Adaptations and Defenses Toxins in the assassin bugs saliva paralyze its prey. Many have sticky hairs on their front legs, which help them grasp other insects. Some assassin bug nymphs camouflage themselves with debris, from dust bunnies to insect carcasses. Assassin bugs do whatever it takes to catch a meal. Many employ specialized behaviors or modified body parts designed to fool their prey. One termite-hunting species in Costa Rica uses the dead termite carcasses as bait to attract live ones, then pounces on the unsuspecting insect and eats it. Certain assassin bugs in southeast Asia will stick their hairy front legs in tree resin, and use it to attract bees. Range and Distribution of Assassin Bugs A cosmopolitan family of insects, assassin bugs live throughout the world. They are particularly diverse in the tropics. Scientists describe 6,600 distinct species, with over 100 types of assassin bugs living in North America.