Organizing to Strategize in the Face of Interactions: Preventing Premature Lock-in

A growing retreat from multilateralism is threatening to upend the institutions that underpin the liberal international order. This article applies network theory to this crisis in global governance, arguing that policymakers can strengthen these institutions by leveraging network effect pressures. Network effects arise when networks of actors—say language speakers or users of a social media platform—interact and the value one user derives from the network increases as other users join the network (e.g., the more people who speak your language, the more useful it is because there are more people with whom you can communicate). Crucially, network effect pressures produce what is called ‘lock-in’—a situation in which actors are unable to exit the network without incurring high costs and as a result become locked into the network. For example, because of their powerful network effect pressures, users of Facebook and the English language cannot easily exit these networks. International organizations such as the UN, the WTO, the IMF, etc., are networks of sovereign states that likewise produce network effect pressures. As such, intensifying their network effect pressure can lock countries more firmly into these institutions. To that end, this article proposes a suite of strategies policymakers may use to manipulate the network effect pressures generated by international organizations to strengthen these institutions and the multilateral treaties that establish them—an approach the article calls treaty hacking. The article offers a toolkit from which policymakers can draw to bolster the liberal order in the face of growing global instability and change.

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Flood Mitigation, Climate Change Adaptation and Technological Lock-In in Assam

Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal ◽

10.37773/ees.v3i2.150 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Robert Wasson ◽

Arupjyoti Saikia ◽

Priya Bansal ◽

Chuah Chong Joon

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Climate Change Adaptation ◽

Path Dependence ◽

Climate Projections ◽

Structural Measures ◽

Flood Magnitude ◽

Increase Risk ◽

The Face ◽

Lock In ◽

Technological Frame

Climate change adaptation requires communities and policymakers to be flexible in order to cope with high levels of uncertainty in climate projections, particularly of precipitation, flood magnitude and frequency, and changing human exposure and vulnerability to floods—which are even less predictable than the climate. Most of the world’s major rivers are embanked to “protect” communities from floods. Embankments—which represent a significant investment largely of public funds—are a manifestation of the professionalism of engineers and hydrologists. They are also the result of professional and political entrapment and a technological frame that grows in strength (probably non-linearly) by positive feedback to produce technological lock-in. This results in inertia in large socio-technological systems, with little incentive to adopt more adaptive and flexible solutions, including non-structural measures—such as land-use zoning—even in the face of evidence that structural measures do not always reduce damage and, in some cases, actually make it worse. Where embankment breaches are common, damage is likely to increase as climate change induces larger floods, and lock-in and path dependence increase risk. Therefore, there is an urgent need for the mitigation of floods through non-structural measures that complement embankments. The phenomena described in this paper are common in many countries.

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Wielding Power in the Capital

Mapping Power ◽

10.1093/oso/9780199487820.003.0004 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 72-92

Author(s):

Megha Kaladharan

Keyword(s):

Service Quality ◽

Electricity Sector ◽

The Public ◽

The Face ◽

Political Advantage ◽

Federal Politics ◽

The Government ◽

Publicly Supported ◽

Lock In ◽

Financial Pressures

Delhi’s electricity sector represents a case of privatization in the face of electoral populism. Publicly-supported privatization-based reform, introduced by the Congress government, yielded some service quality gains to customers and political advantage to the government. However, these reforms also sowed the seeds of future discontent by introducing tension between the credibility of reforms and that of the regulator. Reforms became politically unpopular, as the public was mobilized to protest tariff hikes and question the gains from reform. Moreover, financial pressures rose as a result of two forces: growing regulatory assets allowed by the regulator as a way of staving off tariff increases and increases in power purchase costs due to imprudent contract lock-in. A new AAP in government sought consumer gains through transparency-focused reform along with targeted subsidies, but this fell afoul of Delhi’s federal politics. Reform allowed Delhi to change the equation between politics and electricity, but not in a manner that was sustainable.

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Why do people believe in a zero-sum economy?

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x18000389 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Samuel G. B. Johnson

Keyword(s):

Perspective Taking ◽

Evolutionary Model ◽

Everyday Experience ◽

Coalitional Psychology ◽

The Face ◽

Zero Sum

AbstractZero-sum thinking and aversion to trade pervade our society, yet fly in the face of everyday experience and the consensus of economists. Boyer & Petersen's (B&P's) evolutionary model invokes coalitional psychology to explain these puzzling intuitions. I raise several empirical challenges to this explanation, proposing two alternative mechanisms – intuitive mercantilism (assigning value to money rather than goods) and errors in perspective-taking.

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Mars: was There an Ancient Eden?

International Astronomical Union Colloquium ◽

10.1017/s025292110001472x ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 161 ◽

pp. 203-218 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Tobias C. Owen

Keyword(s):

Positive Answer ◽

Biogenic Elements ◽

Habitable Zones ◽

The Face ◽

The Origin Of Life ◽

Early Mars ◽

Favorable Conditions ◽

Open Question ◽

Rocky Planets ◽

Impact Erosion

AbstractThe clear evidence of water erosion on the surface of Mars suggests an early climate much more clement than the present one. Using a model for the origin of inner planet atmospheres by icy planetesimal impact, it is possible to reconstruct the original volatile inventory on Mars, starting from the thin atmosphere we observe today. Evidence for cometary impact can be found in the present abundances and isotope ratios of gases in the atmosphere and in SNC meteorites. If we invoke impact erosion to account for the present excess of129Xe, we predict an early inventory equivalent to at least 7.5 bars of CO2. This reservoir of volatiles is adequate to produce a substantial greenhouse effect, provided there is some small addition of SO2(volcanoes) or reduced gases (cometary impact). Thus it seems likely that conditions on early Mars were suitable for the origin of life – biogenic elements and liquid water were present at favorable conditions of pressure and temperature. Whether life began on Mars remains an open question, receiving hints of a positive answer from recent work on one of the Martian meteorites. The implications for habitable zones around other stars include the need to have rocky planets with sufficient mass to preserve atmospheres in the face of intensive early bombardment.

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Evidence for a shear mechanism for the precipitation of γ-zirconium hydride in zirconium

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s042482010011043x ◽

1978 ◽

Vol 36 (1) ◽

pp. 658-659

Author(s):

G.J.C. Carpenter

Keyword(s):

Elevated Temperature ◽

Strain Field ◽

Zirconium Hydride ◽

Zirconium Atom ◽

Atom Diffusion ◽

Solvus Temperature ◽

Hexagonal Close Packed ◽

Partial Dislocations ◽

The Face

In zirconium-hydrogen alloys, rapid cooling from an elevated temperature causes precipitation of the face-centred tetragonal (fct) phase, γZrH, in the form of needles, parallel to the close-packed <1120>zr directions (1). With low hydrogen concentrations, the hydride solvus is sufficiently low that zirconium atom diffusion cannot occur. For example, with 6 μg/g hydrogen, the solvus temperature is approximately 370 K (2), at which only the hydrogen diffuses readily. Shears are therefore necessary to produce the crystallographic transformation from hexagonal close-packed (hep) zirconium to fct hydride.The simplest mechanism for the transformation is the passage of Shockley partial dislocations having Burgers vectors (b) of the type 1/3<0110> on every second (0001)Zr plane. If the partial dislocations are in the form of loops with the same b, the crosssection of a hydride precipitate will be as shown in fig.1. A consequence of this type of transformation is that a cumulative shear, S, is produced that leads to a strain field in the surrounding zirconium matrix, as illustrated in fig.2a.

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A study of interface sliding at F.C.C.-B.C.C. boundaries in a Cu-Zn alloy

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100109252 ◽

1978 ◽

Vol 36 (1) ◽

pp. 422-423

Author(s):

F. Monchoux ◽

A. Rocher ◽

J.L. Martin

Keyword(s):

Face Centered Cubic ◽

Creep Tests ◽

High Voltage Electron Microscopy ◽

Diffusion Treatment ◽

Voltage Electron ◽

The Face ◽

Face Centered ◽

Interface Sliding ◽

Zn Alloy ◽

Made In

Interphase sliding is an important phenomenon of high temperature plasticity. In order to study the microstructural changes associated with it, as well as its influence on the strain rate dependence on stress and temperature, plane boundaries were obtained by welding together two polycrystals of Cu-Zn alloys having the face centered cubic and body centered cubic structures respectively following the procedure described in (1). These specimens were then deformed in shear along the interface on a creep machine (2) at the same temperature as that of the diffusion treatment so as to avoid any precipitation. The present paper reports observations by conventional and high voltage electron microscopy of the microstructure of both phases, in the vicinity of the phase boundary, after different creep tests corresponding to various deformation conditions.Foils were cut by spark machining out of the bulk samples, 0.2 mm thick. They were then electropolished down to 0.1 mm, after which a hole with thin edges was made in an area including the boundary

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The glycomes of Caenorhabditis elegans and other model organisms

Biochemical Society Symposium ◽

10.1042/bss0690117 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 69 ◽

pp. 117-134 ◽

Cited By ~ 47

Author(s):

Stuart M. Haslam ◽

David Gems ◽

Howard R. Morris ◽

Anne Dell

Keyword(s):

Caenorhabditis Elegans ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

Structural Data ◽

Model Organisms ◽

Entire Genome ◽

C Elegans ◽

The Face ◽

Area Of Concern ◽

Nematode Worm

There is no doubt that the immense amount of information that is being generated by the initial sequencing and secondary interrogation of various genomes will change the face of glycobiological research. However, a major area of concern is that detailed structural knowledge of the ultimate products of genes that are identified as being involved in glycoconjugate biosynthesis is still limited. This is illustrated clearly by the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, which was the first multicellular organism to have its entire genome sequenced. To date, only limited structural data on the glycosylated molecules of this organism have been reported. Our laboratory is addressing this problem by performing detailed MS structural characterization of the N-linked glycans of C. elegans; high-mannose structures dominate, with only minor amounts of complex-type structures. Novel, highly fucosylated truncated structures are also present which are difucosylated on the proximal N-acetylglucosamine of the chitobiose core as well as containing unusual Fucα1–2Gal1–2Man as peripheral structures. The implications of these results in terms of the identification of ligands for genomically predicted lectins and potential glycosyltransferases are discussed in this chapter. Current knowledge on the glycomes of other model organisms such as Dictyostelium discoideum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Drosophila melanogaster is also discussed briefly.

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Supporting the Use of Rudimentary Vocalizations

Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication ◽

10.1044/aac23.3.132 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 132-139 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Lauren Zubow ◽

Richard Hurtig

Keyword(s):

Rett Syndrome ◽

Visual Cues ◽

Acoustic Analysis ◽

Eye Gaze ◽

Research Question ◽

Primary Research ◽

Multiple Modalities ◽

Face To Face ◽

Perceptual Judgments ◽

The Face

Children with Rett Syndrome (RS) are reported to use multiple modalities to communicate although their intentionality is often questioned (Bartolotta, Zipp, Simpkins, & Glazewski, 2011; Hetzroni & Rubin, 2006; Sigafoos et al., 2000; Sigafoos, Woodyatt, Tuckeer, Roberts-Pennell, & Pittendreigh, 2000). This paper will present results of a study analyzing the unconventional vocalizations of a child with RS. The primary research question addresses the ability of familiar and unfamiliar listeners to interpret unconventional vocalizations as “yes” or “no” responses. This paper will also address the acoustic analysis and perceptual judgments of these vocalizations. Pre-recorded isolated vocalizations of “yes” and “no” were presented to 5 listeners (mother, father, 1 unfamiliar, and 2 familiar clinicians) and the listeners were asked to rate the vocalizations as either “yes” or “no.” The ratings were compared to the original identification made by the child's mother during the face-to-face interaction from which the samples were drawn. Findings of this study suggest, in this case, the child's vocalizations were intentional and could be interpreted by familiar and unfamiliar listeners as either “yes” or “no” without contextual or visual cues. The results suggest that communication partners should be trained to attend to eye-gaze and vocalizations to ensure the child's intended choice is accurately understood.

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Verrucae planae of the face

Archives of Dermatology ◽

10.1001/archderm.104.3.330 ◽

1971 ◽

Vol 104 (3) ◽

pp. 330-330

Author(s):

R. Lester

Keyword(s):

The Face

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