The Politburo’s Holy of Holies

2019 ◽  
pp. 25-50
Author(s):  
Vladimir Kontorovich
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
Defense Industry ◽  
Political Authority ◽  
Soviet Economy ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Internal Organization ◽  
Military Expenditures ◽  
Security Concerns ◽  
The Military

The military sector was the most successful part of the Soviet economy, and the most important one from the point of view of its rulers. It owed this success to its unique place in the Soviet economic and political system and its non-standard internal organization. Defense industry was not only separate from the rest of industry; it also had different management practices and was home to institutions unseen elsewhere in the economy. It was guided by the highest levels of political authority, and the rulers’ interest in the sector translated into generous allocations of inputs. USSR maintained a wartime level of military expenditures during the four decades of peace. Such a large and privileged claimant on the nation’s resources strongly influenced the performance of the civilian sectors. With all these characteristics, the military sector should have interested Sovietologists for its own sake, quite apart from Western security concerns.

The aspects of the innovation of the military-industrial complex and its significance for the national security of Russia

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-20
Author(s):  
Irina Orlova ◽  
Artem Sukharev ◽  
Maria Sukhareva ◽  
Mikhail Deikun
Keyword(s):  
National Security ◽  
Systematic Approach ◽  
Defense Industry ◽  
World Market ◽  
Modern World ◽  
High Tech ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Military Industrial Complex ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
The Military

The main objective of the article is to substantiate a systematic approach to the introduction of all types of innovations in the development of the military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that in the modern world it is especially important to ensure the national security of the country and the defense industry plays a crucial role in this. At the same time, one cannot but note the importance of the defense industry in the production of high-tech civilian products and dual-use products, which enhances the country's competitiveness in the world market. In addition, the relevance of the topic is due to the presence of rather serious problems in the Russian defense industry, which require immediate resolution. The article uses the methodology of structurally functional analysis, the institutional approach and the method of comparative assessments. The authors conclude that technological innovation alone will not be able to achieve strategic results for ensuring national security, only in conjunction with organizational, product, social and marketing innovations, the domestic defense industry is able to solve its tasks.

Bipartisanship as Possible Alternative of Russian Political System Evolution

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 256-265
Author(s):  
Konstantin V. Simonov ◽  
Stanislav P. Mitrakhovich
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Political System ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
The United States ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Complex Structures ◽  
Practical Advice ◽  
Simultaneous Separation

The article examines the possibility of transfer to bipartisan system in Russia. The authors assess the benefits of the two-party system that include first of all the ensuring of actual political competition and authority alternativeness with simultaneous separation of minute non-system forces that may contribute to the country destabilization. The authors analyze the accompanying risks and show that the concept of the two-party system as the catalyst of elite schism is mostly exaggerated. The authors pay separate attention to the experience of bipartisan system implementation in other countries, including the United States. They offer detailed analysis of the generated concept of the bipartisanship crisis and show that this point of view doesn’t quite agree with the current political practice. The authors also examine the foreign experience of the single-party system. They show that the success of the said system is mostly insubstantial, besides many of such systems have altered into more complex structures, while commentators very often use not the actual information but the established myths about this or that country. The authors also offer practical advice regarding the potential technologies of transition to the bipartisan system in Russia.

Reluctant Cold Warriors

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir Kontorovich
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Soviet Economy ◽  
Accurate Analysis ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
The Us ◽  
Comprehensive Survey ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military

The academic study of the Soviet economy in the US was created to help fight the Cold War, part of a broader mobilization of the social sciences for national security needs. The Soviet strategic challenge rested on the ability of its economy to produce large numbers of sophisticated weapons. The military sector was the dominant part of the economy, and the most successful one. However, a comprehensive survey of scholarship on the Soviet economy from 1948-1991 shows that it paid little attention to the military sector, compared to other less important parts of the economy. Soviet secrecy does not explain this pattern of neglect. Western scholars developed strained civilian interpretations for several aspects of the economy which the Soviets themselves acknowledged to have military significance. A close reading of the economic literature, combined with insights from other disciplines, suggest three complementary explanations for civilianization of the Soviet economy. Soviet studies was a peripheral field in economics, and its practitioners sought recognition by pursuing the agenda of the mainstream discipline, however ill-fitting their subject. The Soviet economy was supposed to be about socialism, and the military sector appeared to be unrelated to that. By stressing the militarization, one risked being viewed as a Cold War monger. The conflict identified in this book between the incentives of academia and the demands of policy makers (to say nothing of accurate analysis) has broad relevance for national security uses of social science.

scholarly journals The Difficult alliance. Military cooperation between the ruthenian king Daniel and the Piasts of Mazovia

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-112
Author(s):  
Michał Skoczyński
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Armed Conflicts ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Strategy ◽  
Military Cooperation ◽  
Historical Sources ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Historical Methodology ◽  
The Military

Abstract The article presents the military cooperation between the King of Galician-Volhynian Ruthenia, Daniel Romanowicz, and the Dukes of Mazovia, Konrad and his son Siemowit. The alliance, based as a counterweight for the cooperation between the King of Hungary and the Piast princes of Lesser Poland, who were trying to conquer Ruthenia and dominate all Piast principalities in then fragmented Poland. It lasted for several decades from the 1220’s to the 1260’s and was primarly aimed at mutual protection against the invasions of the pagan Yotvingians and supporting each other in armed conflicts. The text contains an analysis of war expeditions, tactics and ways of support that were given by both sides of the allianace. It is a new point of view on this aspect of political strategy of both sides that in some ways defined the regional situation. Ruthenians granted masovian Piasts some mobile and political uncommited support in fight with their relatives in Poland, and also secured their border with the Yotvingians. On the other hand, masovian knights were an additional strike force in ruthenian plundering expeditions to Yotvingia. The research was based on the analysis of preserved historical sources and scientific literature using historical methodology.

The inseparable nature of working and learning: peripheral management practice that facilitates employee learning

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 10-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Andrew Cohen
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Management Practice ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Management Activity ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Employee Learning ◽  
Frontline Managers ◽  
Social Act ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Good Manager

Purpose – This paper aims to look at the peripheral management practice that facilitates employee learning. Such management practices are embedded or inseparable to working and being a good manager. Design/methodology/approach – Point of view. Findings – For many frontline managers and their employees, the separation between working and learning is often not apparent. There appears to be no clear distinction between when they are working and when they are learning. Practical implications – Better development of organizational managers. Originality/value – This paper highlights the informal nature of learning and working and builds on the understanding that much of the learning that occurs at work occurs as part of a social act, often involving managers and their employees. In this way, employee learning that is identified and facilitated by frontline managers is so often entwined in other management activity. Furthermore, this paper outlines some practical actions that organizations can undertake to aid greater frontline management involvement in employee learning.

National Security and U.S. Immigration Policy, 1776–1790

2008 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robbie Totten
Keyword(s):  
Great Britain ◽  
International Relations ◽  
National Security ◽  
Immigration Policy ◽  
Early Republic ◽  
Security Concerns ◽  
New Nation ◽  
The Military

An examination of U.S. immigration policy during the early Republic from a security perspective—a common analytical focus within the field of international relations—reveals the inadequacy of traditional economic and ideological interpretations. Security concerns, based on actual threats from Great Britain and Spain, permeated the arguments both for and against immigration. Those in favor of immigration hoped to strengthen the nation, primarily by providing soldiers and money for the military; those opposed to immigration feared that it would compromise national security by causing domestic unrest and exposing the new nation to espionage and terrorism. These issues are not unlike those that beset contemporary policymakers.

Play it Again Sam — an Essay on Salmon Enhancement

1974 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 1433-1456 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. Larkin
Keyword(s):  
Management Practices ◽  
Pacific Salmon ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Research Information ◽  
Control Programs ◽  
Successful Program ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Management And Development ◽  
Economic Worth

For more than 100 years efforts have been made to increase the abundance of the various species of Pacific salmon. The success of these ventures is largely a matter of conjecture because the scale of natural fluctuations is sufficient to mask the effect of human intervention. No well-defined program for salmon enhancement has yet been developed for British Columbia as a whole. This is mainly attributable to the pressures for providing protection for the existing stocks in the circumstances of an intensive fishery and increasing effects of other resource uses.From a social point of view, salmon enhancement is a highly desirable activity. Salmon occupy a special place in the culture of residents of the Pacific coast. Salmon arc economically valuable and salmon fishing provides a rich source of employment. Recreational fisheries are valuable but their true economic worth is difficult to judge. Benefit:cost ratios for salmon enhancement should be calculated for whole programs rather than for individual projects to obtain an approach consistent with the desirable strategy of development.From a biological point of view, salmon enhancement is feasible. There is potential in the ocean for growing more salmon; many historic runs can be rebuilt and there are many opportunities for colonizing watersheds that are currently inaccessible to salmon. Harvesting of increased stocks of salmon could pose risks for natural stocks that are relatively unproductive. More effective management and development of new strains of salmon may be required in these circumstances. Predator-control programs may in some instances be useful adjuncts to salmon-enhancement projects.The types of enhancement activity that will most likely be rewarding are those that interfere least with the natural life history. Removal of obstructions, regulation of stream flow, construction of artificial spawning channels, are typical simple measures that involve less research information and less risk than rearing hatcheries.Priorities for different salmon-enhancement projects involve consideration of the regional economic and social conditions as well as appreciation of the biological and physical problems. Regardless of priorities it is essential to a successful program that there be a commitment to continuity. Additionally, the total administrative complex for salmon enhancement should involve research components.The execution of a successful salmon-enhancement program depends on the establishment of an agency with the single responsibility of salmon enhancement. The financing of a successful program should depend partly on revenues generated from the resource users, such as a tax on commercially caught salmon, a license for saltwater angling. Special grants from federal and provincial governments would also be appropriate. Regardless of the administrative arrangements, it is urgently necessary that provincial government involvement be more substantial than it is at present. With their control over resource management practices, the provincial government is in a vital position for maintenance of freshwater environments.An investment of at least $100 million, and probably twice that amount, could be undertaken in a salmon-enhancement program that could be executed within 10 years. There are compelling reasons for starting on this enhancement program immediately.

To ‘midwife’ – and abort – a democracy: Mauritania's transition from military rule, 2005–2008

2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 129-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
Boubacar N'Diaye
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Political System ◽  
Third Republic ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Military Coup ◽  
Military Rule ◽  
Civil Military Relations ◽  
Electoral Outcomes ◽  
Military Relations ◽  
The Military

ABSTRACTThe 3 August 2005 military coup was Mauritania's best opportunity to turn the page on decades of the deposed quasi-military regime's destructive politics. This article critically analyses relevant aspects of the transition that ensued in the context of the prevailing models of military withdrawal from politics in Africa. It also examines the challenges that Mauritania's short-lived Third Republic faced. It argues that the transition process did not escape the well-known African military junta leader's proclivity to manipulate transitions to fulfil suddenly awakened self-seeking political ambitions, in violation of solemn promises. While there was no old-fashioned ballot stuffing to decide electoral outcomes, Mauritania's junta leader and his lieutenants spared no effort to keep the military very much involved in politics, and to perpetuate a strong sense of entitlement to political power. Originally designed as an ingenious ‘delayed self-succession’ of sorts, in the end, another coup aborted Mauritania's democratisation process and threw its institutions in a tailspin. This only exacerbated the challenges that have saddled Mauritania's political system and society for decades – unhealthy civil-military relations, a dismal ‘human rights deficit’, terrorism, and a neo-patrimonial, disastrously mismanaged economy.

Chiefdom as a Phenomenon. III. 1. Chiefdom and the Chieftain Institution in its Potestary-political System: the “Classe of the Chiefs”, the Dual Chieftain Institution, the Paramount Chief

Epohi ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Yordanov ◽  
◽  
◽  
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Cultural Analysis ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Good Knowledge ◽  
Early State ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Cross ◽  
The Military ◽  
Cross Cultural Analysis

The main problem, discussed in the article, is the place the chief takes in the potestary-political system of the so-called chiefdom and the so-called early state. The starting point is the conception that the chief¬tain institution is a polyvariant phenomenon. The data of the cross-cultural analysis of the problem concerning the chieftain institution of the late tribal epoch, the epochs of politogenesis and of the early state, respectively, outline comparatively distinctly several categories of chiefs: firstly, the sacralized institution of the chiefs of the separate segments of the clans, delocalized in communities, i. e. the leaders of the separate structural sections of these tribal organization, still consisting of clans, organized on the principle of the classification kinship; secondly, the chiefs who were connected with the leadership in the primary age-set system, and thirdly, the category of chiefs, designated with the ethnological term bigman. It was on the basis of these three categories of chiefs on which the chieftain institutions of the epoch of politogenesis are formed, building the supreme sections of the potestary-political system of the so-called chiefdom: the category of the hereditary sacralized chief-(priest), the category of the military chiefs (which is their most general qualification), and the category of the so-called bigmen. It is the figures of these three categories of chiefs that stand out strongly in the pote¬stary-political system of the epoch of the politogenesis and determine their definition as chiefdom. Undoubtedly, the good knowledge of the chieftain institution with its categories will be of great help to the study of genesis of the monocratic institution. In the current research the attention is focused on a limited number of questions – the “class of the chiefs”, the supreme chieftain colleges and the binary chieftain institution, the paramount chief.

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