‘From Me, Jerusalem, the Holy City, to You Alexandria in Egypt, my Sister.…’ (Bavli Sanhedrin 107b)

Author(s):  
Philip Alexander

The chapter investigates the role of ancient Jewish letters in promoting a shared identity in a polycentric geopolitical situation. This could not be done by coercion: it required diplomacy and persuasion. Alexander explores how Jews based in Jerusalem used letters for the purpose of asserting leadership, starting with the two festal letters at the beginning of 2 Maccabees that invite the Jews in Egypt to adopt the festival of Hanukkah celebrating the rededication of the Jerusalem temple and thus to acknowledge Jerusalem’s primacy. He also finds reflections of Jewish letter-writing in three passages of the book of Acts and reviews the use of letters as transmitted in rabbinic literature. The chapter concludes by suggesting that the genre of responsa, which began to flourish in the Islamic period, developed from exchanges of letters and participated in their ‘soft’ power structures.

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 600-612
Author(s):  
L.F. Nikulin ◽  
V.V. Velikorossov ◽  
S.A. Filin ◽  
A.B. Lanchakov

Subject. The article discusses how management transforms as artificial intelligence gets more important in governance, production and social life. Objectives. We identify and substantiate trends in management transformation as artificial intelligence evolves and gets more important in governance, production and social life. The article also provides our suggestions for management and training of managers dealing with artificial intelligence. Methods. The study employs methods of logic research, analysis and synthesis through the systems and creative approach, methodology of technological waves. Results. We analyzed the scope of management as is and found that threats and global challenges escalate due to the advent of artificial intelligence. We provide the rationale for recognizing the strategic culture as the self-organizing system of business process integration. We suggest and substantiate the concept of soft power with reference to strategic culture, which should be raised, inter alia, through the scientific school of conflict studies. We give our recommendations on how management and training of managers should be improved in dealing with artificial intelligence as it evolves. The novelty hereof is that we trace trends in management transformation as the role of artificial intelligence evolves and growth in governance, production and social life. Conclusions and Relevance. Generic solutions are not very effective for the Russian management practice during the transition to the sixth and seventh waves of innovation. Any programming product represents artificial intelligence, which simulates a personality very well, though unable to substitute a manager in motivating, governing and interacting with people.


Author(s):  
Reeti Gupta

Government of India launched a ‘Swadesh Darshan Scheme’ in January 2015 that pinpoints 13 designated circuits including Ramayana circuit, Krishna Circuit, Buddhist Circuit, and Spiritual Circuit to promote religious and cultural tourism in the country. Kurukshetra is a ‘Holy City’ of State of Haryana that is recently been added in ‘Krishna Religious Tourism Circuit’. ‘Krishna Circuit’ embraces inherent mythology and beliefs pertaining to Lord Krishna and includes different place of Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujrat, and Odisha for tourism facilitation. This scheme is alleged to contribute significantly in increasing the attractiveness of certain religious tourist destinations. Tourism entrepreneurs like hoteliers, restaurant owners, tour operators, travel agencies as well as religious entrepreneurs (Shinde, 2010) such as religious gurus, priests and managers of temples and ashrams are expected to get benefited from the initiatives proposed in the scheme in varied ways. Given the significant role of this scheme for growth of entrepreneurs, the present study aims to highlight the challenges faced by entrepreneurs that deserve attention of policy makers.


Author(s):  
Caron E. Gentry

This introduction contrasts the election of President Obama with the election of President Trump, introducing the concept of anxiety politics and the role of emotions in discourse. It argues that while Christian realism, as articulated by Reinhold Niebuhr, continues to be relevant, its discussion of power structures and anxiety needs to be reevaluated in light of feminist thought. It does so by intersecting Niebuhr with other theologies on the imago dei and creativity. In this way it can better account for the racial and misogynist structures that the United States is founded upon and that continue to haunt and effect US politics.


Author(s):  
Paul Oldfield

This chapter examines praise of cities through the prism of their religious virtues. It does so through the two main, but interrelated, approaches within which the medieval city was linked to the sacred. The first embedded the role of the city within wider Christian narratives about man’s salvation. It was invariably rooted in biblical and other patristic texts (particularly St Augustine’s City of God) and later connected to medieval Christian thinking on Jerusalem, the Heavenly City, and the triumph of Christianity. The second approach drilled down onto specific manifestations of the sacred character of a particular city—its patron saints, its religious buildings and shrines, its religious officials, its place within the universal Church hierarchy, and its pious citizenry.


Urban Science ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 70
Author(s):  
Till Koglin ◽  
Lucas Glasare

This paper evaluates the history and cycling accessibility of Nova, a shopping centre established in Lund, Sweden, in 2002. The current situation was also analysed through observation and a literature review. Moreover, the study conducted a closer analysis of the history and role of the municipality based on further literature study and interviews with officials. The conclusion of the analysis indicates poor and unsafe bikeways caused by conflicts of interest between politicians, officials, landowners and the general public. It also depicts a situation in which the municipality’s master plan has been ignored, and, in contrast to the local goals, cycling accessibility at Nova has seen no significant improvement since the shopping centre was first established. The reasons for this, arguably, are a relatively low budget for bikeway improvements in the municipality, as well as a situation in which decision-makers have stopped approaching the subject, as a result of the long and often boisterous conflicts it has created in the past. Lastly, it must be noted that it is easy to regard the whole process of Nova, from its establishment to the current situation, as being symptomatic of the power structures between drivers and cyclists that still affect decision-makers at all levels.


2021 ◽  
pp. 101269022199980
Author(s):  
Hussa K Al-Khalifa ◽  
Dwa Al-Khalifa

Sport has often been advocated as a tool to achieve various social development (SD) goals. It has also been used as a way of expanding soft power (SP) influence. Combining both concepts provides an opportunity to understand how SP and SD may interrelate through the use of domestic SP strategies in sport. In this paper, we discuss the identified themes of unity, pride, and collective identity that arise from a regional women’s sporting competition in the Arabian Gulf among the Gulf Cooperation Council members, as factors that strengthened the prominence of athletes’ shared identity and connectedness. Using the perspectives of the authors who were immersed in the sporting competition, we argue that this information is important for sports organisers to use as bases for SP strategies to achieve inwards-focused social goals.


2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-476
Author(s):  
TAKASHI INOGUCHI

This special issue focuses on the role of civil society in international relations. It highlights the dynamics and impacts of public opinion on international relations (Zaller, 1992). Until recently, it was usual to consider public opinion in terms of its influence on policy makers and in terms of moulding public opinion in the broad frame of the policy makers in one's country. Given that public opinion in the United States was assessed and judged so frequently and diffused so globally, it was natural to frame questions guided by those concepts which pertained to the global and domestic context of the United States.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Jess Gosling

Perceptions of attractiveness and trustworthiness impact the prosperity and influence of countries. A country's soft power is not guaranteed. Countries have their brands, an image shaped by the behaviour of governments, by what they do and say, whom they associate with, and how they conduct themselves on the global stage. Increasingly, digital diplomacy plays a crucial role in the creation and application of soft power. This paper argues that digital diplomacy is increasingly vital in the articulation of soft power. Digital diplomacy is a new way of conducting public diplomacy, offering new and unparalleled ways of building trust with previously disengaged audiences. Soft power is now the driving force behind reputation and influence on the global stage, where increasingly digital diplomacy plays an essential role.


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