Contrasting tactical and strategic dynamics on a Clausewitz landscape

Author(s):  
Rodrick Wallace

Statistical models based on the asymptotic limit theorems of control and information theories allow formal examination of the essential differences between short-time “tactical” confrontations and a long-term “strategic” conflict dominated by evolutionary process. The world of extended coevolutionary conflict is not the world of sequential “muddling through.” The existential strategic challenge is to take cognitive control of a long-term dynamic in which one may, in fact, be “losing” most short-term confrontations. Winning individual battles can be a relatively direct, if not simple or easy, matter of sufficient local resources, training, and resolve. Winning extended conflicts is not direct, and requires management of subtle coevolutionary phenomena subject to a dismaying punctuated equilibrium more familiar from evolutionary theory than military doctrine. Directed evolution has given us the agricultural base needed for large-scale human organization. Directed coevolution of the inevitable conflicts between the various segments of that organization may be needed for its long-term persistence.

2018 ◽  
pp. 85-104 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. E. Kuzina ◽  
N. A. Krupenskiy

The main objective of the study is to assess the level of indebtedness and over-indebtedness of Russians. Despite the fact that according to official statistics, the level of household indebtedness in Russia is one of the lowest in the world, the percentage share of non-performing loans is higher than in the countries with a higher level of household indebtedness. During 2015—2017, every fourth of those who had an outstanding loan in Russia spent more than 30% of his or her income on paying back a loan. The reason is that in Russia, within retail lending consumer loans prevail over mortgages. Consumer loans are taken for a short time and at a high interest rate. As a result, debt service of relatively small loans creates a greater burden on the family budget for Russians than in Europe and the United States. In this context, the increase of retail lending can only be sustainable if banks change their business model and transit from short-term consumer credits to long-term loans secured by real estate or other assets.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lifang Chen ◽  
Yong Li ◽  
Yizhong Wang ◽  
Bohui Zhang
Keyword(s):  

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 534
Author(s):  
Huogen Wang

The paper proposes an effective continuous gesture recognition method, which includes two modules: segmentation and recognition. In the segmentation module, the video frames are divided into gesture frames and transitional frames by using the information of hand motion and appearance, and continuous gesture sequences are segmented into isolated sequences. In the recognition module, our method exploits the spatiotemporal information embedded in RGB and depth sequences. For the RGB modality, our method adopts Convolutional Long Short-Term Memory Networks to learn long-term spatiotemporal features from short-term spatiotemporal features obtained from a 3D convolutional neural network. For the depth modality, our method converts a sequence into Dynamic Images and Motion Dynamic Images through weighted rank pooling and feed them into Convolutional Neural Networks, respectively. Our method has been evaluated on both ChaLearn LAP Large-scale Continuous Gesture Dataset and Montalbano Gesture Dataset and achieved state-of-the-art performance.


Agriculture ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 494
Author(s):  
Riccardo Lo Bianco ◽  
Primo Proietti ◽  
Luca Regni ◽  
Tiziano Caruso

The objective of fully mechanizing olive harvesting has been pursued since the 1970s to cope with labor shortages and increasing production costs. Only in the last twenty years, after adopting super-intensive planting systems and developing appropriate straddle machines, a solution seems to have been found. The spread of super-intensive plantings, however, raises serious environmental and social concerns, mainly because of the small number of cultivars that are currently used (basically 2), compared to over 100 cultivars today cultivated on a large scale across the world. Olive growing, indeed, insists on over 11 million hectares. Despite its being located mostly in the Mediterranean countries, the numerous olive growing districts are characterized by deep differences in climate and soil and in the frequency and nature of environmental stress. To date, the olive has coped with biotic and abiotic stress thanks to the great cultivar diversity. Pending that new technologies supporting plant breeding will provide a wider number of cultivars suitable for super-intensive systems, in the short term, new growing models must be developed. New olive orchards will need to exploit cultivars currently present in various olive-growing areas and favor increasing productions that are environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. As in fruit growing, we should focus on “pedestrian olive orchards”, based on trees with small canopies and whose top can be easily reached by people from the ground and by machines (from the side of the top) that can carry out, in a targeted way, pesticide treatments, pruning and harvesting.


Author(s):  
Paul L. Joskow

Abstract Electric power sectors around the world have changed dramatically in the last 25 years as a result of sector liberalization policies. Many electricity sectors are now pursuing deep decarbonization goals which will entail replacing dispatchable fossil generation primarily with intermittent renewable generation (wind and solar) over the next 20–30 years. This transition creates new challenges for both short-term wholesale market design and investment incentives consistent with achieving both decarbonization commitments and security of supply criteria. Thinking broadly about the options for institutional change from a Williamsonian perspective – thinking like Williamson – provides a useful framework for examining institutional adaptation. Hybrid markets that combine ‘competition for the market’ that relies on competitive procurement for long-term purchased power agreements with wind, solar, and storage developers, ideally in a technology neutral fashion, and ‘competition in the market’ that relies on short-term markets designed to produce efficient and reliable operations of intermittent generation and storage, is identified as a promising direction for institutional adaptation. Many auction, contract, and market integration issues remain to be resolved.


2009 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-396 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefaan Marysse ◽  
Sara Geenen

ABSTRACTThe recent involvement of China in sub-Saharan Africa is challenging and changing the world geostrategic scene. In the article, we analyse the agreements between the Congolese government and a group of Chinese state-owned enterprises. A number of public infrastructure works will be financed with Chinese loans. To guarantee reimbursement, a Congolese/Chinese joint venture will be created to extract and sell copper, cobalt and gold. These are the biggest trade/investment agreements that China has so far signed in Africa. This article seeks to contribute to the discussion regarding the agreement's impact on internal development in Congo. Does it create a ‘win-win’ situation for all, or is it an unequal exchange? We outline the internal and international debates and analyse several noteworthy characteristics of the agreements. In conclusion, we present a balanced view on the likely impact on Congo's short-term and long-term development.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Yifu Lin ◽  
Yan Wang

The world economy needs a growth-lifting strategy, and infrastructure financing seems to hold the key. Based on the New Structural Economics (Lin, 2010; 2012) we discuss the heterogeneity of capital focusing on the long-term versus short-term orientation (STO). Traditional neoliberalism assumes that capital is homogenous, complete capital account liberalization is “beneficial”.However, previous studies have found evidence of long-term orientation (LTO) in the culture of many Asian economies (Hofstede, 1991). In this exploratory paper, we suggest that the LTO can be considered a special endowment which, under certain circumstances, can be developed into a comparative advantage (CA) in patient capital. If these countries can turn their latent CA into arevealed CA in patient capital, and develop the ability to “package” profitable and non-profitable projects in meaningful ways, they would have a “revealed” competitive advantage in infrastructure financing. The ability to “package” public infrastructure and private services is one of the key institutional factors for success in overseas cooperation.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 134-143
Author(s):  
Annisa Yulianti ◽  
Hadi Sasana

 This study aims to analyze the short-term and long-term relationship of increasing the minimum wage in Central Java on employment. The research method used is ECM. The variables of this study include labor, minimum wages, PMDN, and economic growth. The data used are time-series data from 1990-2020. The results show that the minimum wage has a positive and significant relationship to the employment in the long term but not significantly in the short time. PMDN has a negative but significant correlation in the short and long term. At the same time, the variable economic growth has a positive but not meaningful relationship to employment absorption in the long and short term.


2013 ◽  
Vol 215 ◽  
pp. 02-11
Author(s):  
NGÂN TRẦN HOÀNG

In 2012, Vietnam?s economy faced great challenges. The world economy experienced more difficulties and complicated upheavals. International trade fell drastically while global growth rate was lower than predicted target, which affected badly the Vietnamese economy because of its full integration into the world economy and large openness. In this context, principal targets set for 2013 are macroeconomic stability, lower inflation rate, higher growth rate, three strategic breakthroughs associated with restructuring of the economy, and a new economic growth model. This paper analyzes obstacles to Vietnam?s economic growth, and offers short-term solutions to bottlenecks and long-term ones to the economic restructuring.


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-197
Author(s):  
Mitchell B. Lerner

The election of Donald J. Trump unsettled many areas of U.S. foreign policy, but few more than the nation’s relationship with Korea. This article argues that the Trump administration’s vision for the world represents a stark break from the tradition of liberal internationalism and instead seeks to take the United States down a path that reflects the modern business practices of giant American corporations. A suitable label for this vision, as the following pages will show, is “Walmart unilateralism.” This framework abandons the traditional American policies of nation building and alliances based on shared ideological values. Instead, it embraces a more short-term approach rooted in financial bottom lines, flexible alliances and rivalries, and the ruthless exploitation of power hierarchies. This new approach, this article concludes, may dramatically transform the American relationship with Korea. Walmart unilateralism in Korea almost certainly will have some short-time positive ramifications for the United States, but its larger failure to consider the history and values of the people living on the Korean Peninsula may generate serious long-term problems for the future experience of the United States in the region.


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