scholarly journals The Conflict Theory as a Pillar of Security Science

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 32-48
Author(s):  
Rastislav Kazansky
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Transformation ◽  
Conflict Theory ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
International Level ◽  
Conflict Escalation ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Cross Classification ◽  
Security Science

Research on conflict theory has developed rapidly, particularly in the last 15 years. This note provides an overview of conflict theory utilizing a cross-classification, wherein such research is classified both by analytic approaches and by areas of application. The note also presents an extensive bibliography of publications in conflict theory. This contribution tries to present introductions to conflict theory as a pillar of security science and ist importance to the national and international level today. The goal of this contribution presents the background for the next theoretical analysis of conflicts, methods employed to resolve them, and how they may be prevented. The work is an introduction to these issues. It attempts to include a wide range of topics dealt with by the study of conflict resolution and prevention. The included deeper analysis of the issue of conflict prevention is a key part of the work. Emphasis is put on the theory and practice of conflicts, due to the importance of conflict escalation prevention in the pre-conflict phase, the phase of conflict transformation, and during the process of post-conflict reconstruction.

scholarly journals Peacebuilding Initiatives in Africa

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Rapid Development ◽  
Security Architecture ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
African Countries ◽  
International Intervention ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Enormous Variation ◽  
Failing States ◽  
Islamic Extremism

Africa is a place of enormous variation and its countries have had very different postcolonial experiences. However, it is clear that since the 1940s peace has been elusive for many across the continent. A series of wars driven by poverty, identity, political economy, and failing states led to a widespread crisis of governance and extensive international intervention. Reductions in the security capabilities of states have also led to the growth of violent transnational groups, particularly those related to Islamic extremism in the Maghreb, Nigeria, and Somalia but also criminal networks involved with drug and people smuggling. This wide variety of conflicts also generated an equally wide range of responses as the international community began to develop ways of combating conflicts through reform of its own peacekeeping capacity. The optimism of the 1992 Agenda for Peace, which called for the UN to become the central instrument in the prevention and ending of conflicts, has given way to a more sanguine approach, as mixed results have led to diverse outcomes for African countries and Africa’s own peace and security architecture. In the end, despite the rapid development of important local and localized bottom-up peacebuilding initiatives, the state remains central to the overarching aims of peace and stability across the continent. It is here where the variations in performance can be found in conflict prevention, peacekeeping, and post-conflict reconstruction.

scholarly journals Multi-method evaluation of a national clinical fellowship programme to build leadership capacity for quality improvement

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. e000978
Author(s):  
Madalina Toma ◽  
Avril Blamey ◽  
Dawn Mahal ◽  
Nicola M Gray ◽  
Laura Allison ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Improvement ◽  
Lead Level ◽  
Great Majority ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
International Level ◽  
Method Evaluation ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Four Levels ◽  
The Impact

BackgroundThis paper reports the results of the evaluation of the Scottish Quality and Safety Fellowship (SQSF)—a 10-month, lead-level international educational programme established in 2008 with the overarching aim of developing clinicians with advanced quality improvement knowledge, technical ability and essential leadership skills. The evaluation explores four levels of educational and practice outcomes associated with (1) the reaction of fellows to SQSF participation, (2) learning gained, (3) subsequent behaviour changes and (4) the overall impact on national and international level capability and capacity building.MethodsA theory-informed multi-method design was applied using (1) a search and review of the SQSF organisational database to tabulate personal, professional and demographic characteristics; (2) semi-structured telephone interviews with 16 participants using purposive and self-selected sampling; and (3) a cross-sectional online evaluation survey across all 10 cohorts involving 222 fellowsResultsSQSF was positively perceived as a high-quality learning experience containing a well-balanced mix of theory and practice, with a majority of respondents reporting career changing benefits. Most participants reported improved social, behavioural and emotional skills, knowledge and attitudes and, with sustained support of their host organisations, were able to apply and share learning in their workplace. The impact of the SQSF on a wider national and international level capability and capacity was both mediated and moderated by a wide range of interrelated contextual factors.ConclusionsThis multi-method evaluation demonstrates that SQSF has achieved significant positive outcomes for the great majority of participants. Some tentative recommendations are provided with the aim of further enhancing fellowship content, delivery, transfer and future evaluations of wider impacts at regional, national and international health system levels.

scholarly journals Institutionalization of the UN Police Peacekeeping

2019 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 107-128
Author(s):  
S. A. Tishkov ◽  
D. K. Labin
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Structure ◽  
Peace Operations ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
Organizational Issues ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
Un Peacekeeping ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Unique Experience ◽  
Peacekeeping Missions

Article studies the strategic frame, organizational and operational aspects of UN peacekeeping missions police components activities to ensure sustaining peace.It is noted that at present the UN Police actively participates in UN peace operations acting as an integrated solution of issues of peace and security. Consideration is also given to the growing importance of the UN Police to international peace and security and the increased attention given to policing by the Security Council and the Secretary General.The UN police now engage in United Nations peace operations across the entire peace and security spectrum, from conflict prevention to peacekeeping and peacebuilding. Serving in the frame of UN interim administrations the UN Police acquired a unique experience of law enforcement and international cooperation on combating crime.It underscores the most recent global developments, including advances made in the Strategic Guidance Framework for International Police Peacekeeping, to ensure coherence of effort and refine strategic police generation platforms.From the viewpoint of the structural and functional approach, the UN Police as a peacekeeping actor has not only specific functions and tasks, but also the potential, organizational structure, trained personnel needed to perform a wide range of tasks both at the stage of conflict prevention and post-conflict peacebuilding.The legal and organizational issues of UN Police involvement in peacekeeping activities are almost resolved. At present the UN Police component as an institutional subsystem represents an organizational structure that unites international policemen from various member states, which acts as a collective actor in UN peacekeeping.

Theory and Practice of Quality Management in Lifelong Learning at a Public University

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 49-73
Author(s):  
Petr Adamec
Keyword(s):  
Lifelong Learning ◽  
Public University ◽  
Further Education ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
University Policy ◽  
Higher Education Act ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Learning Programs ◽  
Education Act

The core issue of this paper is a quality in the lifelong learning. The aim of the contribution is to describe the area, level and dimensions of quality in a wide range of lifelong learning programs, respectively of further education, which are realized in the sense of § 60 and 60a of the Higher Education Act. The content of the paper also focuses on the theoretical and practical starting points of the quality phenomenon, both from the historical point of view and especially from the perspective of the current focus and concept of university policy in the European and Czech region. The paper also presents the results of a survey focusing on approaches to the quality assurance systems in the concept of components at selected public university.

scholarly journals Bad World: The Negativity Bias in International Politics

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 96-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic D.P. Johnson ◽  
Dominic Tierney
Keyword(s):  
International Relations ◽  
Fundamental Principle ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Negative Information ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Negativity Bias ◽  
Positive Information ◽  
Psychological Phenomena ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
New Research

A major puzzle in international relations is why states privilege negative over positive information. States tend to inflate threats, exhibit loss aversion, and learn more from failures than from successes. Rationalist accounts fail to explain this phenomenon, because systematically overweighting bad over good may in fact undermine state interests. New research in psychology, however, offers an explanation. The “negativity bias” has emerged as a fundamental principle of the human mind, in which people's response to positive and negative information is asymmetric. Negative factors have greater effects than positive factors across a wide range of psychological phenomena, including cognition, motivation, emotion, information processing, decision-making, learning, and memory. Put simply, bad is stronger than good. Scholars have long pointed to the role of positive biases, such as overconfidence, in causing war, but negative biases are actually more pervasive and may represent a core explanation for patterns of conflict. Positive and negative dispositions apply in different contexts. People privilege negative information about the external environment and other actors, but positive information about themselves. The coexistence of biases can increase the potential for conflict. Decisionmakers simultaneously exaggerate the severity of threats and exhibit overconfidence about their capacity to deal with them. Overall, the negativity bias is a potent force in human judgment and decisionmaking, with important implications for international relations theory and practice.

scholarly journals Sri Lanka: Physical Reconstruction and Economic Development as Conflict Prevention Factors

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (69) ◽  
pp. 55-76
Author(s):  
Boženko Đevoić
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
External Pressure ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
Postconflict Reconstruction ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The Government

ABSTRACT This article gives an overview of the 26 year long ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and examines physical reconstruction and economic development as measures of conflict prevention and postconflict reconstruction. During the years of conflict, the Sri Lankan government performed some conflict prevention measures, but most of them caused counter effects, such as the attempt to provide “demilitarization”, which actually increased militarization on both sides, and “political power sharing” that was never honestly executed. Efforts in post-conflict physical reconstruction and economic development, especially after 2009, demonstrate their positive capacity as well as their conflict sensitivity. Although the Sri Lankan government initially had to be forced by international donors to include conflict sensitivity in its projects, more recently this has changed. The government now practices more conflict sensitivity in its planning and execution of physical reconstruction and economic development projects without external pressure.

Fostering relations with a host country: A case study of the OSCE and Tadjikistan

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-345 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Samuel
Keyword(s):  
Conflict Management ◽  
Host Country ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Daily Basis ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
Post Conflict

AbstractThe OSCE's mandate for early warning, conflict prevention, conflict management and post-conflict rehabilitation based on its approach to comprehensive security through its network of field offices is implemented on a daily basis. Constructive relations with a host country are an important factor in their success, yet not always easy to achieve. This article provides a case study of one endeavour to strengthen these relations.

The Oxford Handbook of Quintilian

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Literary Criticism ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Performing Arts ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Educational Programme ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Visual And Performing Arts ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of

M. Fabius Quintilianus was a prominent orator, declaimer, and teacher of eloquence in the first century ce. After his retirement he wrote the Institutio oratoria, a unique treatise in Antiquity because it is a handbook of rhetoric and an educational treatise in one. Quintilian’s fame and influence are not only based on the Institutio, but also on the two collections of Declamations which were attributed to him in late Antiquity. The Oxford Handbook of Quintilian aims to present Quintilian’s Institutio as a key treatise in the history of Graeco-Roman rhetoric and its influence on the theory and practice of rhetoric and education, from late Antiquity until the present day. It contains chapters on Quintilian’s educational programme, his concepts and classifications of rhetoric, his discussion of the five canons of rhetoric, his style, his views on literary criticism, declamation, and the relationship between rhetoric and law, and the importance of the visual and performing arts in his work. His huge legacy is presented in successive chapters devoted to Quintilian in late Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Italian Renaissance, Northern Europe during the Renaissance, Europe from the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Century, and the United States of America. There are also chapters devoted to the biographical tradition, the history of printed editions, and modern assessments of Quintilian. The twenty-one authors of the chapters represent a wide range of expertise and scholarly traditions and thus offer a unique mixture of current approaches to Quintilian from a multidisciplinary perspective.

The role of forensic science and forensic examination in international cooperation in the investigation of crimes

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 179-186
Author(s):  
Valery Yu. Shepitko ◽  
Mykhaylo V. Shepitko
Keyword(s):  
Forensic Science ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
International Criminal ◽  
Expert Witness ◽  
International Crime ◽  
National Level ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
International Level

The application of forensic science and expertise is a necessary prerequisite for the investigation of crimes at the local and national level. Without the use of forensic science and expertise, an investigation within the framework of a criminal process becomes dead and unsubstantiated. But with the globalisation of world processes, the development of technologies, the speed of information transmission, the formation of crime outside the borders of one state and its entry into the international level has become an urgent problem, which has become a challenge in countering such crime and the need to steer forensic science and expertise towards assisting law enforcement activities. A special feature of countering the investigation of crimes was the creation of international cooperation between forensic specialists and expert witnesses even prior to the establishment of practical institutions that could counteract them in practice. Therewith, some representatives of such international unions and associations have taken serious steps in creating mechanisms for real counteraction to crimes at the international level (R.A. Reiss, G. Soderman, M.Sh. Bassiuni). Coverage of the problem of international cooperation in the investigation of crimes through the definition of the role of forensic science and expertise allowed focusing on the following blocks: 1) international associations of forensic specialists for combating crime in the historical context; 2) international criminal police organisations in combating crime; 3) international cooperation in the field of conducting forensic examinations; 4) the use of forensic and special knowledge in the activities of the International Criminal Court. Thus, a combination of theory and practice in the fight against crime is demonstrated. Historically, this is associated with the role of forensic science and expertise in recording traces of crimes, analysing them, and forming legal, forensic, and expert witness opinions. The purpose of the study is to establish the decisive role of forensic science and expertise in international cooperation in the investigation of crimes. For this, the authors turned to forensic science and expertise, historical processes that served to create substantial international organisations created to counter international crime

scholarly journals Omitted Variable Bias in GLMs of Neural Spiking Activity

2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 3227-3258 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian H. Stevenson
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Single Neuron ◽  
Linear Models ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Parameter Estimates ◽  
Omitted Variables ◽  
History Effects ◽  
Omitted Variable Bias ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Variable Bias

Generalized linear models (GLMs) have a wide range of applications in systems neuroscience describing the encoding of stimulus and behavioral variables, as well as the dynamics of single neurons. However, in any given experiment, many variables that have an impact on neural activity are not observed or not modeled. Here we demonstrate, in both theory and practice, how these omitted variables can result in biased parameter estimates for the effects that are included. In three case studies, we estimate tuning functions for common experiments in motor cortex, hippocampus, and visual cortex. We find that including traditionally omitted variables changes estimates of the original parameters and that modulation originally attributed to one variable is reduced after new variables are included. In GLMs describing single-neuron dynamics, we then demonstrate how postspike history effects can also be biased by omitted variables. Here we find that omitted variable bias can lead to mistaken conclusions about the stability of single-neuron firing. Omitted variable bias can appear in any model with confounders—where omitted variables modulate neural activity and the effects of the omitted variables covary with the included effects. Understanding how and to what extent omitted variable bias affects parameter estimates is likely to be important for interpreting the parameters and predictions of many neural encoding models.

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