Defense Logistics Management in Border Areas

This paper employs panel data from nine provinces and regions in China's border areas from 2011 to 2021 to empirically test the impact of agricultural supply chain finance in China's border areas on poverty reduction. The intermediary mechanism test model is used to investigate the underlying mechanisms. The findings of this research indicate that the development of agricultural supply chain finance has a significant effect on improving per capita disposable income in rural areas. There is, however, heterogeneity in the impact of this development across different border provinces and regions. The Southwest Border Region has the most pronounced effect in improving per capita disposable income in rural areas through agricultural supply chain finance. This research result provides strong theoretical support for the development of agricultural supply chain finance in China's border areas and also provides important reference basis for relevant policy formulation. As further research is conducted, it is anticipated that more results will emerge, which will facilitate the advancement of economic development and poverty reduction initiatives in China's border regions.

Due to natural factors and influences from neighboring countries, wild fires frequently occur in China's border areas. To quantify the activities of wild fires in border areas, we analyzed the regime of wild fires within a 2 km buffer zone on both sides of China's land borders based on MODIS fire spot data, including fire types, fre-quency, seasonality, and spatial distribution. Between 2001 and 2022, a total of 25918 vegetation fires occurred in China's border regions, with forests, cropland, and grasslands accounting for 42.0%, 30.4%, and 14.4% of the fire incidents, respectively. Forest fires were most common in broadleaved forests. Cropland fires mainly resulted from traditional farming practices and the lack of fire prevention awareness among border residents, which often caused fires to spread to nearby forests, leading to forest fires. Among grassland fires, meadow steppe posed the highest risk, and grassland fires in forest-grassland ecotones were likely to trigger forest fires. There were significant differences in fire types and seasonal distribution across regions. In the northeastern border region, grassland fires, deciduous broadleaved forest fires, and cropland fires were predominant, with spring and autumn being the primary seasons for fire occurrences, especially in April and October. In the southwestern border region, evergreen broadleaved forest fires and cropland fires were predominant, with spring and winter being peak periods for fires, especially in March and December. In the northwestern border region, grassland fires and cropland fires were predominant, with more vegetation fires occurring in summer and autumn, peaking in September. Within a 2 km range on both sides of the border, the number of fire spots outside the country far exceeded those within, particularly in the border areas of Inner Mongolia, Jilin, Yunnan, and Guangxi, increasing the risk of cross-border fires in these regions. Fire spots showed significant clustering, with major clusters found in the border region of Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Yunnan, Hulunbuir City in Inner Mongolia, Huma County and Jiamusi City in Heilongjiang, and Hunchun City in Jilin. Different fire prevention strategies should be developed based on the characteristics of vegetation fires in different border regions, targeting vegetation types, seasonal periods, and clustering areas prone to fires, to implement effective vegetation fire prevention and control measures in border areas.

Living in a border area can create health inequalities due to limited access to healthcare compared to people in central regions. In centrally located areas, citizens can choose healthcare providers 360 degrees around them, benefiting from full prevention and health promotion coverage. In contrast, border residents have only 180 degrees of access, leading to partial inclusion in health services. National systems typically prioritize health equality but not necessarily equity, especially for those living in border regions. To address this gap, innovative policies that account for cross-border interactions are needed, benefiting over 35% of the EU population living in border areas. A key question is how to ensure health equity in border regions. To explore this, cross-border case studies, like air pollution, food purchases, antibiotic availability and q fever were looked at to identify the situation, the public health challenges it entails and existing solutions. The Essential Public Health Functions (EPHF) framework, developed by the World Health Organization and the International Association of National Public Health Institutes, was used to evaluate public health functions with a focus on achieving greater equity and inclusiveness. Currently in cross-border health key EPHF functions such as health promotion and disease prevention are emphasized, while others like public health governance and community participation need improvement. To better implement health equity in border regions, for use of the EPHF framework an additional and short guideline was developed on how border regions should be considered in national, regional, and local public health policies. This approach offers a pathway to addressing health inequalities in these unique environments: a crucial step towards creating health equity. Key messages • The EPHF framework as an innovative tool to strengthen public health in border regions. • Take the geographical living space of citizens in a border region into account to achieve health equity.

In the last century, Turkey has made a significant effort in applying what is known as Soft Power, both internationally and regionally, especially during the ruling of The Justice and Development Party. Turkey has used certain means and resources of soft power, such as: geographical location, historical, religious, and touristic apects, political and cultural values, media and humanitarian aspect. Turkey has followed a number of ways to spread its soft power in Kurdistan region. The ways have been: delivering humanitarian support, opening Turkish schools, attracting tourists, providing further education opportunities for students from The Kurdistan region, exporting Turkish TV series and signing contracts with Kurdish TV channels. However, widening Turkey’s soft power, this policy has faced certain challenges, amongst which are the bombarding of some areas of Kurdistan region, the drone strikes, causing the death of civil people, and surpassing the borders of Kurdistan region by the Turkish army. All of these have had a negative impact on the impression of citizens of Sulaimani province about Turkey, causing Turkey’s soft power to be weak in the area. The main aim of this research is to answer the questions of: To what extent has Turkey been successful in using its soft power in Sulaimani province? To what extent have the airstrikes influenced Turkey’s soft power? The research has been conducted using the historical, descriptive, and analytical methods.

PurposeThe total defence (TD) concept constitutes a joint endeavour between the military forces and civil defence structures within a TD state. Logistics is essential for such joint collaboration to work; however, the mismatch between military and civil defence logistics structures poses challenges for such joint collaboration. The purpose of this paper is to identify logistics concept areas within the TD framework that allow for military and civil defence collaborations from a logistics operations perspective.Design/methodology/approachPattern-matching analysis is used to compare patterns found in the investigated case with those prescribed from the literature and predicted to occur. The study seeks to identify logistics concepts within TD from the literature and from the events describing the Swedish response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Pattern matching thus allows for the reconciliation of logistics concepts from the literature to descriptions of how the response was handled, albeit under a TD framework.FindingsFindings show quite distinct foci between the theoretical and observational realms in terms of logistics applications. While the theoretical realm identifies four main logistics concepts, the observational realm identifies five logistics conceptual themes. This goes on to show an incongruence between the military and civil parts of the TD.Research limitations/implicationsThis study provides basis for further research into the applications and management of logistics activity within TD and emergency response.Originality/valueLogistics applications within TD have not, until now, received much attention in the literature. Given this knowledge gap, this study is of original value.

Border regions play an important role in the history of the European integration process. On the borders of the “Inner Six”, the first formal cross-border institutions were formed over 55 years ago; they aimed to reduce the weaknesses of border regions in competition with core areas. In the process of historical development, Euroregions cover a significant part of the borders, and not only in Central Europe. The topics of border regions’ development and cross-border cooperation became an important part of European regional policy. In the context of regional policy, financial tools to support border region development were set in the form of individual programmes (CBC PHARE, INTERREG, Phare CREDO, Tacis CBC, CARDS, MEDA, Cil 3, EUS). Czech border regions underwent a fundamental change after joining the European Union in 2004, which applies the four freedoms, including the free movement of people. What is the Czech borderland residents’ reflection on joining the European Union? Residents have not experienced significant changes in living standards in the border regions after joining the European Union; however, the changes for the better outweigh the changes for the worse. Overall, joining the European Union has brought positive changes to the Czech borderland; there are minor differences between its different sections. In terms of the residents’ identity, there are noticeable differences in the identification of the population in the border areas with the concept of a European: there is a significantly higher proportion of identification in neighbouring border regions than in the Czech regions.

Subject. The importance of foreign trade for the border regions. Objectives. Assessment of exports and imports by the main commodity groups in relation to the border and inland regions of Russia. Methods. Methods of synthesis, analysis and generalization were used. Results. The Grubel-Lloyd indices were calculated for the main commodity groups and on average for the border regions. It is shown that the existing commodity structure of exports and imports of border regions is unfavorable for their economic development. Quantitative characteristics of the participation of border regions in Russia's international trade can be assessed as significantly lower than those of inland regions. Conclusions. To increase the effectiveness of the participation of border areas in Russia's foreign trade, a differentiated approach to regional policy is needed, in which border areas are considered as a specific object.

Women in Islam have a special obligation, namely the obligation to wear Hijab. Allah swt ordered it to maintain the dignity of a woman so that no eye would see what a woman should not look at. However, the development of the times affects human lifestyles, especially for Muslimah in hijab, the term hijab OOTD appears. Outfit Out The Day or commonly called OOTD, is an outfit or personal clothing that a person chooses and wears for their daily activities. With that, the OOTD hijab is a hijab that has become a choice and is used by a Muslimah in her daily life, whether she follows the trend or not. The existence of the ṡaub al-syuhrah hadith and the emergence of the OOTD hijab phenomenon are interesting discussions for the author. Through qualitative research with the type of library research and descriptive-analytic analysis, accompanied by takhrij al-hadiṡ and ma'ani al-hadi theories, then the ṡaub al-syuhrah hadith is examined in the context of its writing on the OOTD hijab phenomenon. The existence of the ṡaub al-syuhrah hadith and the emergence of the OOTD hijab phenomenon are interesting discussions for the author. Through qualitative research with library research methods and descriptive-analytic analysis, accompanied by takhrij al-hadiṡ and ma'ani al-hadiṡ theories, then the ṡaub al-syuhrah hadith is examined in the context of its writing on the OOTD hijab phenomenon. The hadith of ṡaub al-syuhrah is assessed as a hasan/ hasan liġairihi hadith and can be used as evidence. Contextualization of the hadith of ṡaub al-syuhrah towards the OOTD hijab phenomenon, namely if it is used with the intention of boasting, takabbur, sum'ah, even to the point of wanting to be praised and seeking popularity, it includes ṡaub al-syuhrah. Whereas the essence of wearing the hijab is that it is adjusted to the syariah and becomes the intention as a cover for the genitals. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to be able to add insight, especially for Muslimah in this era when the OOTD hijab trend is still worn based on the basics of Islamic Syariah.

iAbstract The North Kalimantan Border Area is largely inhabited by indigenous peoples. Development of Border Areas is a necessity, because the development of border areas is part of national development. Indigenous peoples in the border region have the character and local wisdom that determines with other communities, so that the development model in other regions does not necessarily show partiality to the indigenous peoples in the border region. There are two questions in this study; first, regarding the characteristics of the border problems of North Kalimantan Province and their implications for indigenous peoples,? and secondly; Does the development model in the border area favor indigenous peoples? This type of research is normative juridical research, with qualitative analysis. The research objective to be achieved is to produce an appropriate development model applied in areas that connect to the copyright of indigenous peoples in the border region, and produce specific findings for. Reducing legal and policy barriers in finding development models in the border region in North Kalimantan that favor the indigenous peoples.Keywords; Models, development, indigenous peoples, borders

The theoretical foundations of the essence and organization of the economic environment of border areas are generalized. The features of its transformation are outlined on the basis of the analysis of changes in the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of its structural elements in the context of deepening European integration processes. The priorities of the EU Regional Policy in the field of regulating the development of internal and external border regions are outlined and the main instruments for its implementation are structured. The development of border regions is monitored by the main socio-economic indicators of their development. The factors of formation and functioning of the shadow sector of the regional economy are substantiated and systematized, and the main methods of its assessment are summarized. Promising directions for the development of border areas in the context of liberalization of foreign economic activity are identified, and relevant proposals to public authorities and local governments are prepared. According to The EU Action Plan for the border regions is envisaged and systematized: Increased investment in transport infrastructure of the Trans-European Networks (TEN) by increasing the level of Community support for TEN projects to 20% to finance the most urgently needed projects in the border area; reorientation of structural instruments to maximize the impact of EU financial assistance; financing measures aimed at strengthening cooperation between small and medium-sized enterprises ; providing the EU with EUR 20 million for networking activities between border regions and candidate countries within the framework of INTERREG; modification of the Phare-CBC program in order to: identifying the same priority areas under Phase CBC and INTERREG A; simplifying co-financing of transnational (INTERREG B) or interregional (INTERREG C) cooperation projects that are important for improving the socio-economic situation in the border area; launching a special program of the European Investment Bank (EIB) to support healthcare and transport infrastructure projects in the border regions of the candidate countries.

China is of great geostrategic significance not only in the Asia-Pacific region, but also in the wider world. The population distribution in China’s border regions is of significance for the development of China and neighboring countries. Based on the LandScan Population Distribution Database, this study used GIS spatial analysis and statistics to investigate national trends in the population distribution of China’s border regions. The study areas were the buffer zones within specified Euclidean distances from the land borders of China. The results showed that: (1) Although the population agglomeration index and population size inside China’s border areas have increased, the population density inside China’s border areas is still far below China’s average population density; (2) Over the last 15 years, the population of China’s northwestern border has been sparse, with small increases in the population agglomeration index and population size. China’s northeastern and southwestern border regions have several average population density areas, but the northeastern regions have seen a substantial reduction in population size since 2000. Based on our analysis, we propose that the Chinese government introduce supporting policies for the development of border regions to maintain the population size. At the same time, considering the varied living suitability of the natural environment along the northeastern, northwestern, and southwestern borders, “moderate agglomeration” and “moderate evacuation” population development strategies should be implemented in specified areas. Tilt policy should also be implemented in areas of rapid population decline.

“Thailand 4.0” is the current national strategic plan driven by digital technology and innovation; “Silver Economy” is one among the urgent flagship to serve the urgent needs of aged society with its approximately 20-30 percent of Thai population. Besides, around 60 percent of the elderly proven being under the poverty line. Most of the urgent demands is economics opportunities, digital skills, and health care, respectively. Objectives are 1) the current situation of elderly towards “Silver Economy” embedded with “Soft Power”; 2) the digital literacy & competency skills of elderly towards “Silver Economy” embedded with “Soft Power”; and 3) the recommendation to support the elderly towards “Silver Economy” embedded with “Soft Power”. Mix research methods were used 1) Quantitative research by e-survey among the 100 elderlies across the country who involved with Silver Economy and Soft Power. Qualitative research by in-depth-interview and Focus Group Discussion among 15 key informants from the elderly and all stakeholders. Results found 1) most of the elderly have a very good attitude, high demands to run their Silver Economy activities especially with their own Soft Power; 2) most of the elderly gain fundamental digital literacy & competency. More digital top skills are needed to run their Silver Economy activities i.e., creative digital marketing skills, AI in digital PR, digital storytelling, and local tourism, etc. and 3) Recommendations for more tangible collaborations among all the relevant stakeholders from policy to the practical agencies. Friendly and effective portal for all kinds of collabolations among the stakeholders and the elderly themselves.

Vaccine diplomacy is a subset of global health diplomacy and refers to the use and delivery of vaccines to achieve a country’s global health goals and foreign policy objectives. Countries have used vaccine diplomacy to increase their soft power during the COVID-19 pandemic. China, an emerging world power, was no exception in this trend. By December 2022, China had dispatched 1.65 billion vaccines worldwide; approximately one-third of the Chinese vaccines were sent to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. China attempted to increase its soft power via vaccine diplomacy to appeal to its neighbours with which it has long-standing territorial disputes in the South China Sea (SCS). Focusing on two key claimants in the SCS, our study has the following research question: How effective was Chinese COVID-19 vaccine diplomacy in the Philippines and Vietnam from a soft power perspective? Through a qualitative multiple case study research design, we determined the effectiveness of Chinese vaccine diplomacy in the Philippines and Vietnam by using four indicators of soft power: public opinion, foreign policy, attractiveness, and business and trade. Data collection consisted of a literature search of academic literature and newspaper articles that were published between 26 May and 13 June 2022. A thematic analysis was conducted to analyse the data. Analysing the effectiveness of Chinese vaccine diplomacy based on the four indicators of soft power, our results show that only the indicators of attractiveness in Vietnam and business and trade in the Philippines have somewhat improved. In contrast, the indicators of public opinion and foreign policy showed neutral or negative results for China. This study concludes that Chinese vaccine diplomacy in the Philippines and Vietnam during the COVID-19 pandemic was unsuccessful from a soft power perspective. One reason is that China undermined its soft power approach by simultaneously using hard power tactics in Southeast Asia. Using vaccine diplomacy to increase soft power is not always desirable from a global health perspective. Instead, countries should focus on equitable vaccine access and address asymmetrical power relations.

Introduction: The prohibition of firearms smuggling in the Palermo convention and its additional protocols is in fact in stark contrast to the fact that firearms smuggling continues to be carried out in the border areas of Southeast Asian countries.Purposes of the Research: This study aims to find out what are the factors that cause firearms smuggling in border areas, and how the legal concept of international cooperation is in dealing with firearms smuggling in border areas.Methods of the Research: This study uses normative legal research methods, which aims to find out what are the factors that cause firearms smuggling in border areas, and how the legal concept of international cooperation is in dealing with firearms smuggling in border areas.Results of the Research: The cause of the smuggling of firearms in the border region is caused by the activities of terrorist groups in the Southeast Asian region. The activities of these terrorist groups stimulate the emergence of conflicts in border areas, resulting in an increase in the need for weapons transfers which lead to smuggling activities. The fact is that the need for weapons transfer by smuggling also involves countries affected by conflict. In practice, both the state and terrorist groups tend to smuggle firearms because they are more affordable financially and also have a steady market with higher levels of supply. The legal concept of international cooperation that can be offered in dealing with smuggling of firearms in this border region is by using international cooperation between countries using the Mutual Legal Assistance mechanism established according to the 2000 Palermo Convention. The concept of cooperation between countries must be supported by increasing human resource capacity and legal coordination between ASEAN member countries.

The article analyzes the dynamics of interregional differences in the border regions of Russia and Finland. Border regions have advantages related to their geographical location, which results in a wider range of foreign economic relations with other countries of the world community due to the transport accessibility of the territory. The aim of the research is to provide a better understanding of the geographical location of the area. The aim is to study the economic development of the neighbouring countries' border areas (the economies of Russia and Finland are covered in this article). The object of the research is the border regions of Russia and Finland, and the subject of the research is the level of interregional differentiation of these border areas. The study of interregional differences is carried out when applying the tools used in modeling and -convergence based on the calculation of the coefficient of variation. The indicator for comparative analysis of interregional differentiation of border regions is the dynamics of GRP per capita. In the current study the indicators of regional development of different national economies are considered. Socio-economic indicators in statistical collections are presented in different units of measurement. In order to carry out a comparative analysis of the economic indicators under study, the indicators were compared to a single unit of account. The process of comparing economic indicators was carried out using the dynamics of changes in the average exchange rate of the euro to the ruble. The analysis of - and -convergence carried out as a result of the study has determined different dynamics of regional development, which is characterized by a slow decrease in the interregional differentiation. As a result of this trend, we can talk about the process of convergence of levels of economic development of border regions in the long run.