European Clients Research Articles

Use of trusts by Eastern European clients: practical issues

In order to get a more sophisticated understanding of the use of trusts by the clients from Eastern Europe (primarily from Russia), it is worthwhile describing the procedure for setting up a trust with a typical representative of the ‘new wave’ Eastern European business; painting a collective portrait of Russian businessmen in 2007, and identifying the most common types, their specific features and the possible difficulties of working with this sort of client. This modest unsystematic review will help trust professionals to break through a culture shock produced by the contact with a recent extraterrestrial, and now a demanding client. This article provides an insight into most frequent queries and examines psychological aspects of behavior, business practice and, if possible, to disperse stereotypes.

Contemporary Jewish Diaspora in Global Context: Human Development Correlates of Population Trends

At the turn of the 21st century, international political and military interactions, socioeconomic development and transactions, and, not less significantly, cultural patterns and communication networks reached a definitive stage of globalization. A short span of years witnessed the fall of the Iron Curtain and the end of the Soviet Union as a major global power, the reunion of Germany, the revival of religious fundamentalism, particularly within Islam, the return of "ethnic cleansing" in Europe and Africa, new waves of mass international migration, the beginning but also the stoppage of a peace process in the Middle East, the Catholic Church's improvement of its relationship to the Jewish people and its historic recognition of the State of Israel, the European monetary union, and also the rise of the internet and other global and regional societal changes. Transformations of the global polity, economy, and communications deeply and rapidly affected the daily life, identity, and boundary definition of nations, communities, and individuals in world society, and among world Jewry within the broader context. Since the late 1960s, powerful events related to general geopolitical change and more specific events directly stemming from the Jewish experience have contributed to transforming Jewish population and society. One major factor of a general nature was the end and dismemberment of the Soviet Union as a major global power. Among other things, this not only crucially affected the strategic position of the successor republics on the global scene, but also made possible radical changes in migration policies, which were followed by one of the largest migration waves in modern Jewish history. A major example of a more specifically Jewish circumstance, which actually preceded the migration from the former Soviet Union (FSU) and its European client states in time, concerns the long [End Page 61] and—at the time of this writing—unresolved chain of events following the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. While an analysis of the strategic and geopolitical significance of those events is outside the purpose of this paper, 1967 and its aftermath deeply affected the position of the state of Israel in the world system, and more specifically made it much more salient among the Jewish Diaspora. Through a chain of direct and indirect consequences, the balance of demographic, migratory, and identifiable trends within the Jewish people significantly changed.1 The pressures, opportunities, and dilemmas brought about by these global changes also stimulated the emergence of conflicting visions of the present and future of the Jews in the Diaspora and in Israel. While in the Diaspora the quest for Jewish continuity was challenged by a steady pace of assimilation and alienation, in Israel the once predominant paradigms of ingathering of the exiles, immigrant absorption, fusion of the Diasporas and nation-building based on a Jewish majority were challenged by alternative non- or post-Zionist views. These ideational-cultural developments carried major consequences for Jewish demography. The size, pace of change and characteristics of Jewish population, reflecting both biological-demographic and cultural-identification determinants, were in fact strictly intertwined with the major turning points in contemporary Jewish history and society. Facing changes affecting the Jewish Diaspora, modern historiographic and sociological interpretations have competed over a variety of analytic propositions. Two major axes of investigation have been concerned with the uniqueness of the Jewish experience in relation to other Diasporas,2 on one hand, and what the more useful explanatory framework would be for observed patterns of change over time and in comparative context, on the other.3 Keeping in mind these trends and debates, this article's purpose is two-fold. After concisely reviewing some of the main recent and current trends in the world Jewish population, we shall focus on some observable relationships between major demographic and socioeconomic indicators at the macrosocial level, and changes in the geographical distribution and mobility of the Jewish population. Special attention will be paid to migration movements, following...

The Road to Italy: Nigerian Sex Workers at Home and Abroad

ith these unsettling words, Andrew Billen of the New Statesman weaves a tapestry of images that throw light on a new and disturb- ing trend in the Nigerian commercial sex industry—the omnipresent over- seas or international sex worker who, in her eternal state of undress, leaves very little to the imagination. It is this same breed of sex worker that af- fords her European client services, the likes of which could hardly have been imagined, let alone spoken, a decade or two ago in Nigeria. She is a new-age prostitute who elevates (her) customer (to) 'king.' 4 So who is this woman and why does she do what she does? The key to understand- ing who and why, I argue, can be found deeply buried in the past, but it is also firmly rooted in the present as well. She is an emblem of tradition- al notions of sex and sexuality as well as an inherently corrupt and col- lapsing nation. Her story begins not in the streets of Siena or Florence, but in rural and urban Nigeria, 5 canvassing all of the junction towns 6 in- between. In an attempt to navigate the contours of this uniquely Nigerian in- stitution of commercial sex work, I provide two short case studies—vari- ous in ethnicity (the Igbo and Edo), locality (rural Nigeria and international prostitution), and in the very way the practitioners define and construct their work. The story that emerges, I argue, situates the Nigerian sex worker variously as independent and autonomous; interdependent and, at times, completely dependent on her new age madam (boss, if male), mama, or Mama Lola, as the case may be.

British policy towards Eastern Europe and the impact of the ‘Prague Spring’, 1964–68

This article analyzes Britain's role in East–West diplomacy during the mid-to-late 1960s, with particular reference to London's response to the Czechoslovak communist regime's abortive efforts at internal liberalization in 1968. British officials presumed that the USSR's East European clients were undergoing a process of internal ‘evolution’, and were adopting more autonomous domestic policies. Like other Western countries, Britain responded to the ‘Prague Spring’ with caution, avoiding any action which could provoke Soviet hostility and jeopardize détente. London also failed to predict the Warsaw Pact's invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. After briefly expressing outrage at the suppression of the ‘Prague Spring’, Britain and other Western powers soon reverted to a ‘business as usual’ approach to East–West relations, and continued to pursue policies intended to develop détente.

Social epidemiologic comparisons in a European cohort of substance‐dependent therapeutic community clients: a case‐oriented analysis

A case‐oriented analytical approach compared the index national case of France with the typical European outcome, other European cases and American results on social epidemiological indicators. Modal distributions were found to be most similar between the French sample and the total European sample on most social network items in a European therapeutic community cohort (n=723). The characteristics of the American and our sample were also found to be strikingly similar. Network size varies mainly with the number of substance‐dependent contacts reported by the client. Southern European clients have been living with their parents while northern clients have been living alone. Spending most of the time with drug‐using friends is not related to developing intimate relationships and a counterbalance to a situation of peer loneliness. The importance of looking at the function of social network relations in risk networks in harmonising European policy is emphasised.

Synching or Sinking: Trajectories and Strategies in Global Software Outsourcing Relationships

To increase the value and reduce the costs and risks of global software outsourcing, clients and developers are 'synching': building congruence along six identified 'COCPIT' dimensions. Case studies from a longitudinal research project identify practical synching strategies used by North American and European clients in their dealings with Indian sub-contractors. However, the cases also identify the limits to synching across physical and cultural distance. These limits – and the shocks to synching that occur over time – must be recognised and addressed if global software outsourcing is to succeed.

EASTERN EUROPE ON TRIAL

Abstract : Mikhail Gorbachev's efforts to modernize and restructure the Soviet Union may be impeded by the East European client states it has dominated since the end of World War II. Moscow's six allies -- East Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Hungary -- are key members of its military alliance, the Warsaw Pact, and of its economic alliance, the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance. The Soviet Union has long established functional and symbolic, bilateral and multilateral, and formal and informal means for their subordination. Now, in the era of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) -- at a time when the imperatives of Soviet systemic reform demand external quiescence and assistance -- the very legacy of Soviet control may imperil this vital region. Eastern Europe is now on trial. Soviet leaders have sought the integration of this highly variegated region with little success. Non-Eastern Europe's aging political elites face a future constrained by economic disarray, ecological and social ills, structural maladjustment, and a separation of society from the state. The region's military forces have been functionally integrated, but their larger societies remain attitudinally alienated. For Moscow, the forces of disruption in this turbulent region are too overwhelming for the forces of integration to effectively control. In the absence of attitudinal integration, the challenge to General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev in Eastern Europe is clear. For perestroika to produce the results glasnost promises, Gorbachev must grant greater autonomy to East European peoples and institutions despite the potential threat this poses to the basic premises of Moscow's political control.

Consulting: U.S. Firms Thrive on Jobs for European Clients

Consulting: U.S. Firms Thrive on Jobs for European Clients