International Cooperation Strategies Research Articles

International Cooperation for the Cure and Prevention of Severe Hemoglobinopathies

Thalassemia major (TM) is the most frequent life-threatening noninfectious disease of childhood in the Middle East, South Asia, and Pacific Islands where it accounts for a significant proportion of childhood mortality, morbidity, and related health care expenses. In spite of major advances in supportive care during the last decade, many patients in low-income and middle-income countries still fare poorly because of high treatment costs and lack of accessible multidisciplinary teams, not to consider the risk of blood-borne infections, primarily hepatitis C. In selected low-risk patients with a compatible sibling, TM is highly curable by bone marrow transplantation (BMT), which also improves the quality of life and is cost-effective. Starting in 2008, the Cure2Children Foundation (C2C), an Italian Non-Governmental Organization, has supported a BMT network in Pakistan, which during 2012 was extended to India. The primary aim of this project was to assess feasibility, outcomes, and costs of matched-related BMT for thalassemia in young low-risk children using a well-established and tolerable strategy. A total of 100 matched-related BMTs have been performed to date by partner institutions within this C2C-supported network; in the 50 low-risk cases with TM, over 90% disease-free survival was obtained with procedure expenses within 10,000 USD/BMT, that is, an outcome comparable to that obtained in affluent countries but with a fraction of the expenses. This cure rate was also obtained in start-up BMT centers (1 in Pakistan and 1 in India) within a structured and intensive cooperation program. Twinning and other international cooperation strategies based on shared principles and a common vision may substantially facilitate access to BMT.

International Politics of Energy Security: International Cooperation and Korean Strategy

International Politics of Energy Security: International Cooperation and Korean Strategy

Violence in the health care workplace: a theme for international cooperation in human resources in the health sector

Among the themes in concerning human resources in the health sector, major attention is being given to working conditions and health risks to workers, including, according to the 2006 World Health Report, violence in the workplace. Based on a study of the literature and official documents, this article seeks to show the problem’s relevance and identify elements for creating international cooperation strategies on this theme. Studies show that aggression can affect more than 50% of workers. The World Health Organization argues that violence is the result of the complex interaction of various factors, among which working conditions and organization and worker-aggressor interaction stand out. Health care units situated in more vulnerable locations may present a greater risk of violence for its workers, affecting professionals from those areas. Limited knowledge about the theme and regional differences are the reasons for the strategy of establishing networks among workers, users, managers, communities and academy in order to confront the problem. In Brazil, there are various initiatives of this type. Internationalizing these experiences create opportunities to strengthen these networks and also the horizontal cooperation in human resources in the health sector.

Violência no trabalho em saúde: um tema para a cooperação internacional em recursos humanos para a saúde

Among the themes in concerning human resources in the health sector, major attention is being given to working conditions and health risks to workers, including, according to the 2006 World Health Report, violence in the workplace. Based on a study of the literature and official documents, this article seeks to show the problem’s relevance and identify elements for creating international cooperation strategies on this theme. Studies show that aggression can affect more than 50% of workers. The World Health Organization argues that violence is the result of the complex interaction of various factors, among which working conditions and organization and worker-aggressor interaction stand out. Health care units situated in more vulnerable locations may present a greater risk of violence for its workers, affecting professionals from those areas. Limited knowledge about the theme and regional differences are the reasons for the strategy of establishing networks among workers, users, managers, communities and academy in order to confront the problem. In Brazil, there are various initiatives of this type. Internationalizing these experiences create opportunities to strengthen these networks and also the horizontal cooperation in human resources in the health sector.

Regional development and regional policy in the Netherlands: are there peripheral regions?


 
 
 In this paper, the position of ‘peripheral regions’ in the Netherlands is discussed from a European as well as from a Dutch perspective. In the context of an enlarged European Union, and a shift in orientation of regional policy towards strengthening the competitive position of all regions, peripheral regions are required to explore new policy responses. In the Northern Netherlands, this has led to a stronger emphasis on cooperation, both among Dutch provinces as well as with international partners, in an attempt to strengthen the economic performance and political standing of the region in national and international arenas. The rationale or connectivity of international cooperation strategies such as the Northern Development Axis may perhaps be secondary in comparison to the enabling power of such strategy-building in fostering cooperation and governance structures at regional and inter-regional level.
 
 
 
 
 

Escaping the Cage of Ethno-National Conflict in Northern Ireland? The Importance of Transnational Networks

The paper uses research on the EU Special Programme for Peace and Reconciliation in Northern Ireland and the Border Counties of the Republic of Ireland (Peace II) to interrogate the relationship between inter-nationalization, transnationalism and the amelioration of a deeply territorialized ethno-national conflict. It concludes that inter-national cooperation and territorial containment strategies risk enhancing zero-sum territorial politics without more coherent articulation of strategies for building transnational networks of cooperation and conflict resolution.

Toward an integrated model of strategy formulation for strategic technical alliances

The complex nature of business motives to engage in cooperative agreements requires the formulation of analytical frameworks that can accommodate overlapping elements of various theoretical perspectives on strategic technical alliances. The relevant theoretical perspectives include several major conceptual orientations of strategic management such as the competitive force, strategic behaviour, resource-based view of the firm, strategic network, dynamic capabilities, and the strategic options perspective. An analytical framework is sketched out in this paper that incorporates the full life cycle of an alliance - formation, operation, dissolution. The alliance formation part of this framework is used to outline the international technological cooperation strategies of three large Taiwanese electronics firms.

Community-oriented health services education: a strategy for international cooperation.

This paper describes the approach of the Department of Community Medicine of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in the education of local and foreign physicians and their participation in the development of community oriented health care systems. It also presents the first steps taken by this medical school to create an international program whose aims are to develop long-term partnership agreements with foreign universities by bringing together and integrating medical education with the development of community-oriented health care services.

The origins of art

The article below is based on an opening address delivered by Emmanuel Anati at a seminar, ‘The Origins of Art’, organized by him at the Centro Camuno di Studi Preistorici at Valcamonica, Italy, from 30 October to 2 November 1980. The seminar brought together prehistorians from many different countries, who discussed the most ancient forms of artistic creativity, raising questions about the nature of art itself, its psychology and biology and the relationships between art, ideology and religion. By the time this article is published another international meeting will have been organized by the author, from 31 August to 13 September 1981, in co-operation with Unesco, ICOM and ICOMOS (whose International Committee on Rock Art is in fact headed by him). At this international training seminar on rock art, participants will have studied the exploration, detection, dating, recording, analysis, evaluation, interpretation, conservation and cultural valorization of rock art. A higher degree of professional attainment on a world scale is imperative for the comprehension and protection of art forms that are among the oldest and most significant expressions of human creativity. The seminar aims, therefore, to provide training in the field, to promote standards of procedure and to lay the foundation for an international co-operation strategy to safeguard rock art. During the seminar participants will also have had the opportunity to attend an International Consultation of Specialists on the Study, Documentation and Conservation of Rock Art. Organized by Dr Anati on behalf of Unesco, with the participation of ICOM and ICOMOS, this meeting aims to define priority measures of international co-operation. The role of museums, a question on which Museum hopes to reflect current thinking in a future issue, will also have been discussed. In the meantime, we publish below an article about a French prehistoric site—Pincevent—open to scientists but, for want of resources, not yet sufficiently to less specialized visitors.

Migrations and Economic Integration in Latin America: The Andean Group

International division of labor has been discussed by fora of various international organizations. The Tenth Conference of the American States Members of the International Labour Organization (ILO, Mexico, 1974) adopted two resolutions. According to these, the principal causes of migration is the unfair distribution of income and the prevail? ing division of labour. A solution to this situation requires concerted international action to ensure a balanced development among nations. It was also noted that the integration process become an effective reality unless special attention is devoted to the social and labour problems involved. The report from the OECD and International Migrations (published by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 1975) calls for a new international cooperation and development strategy as well as a new type of relationships between countries of immigration and emigration. The findings of the report, although based on European experience, suggest that they will provide valuable lessons for countries in other parts of the world. From the point of view of Latin America, I should tend to agree with several conclusions of this report: 1) that the new strategy of development should ultimately aim to establish a social and manpower policy at the international level while undertaking a deployment of productive activities; 2) that the restriction of migration does not serve as any long-term solution to the present situation; 3) that the solution equally cannot rest in capital and technological transfer, since the intrinsic logic of investments does not necessarily coincide with the creation of employment in the countries of emigration (Organi-