Operational Agencies Research Articles

Predatory politics and personalization of power: The abuses and misuses of the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA) in Somalia

Abstract This article investigates the security sector in Somalia, with a focus on the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA), a government security unit, involved in the fight against the Al-Shabaab insurgency. This article argues that the historically traumatic legacy of autocratic oppression of the former military regime gives the Somali intelligence agency an infamous reputation that survives today and plays a significant role in the operations of the intelligence agency. Intelligence agents employ tactics from the late Cold War era military regime’s intelligence services, suggesting striking historical continuities of the military regime in practice and performance. The empirical data also shows that NISA is enmeshed in the ‘dirty war’ between the federal government and Al-Shabaab. Not only does the intelligence agency normalize extrajudicial activities to serve the agenda of political authorities and to suppress their critics, but it also financially benefits from arrests without trials. NISA agents harass the public and political opposition groups daily and brutally suppress mass media and freedom of speech, especially in the government-controlled areas in Mogadishu. As the first empirical academic investigation into NISA, the article contributes to broader debates on intelligence, the anthropology of the state, security studies, and institution- and state-building in violent environments.

Abnegation, accommodation and affirmation: Three discursive modes for the institutional construction of independence among national news agency executives in Europe

The relationship between the ownership form of news agencies and their independence has long figured centrally in debates about the quality of news agency operations. Drawing on a discursive institutional framework, this article explores how national news agency executives in Europe perform a narrated role in the discursive construction of their organizations’ internal and external independence. We set out the concept of independence discourse, which we define as the variety of ways in which news agency executives use claims about the economic independence and the internal and external autonomy of their organizational operations. Based on a discourse analysis of elite semi-structured interviews with 20 European news agency executives, we identify three discursive modes for the institutional construction of independence: (1) abnegation, (2) accommodation and (3) affirmation. These discursive modes represent a set of public and private approaches to discursively negotiating the power of both state/government and shareholders/owners. We conclude by arguing for an expanded concept of independence, one which offers an account of the complex array of forces shaping news agency operations today.

„Kontrola osobista i przeglądanie zawartości bagażu” (art. 15 ust. 1 pkt 5 ustawy o Policji) a ochrona konstytucyjnych praw człowieka

The paper is devoted to the activity defined as ‘personal search and luggage security search’ carried out as part of non-trial operation of law enforcement authorities (on the basis of Article 15(1)(5) of the Police Act). The author discusses the evolution of this activity, which was introduced into the Polish legal system in 1983, mainly to facilitate the fight against democratic opposition. This procedure, which in essence did not differ much from the search activities carried out under the Code of Criminal Procedure, obviously infringed civil rights and freedoms, because it was not accompanied by the provisions containing guarantees, which the Code did contain. The law changed considerably only after amendments to legislative instruments relating to the police, introduced on 14 December 2018. The author believes that the existing regulations provide adequate human rights protection, but are too detailed, which may in practice make the operation of law enforcement agencies less efficient. The author points out to the need for maintaining a balance between guaranteeing civil rights and enabling the law enforcement agencies to discharge their statutory duties connected with ensuring public security and order.

Moguće posledice pandemije virusa COVID-19 na duševno zdravlje zaposlenih u turističkim agencijama u Srbiji

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 virus pandemic, which is still ongoing, and it is uncertain when it will end. Essentially, it is an epidemiological problem which has turned into economic, sociological, socio-political and psychological one. Based on the information available so far, it can be concluded that the tourism industry (and within it, especially the business operations of travel agencies and tour operators), both in the world and in Serbia, is one of the most affected, due to the pandemic. Freedom of movement is restricted and people's safety is endangered, which are the key preconditions for tourism mobility. The subject of analysis in this paper is an attempt to look at the psychological aspect of the COVID-19 virus pandemic, with special emphasis on its possible consequences on the mental health of the employees in travel agencies in Serbia. Meny experts think that it will undoubtedly adversely affect people's mental health, and prospective studies on this topic will follow in the future.

Taking Measure of the UN's Legacy at Seventy-Five

AbstractOver the past seventy-five years, the UN has evolved significantly, often in response to geopolitical dynamics and new waves of thinking. In some respects, the UN has registered remarkable achievements, stimulating a wide range of multilateral treaties, promoting significant growth of human rights, and at times playing a central role in containing and preventing large-scale armed conflict. As part of the special issue on “The United Nations at Seventy-Five: Looking Back to Look Forward,” this essay argues that the organization has been the most impactful in three areas: producing, shaping, and driving key ideas, particularly on development and rights; generating such effective operational agencies as UNICEF and the World Food Program; and, especially in the immediate post–Cold War period, addressing major conflict risks through the Security Council. Since then, however, the UN has struggled to meet emerging challenges on many fronts and been increasingly hampered by internal ossification and institutional sprawl as well as internecine dysfunction. The twenty-first century has confronted the UN with further challenges relating most notably to climate change; to risks arising from new technologies; and to the increasingly fraught relationships between China, Russia, and the United States. If the past seventy-five years can offer one lesson, it is that new thinking and new ideas will need to drive the organization to evolve still further and faster, or else risk irrelevance.

EU Agencies in Banking and Energy between Institutional and Policy Centralisation

This working paper suggests to analyse agencification as a double process of institutional and policy centralisation. To that end, it develops a categorisation of agencies that incorporates these two dimensions. More specifically, it is argued that mixed outcomes where the levels of institutional and policy centralisation diverge can be expected to be the rule rather than the exception, in line with the hybrid nature of EU agencies as inbetweeners. Moreover, the fiduciary setting hits important legal constraints given the limits to delegation in the EU context. Against this backdrop a process whereby institutional centralisation develops incrementally and remains limited, yet is accompanied by a process of substantial policy centralisation, appears as the most promising path for EU agencification. A fiduciary setting, where a strong agency enjoys a high degree of independence and operates in a centralised policy space, by contrast, should be the exception. The comparative study of the process of agencification in the energy and banking sector is insightful in the light of these expectations. The incremental nature of institutional change in energy exemplifies the usual path of agencification, which is conducive to a weak agency operating in a relatively centralised policy space. Agencification in banking, by contrast, has led to a rather unusual outcome where the strong agency model combines with a fragmented policy context.

Instructional Designers and Open Education Practices: Negotiating the Gap Between Intentional and Operational Agency

In their role as support to faculty in the course development process, Instructional Designers (IDs) can play an important part in alleviating some of the well-known barriers of open education practices (OEP): faculty time, institutional or faculty resistance to change, and institutional support for faculty (Annand & Jensen, 2017; Barker et al., 2018; Jhangiani et al., 2016). This study examines how IDs negotiate OEP in the course development process or in the process of working with faculty. The findings suggest that IDs are negotiating institutional constraints while attempting to be OEP advocates in their work. To use Campbell, Schwier and Kenny’s (2009) framing of intentional and operational agency, the IDs in this study described a high level of intentional agency, but their operational agency could be enhanced with greater clarity of expectations with respect to their role, resources and capacity to engage with OEP, clarity of directives and support from senior leadership, as well as a broader awareness of the moral and practical affordances of OEP within their institutions.

Cairns Mental Health Co-Responder Project: Essential elements and challenges to programme implementation.

In Australia and internationally, co-responder models are becoming an increasingly common intervention to respond to police callouts where there is an assumed mental health-related component or crisis. This type of model involves a collaborative approach where trained police officers team with mental health clinicians to provide specialized responses in order to improve outcomes for persons with mental illness. However, there is limited understanding as to major elements required for implementation of the model. This study aims to identify the essential elements and challenges in implementation of the Mental Health Co-Responder Project in Cairns, Australia, where the team consists of a mental health nurse with demonstrated competencies in crisis intervention and a specially trained police officer. In 2016, 39 participants completed semi-structured interviews regarding knowledge and experience of the Cairns co-responder model. The participants represented first responders and community-based service providers who work with and support persons living with mental illness. Using a thematic analysis approach, key elements identified as essential to successful project implementation were as follows: co-responder team characteristics, senior and project executive level support, collaborative project governance, and co-location of the team within a mental health setting. The main perceived challenges to project implementation included the following: initial concerns regarding client confidentiality, lack of an evaluation plan, and adequate project resourcing. Governance through a vigorous joint agency operation committee and adequate resourcing is imperative to the sustainability of this model.

FUENTES DEL DERECHO EN LA CONSTITUCIÓN POLACA DE 1997

De acordo com a teoria do direito, o termo fontes de direito, em um aspecto formal, significa todos os tipos de documentos que contêm normas jurídicas gerais que regulam o comportamento dos sujeitos destinatários das referidas normas e outros que autorizam o funcionamento dos órgãos públicos. Na Polônia, as fontes do direito estão regulamentadas no terceiro capítulo da Constituição. As fontes de direito universalmente vinculantes na República da Polônia são a constituição, as leis, as convenções internacionais ratificadas e os regulamentos. A Constituição polonesa estabelece que as fontes de direito na Polônia são constituídas por dois grupos diferentes, ou seja, pelo direito universalmente vinculativo e pelo direito que vincula apenas os órgãos administrativos subordinados ao órgão que dita essas regras. O presente artigo aborda essas fontes trazendo casos concretos, descrevendo procedimentos e informando dos debates atuais sobre possíveis alterações normativas dessa matéria.

Building Informatics-Savvy Health Departments: The Systems Development Life Cycle.

Building Informatics-Savvy Health Departments: The Systems Development Life Cycle.

A new technique for automatically locating the center of tropical cyclones with multi-band cloud imagery

A spiral cloud belt matching (SCBeM) technique is proposed for automatically locating the tropical cyclone (TC) center position on the basis of multi-band geo-satellite images. The technique comprises four steps: fusion of multi-band geo-satellite images, extraction of TC cloud systems, construction of a spiral cloud belt template (CBT), and template matching to locate the TC center. In testing of the proposed SCBeM technique on 97 TCs over the western North Pacific during 2012–2015, the median error (ME) was 50 km. An independent test of another 29 TCs in 2016 resulted in a ME of 54 km. The SCBeM performs better for TCs with intensity above “typhoon” level than it does for weaker systems, and is not suitable for use on high-latitude or landfall TCs if their cloud band formations have been destroyed by westerlies or by terrain. The proposed SCBeM technique provides an additional solution for automatically and objectively locating the TC center and has the potential to be applied conveniently in an operational setting. Intercomparisons between the Automated Rotational Center Hurricane Eye Retrieval (ARCHER) and SCBeM methods using events from 2014 to 2016 reveal that ARCHER has better location accuracy. However, when IR imagery alone is used, the ME of SCBeM is 54 km, and in the case of low latitudes and low vertical wind shear the ME is 45–47 km, which approaches that of ARCHER (49 km). Thus, the SCBeM method is simple, has good time resolution, performs well and is a better choice for those TC operational agencies in the case that the microwave images, ASCAT, or other observations are unavailable.

E-Tourism Adoption of the Travel Agencies in Cebu City, Philippines

Information Communication Technology (ICT) plays an active role in the tourism industry. The application and integration of ICT are essential for the success of a tourism enterprise. ICT assists the individual in an enterprise to access information on the World Wide Web in a single click which changes the traditional brick and mortar travel agency operations. Even with the emergence of Technology 50 years ago, Small Medium Enterprises are reluctant to operate and adopt Technology Applications for Technological and Non-Technological Reasons. The study used an adapted research instrument from Davis (1989) and Turban et al. (2008). Principal respondents are the accredited travel agencies in Cebu City as of 2017. Using Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) of Davis (1989), respondents perceived that ICT is useful regarding accomplishing the task quickly, increase productivity and effectiveness and it is easy to use regarding operating and interacting ICT. Respondents would probably use the technology in the workplace for sales and marketing and to recommend the technology to others for Business Operations. However, there is no significant relationship on the ease of use (PEOU) and usefulness to the in the Intention to use. This means that the respondents may or may not adopt ICT because of Non Technological and Technological Reasons.

Fostering Refugee Self-reliance: A Case Study of an Agency's Approach in Nairobi

Abstract This article traces the evolution of an urban refugee self-reliance model developed in Nairobi, Kenya that intends to bridge the gap between ‘care and maintenance’ programmes and durable solutions. It does so by presenting the development of the approach used by the non-governmental organization RefugePoint to assist urban refugees in Nairobi. In developing its approach, RefugePoint drew on elements of the model employed by the United States Department of State and its contracted partners for resettling refugees in the United States. The applicability and limitations of this model in the context of a country of first asylum are examined. The article concludes by suggesting potential applications of RefugePoint’s ‘self-reliance runway’ approach (and the measurement tool that is integral to it) in expanding self-reliance opportunities for refugees globally. In particular, it recommends that both donors and operational agencies look beyond sector-based programming towards more holistic approaches and focus their impact measurement on the collective outcomes for refugee households rather than project-specific delivery indicators.

A cultural–ecological perspective on agency and offending behaviour

This article aims to outline briefly the important role of culture in the development of the human mind and behaviour, and therefore argues that cultural information is a key part of forensic explanation. We suggest that differing cultural experiences, such as marginalisation, contribute to the differential representation of individuals and groups in criminal justice systems. This occurs through several means, but we focus specifically on individual operation of agency in particular cultural contexts. Building on previous theoretical work, we present a preliminary model, the cultural–ecological predictive agency model. Through an exemplar, we show how this model might assist in understanding better the role of dynamic risk factors in individual behaviour, by locating and incorporating cultural–historical contexts and information.

Defining Away the Problem: Trying Again to Free Federal Dams from the Endangered Species Act

Federal dams have been the focus of major disputes involving application of the Endangered Species Act, especially Section 7 and its prohibition on federal actions causing jeopardy to protected species. Operating agencies and project beneficiaries have sought to keep the ESA from restricting dam operations, including by arguing that such operations are nondiscretionary and thus exempt from Section 7. In proposing new ESA implementing rules, the Trump Administration suggested – though did not formally propose – that ongoing federal actions (such as dam operations) should be considered part of the “environmental baseline” for Section 7 purposes. Redefining the environmental baseline in that way could have dramatically changed over 25 years of practice in applying the ESA to federal dams, reducing or even eliminating the crucial protection provided by Section 7. Although the Administration ultimately adopted a more modest change to the definition, it apparently did so due to legal rather than policy concerns. The article then examines the policy goals that the Administration apparently sought to pursue with the suggested rule, and identifies issues that will likely arise from ongoing efforts to pursue those policy goals at the project level. Although the Administration decided against a national rollback regarding ongoing actions, there are sure to be ongoing battles over the application of the ESA to federal dams.

MONITORING AND FORECASTING OF SEASONAL RICE CROP PRODUCTIVITY FOR PADDY DOMINATED REGIONS OF INDIA

Abstract. The relevance of this study is immense for India. The Indian economy largely depends on agriculture, which is impacted by weather extremes and variability in monsoon. India is more vulnerable to disruption from drought than countries like the United States. While agriculture accounts for just 16 percent of India’s economy, half of its 1.3 billion people work on farms, thus, making agriculture the backbone of the Indian economy. However, in agriculture, rice is India’s most important food crop with nearly 1 billion Indian people reliant on it as their major food source. Most important constraint to rice production is water stress which affects nearly ~40 million ha of rainfed system from the total ~45 million ha area under rice cultivation. Future climate change effects on rainfall timing and amount, and projected increases in temperature are expected to exacerbate existing water stresses and will have a direct impact on agriculture in India, especially rice cultivation. We have developed an integrated system that is successfully implemented in many countries. The integrated system RHEAS (Regional Hydrological Extreme and Assessment System) coupled with M-DSSAT (modified DSSAT crop model) ingests various NASA Earth science data to produce a set of relevant hydrologic products (e.g., drought indices, water excess/stress information) and rice yields nowcasts (current conditions), forecasts, and seasonal projections, and then feed them into the operational agency. The overarching goal of this study is to provide this integrated system to stakeholder to improve decision-making process and mitigate the plights of rice farmers and prepare the country to deal with ground realities based on the forecast of rice production.

An Intelligent Reconnaissance Framework for Homeland Security

The cross border terrorism and internal terrorist attacks are critical issues for any country to deal with. In India, such types of incidents that breach homeland security are increasing now a day. Tracking and combating such incidents depends only on the radio communications and manual operations of security agencies. These security agencies face various challenges to get the real-time location of the targeted vehicles, their direction of fleeing, etc. This paper proposes a novel application for automatic tracking of suspicious vehicles in real-time. The proposed application tracks the vehicle based on their registration number, type, colour and RFID tag. The proposed approach for vehicle recognition based on image processing achieves 92.45 per cent accuracy. The RFID-based vehicle identification technique achieves 100 per cent accuracy. This paper also proposes an approach for vehicle classification. The average classification accuracy obtained by the proposed approach is 93.3 per cent. An integrated framework for tracking of any vehicle at the request of security agencies is also proposed. Security agencies can track any vehicles in a specific time period by using the user interface of the application.

An Intelligent Surveillance System Based on IoT for Internal Security of a Nation

Cross border terrorism and internal criminal activities are critical issues for any country to deal with. In India, such types of incidents that breach security are increasing and tracking such incidents depends only on the radio communications and the operations of security agencies. These security agencies face varied challenges to get real-time locations of targeted vehicles, their direction of fleeing, etc. This article proposes a novel application for the automated tracking of the suspicious vehicles in real-time. The proposed application tracks the vehicle based on their registration number, their type, color or RFID tag. The integration of RFID technique in the application reduces the overhead of image processing techniques, thus improving the performance of the application. This article also proposes an approach for vehicle classification. An integrated framework for tracking any vehicle at the request of security agencies is also proposed. Security agencies can track any vehicle in the specific time period by using a user interface application.

The Correlation Analysis of Maintenance Costs to Sei Siulak Deras Irrigation Network Infrastructure Performance

Sei Siulak Deras Irrigation Area is one of the Irrigation Areas located in Kerinci Regency based on the decision of Dinas Pekerjaan Umum dan Perumahan Rakyat (PUPR) regulations No.12/PRT/M/2015 concerning criteria and estabishment of Irrigation Area status with an area of 5,801 Ha. The authority for operational and maintenance implementation is handled by the Dinas PUPR of Jambi Province ( RTRW of Jambi Province, 2013). The performance of the Sei Siulak Deras irrigation network infrastructure is inseparable from the available maintenance budget, for this reason, it is necessary to conduct a study that analyzes the relationship between routine maintenance costs for the performance of irrigation network infrastructure in the Sei Siulak Deras irrrigation area of Kerinci District, Jambi Province. In this study an examination of the existing conditions of irrigation networks involving 1 observer and 6 irrigation workers, the irrigation network inspection using the standards issued by the Operation and Maintenance Agency of the Dinas PUPR of Jambi Province. From the results of the correlation analysis the cost of routine maintenance on the performance of irrigation network infrastructure is 0.9, this indicates a strong relationship between the two variables. While the maintenance budget allocated by the government to the maintenance of irrigation network infrastructure is very lacking, amounting to IDR 806,081,000 from the budget for the maintenance of irrigation network infrastructure of IDR 3,580,984,372.57.

A review on Problems and improvement on Fundamental Law of Firefighting

현대사회는 화재 등 재난이 항시 존재하고 있으며, 이러한 위기상황을 제거하고 국민의 안전을 확보하는 것이 국가의 책무이다. 국가는 화재 및 재난 등으로부터 국민을 보호할 의무가 있으며, 이 의무를 담당하는 기관중의 하나가 소방기관이다. 소방기관의 조직과 작용에 대한 기본적인 법률이「소방기본법」이며, 이 법률에서는 소방조직과 작용에 대하여 규정하고 있다. 그러나 소방조직과 작용에 대한 기본적인 사항 등을 정하여야 할 법률이 지나치게 추상적으로 규정되어 있을 뿐 아니라 화재 등에 적절히 대응할 수 있게 법집행에 대한 수권적 규정을 명확히 규정하지 않은 한계를 가지고 있다. 사회에서 증가하는 화재 등에 대하여 효율적으로 법집행을 위해서는 법률에 소방조직과 작용에 대하여 구체적인 내용을 규정하고 있어야 한다. 그럼에도 현행 법률은 소방조직과 작용을 명확히 제시하지 않는 등 조직법정주의와 수권규범의 명확성을 확보하지 않고 있다. 따라서 「소방기본법」이 나아가야 할 방향은 이 법이 추구하고 있는 목적을 달성할 수 있도록 법률의 개정이 되어야 하며, 소방작용에 대하여는 구체적인 수권규정을 확보하여 효율적 법집행이 달성될 수 있도록 하여야 한다. 본 연구는 화재 등 재난으로부터 국민의 생명과 신체 및 재산을 보호하고 소방경찰활동을 원활히 수행하기 위한 「소방기본법」이 가지고 있는 문제점을 분석하여 그 개선방안을 제시하였다.Various of disasters such as fires always exist in Modern society so the government should make sure people’s safety by effectively dealing with those risks. The government has the responsibility to protect people from diverse catastrophes. Fire-fighting agency is the very one which carries out the responsibility mentioned above. Fundamental Law of Fire-fighting, as Basic law, regulates the organization and operation of Fire-fighting agency, but its regulation is abstractive. In addition to that, it is less clear to stipulate the authority the agency should have to properly cope with fires. So, in order to enforce effective law on increasing fires, law should set up specific prescriptions about the organization and operation of fire-fighting agency. In spite of that, the current law does neither regulate those mentioned above nor the degree of authority the agency should have. Thus, this study analyzed problems existing in Fundamental Law of Fire-fighting that aims to protect people’s life, body and property from fires as well as to do well fire-fighting operation and suggested some alternatives to improve the problems. The direction Fundamental Law of Fire-fighting should head to is to reform the law so that it can attain its purpose it is pursuing. Furthermore, effective law enforcement should be achieved by establishing detail regulation about giving authority to an agency.