Priorities Of Cooperation Research Articles

Health policy in cross-border cooperation practices: the role of Euroregions and their local government members

ABSTRACTHealth Policy in Cross-border Cooperation Practices: The Role of Euroregions and Their Local Government Members. Territory, Politics, Governance. The support for local cross-border cooperation in Europe has been built on the premises of new cross-border institutions (Euroregions) as primarily responding to policy problems that cannot be dealt with effectively within the national contexts, expressed as ‘filling the gaps’. One area with significant gains to be made by cooperating across borders is health policy. This article discusses the extent to which health policy has (not) become an activity in cross-border practices, and what the potential is for Euroregions to facilitate this. The article first relies on previous research in combination with a mapping exercise of 53 current structures to demonstrate that despite well-advertised ‘best practices’, the overall level of health cooperation is relatively low. It then looks into the motivations for cooperation and policy priorities of participating local governments. The empirical data consist of interviews with mayors of local governments in six Euroregions, located at three national borders (Sweden–Norway, Hungary–Slovakia and Austria–Germany). The analysis points to attitudes related to frustration, a sense of institutional inappropriateness and cognitive distances playing a role in the low salience of health policy. The article therefore argues that cooperation in the health area will derive from policy activity from other actors than Euroregions.

The prospects for Baltic – Black Sea cooperation in the context of current Russian-Ukrainian relations

This article proves relevance of the cooperation between the states of the Baltic and Black Sea region and reveals the prospects of Ukraine’s participation in interstate cooperation within the Baltic-Black Sea region in view of the current state of the international system and the conflict with Russia. Also the review of ideological and theoretical approaches to understanding the Baltic and Black Sea region is carried out and its potential is emphasized from the point of view of policy of NATO and the EU. It is established that the priority of cooperation in the Baltic and Black Sea region is the transport, economic policy of the sphere. The emphasis is placed on distinctions between the certain states of the region (Russia, Turkey) concerning regional security. The need of attraction to cooperation for the Baltic and Black Sea region of a wide range of the states for the purpose of overcoming the unsuccessful experience of cooperation and creation of new effective regional security architecture is confirmed.

Kazakh Initiatives on Cooperation with European Union

The author of this article presents initiatives of the Republic of Kazakhstan to develop cooperation with the European Union that was initiated through 2000 - 2009. In 2000 the Republic of Kazakhstan proposed to EU Comment cooperation doctrine in Central Asia. The purpose of the doctrine lied in expanding cooperation in the areas of trade, economy and investment; in granting access to commodities and services from European markets; in developing collaboration in the areas of energy, transport, communication, finance and banking. In 2006 Kazakhstan introduced a new set of prepossess to the new European Union Strategy for Central Asian 2007-2013 that was developed under the chairmanship of Germany of the EU in the first half of 2007. The Strategy covered areas of cooperation such as regional integration, economic development, democratization, energy and security. In 2008 under the instructions of the President of Kazakhstan Ministry of Foreign Affairs in cooperation with other ministries developed a state programme "Path to Europe" for 2009 - 2011, which aided the priorities of cooperation between Kazakhstan and the European Union. "Path to Europe" has become a key initiative of the Kazakh foreign policy that was successfully implemented, as well as the most important document aimed at modernization of the national economy and the Kazakh society. In the beginning of2009 using the accumulated positive experience of cooperation with the EU and experience of a number of countries in Europe and Asia, Kazakhstan devised and submitted a concept of a new treaty which was supposed to replace the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement of 1995. The Republic of Kazakhstan's influence eventually persuaded the European Union to agree on the necessity of devising the Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement.

Условия реализации внутренней миграции: правовые аспекты

During the last decades an imbalance in the territorial distribution of population in Russia is increasing. That contributes to the emergence of interethnic tensions. The article is devoted to the process of elaboration of the legal provisions that support internal migration. The author’s attention is focused on decrees of the Russian Federation President related to migration issues and the main trends of the development of legislation in this area. The author explains the necessity of legal regulation of authorities’ power in the area of migration at federal legislation level because of the influence of migration restrictions on constitutional rights of citizens. Creation of effective legal mechanisms of regulation internal migration caused by the need to account the geopolitical interests and the economic and social development of the country and possible change of priorities of trade and economic cooperation, as well as the development of import substitution. The main focus lays on the deterrents for internal migration, overcoming of which is possible by using legal means to identify priority measures. Changing the nature of records at the place of stay from permissive to notification is one of the main instruments that require clarification of the procedures and grounds of such accounting. The availability of the social infrastructure and accessible mechanisms for the use of infrastructure is also an important prerequisite for attracting labor resources. The new institution of law - renting living accommodation for social use and its impact on the development the internal migration are considered in this article as one of said prerequisites. The author has generalized factors of ethnic and religious tension and proposed measures to prevent them.

Nuclear Energy and Nonproliferation Agenda for Iran: International Cooperation Priorities and Russia's Role

For many years, the Iranian nuclear program has remained one of the key flashpoints in international politics and one of the most sensitive issues in the Greater Middle East. But just over a year s...

Stages of Development of the Russian-Japanese Trade and Economic Relations

Main purpose of the article is to classify the stages of development of Russian-Japanese economic and trade relation. Special attention is given to revealing of the features, tendencies, and characteristics of the present stage of development of the Russian-Japanese trade and economic relations. Interaction of two countries in 2000-2013 has provided an active growth of turnover. The basic priority of interaction noted in such spheres of trade as mechanical engineering, power, woods, and chemical industry. It is obvious that trade of Russia with Japan still has a character of exchange of the Russian fuel, raw materials, and seafood on the Japanese finished industrial products. The basic priorities of cooperation in such sectors as trade, mechanical engineering, energy, wood, and chemical industry are defined. Right during the newest period of 2000-2013, integration of the Russian-Japanese business on territory of the Russian Federation has got the rebirth, having embodied in numerous spheres of the Russian economy. The energy sphere is still a leading sphere of trade and economic relations of Russia and Japan.

Performance Analysis of a Cooperative MAC Protocol of Wireless Ad Hoc Networks

ABSTRACTDifferent medium access control (MAC) layer protocols, for example, IEEE 802.11 series and others are used in wireless local area networks. They have limitation in handling bulk data transfer applications, like video-on-demand, videoconference, etc. To avoid this problem a cooperative MAC protocol environment has been introduced, which enables the MAC protocol of a node to use its nearby nodes MAC protocol as and when required. We have found on various occasions that specified cooperative MAC establishes cooperative transmissions to send the specified data to the destination. In this paper we propose cooperative MAC priority (CoopMACPri) protocol which exploits the advantages of priority value given by the upper layers for selection of different paths to nodes running heterogeneous applications in a wireless ad hoc network environment. The CoopMACPri protocol improves the system throughput and minimizes energy consumption. Using a Markov chain model, we developed a model to analyse the performance of CoopMACPri protocol; and also derived closed-form expression of saturated system throughput and energy consumption. Performance evaluations validate the accuracy of the theoretical analysis, and also show that the performance of CoopMACPri protocol varies with the number of nodes. We observed that the simulation results and analysis reflects the effectiveness of the proposed protocol as per the specifications.

Cohesion Processes in Internal and External Spaces of the European Union: the New Priorities

Cohesion as an especially important factor of modernization processes, as well as of processes of European integration and enlargement of the European Union are analyzed in this theoretical article. The needs of cohesion and possibilities to activate the cohesion in the context of European integration in general, as well as the impact of cohesion on the further enlargement of the European Union are discussed. This article raises and considers the problem of social, economic and political development, cultural changes, the new tendencies of technological progress and environmental protection, closely associated with the cohesion processes, taking place under the conditions of European integration and the European Union development and enlargement. It is shown that the cohesion processes determine the basic changes in contemporary society and its life in the common cultural, social and economic space in the European Union. The main attentions is paid to the specifics of cohesion in the internal and in the external spaces of the European Union, the role and significance of the processes of innovative development in the context of general priorities of cohesion are characterized.It is shown that there are some needs to define the priorities of cohesion processes separately for internal spaces of the European Union, as well as for external spaces. The priorities of innovative development and technological progress are defined as the main priorities of cohesion in internal spaces of the European Union.The priorities of goal-oriented cooperation with the developing countries of new type with post-crisis economy are defined as the main priorities of cohesion in external spaces of the European Union.The variety of the cohesion processes is described, new trends of cohesion in the context of globalization and internationalization, knowledge based society and knowledge economy creation processes are identifiedDOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.24.5.2579

Market entry barriers for foreign direct investment and private investors: Lessons from China's electricity market

Energy market Integration (EMI) is one of the priorities of regional cooperation identified by leaders from the East Asian Summit (EAS) region. The countries in the region have made great efforts to push for the electricity sector reform so as to boost the participation of private investment. However, a review of these reform experiences suggests that there is significant disparity between the expected and actual outcomes of reform. China has implemented its reform program since the 1990s, and a major reform was introduced in 2002, with the corporatization and unbundling of electricity being achieved. But, a competitive market has not yet been established due to both political and technical difficulties. Motivated by the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA), the participation of private investment in China was expanded in the 1990s. Paradoxically, after the introduction of a major reform in 2002 which created more favorable conditions for the private sector, foreign investors retreated from China. Among other things, the authors identified the fragmented regulatory system, unpredictable pricing mechanism, limited access to transmissions, fuel and financing, and unchecked expansion of the state-owned sector as major barriers that impeded the participation of the private sector. The policy responses and implications of China's experience for the region are also discussed.

Brad R. Roth. Sovereign Equality and Moral Disagreement: Premises of a Pluralist International Legal Order

Professor Roth's book addresses what � if it were new, as he suggests � would be an extremely alarming development: namely, the tendency of strong states to intervene in the affairs of their materially weak but formally equal counterparts. Because such interventionism is invariably justified as necessary in order to defend the core principles of a supposedly universal morality (usually, in the UN era, associated with human rights), Roth argues that this practice must be discouraged if the Charter system's commitment to is not to be undermined. As he sees it: The post-World War II order, as constructively amended in the era of decolonization, established the priority of peace and respectful cooperation among judicially equal states; the ethos was one of ideological pluralism and forbearance, qualified only by a Security Council mech anism requiring an extraordinary cross-cutting consensus. That the system leaves unredressed all but the most extraordinary injustices occurring within state boundaries is not an aberrant consequence; the system, mindful that great-power predation has typically flown the flag of righteousness, prioritizes the impeding of impositions (at 284). On a continuum he sets up, running from transcendental justice to moral relativism, Roth therefore argues that the morally correct position to take is one of bounded pluralism. Such a position is pluralistic in that it respects the right to non-intervention even of states ruled by ruthless governments on the grounds that '[w]hat appears disproportionate to someone else's cause, however just, frequently appears exigent in the service of one's own' (at 120). Such a position is bounded, however, in that this respect is limited by the existence of a few clearly universal moral standards. It is clear to Roth, for example, that [t]he duty to refrain from coercive interference can legitimately be overcome in some class of unambiguously catastrophic cases �

A concepção brasileira de “cooperação Sul-Sul estruturante em saúde”

At the dawn of the new millennium, not only have poor countries’ health needs not diminished, but they seem to have worsened due to a complex interplay among many factors that result in huge inequities within and between countries. This critical situation calls international development cooperation into question once again and prompts new thinking. In this process, South-South cooperation has steadily gained importance. At the start of the 21st century, international – particularly South-South – cooperation has come to occupy a strategic place in Brazilian foreign policy, and health is a priority item on this agenda. This paper examines the Brazilian conception of horizontal “structural cooperation in health”. It presents a brief historical review of international development cooperation and health cooperation, explores the concept of “structural cooperation in health”, and discusses the Brazilian proposal formulated over the past decade and its implementation to date. This Brazilian approach centers on the concept of “capacity building for development”, but innovates in two respects: by integrating human resource development with organisational and institutional development and by breaking with the traditional passive transfer of knowledge and technology. It is still early to evaluate its impact, but this cooperation has been implemented on the basis of five interrelated strategic, political and technical considerations: (a) priority for horizontal cooperation; (b) focus on developing health capabilities; (c) coordinated initiatives in the regional context; (d) strong involvement of health ministers in building strategic and political consensus; and (e) encouraging partnership between ministries of health and foreign relations.

Brazil’s conception of South-South “structural cooperation” in health

At the dawn of the new millennium, not only have poor countries’ health needs not diminished, but they seem to have worsened due to a complex interplay among many factors that result in huge inequities within and between countries. This critical situation calls international development cooperation into question once again and prompts new thinking. In this process, South-South cooperation has steadily gained importance. At the start of the 21st century, international – particularly South-South – cooperation has come to occupy a strategic place in Brazilian foreign policy, and health is a priority item on this agenda. This paper examines the Brazilian conception of horizontal “structural cooperation in health”. It presents a brief historical review of international development cooperation and health cooperation, explores the concept of “structural cooperation in health”, and discusses the Brazilian proposal formulated over the past decade and its implementation to date. This Brazilian approach centers on the concept of “capacity building for development”, but innovates in two respects: by integrating human resource development with organisational and institutional development and by breaking with the traditional passive transfer of knowledge and technology. It is still early to evaluate its impact, but this cooperation has been implemented on the basis of five interrelated strategic, political and technical considerations: (a) priority for horizontal cooperation; (b) focus on developing health capabilities; (c) coordinated initiatives in the regional context; (d) strong involvement of health ministers in building strategic and political consensus; and (e) encouraging partnership between ministries of health and foreign relations.

Commission for Environmental Cooperation priorities

Members of the Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) will host a 1 December live Webcast discussion on environmental priorities the commission should consider during the next 5 years. The priorities will relate to “healthy communities and ecosystems,” “climate change—low‐carbon economy,” and “greening the economy in North America.” CEC is an international organization created by Canada, Mexico, and the United States under the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation.The meeting, in Los Cabos, Baja California Sur, Mexico, will include a virtual forum to allow online participation.

Cooperative file sharing mechanism with Network Coding in wireless Mesh networks

This article describes a new model of a cooperative file sharing system in a wireless Mesh network. The authors' approach is to develop an efficient and cooperative file sharing mechanism based on opportunistic random linear Network Coding. Within this mechanism, every node transmits random linear combination of its packets according to cooperative priority, which is computed in a distributed manner according to the node-possible contribution to its neighbor nodes. With this mechanism, the more a node contributes to others, the more the node has chances to recover the entire file first. The performance metrics of interest here are: the delay until all the packets in a file have been delivered to all nodes, and an ideal packet size, by the use of which the authors can get the minimum transmission delay. Through extensive simulation the authors compare their mechanism with the current transmission process in a wireless Mesh network without random linear Network Coding. The authors found that using their mechanism, the nodes can cooperatively share the entire file with less transmission time and delay than the current transmission process without random linear network.

China's wind industry: policy lessons for domestic government interventions and international support

The dynamics of the development of China's wind power industry were investigated from a dual perspective of domestic government interventions and international support. The progress of China's wind power industry is largely attributed both to the effective implementation of a bundle of domestic public policies (such as the wind power concession programme, mandatory renewable power market share, power surcharge for renewables, and tax relief) and international support (in the forms of technology transfer, CDM and public finance support). Wind power has great potential for mitigating China's future CO2 emissions. However, resource uncertainty, technology risk, and market uncertainty will need to be addressed in order to translate the potential into market reality. Enhancing domestic technology R&D support, increasing the level of the power surcharge for renewables, international support (e.g. CDM), and improving technology transfer will assist in minimizing these uncertainties and risks. Policy relevance: International technological cooperation is illustrated in terms of how domestic policy and international support interact through constructive domestic policies, private-sector joint ventures, and international capacity building and financial support. The definition of a new objective for future policy (large-scale penetration of wind in the Chinese power system) allows for the identification of future priorities for technology cooperation. Large amounts of intermittent generation require new technologies and practices for grid operation and management, and better adaptation of turbine design to domestic materials and local conditions. Win—win options exist, but need to be supported by capacity building and frameworks that balance incentives for international technology companies against Chinese concerns over dependence on imported technology and high licensing fees.

Global financial information, compliance incentives and terrorist funding

Interdiction of terrorist funds is a priority for intergovernmental cooperation. However, multilateral and unilateral attempts to ensure timely reporting of transactions made by targeted individuals or groups, and to deny them access to the international financial system, have had limited success. This is mainly due to economic disincentives for the disclosure of the identity and purpose of transacting agents, particularly those using correspondent banking services, informal money transfer networks (MTNs) and offshore financial centres (OFCs). This paper proposes that solutions should be based on positive incentives for disclosure, and could include trans-border withholding taxes on transactions with unregulated clients and the provision of affordable transfer systems for emigrants.

Global financial information, compliance incentives and terrorist funding

Interdiction of terrorist funds is a priority for intergovernmental cooperation. However, multilateral and unilateral attempts to ensure timely reporting of transactions made by targeted individuals or groups, and to deny them access to the international financial system, have had limited success. This is mainly due to economic disincentives for the disclosure of the identity and purpose of transacting agents, particularly those using correspondent banking services, informal money transfer networks (MTNs) and offshore financial centres (OFCs). This paper proposes that solutions should be based on positive incentives for disclosure, and could include trans-border withholding taxes on transactions with unregulated clients and the provision of affordable transfer systems for emigrants.

The evolution, substance and priorities of EU and ASEAN co-operation in science and technology

This article discusses the evolution and substance of co-operation in Science and Technology (S&T) between the European Union (EU) and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It will attempt to shed light on the under-researched topic of the role of European technology in the modernisation of Southeast Asia during the last three decades, by examining the methods by which the two supranational entities are attempting to enhance such co-operation. EU-ASEAN collaboration in S&T has experienced a steady, albeit modest, growth during the last few years. The EU is shown to be committed to sustainable development and humanitarian principles (e.g. alleviation of poverty), although this is seriously constrained by economic considerations. By contrast, ASEAN is more concerned with the economic and political benefits to be gained from such collaboration, as shown by the adoption of an export-orientated high technology policy and the rapid economic growth of the region.

Escaping the merchant/missionary dilemma: an imperial policy for the Asia-Pacific

The Asia policy of the Bush administration follows from two principles: its preference for ‘hub-and-spoke relationships’ led from Washington, and the restored priority of security issues over the mixture of trade interests and human rights that was the hallmark of the Clinton presidency. The initial focus of the administration on the restoration of political and strategic ties with old allies such as Japan, and on strategic competition, has been mitigated by another realistic approach: the need to seek new allies and partnerships. This policy was already evident towards India before September 11, 2001, but has been magnified with the onset of a coalition against terrorism, and almost as importantly, against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The resumption of strategic and military ties with China, the priority of anti-terrorist cooperation over human rights issues with Southeast Asia, the increased support for India that is of more strategic value than America's tactical involvement with Pakistan, are developments that overshadow the US relationship with traditional allies such as Japan or the European Union. The major weakness of the Bush Asia policy, however, is its relative neglect of major economic and social issues in the region. Although support for some weakened ASEAN economies has increased, there is neither a more intense coordination of economic policies with Japan, in spite of initially declared intentions, nor a major economic and social strategy for Southeast and South Asia that would support the fight against terrorism.

Model of counselling of infertile couples

Infertility consultations consist in highly specialized biomedical diagnostic and therapeutic interventions and at the same time in complex, emotional and cognitive interactions between the couple and the infertility team. The interpersonal, communicative part of the encounter has not been investigated so far systematically. We have based on qualitative methods developed a model of the interpersonal problem solution process which comprises ten phases, characterized by specific elements: Introduction and initiation of a therapeutic relationship, problem assessment and problem monitoring, negotiation about problem definition and about objectives and priorities of cooperation, hypothesis generation and decision making concerning diagnostic workup, investigations and diagnostic procedures, information giving about results, elaboration of treatment options, decision making about specific treatment, treatment procedures, evaluation of results. Each phase is characterized by functions, objectives, contents and communication skills, typical problems of communication and problem solution strategies. The knowledge of these phases and the understanding of the emotional, cognitive and interpersonal process couples are going through as well as the learning of respective communicative skills by the team present important elements of the quality of care which may be as important as the quality of the biomedical cure.