Strategic Policymaking Research Articles

Effect of Frequent Policy Change on Disaster Preparedness and Systemic Resilience

We employ System Dynamics (SD) modelling to analyse the structural behaviour of the interactions between Disaster Preparedness, Systemic Physics, and Resilience in response to policy change in maritime logistics setting. It appears that industry stakeholders are not able to anticipate the effects of strategic risk management decisions. Results suggest that frequent policy interventions geared towards disaster reduction have the potential to produce unintended consequences as levels of unacknowledged conditions increase. The research models provide strategic policy makers with real-time decision evaluation tool to justify the choice of a set of alternative risk reduction interventions prior to decision implementation.

Scientists at War: The Ethics of Cold War Weapons Research

Scientists at War examines the ethical debates that severely tested the American scientific community during the Cold War. Sarah Bridger highlights the contributions of scientists to military technologies and strategic policymaking, from the dawning atomic age in the 1940s through the Strategic Defense Initiative ( Star Wars ) in the 1980s, which sparked a cross-generational opposition among scientists.The Manhattan Project in the early 1940s and the crisis provoked by the launch of Sputnik in 1957 greatly enhanced the political clout of American scientists. Yet many who took up government roles felt a duty to advocate arms control. Bridger investigates the internal debate over nuclear weapons policy during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations, when scientific advisors did not restrict themselves to technical assessments but made an impassioned moral case for a nuclear test ban. The relationship between government and science began to fray further during the Vietnam War, as younger scientists inside and outside of government questioned the morality of using chemical defoliants, napalm, and other non-nuclear weapons. With campuses erupting in protest over classified weapons research conducted in university labs, many elder statesmen of science, who once believed they could wield influence from within, became alienated. The result was a coalition that opposed Star Wars during the 1980s and a diminished role for scientists as counselors to future presidents.

Think tanks and strategic policy-making: the contribution of think tanks to policy advisory systems

Think tanks have proliferated in most Western democracies over the past three decades and are often considered to be increasingly important actors in public policy. Still, their precise contribution to public policy remains contested. This paper takes the existing literature in a new direction by focusing on the capacity of think tanks to contribute to strategic policy-making and assessing their particular role within policy advisory systems. We propose that strategic policy-making capacity requires three critical features: high levels of research capacity, substantial organizational autonomy and a long-term policy horizon. Subsequently, we assess the potential of think tanks to play this particular role in policy-making, using empirical evidence from structured interviews with a set of prominent Australian think tanks.

The Sustainability of Yachting Tourism: A Case Study on Greece

Yachting tourism is an emerging industry in coastal regions, particularly in the Mediterranean countries. The rising success of yachting tourism induces a significant boom in its relevant business segments. As a type of leisure tourism, yachting tourism plays a big role in an experience economy, and its positive impact on coastal regions has meant a substantial contribution to the local economy. Greece has many (potential) advantages to acquire a dominant position in developing a yachting tourism industry, such as authentic local attractions, natural coastal resources, etc. However, since the appearance of the current global financial crisis in 2007, the yachting tourism industry in this country has manifested a clear downturn, while the implementation of some austerity measures have aggravated the economic prospects. Meanwhile, the intense industry competition from some neighboring countries prompt a big challenge on the sustainability of the Greek yachting tourism industry. The main objective of our research is to map out the backgrounds and environments of the unfortunate situation. On the one hand, we compare Greek yachting tourism sector with similar sectors in other competitive Mediterranean countries, in order to identify the problems in strategic policy-making. On the other hand, we conduct extensive field research on yacht users and other stakeholders, in order to model and understand the factors relevant to its sustainable development. For achieving the aforementioned aims, both theoretical research in sustainability and the empirical aspects of the Greek yachting tourism industry will be allowed. The modelling results demonstrate that relevant industry policies have influenced the sustainability of the Greek yachting tourism negatively; our comparative study prospects also new knowledge to guide the sustainable development of the Greek yachting tourism from the perspective of other countries' strategies. Furthermore, the field surveys of yacht users and other stakeholders allow us to identify the relevant factors of sustainability in the Greek yachting tourism industry. In addition, our study sheds also new light on the emerging research field of the yachting tourism economy, and it leads to an enrichment of traditional tourism research. As our empirical research focusses in particular on the Greek yachting tourism industry, our findings provide practical guidance for the development of the Greek yachting industry in a long run.

The Threat Review and Prioritization trap: how the FBI’s new Threat Review and Prioritization process compounds the Bureau’s oldest problems

In the nearly 15 years since the events of 11 September 2001, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has undertaken a succession of efforts to become an agency capable of fulfilling the intelligence functions with which it has been entrusted. However, historically, the FBI’s experience with intelligence has been reactive due to a law enforcement culture that closed cases rather than identified ways to keep opportunities for collection open, as well as bureaucratic wariness due to the differing expectations from one Presidential administration to the next. The Threat Review and Prioritization (TRP) process is the most recent iteration of the Bureau’s attempt to organize as an intelligence service. However, TRP is informed not by a mission of developing intelligence that will help to disrupt emerging threats or exploit opportunities at both the strategic (policymaking) and tactical (arrests), but instead reactively focuses on the threats which have become fully manifest within the FBI’s own domain. TRP leaves the US at a disadvantage vis-à-vis state and non-state adversaries and competitors. Organizationally, it institutionalizes the shortcomings of reactivity and insularity that were the unfortunate characteristics of the pre-9/11 FBI.

‘Arriving At’ Urban Policies: The Topological Spaces of Urban Policy Mobility

AbstractSpatial vocabularies are stretched to their limits by the complexities of policy mobilities. Using the example of city‐wide strategic policymaking in Johannesburg, this essay argues for an enrichment of our vocabularies for appreciating how wider circuits of urban policy shape localized policy outcomes. Rather than tracing policies until they arrive somewhere, a more nuanced spatiality of policy mobility emerges when considering how policies are 'arrived at'. Thus policy influences can, for example, be ephemeral and recursive, international but already present in localities, have many simultaneous origins, and be folded into a relatively amorphous but specific policy blend. Drawing on John Allen's account of topological space, the essay indicates how both a more subtle spatiality and a more open politics of policy formation would emerge from turning the analysis of policy mobilities on its head in this way.

System Dynamics and Mathematical Method Application for the Strategic Foresight

In a rapidly changing environment, it becomes extremely important to anticipate future changes and developments. A key element of strategic action and policy-making is now to recognise the possibility of alternative futures, and to implement strategy that makes the best alternative possible. The policy making in this era also needs to be based on systematically gathered information with the active participation of all the stakeholders. All this refers to active planning method named strategic foresight. However, environment makes the business run very sophisticated, so forecasting with strategic foresight method still brings uncertainty about selection of the optimal scenario. That is why dynamic and multi-causal systems are typical attributes to describe the multi version storylines of the future performance and to set variables trends. To decrease a risk of a wrong scenario selection we employ methods of mathematics for fuzzy systems. In the paper the case study will be done. On the basis of the business example, system dynamics model will be simulated. The elementary computation will be prepared for the next step of analysis. Finally, authors use to selection procedure. The expected result is to find 3 scenarios respectively to applied criterion.The aim of this study is to present the way of application dynamic and mathematical tools into strategic foresight work. Foresight analysts often have problems with the right choice. To avoid these troubles it is worth to involve tools which give well solution to strategic planning problem.

Information management and technology strategy development in the UK's acute hospital sector: a maturity model perspective

To integrate systems to provide centralized control, successive UK governments have funded a large number of IT initiatives in the National Health Service (NHS) using external management consultants and systems developers. Many of these projects have failed to deliver. This paper demonstrates that the historical context of the NHS IM&T strategy and infrastructure, combined with the pace of technological change, places acute hospitals in an invidious position when attempting to respond effectively to key goals set by strategic policy-makers and argues that, to be successful, they must re-evaluate their implementation strategies.

The Impact of Country of Origin on Relationship Quality: Empirical Evidence from Automotive Industry

This study examines the impact of country of origin on relationship quality in automotive sector. Four hypotheses were developed to test the relationships between country of origin and relationship quality. Relationship quality in this research is composed of three elements; brand trust, brand commitment, and brand satisfaction. Data were collected using survey questionnaire from 287 respondents of passenger car users in Northern region of Malaysia. To test the conceptual framework, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) using AMOS 18 was employed as data analysis technique. In general, the SEM analysis revealed that country of origin has a significant positive influence on overall relationship quality. Moreover, the analysis indicated that country of origin has significant positive influence on brand trust, brand commitment, and brand satisfaction. Based on the findings of this study, it is suggested to the strategic policy makers in the automotive sector to emphasize on these three basic determinants of relationship quality; brand trust, brand commitment, and brand satisfaction to cope with intense competition. Particularly, this study would guide automotive manufacturers to benefits from these findings to enhance customer relationships through utilizing positive country of origin image. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2p165

Organizing for British national strategy

Foreign policy strategy requires an understanding of long-term national interests (Strachan 2011, pp. 1281–1296). However, ‘the national interest’ is a catch-all term that can be both meaningful and meaningless. Political leaders do try to define the national interest. Some will veer towards a minimalist reading, favouring limited national goals. Others may push for a maximalist reading, moved by principle or universalism. The balance between values and interests — and the definition of interests — is determined at the level of strategic foreign policymaking in the British system, as in other democratic societies. The prime minister, foreign secretary and cabinet, supported by civil servants and no doubt influenced by the small band of writers and thinkers who are actually read, now regularly set out a formal foreign policy strategy. Thinking about Britain’s interests, values and role in the world was once largely articulated through speeches and articles or in debate on the floor of the House of Commons. Today it has moved into the terrain of official strategy documents, although speeches remain important markers.

Timely Economy Evolution via Moral Science Edification

This opinion article establishes locally and globally applicable structures for optimal economic evolution through morally committed science and technology edification in the new times. Timely human advancements in life quality and satisfaction are indebted to strategic policy-making in science and technology edification. What distinguish edification from education include commitments to persistent betterment of the upcoming generations in human talents and realizations [1]. Such obligations contribute to the most recent urgencies in shifting away the economy balance from private and public consumer goods to edification in science and technology research [2]. Today and tomorrow’s science educators must secure state-of-the-art elite mentorship capabilities as innovative frontiers in establishing everlasting improvements in social peace and prosperity.

Study on Demand Bill of Electric Vehicle in China′s Carbon Emission Reduction Environment

A new research method that can estimate the demand of EV in China on the basis of vehicular emission inventory and carbon reduction restriction is put forward. By using MOBILE model and software, China vehicular emissions inventory is created. Then, the demand bill of EV is worked out, and replacement scale and proportion of EV are calculated too. In the conclusion part, quantitative data is given, offering theoretical support for the governments’ strategic policy-making in developing EV.

How rational are justices on the Supreme Court of the United States? Doctrinal considerations during agenda setting

Justices on the US Supreme Court are rational and therefore strategic policymakers. Yet, how rational are they? How far into the future would their strategic considerations reach? Due to potential influence on both policy and doctrine, ceteris paribus they find opinion authorship desirable; when selecting cases, in addition to thinking about legal issues and the final disposition, justices strategically consider opinion crafting. To overcome the measurement error inherent to the estimation of rational behavior of the type proposed here, the Simulation Extrapolation protocol is introduced. There is strong support for the notion of doctrine-minded justices at cert. The social implications of such rational behavior are far-reaching; employing this strategy, over the course of her time in office, a justice would be able to considerably influence several policy and legal issues. In closing, implications of strategic behavior on the individual-justice level for the constitutional position of the Court within American society are discussed.

Charging up the Valley

In 2006, the UK government deployed forces into Helmand as part of the ISAF expansion into southern Afghanistan. It did so with limited force levels; a strategic choice that was further criticised when the move ‘up the valley’ into the north of the province left UK forces thinly spread acrossa large and dangerous region. Helmand operations have cost over 360 lives, but there have been stabilisation gains. Nevertheless, important lessons remain to be learned about Britain's strategic policy-making from the decisions of 2005–06.

Corporate governance and corporate performance in selected companies in Nigeria

This paper evaluates corporate governance variables (CGVs) and corporate performance (CP) in Nigerian listed companies. In specific terms, the paper examines CGVs that affect CP, proxied by return on assets (ROA), profit margin (PM) as used in literature but extended to include return on equity (ROE). We used 50 listed companies that cut across the Nigerian Stock Exchange market. We obtained the CGVs of board size (BOS), board composition (BOC), board ownership (BOO) chief executive status (CES) and audit committee independence (ACI) with corporate governance disclosure (CGD) and enterprise risk management disclosure (RMD) added to our model. Using the ordinary least square (OLS) regression, findings revealed that CGD and RMD are positively and significantly related to ROA and PM. It is suggested, on account of these findings, that there should be sustenance of the current corporate policies profile on CGD and RMD as they positively affect CP; while corporate boards, as strategic policy makers should note with caution the CGVs with negative relationships with CP. Such caution is required in order to redirect and refocus policies which could minimise the negative impact of such CGVs on CP.

Strategic Policy-making and the Indian System

Strategic Policy-making and the Indian System

Mediated Public Diplomacy in a New Era of Warfare

The new era of warfare is characterized by the increased visibility of war. The changing strategic, social and cultural environment has forced governments and armies to modify their strategies. Public diplomacy is one strategic policymaking response to this changing environment. This article reviews current research in this field, focusing on mediated public diplomacy, which is a central part of public diplomacy that has not been greatly researched. We discuss the central role played by cultural resonance in mediated public diplomacy, elaborating on immanent tensions between the centrality of cultural resonance and the needs of public, and mediated public diplomacy.

A Coastal and Marine National Park for Scotland: A Tactical or Strategic Affair?

Through a detailed discussion of attempts to create a Coastal and Marine National Park in Scotland, this paper critically examines the fate of an individual policy idea. It explains how this initiative succumbed to alternative political options to address strategically the problems of the marine. It identifies six critical issues for policy-makers: the validity of extending terrestrial national park experience into the marine; the nature of learning-based argumentation and practice evidence in legitimizing policy innovation; the role of politics in policy development; the tensions between tactical and strategic policy-making; and the institutional complexities of policy-making in the marine environment.

The security–development nexus and the rise of ‘anti-foreign policy’

Current debates and discussions of the emerging security-development nexus tend to portray this as signifying the increased importance of the problems of non-Western states to Western policy-makers. This article seeks to challenge this perspective and analyses how the policy 'nexus' reflects a retreat from strategic policy-making and a more inward-looking approach to foreign policy, more concerned with self-image than the policy consequences in the areas concerned. Rather than demonstrating a new seriousness of approach to tackling the security and development problems of the non-Western world, the discussions around this framework betray the separation between policy rhetoric and policy planning. This reflects the rise of anti-foreign policy: attempts to use the international sphere as an arena for self-referential statements of political mission and purpose, decoupled from their subject matter, resulting in ad hoc and arbitrary foreign policy-making.

Transnational Strategic Networks and Policymaking in Chile: CORFO's High Technology Investment Promotion Program

AbstractOnce prey to government patrimonial practices, the Corporación de Fomento de la Producción (CORFO), Chile's economic development agency, overcame this problem in the early 1990s. In 2000 CORFO established a High Technology Investment Promotion Program to promote foreign direct investment in high technology and other nontraditional sectors. This article applies concepts of political survival and cooperation to explain how CORFO moved from patrimonialism to technocratic independence. Then it demonstrates that governments possessing technocratic independence but lacking other characteristics typically associated with successful investment promotion efforts can develop transnational strategic networks of individuals, business associations, and universities to facilitate their learning process in order to devise more effective strategies to promote nontraditional FDI.