Over the past sixty-four years, the world has progressed from the first man in space to landing on the moon, to permanent human presence on manned space stations. Mankind is now poised to explore even further. As the Augustine Commission wrote, ―The human exploration of space is historically intertwined with the recent evolution of America‘s international relationships.” Because of this global dimension, the competition of the 1960s space race and the cooperation on the International Space Station (ISS) were analyzed for lessons for the future. According to Launius, “Mirror image…
Read MoreARM CONFLICT IN 21ST CENTURY : THE RIGHTS OF VICTIMS AND LEVELS OF RESPONSIBILITY
In International Human Rights Law(IHRL), victims have been defined as persons who, individually or collectively, have suffered harm, including physical or mental injury, emotional suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of their fundamental rights, through acts or omissions that are in violation of criminal laws operative within Member States, including those laws proscribing criminal abuse of power. Offences in contravention of the laws of war are considered criminal offences and therefore, those who have suffered as a result of any offences conducted in the course of an armed conflict as…
Read MoreA FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACTS OF ILLEGAL AGRO-CONVERSION AND NATIONAL OBJECTIVES FOR FOREST AND LAND AND TYPOLOGY OF ILLEGALITIES
Governments establish a legislative framework – policies, laws, and regulations – in order to best manage their resources. This framework should be developed to incorporate “good governance” principles, including: participatory and equitable policies and laws; transparent and efficient processes, reinforced by monitoring and evaluation; effective implementation that achieves policy objectives, including through enforcement where necessary; and accountability, including anti‐fraud and anti‐corruption mechanisms; all underlain by the application of the rule of law. A country’s legislative framework should advance four primary and legitimate objectives of the state with respect to its…
Read MoreCHALLENGES TO YOUTH ENGAGEMENT: PREJUDICE, MYTH, AND REALITY
When young people are engaged in community decisions that affect them, better decisions are made and everyone benefits. When communities involve youth in ways that are meaningful, they tap new energy, knowledge and leadership. And yet, too often, young people do not participate in civic activities-especially the traditional, public decision making process of governments. There are many prejudices regarding the interests and capacity of youth. These beliefs contribute to feelings of alienation and disempowerment, predispose youth engagement efforts to failure, and can lead directly to individual harm. Individuals are hurt…
Read MoreMONUMENTAL TRIUMPH AND OUTCOMES FROM THE CLIMATE CHANGE REGIME
The adoption of the 2015 Paris Agreement has been widely celebrated as a ‘monumental triumph’ (UN News 2015). It enshrines a ‘new logic’ of global cooperation, representing a decisive shift away from the top-down regulatory approach that had previously underpinned the international climate change regime. This shift can best be understood in light of the historical evolution of the legal and institutional framework for global collaborative climate action. This policy brief provides a comprehensive overview of the development of the global climate change regime. It documents how climate change –initially…
Read MoreTHE NEW EMPIRICISM IN HUMAN RIGHTS: INSIGHTS AND IMPLICATIONS(75TH ANNIVERSARY OF UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR)
Seventy five years ago, the nations of the world came together to make a revolutionary pledge: Together, they would work to promote “universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms.” Although significant progress has been made toward this goal in the Seventy five years since the world remains rife with human rights abuses and it’s continuing? and in some parts of the world worsening? reality of human rights violations raises a difficult question for advocates and students of international law: Can international human rights law be used…
Read MoreTHE WEAPONIZATION OF OUTER SPACE: HARNESSING INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
Given the environmental challenges that are unique to the space domain and the exponential increase in the number and different types of actors in space, tenets of cooperation, collaboration, and communication are necessary to avoid unwanted escalation of potential conflicts or friction. The need for clarity and transparency in space is paramount to continued access to and use of space. In the space domain, increased transparency is something from which we can all benefit. Exchange of information, particularly in respect of space situational awareness (SSA) and space traffic management, must…
Read MoreFOUR CONVENTIONS IN THE WORLD OF GLOBAL HEALTH: SURVIVAL , FAIRNESS , PRODUCTION , AND SPIRIT
To justify policies, allocate resources, and assign different roles in the field of global health, the participating actors and institutions refer to a plural yet limited set of conventions. Their specific characteristics echo elements of the conventions that researchers identified in their studies of western culture, even if they are not identical with them. Elements from the spheres of international security, development, and medical discourses have given rise to distinct conventions in the world of global health. Yet, their basic structure as conventions, or “orders of worth,”: Each of them…
Read MoreBENEFITS AND CHALLENGES OF USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) IN RECRUITMENT
The majority of the professionals agreed that Artificial Intelligence (AI) benefits recruiters when it comes to cutting down routine and administrative tasks. Hence recruiters have more time to focus on the best matches. The use of AI in recruitment helps recruiters, especially in the evaluation, ranking and qualification processes of job applicants and hence it is possible for recruiters to start the recruitment process with the most potential job candidates directly by interviewing them. When it comes to communication between recruiters and job applicants, many of the professionals would not…
Read MoreADOLESCENT: TECHNOLOGY USES AND GRATIFICATION THEORY
Unlike the media effects model, the Uses and Gratifications approach assumes that the consumer has an active role in their selection of media, and therefore, potentially plays a part in the effects that media may have on them. This distinction is important, as the theory highlights individual differences in relation to the positive and negative well-being outcomes associated with adolescent technology use. More specifically, Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT) is conceptualized as a means to study how media, including social media, are utilised to fulfil the needs of individual users…
Read MoreSPACE TOURISM: PROBLEMS, LIMITATION AND POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Today, new kinds of space travel are emerging. The year 2001 marked the beginning of space tourism, as a wealthy California businessman, Dennis Tito, became the first paying passenger for a space flight. He paid $20 million to be launched by Soyuz TM-32 via arrangements made between an American company called Space Adventures and a Russian company MirCorp, which oversaw the Mir space station. The ticket sale was to fund the maintenance of the Mir space station; however, a premature deorbit decision diverted Tito’s destination to the International Space Station…
Read MoreHUMANITARIAN GOVERNANCE CHALLENGES FOR HUMANITARIAN AID AND DISASTER MANAGEMENT
Our notion that humanitarian governance must be understood as the interplay of different actors tallies with theories on governance. However, writing about humanitarian governance tends to overly focus on the international humanitarian system, neglecting local and national actors’ involvement. Also, governance theories of the 1990s show that state power is layered and fragmented, and that attaining collective purposes is not solely the domain of the state. The shift from ‘government’ to ‘governance’, showed how “the state becomes a collection of inter-organizational networks made up of governmental and societal actors with…
Read MoreWORLD CONFLICTS: CHANGING NATURE OF WARFARE
A few decades ago, it was relatively easy to talk about the nature of warfare, as it was intimately linked to statecraft, so one identified an adversary state and prepared oneself accordingly. In fact, one could even quantify threats and capabilities to arrive at a predictable outcome. In the 21st century, this is no longer so. Shades of grey have crept in; threats are not easy to quantify and, sometimes, even to identify. There is a merging, a fusion of various types of warfare; international rules do not apply to…
Read MoreDISAPPEARING STATES, STATELESSNESS AND RELOCATION
Among the various environmental problems that cause the displacement of people from their habitats, none rivals the potential effects of sea level rise as a result of human-induced changes in the earth ́s climate. Lately, the climate change discourse has become aware of a possible consequence of climate change, the disappearance of the entire territory of a state. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) determines that the earth is warming up. The linear warming trend for the last 50 years is twice that compared to the same over 100…
Read MoreFAKE NEWS OR TRUE LIES?: REFLECTION ABOUT PROBLEMATIC CONTENT
Scholars in different scientific fields and practitioners are analyzing the rise of production and diffusion of fake news and problematic information that is rapidly contaminating the digital world. Fake news, defined as “news articles that are intentionally and verifiably false, and could mislead readers”, has just recently gained scholarly attention predominantly in the fields of journalism, psychology and political sciences. Less is done empirically in the marketing and consumer behaviour literature, with some recent and few exceptions. Fake news represents only one aspect of the ongoing crisis of problematic information,…
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