Reconsidering the state : cosmopolitanism, republicanism and global governance

Cosmopolitan arguments for global forms of democracy and governance have intensified in the last decade because of the increasing significance of transnational interconnections and the increased impact of global problems. However, questions remain as to how cosmopolitan structures are going to be realized in practice, given the continued significance of the state in global politics. This paper advocates the importance of considering republican arguments for redeveloping the state alongside the proposals for global democratic structures advocated by political cosmopolitans such as David Held. It contends that many forms of cosmopolitan thought are too quick to dismiss the state as a potential locus of ethical global governance and that republican conceptions of the state and political practice are important counterpoints to political cosmopolitanism. Consequently, this paper critically considers the assumptions embedded in the literature of political cosmopolitanism in relation to the proposals for global democracy and governance. Then the paper considers republican arguments that developing civically minded citizens and responsive state institutions could be a crucial foundation for transnational forms of governance to be realized in practice. The paper then concludes by considering the practical tensions between republican and cosmopolitan proposals.

The multifaith movement : global risks and cosmopolitan solutions

This book documents the ultramodern rise of the multifaith movement, as mulitfaith initiatives have been increasingly deployed as cosmopolitan solutions to counter global risks such as terrorism and climate change at the turn of the 21st century. These projects aim to enhance common security, particularly in Western societies following the events of September 11, 2001 and the July 2005 London bombings, where multifaith engagement has been promoted as a strategy to counter violent extremism. The author draws on interviews with 56 leading figures in the field of multifaith relations, including Paul Knitter, Eboo Patel, Marcus Braybrooke, Katherine Marshall, John Voll and Krista Tippett.
Identifying the principle aims of the multifaith movement, the analysis explores the benefits—and challenges—of multifaith engagement, as well as the effectiveness of multifaith initiatives in countering the process of radicalization. Building on notions of cosmopolitanism, the work proposes a new theoretical framework termed ‘Netpeace’, which recognizes the interconnectedness of global problems and their solutions. In doing so, it acknowledges the capacity of multi-actor peacebuilding networks, including religious and state actors, to address the pressing dilemmas of our times. The primary intention of the book is to assist in the formation of new models of activism and governance, founded on a ‘politics of understanding’ modeled by the multifaith movement.

Heritage and globalisation

This volume analyzes the politics, policy and practice of cultural heritage at the global level, identifying the major directions in which international heritage practice is moving, and exploring the key issues likely to shape the cultural heritage field well into the twenty-first century. It examines the tensions between the universal claims of much heritage practice, particularly that associated with the World Heritage system, and national and local perspectives. It explores the international legal framework developed since World War Two to protect heritage, particularly at times of war, and from theft, showing how contemporary global problems of conflict and illicit trade continue to challenge the international legal system.

Building G20 outreach: The role of transnational policy networks in sustaining effective and legitimate summitry

G20 outreach processes, in the form of the Think 20, Labour 20, Business 20, and Civil 20, Youth 20, and Women 20, are a formal attempt by G20 leaders to engage various social sectors with G20 policymaking. This essay contends that G20 outreach processes are best understood as transnational policy networks, which are involved in widening the field of policy communication and deliberation. The importance of these transnational policy networks rest upon their role in developing and disseminating G20 policy priorities and principles; and are an attempt to enhance the legitimacy and influence of the G20 and its policy proposals.

"We agree that, in order to strengthen its ability to build and sustain the political consensus needed to respond to challenges, the G20 must remain efficient, transparent and accountable. To achieve this, we decide to … pursue consistent and effective engagement with non-members, regional and international organisations, including the United Nations, and other actors, and we welcome their contribution to our work as appropriate. We also encourage engagement with civil society.G20 Cannes Summit Final Declaration 2011 (G20 2011)"

The difficulty in balancing the effectiveness and representativeness of the Group of Twenty (G20) has led to sustained questions about its legitimacy (Cooper 2010; Rudd 2011; Cooper and Pouliot 2015). Consequently, while leaders have long sought external advice about the agendas of Group of Seven (G7) summits since 1975, and about the G20 finance ministers and central bank governors’ meetings (G20 FM/CBG) since 1999, there has been intensification, elaboration, and institutionalization of transnational networks of policymakers with respect to the G20 in recent years. These networks are especially evident in the form of the G20 working groups and G20 outreach processes involved in the G20 FM/CBG and the G20 leaders’ forum created in 2008.

G20 working groups include transgovernmental groups of government officials and outside experts within a specific policy area who are charged with preparing material for G20 deliberations. G20 outreach processes are a recent and more formal attempt by G20 leaders to engage various social sectors with the policymaking activity of the G20 and were first considered by the G20 membership in 2010 with a more formal engagement with business interests. This led to the formal development of G20 outreach groups in 2013 in the form of the Think 20 (think tanks), Labour 20, Business 20, Civil 20 and Youth 20, which include representatives from these sectors. In 2015, a Women 20 outreach group was also added. These outreach processes are best understood as transnational policy networks which have been built to support the G20’s capacity to be effective and legitimate.

This essay focuses on G20 outreach processes and examines why and how the G20 has sought to augment its intergovernmental summitry and transgovernmental working groups with transnational policy networks, purposely involving a range of societal interests. Transnational policy networks demonstrate the existence of policymaking practices which include the policy influence of experts and advocates outside government. These networks also indicate the ways in which governments, International Governmental Organizations (IGOs) and summits like the G20 engage society, or where elements of society engage themselves with the policymaking process (Stone 2008). These networks intersect with the intergovernmental activities of leaders and key diplomats, and overlap with the transgovernmental relationships of various levels of government bureaucrats (Baker 2009). One of the principle features of transnational policy networks is the way they create and channel the communication of political ideas and priorities. However, it is important to keep in the mind the purpose and power of actors involved in the network and consider who has the discretion and motivation to create the network in the first instance. As the G20 members stated in 2012, the aspiration for outreach is founded upon an intent to strengthen the G20’s capacity “to build and sustain the political consensus”. Consequently, it is important to consider how the development of transnational policy networks in the form of G20 outreach processes are able to sustain the effectiveness and legitimacy of the G20.

This essay contends that G20 outreach processes are best understood as transnational policy networks. These networks have been built to widen the field of policy communication and deliberation. Furthermore, these outreach processes and networks are an attempt to enhance the legitimacy and influence of the G20 and its policy proposals. While there is no doubt that outreach practices are “ad hoc responses to the widespread charge that the G20 reproduces the politics of exclusion in global governance” (Cooper and Pouliot 2015, 347), these practices have the potential to improve both the effectiveness and legitimacy of the G20. The G20 possesses uncertain legitimacy and members of the G20 demonstrate an awareness of this and a corresponding willingness to actively develop various political practices to support the capacity and legitimacy of the G20.

However, G20 outreach also enables the G20 to place some limit upon the policy narratives and ideas that develop within these policy networks. The G20 is liable to be misunderstood without examining the activity of these transnational networks because the G20 is fundamentally a deliberative policy forum rather than a negotiating forum of binding regulations. Transnational policy networks have the potential to scrutinize and amplify relevant policy ideas and thereby enhance the legitimacy of the G20 and strengthen the capacity of the G20 to address an array of global economic and social problems. However, while some narrative control is important to amplify the G20 agenda, too much narrative control will undermine its legitimacy and capacity to develop broad-based responses to global problems. This essay explores the formation of these transnational policy networks by first outlining the evolution of the purpose and configuration of the G20, then it considers the ways G20 outreach processes constitute transnational policy networks and why they have been established, and lastly, analyses how these networks operate to enhance the legitimacy and effectiveness of the G20.

New openings and old problems of China's economic cooperation : global uneven development and stagnation in the Philippines

There has been a resurgence in activity by non-traditional donors (NTDs) since 2000. These flows of foreign development assistance (FDA) are a reflection of the global shift in production and income towards semi-peripheral economies, above all the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The PRC has also adopted its “peaceful rise” and “non-interference” policies with a strong emphasis on South-South cooperation. Some even foresee these changes as opening the space for more public-investment focused development policies, with NTDs providing ready access to capital with few conditionalities. Little attention, however, has been focused how these changes are already impacting in Southeast Asia. The PRC has now become the second largest source of FDA in the Philippines, funding major rail and other infrastructure projects and this trend is set to continue. The experience so far, however, suggests that the Philippine “soggy state” – where the state lacks autonomy from elite classes and processes that hinder development processes - has meant little benefit has accrued from the availability of concessional finance. Despite the rhetoric of “non-interference” in PRC policy, there is evidence that these FDA flows may indeed be aggravating processes of social and political exclusion.

Thinking/acting locally/globally: western science and environmental education in a global knowledge economy

This paper critically appraises a number of approaches to 'thinking globally' in environmental education, with particular reference to popular assumptions about the universal applicability of Western science. Although the transnational character of many environmental issues demands that we 'think globally', I argue that the contribution of Western science to understanding and resolving environmental problems might be enhanced by seeing it as one among many local knowledge traditions. The production of a 'global knowledge economy' in/for environmental education can then be understood as creating transnational 'spaces' in which local knowledge traditions can be performed together, rather than as creating a 'common market' in which representations of local knowledge must be translated into (or exchanged for) the terms of a universal discourse.

Least squares splines with free knots: global optimization approach

Splines with free knots have been extensively studied in regard to calculating the optimal knot positions. The dependence of the accuracy of approximation on the knot distribution is highly nonlinear, and optimisation techniques face a difficult problem of multiple local minima. The domain of the problem is a simplex, which adds to the complexity. We have applied a recently developed cutting angle method of deterministic global optimisation, which allows one to solve a wide class of optimisation problems on a simplex. The results of the cutting angle method are subsequently improved by local discrete gradient method. The resulting algorithm is sufficiently fast and guarantees that the global minimum has been reached. The results of numerical experiments are presented.

Cutting angle method - a tool for constrained global optimization

Cutting angle method (CAM) is a deterministic global optimization technique applicable to Lipschitz functions f: Rn → R. The method builds a sequence of piecewise linear lower approximations to the objective function f. The sequence of solutions to these relaxed problems converges to the global minimum of f. This article adapts CAM to the case of linear constraints on the feasible domain. We show how the relaxed problems are modified, and how the numerical efficiency of solving these problems can be preserved. A number of numerical experiments confirms the improved numerical efficiency.

Mathematical modelling of the refractive index reconstruction through global optimization

We examine a mathematical model of non-destructive testing of planar waveguides, based on numerical solution of a nonlinear integral equation. Such problem is ill-posed, and the method of Tikhonov regularization is applied. To minimize Tikhonov functional, and find the parameters of the waveguide, we use two new optimization methods: the cutting angle method of global optimization, and the discrete gradient method of nonsmooth local optimization. We examine how the noise in the experimental data influences the solution, and how the regularization parameter has to be chosen. We show that even with significant noise in the data, the numerical solution is of high accuracy, and the method can be used to process real experimental da.ta..

A new method for locating the global optimum : application of the cutting angle method to molecular structure prediction

Many problems in chemistry depend on the ability to identify the global minimum or maximum of a function. Examples include applications in chemometrics, optimization of reaction or operating conditions, and non-linear least-squares analysis. This paper presents the results of the application of a new method of deterministic global optimization, called the cutting angle method (CAM), as applied to the prediction of molecular geometries. CAM is shown to be competitive with other global optimization techniques for several benchmark molecular conformation problem. CAM is a general method that can also be applied to other computational problems involving global minima, global maxima or finding the roots of nonlinear equations.

Construction of aggregation operators for automated decision making via optimal interpolation and global optimization

This paper examines methods of point wise construction of aggregation operators via optimal interpolation. It is shown that several types of application-specific requirements lead to interpolatory type constraints on the aggregation function. These constraints are translated into global optimization problems, which are the focus of this paper. We present several methods of reduction of the number of variables, and formulate suitable numerical algorithms based on Lipschitz optimization.

Effectiveness of staff training programs to manage behavioural problems of dementia

Purpose : Behavioural problems among older people with dementia are a major concern in nursing homes. This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of staff training programs on both staff and residents.
Methodology : Two programs (standard dementia care, individualised behaviour therapy) were compared to a control condition. A total of 90 staff and 113 aged care residents participated in the study.
Findings: The results demonstrated an improvement in the self-efficacy of staff who received either training program at post-intervention, and at three- and six-month follow-up. Facility managers also rated an improvement in the performance of staff who received behaviour therapy at post-intervention and at follow-up. There were no changes in behaviours or quality of life for residents in any group.
Implications: Staff education programs may not assist in the management of behavioural symptoms of dementia, but can improve staff attitudes. Other explanations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Overseas Chinese as expatriate managers in China: is their recruitment a solution to cross-cultural management problems for multinationals operating in China?

This paper examines the issue of diversity in Chinese identity and how it impacts on the operations of multinationals in China who recruit Overseas Chinese to handle cross-cultural issues. China’s rapid economic development and entry into the World Trade Organization in 2001 made her a formidable player in the global economy and direct foreign investment surged. Yet it is acknowledged that for the foreign investor in China, cross-cultural issues create difficulty at every level, from the interpersonal level relating to communication and negotiation, to the organizational level relating to decision making, human resource management practices, corporate legal institutions and liaison with government institutions. Western multinationals have considered the advantages of posting Overseas Chinese from Southeast Asian countries, Taiwan and Hong Kong to their China operations as a solution to cross-cultural management issues. But has this policy been successful? In terms of language expertise this would seem to be a good strategy, yet organizational case material contradicts this in reality. Overseas Chinese, while sharing some elements of Chinese culture with mainland Chinese, the Confucian heritage and other aspects such as language and diet, nevertheless have different world views and values and behave differently from mainland Chinese in areas critical to business management. As a survival strategy, Overseas Chinese have often developed dual identities which operate simultaneously. For political and historical reasons, many of them have had to adapt to the local culture of their country of citizenship or even hide their own ethnicity in order to survive. On the other hand, the mainland Chinese are different in that their behaviour has only had to be Chinese, but overlaid with this has been the experience of participating in a communist political environment for decades, which has left its mark on mainland Chinese culture. On the basis of their different historical experiences, in the current business environment in China, cultural confusion, difficulty and conflict may occur for the Overseas Chinese.

This paper focuses attention on the subtle cultural differences between the Overseas Chinese and mainland Chinese in an organizational context. This problem has yet to be researched in depth within international business and international management studies. It provides evidence that Overseas Chinese are not often favoured by the local Chinese. It gives insights on how to manage the local Chinese for foreign multinationals operating in China.

Early detection of emotional and behavioural problems in children with diabetes: the validity of the child health questionnaire as a screening instrument

Aims: To assess the validity of the Child Health Questionnaire (CHQ) as a screening tool for detecting 'at risk' emotional and behavioural  maladjustment in children with diabetes, using the Behaviour Assessment System for Children (BASC) as a gold standard measure. Methods: CHQ and BASC were administered to 103 parents of children with Type 1 diabetes, aged 7–12 years. Sub-scales of the two measures were compared using Pearson's bivariate correlations. CHQ sensitivity and specificity cut-points were optimized against the BASC borderline category using receiver operating characteristic curves. Results: The BASC Externalizing Problems scale correlated strongly with CHQ Behaviour, Global Behaviour, Mental Health, Family Activities and Family Cohesion scales (r-values −0.68, −0.54, −0.51, −0.59, and −0.42, respectively). BASC Internalizing Problems scale correlated strongly with CHQ Behaviour, Mental Health and Family Cohesion scales (r-values −0.40, −0.43 and −0.45, respectively). Using receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, the CHQ Mental Health scale most effectively identified children classified as borderline on the BASC Internalizing Problems scale (sensitivity 87%, specificity 78%), while the CHQ Global Behaviour scale most effectively identified children classified as borderline on the BASC Externalizing Problems scale (sensitivity 73%, specificity 82%). Conclusions: Significant correlations were seen between the CHQ Global Behaviour and Mental Health scales and the BASC Externalizing and Internalizing scales, respectively. Sequential use of the CHQ, as a screening tool, followed by an established mental health measure such as the BASC, may help identify children with diabetes 'at risk' for chronic maladjustment and poor health outcomes.