Thursday, October 31, 2019

Choose from the list of topics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Choose from the list of topics - Essay Example Just because a behavior is unusual to some, does not make it unusual to others. For example, Catholics can choose to attend their religious services once a week, not at all or every day, depending on the neighborhood in which they leave. While it might seem unusual to some to want to go to church every day, are they hurting anyone? As a Muslim, I am required by my faith to pray five times a day. May I choose to pray more? Of course I may, but if I were to pull out my prayer mat and pray more than five times a day, I may be seen as unusual. That does not, however, mean that I need to be treated for a religious disorder, because I am not harming myself. I can also pray more than five times a day while conducting my daily life without much interruption. Since unusual religious behavior is a rather broad term, I have used rather broad examples above. However, there are religious behaviors that are not only unusual, but harmful to a person physically and mentally. In some religions, there is a consumption of alcohol. If a person felt that by drinking the alcohol that was served until it was gone, they would become closer to their God, then this is a behavior that would not only be considered unusual but also harmful. Alcohol poisoning, drunkenness, and other factors must be taken in play. Another example to consider is a person who feels that they cannot and should not leave their house of worship, for any reason. A person that feels that only within those walls were they safe from death, fear, destruction, sickness, or any other factors. This, clearly, is not only unusual harmful mentally but also impedes living of their daily life, and therefore, the root cause of this behavior must be treated psychologically so that this person may resume their daily life. Temptation is, by its very nature, all around us. Every day we face temptation in varying degrees. Evil is all around us, and tries to tempt us into making the wrong decision; by being strong, we avoid the evil actions. We cannot, however, avoid the evil or blasphemous thoughts, from wishing the person that just cut off our car on the freeway would crash to glancing twice at the person that looks just a little bit better-looking than our significant other. Normal religious behavior is to accept the guilt for these actions and ask for forgiveness, after which we are forgiven and can go on about our daily lives until the next temptation pops up in our face. A person that feels that they must pray for forgiveness, even out in public, for the transgressions that have occurred should not be considered unusual, as they are simply practicing their faith and quietly asking for forgiveness. However, if a person was praying constantly, excessively, refusing to stop and wracked with guilt over the slightest transgression, that would be both harmful to them as well as prohibit them from living their daily life. They should then be treated for a religious disorder. Along those same lines, if a person felt that they were doomed to hell, becoming depressed and despondent because of what they saw as the many numerous transgressions that they had committed, they should be treated for a religious disorder. They have become a danger to themselves, sinking into deep depression and unable to live their daily lives as they are constantly dwelling on these so-called transgressions and what they see as a need for forgiveness. Persons in this state

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Organic vs Non-Organic Essay Example for Free

Organic vs Non-Organic Essay What should I eat? That is the question on millions of American minds in the recent years. For years we have fallen for hype, forgoing one food type in favor of another, only to hear months or years later were doing it all wrong. More recently, the nations attention has turned to organic foods in our quest to eat healthy, get slim and live a long and active life. Pesticides, websites and newspapers warn, are leading to an unhealthy America. The use of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, otherwise known as DDT, is brought up time and time again. Prior to 1973, the use of DDT was widespread and our main weapon against the war on pests. We now know the use of DDT led to massive effects on wildlife and humans (DDT- a Brief History, 2012). Who’s to say one of the many other pesticides and insecticides we spray today won’t take a similar turn down the road, articles ask? While it’s true any pesticide we use in traditional farming can lead to health problems in humans if consistently exposed, safeguards are put in place and testing is standardized by the United States government to prevent illness and death from the foods we eat. The same cannot be said about organic produce and meat. Organic foods do not have to withstand the same amount of rigorous testing as non-organic and what testing does take place is not even standardized (Tenser, 2013). This can lead to an increased threat of health problems for those who thought they were making the healthier choice. Studies have shown there is no real significant advantage, health wise, in choosing organic over non-organic and that label, and the higher price that accompanies, might not actually be worth it. Proponents of organic foods say they are free from pesticides and hormones used by companies to produce larger animals faster, thus leading to increased profits. Several of the pesticides used today have come under scrutiny of regulatory agencies. More of the vitamins and complex micro nutrients our bodies need to survive are retained when synthetic pesticides are not used. Using natural and biological pest control, organic foods are safer and a healthier alternative to commercialized fruits and vegetables. In actuality, it’s all a myth. There is no organic product on the market today that is free of synthetic pesticides. Over the years, the soil has retained some of the pesticide runoff, which keeps all foods today from being completely free of chemicals (Hom, 1992). The increase in manure usage that accompanies the shunning of synthetic fertilizers leads to an increased risk of E. coli and Salmonella outbreaks (Griswald, 2013, p. 1). This is because manure consists of a greater amount of bacteria and its use runs the risk of cross contamination. The rise in organic farming has led to many of the food borne illnesses that plagued much of the 2000s. The use of hormones is grossly overstated; commercial chicken is not injected with hormones, contrary to what organic food suppliers want you to believe. The use of hormones does nothing to help the chicken become larger or grow faster. Hormone use would simply be a waste of money since no profit is gained from it (Poultry Housing Tips, 2012). In regards to the argument fruits and vegetables grown organically have more of the vitamins and nutrients retained in them, this is true, however a person focused on a well-rounded and healthy diet has no fear of missing certain nutrients their body needs. Not to mention, often times a scrubbing of soap and water cleans off all pesticide residue from any fruits and vegetables you are going to enjoy. If you can afford them, buy them, recommends New York University professor Marion Nestle, PhD (Zelman, n. d. ). Spending a few dollars more for that organic chicken will save mountains of hospital bills down the road, organic food marketers say. Consumers of organic foods spend on average $4000 more a year, convinced the extra expenditure is well worth it in the long run. Also, by spending more, youre told you’re helping save the environment; by not using synthetic pesticides the soil and streams cannot be contaminated. It is true a lean toward more organic farming leads to a more stable growing environment and an increase of local food production (Berger, 2013, p. 1). Still, organic foods are often trucked across state lines to groceries throughout the country. What the use of natural agents saves environmentally is canceled out by the exhaust spewed into the atmosphere and the fossil fuels used during the journey. The cost of organic foods is just not worth the payout. There have been many studies showing there is no real health benefit to eating organic foods (Watson, 2008). Fruits such as bananas and oranges and vegetables such as peas are not eaten whole; they require peeling which means they require less pesticide, meaning the higher price tag on the organic bananas just aren’t worth it. And as the price of organics rises, organics are seen as a status symbol, an â€Å"elitist stratification. † Organic food marketers capitalize on the class divide, marketing organics as a way to lead the beautiful, healthy life of the wealthy. They stress organics are healthier, better, worth the cost (Sprague, 2013, p 1). This is just simply not the case. A well rounded diet is all anyone needs to stay healthy and lead an active life. With this in mind, the higher price tag is just not worth the hype. It has been shown time and time again that organic foods do not have a greater health benefit compared to commercial foods. The label doesnt justify breaking the bank. A well rounded diet is just as beneficial to a healthy society, with or without the use of synthetic pesticides. Organic foods are not the guiding light they claim to be. There is one tried and true method to end most health concerns. Eat a varied diet. Getting all the vitamins and nutrition you need is up to you, not up to a label. References Berger, A. (2013). Organic foods are a healthier alternative. In Points of view reference center (p. 2). Retrieved from http://web. ebscohost. com. proxy. devry. edu/pov/ detail? sid=9b34ea84-d9c3-4c4a-8cf5- 2fe5b8ae172f%40sessionmgr112vid=1hid=113bda ta=JnNpdGU9cG92LWxpdmU%3d#db=pwhAN=43286303 DDT- A brief history and status. (2012, May 9). Retrieved May 25, 2013, from http://www. epa. gov/pesticides/factsheets/chemicals/ddt-brief-history-status. htm Griswald, A. (2013). Organic food: Overview. In Points of view reference center (p. 1). Retrieved from http://web. ebscohost. com. proxy. devry. edu/pov/ detail? sid=e32326f0-2d1a-4489-9176-71e40074d5be%40sessionmgr113vid=1hid=113bda ta=JnNpdGU9cG92LWxpdmU%3d#db=pwhAN=43286302 Hom, L. (1992). About organic produce. Retrieved May 25, 2013, from http://www. ocf. berkeley. edu/~lhom/organictext. html Poultry housing tips. (2012, April). Retrieved May 25, 2013, from The University of Georgia website: http://www. poultryventilation. com/sites/default/files/ tips/2012/vol24n4. pdf Sprague, N. (2013). Organic food is unnecessary and the current food.

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Role of Information Technology in Business

Role of Information Technology in Business Question 1: What is a system?  A set of detailed methods, procedures, and procedures were created to carry out a specific activity, to perform a duty, or to solve a problem. An organized, purposeful structure consisting of interconnected and interdependent elements (components, entities, factors, members, parts, etc.). These elements are constantly interacting with each other to maintain their activity and the existence of the system, in order to achieve the goal of the system. What is Systems Theory: System theory and system science is multidisciplinary research system in general, and found the target mode, and illustrate that it is possible from various fields of research can be discerned, and in all the nesting level is applicable to all types of systems are in principle. It can be considered as a specialized system of thinking or for the goal of system science and system engineering. The focus is on general purpose in a wide range of systems (specific models with individual areas) that are useful. Who developed Systems Theoryà ¯Ã‚ ¼Ã… ¡Theoretical biologist L.V. Bertalanffy (L.Von.Bertalanffy) was founded. He put forward the theory of open system in 1932, and put forward the idea of system theory. In 1937, the principle of general system theory was put forward, which laid the theoretical foundation of this science. Question 2 Identify FOUR different types of Information Systems used in business organization: Transaction Processing Systems: Transaction processing systems meet the data collection, storage, processing and outputting functionalities for the core operations of a business. Customer Relationship Management Systems: Business owners use customer relationship systems to synchronize sales and marketing efforts. CRM systems accumulate and track customer activities, including purchasing trends, product defects and customer inquiries. Business Intelligence Systems: Business intelligence systems can be complex as they identify, extract and analyze data for various operational needs, particularly for decision-making purposes. BIS information systems may provide analyses that predict future sales patterns, summarize current costs and forecast sales revenues. Knowledge Management Systems: Knowledge management systems organize and dissect knowledge and then redistribute or share it with individuals of an organization. The purpose of these information systems is to bring innovation, improve performance, bring integration and retain knowledge within the organization. Question 3 Choose any three type of information Systems identified earlier and describe them: Describe the concept of each system and also draw a symbolic representation wherever possible Transaction Processing Systems: Transaction Processing Systems also known as sales information system, provide to the personnel system, is on business processes for the support of information system can provide a powerful tool support for a job to complete. For example, ERP system, we can be seen as a typical business processing system, it can be related to the production, procurement and other business links, based on some functional modules to provide a good support. Customer Relationship Management Systems : relationship management (CRM) is an approach to managing a companys interaction with current and potential future customers. The CRM approach tries to analyse data about customers history with a company, to improve business relationships with customers, specifically focusing on customer retention, and ultimately to drive sales growth. MIS are built on the data provided by Transaction Processing system.   Ã‚   It generally manages the internal files and summarizing. The level of management in MIS is mid level; those are responsible for the processing of further processes to the higher management. Business Intelligence Systems: Business intelligence (BI) can be described as a set of techniques and tools for the acquisition and transformation of raw data into meaningful and useful information for business analysis purposes.The term data surfacing is also more often associated with BI functionality. The integration of documents, records, collection of knowledge and its retrieval are included in this system. Knowledge Management Systems: Knowledge management (KM) is the process of capturing, developing, sharing, and effectively using organizational knowledge. It refers to a multi-disciplinary approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge. This usually provided by the front staff or accounting management team, which provide the key data required to support the operation. Task 2 Question 1 : Identify and explain the purpose and function s of any one computer application most commonly used in any type of business organisation. Microsoft office products: It can do all the accounting steps for the purpose of Excel. It can perform all the accounting calculations is the function of excel. Question 2: Identify and explain the purpose and functions of any one computer application used in any common functional area within a sub-system of a business organisation. Office Microsoft is a set of office software package based on Windows operating system developed by Microsoft Corp. Commonly used components are Word, Excel, Access, Power point, FrontPage, etc. Office Word Microsoft is a text file Office Access Microsoft is done in the database Office Excel Microsoft is done with tables and data processing Office Outlook Microsoft is to send and receive mail Office PowerPoint Microsoft is making a slide. I think the Microsoft office make us easy to manage something important. And It is very user-friendly, can record some useful data whenever and wherever possible. Question 3 : Identify and explain the purpose and functions of any two computer applications uniquely used for different types of businesses. Answer: Kakaotalk: Kakao Talk is a Chinese from South Korea by the second largest shareholder of the Tencent (It is a Chinese company) as a free chat software, similar to WeChats QQ chat software, applications for iPhone, Android, WP, blackberry and other smart mobile phone communication. The application to the actual phone number to manage friends, with the push notification service, to quickly send and receive information among friends and colleagues as well as pictures, voice intercom. Similar to the domestic QQ, even if friends are not online, friends can also receive your talk kakao messages, just like texting. Skype:Skype is an instant messaging software, which has the function of IM, such as video chat, multiplayer voice conferencing, multiplayer chat, transfer files, text chat and other functions. It can be free of high clear voice dialogue with other users, you can also call the domestic international telephone, either a fixed telephone or mobile phone can be directly dialed, and can achieve call transfer, SMS and other functions. Difference: Now Skype network phone is very mature, good quality and good, the charge is reasonable, let a person without charges of worry , and it is very easy to use. Kakaotalk is good but some old people cannot use it very well. Question 4: Explain the effects of information technology on business systems in terms of benefits and costs. (a) The following two one off benefits of adopting information technology: The delivery of products and services will be timely and effective. Peoples mistakes will be reduced, and the cost will be reduced. (b) The following two ongoing benefits of adopting information technology: This technique can be repeated using more than one purpose, so there will be a large number of uses. Make this technology can save money in the stock holding area. (c) The following two ongoing costs of adopting Information Technology: Upgrade operating system time cost. The company and the service cost paid to the user. (d) The following two one off costs of adopting information technology: Information systems play an important role in a company or an organization. The cost of each character is different. As an information system of a company, in order to promote their company or provide some online platform for their customers, so it costs more money.There are also some software required to pay. Task 3 Answer A DATA: Data is a collection of specific contextual information, as well as in a business organization, for the maintenance of a specific object data, and information workers. .There are THREE types of data. These are as follows: Primary Data: it is first-hand information which we collect by ourselves. Secondary Data: This data is second hand or it is collected from third party Quantitative and qualitative data: Qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis should be unified, complement each other, qualitative analysis is the basic premise of quantitative analysis and qualitative not quantitative is a blind, no value for quantitative; quantitative analysis to qualitative analysis more scientific and accurate, it can make qualitative analysis of the extensive and in-depth conclusions. Answer B Information: Information can be defined as an organized form of the original data set, in the organization of information plays a very important role in the decision. Example of three different type of information: Inspections: It can be defined as a collection of raw data for a particular thing, to prove things to a decision-making layer. Research: A collection of data in a particular field or discipline. Survey: It is the simplest way to gather information. Question 2: The three sources where information can be gathered:- 1 social survey Social survey is an important means to obtain real and reliable information. Social survey refers to the use of observation, inquiry and other methods directly from the community to understand the situation, the activities of the collection of data and data. 2 build intelligence network Management activities require accurate information, comprehensive, timely. In order to achieve such a request by a single channel to collect information is far from enough. Especially administration and government decision-making. Therefore, it is necessary to collect information in various way, that is to establish the information network of information collection. 3 development of strategic intelligence Strategic intelligence is designed for high-level decision-makers, only for high-level decision-makers to use more strategic information than general administrative information. Question 3: Threats to DATA: (1)Security of Data There are three threats that make our information be not safe: Malware: Its like a malicious software that is designed to get access to a computer without the owners consent. Malicious software is not the same as defective software, but it has a legitimate purpose, but contain harmful errors Hackers: If the system is not well protected, then the hacker can easily access the file without the owners permission. Even if they can copy or delete files. Such a person is called a hacker. In a business environment, because there is a huge network, so hackers can easily break down the system Virus: It may be considered a software designed to disrupt or stop the systems work. It can be through a system to another, it can also enter the system through email, Internet, flash drive and other accessories (2)Integrity of data The three threats to integrity of data are mentioned below : Software Attacks Human Errors Natural Disasters A) software attack is the most common threat today, resulting in the change of data or information is disclosed. B) error in the input data Natural disasters are also responsible for it. For example: earthquakes, floods, fires, volcanoes, tsunamis, etc. Question 4: Answer A HR Admin: A human resource management role is the combination of management and human resource It is also known as human resources and personnel It will be to the organization from the organization department to the Department and our own background and talents Finance: Under the conditions of certainty and uncertainty, with the passage of time, the distribution of assets and liabilities is a field. Sales: A sales is the exchange of a commodity for money or service in return for money or the action of selling something. Answer B There are three types of data related with above three sub-systems: Finance related data: There are number of finance data that specialized in sending and collecting the data to traders and investors. Sales data: All the data used in sales is known as the sales data Like the Web server log, Internet streaming data.Usually at the time of sale, these data are referred to as big data HR ARD The administrator stores data in a place known as the database administrator. Task 4 Quention1 Answer A Principle of Perception Principle of Reputation Principle of leadership [B] Objectives of Principle There is a verb in Chinese: A great company needs a great leader. But to be a great leader is to learn from the past, look into the future, and look to the future. The companys reputation is one of its most valuable assets and needs to be protected. A company that manages their market perception has achieved great success. Question 2 A: Three planning and control system used in business. 1. Multi-mode manufacturing applications: It includes planning, production scheduling 2. Supply Chain Management applications: It includes sale performance, purchasing, promotion, inventory management and forecast 3. Configurable enterprise financials: It also includes accounts receivable and payable. Answer B The financial allocation of enterprise plays a very important role in the enterprise, which includes all the data and records.It retains all accounts receivable, accounts payable and account payable record The relationship between strategic planning for multi-mode and product manufacturing application Therefore, in every business, management strategy and plan is a multi-part of manufacturing mode

Friday, October 25, 2019

Comparing The Murder of Duncan in Macbeth and The Assassination of Kennedy :: comparison compare contrast essays

Comparing The Murder of Duncan in Macbeth and The Assassination of Kennedy There is a man who is a head of state. He is a very powerful man and is well liked by his subjects. The people love him. Then he is suddenly, inexplicably murdered. Someone is blamed for the murder, but the entire country knows the accused are innocent and are tools used in a cover-up. Does this situation sound bizarre? Does it sound like some work of fiction? Well, it is. It is the beginning of William Shakespeare's Macbeth. However, it is much more than that. It is real life. It is the circumstances that surrounded one of the most surreal periods of time in United States history. It is the situation surrounding the assassination of one of the US's most revered Presidents, John F. Kennedy. These circumstances suggest that the events which occur in the play Macbeth are still possible. It is possible for the circumstances surrounding Macbeth to be repeated in modern day America because no protection provides absolute safety, some men are still willing to do what Macbeth did, and the ac t could still be covered up. No amount of protection provides absolute safety. In today's world, it is easier than ever to kill someone. Any person can buy a cheap pistol and kill someone. It is also easier to kill without being caught. There are long range rifles and remote control explosives that can be used as the murder weapon while the actual perpetrator is far away. Also, it is easier than ever to find a professional assassin who will kill anyone for the right amount of money. These latter methods could allow a person to commit murder and easily get away with it. Even though the actual murderer may be caught, the person financing the operation could get away untouched. In Macbeth, Duncan was well protected by his guards. However, he was still murdered. The guards were overcome through a simple trick. "The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugged their possets..." says Lady Macbeth. She had drugged their drinks, and instead of guarding Duncan, they were asleep. Macbeth was easily able to sneak past them and kill Duncan. Every precaution available had been taken to insure Duncan's protection. It is not an easy task to get past two armed bodyguards in a cramped area. However, through some deceit, Macbeth was able to accomplish this. This reaffirms the statement that no protection is absolute. Perhaps the best example that no protection is infallible occurs in the

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Explain How the Solow Growth Model Would Analyse the Effects of a Fall in the Household Saving Ratio

In this essay, I will focus on two important aspects. The first is to give a brief historical outline of the Solow growth model. The second thread runs express how the outline on the Solow growth model might explain the effect of a fall in the household savings ratio. My essay will be guided by the diagram provided on which I have to make specific references and to think through as well as explain the various steps of the Solow growth model and what this would mean for economic growth. Without dismissing earlier attempts, the foundations upon which modern economic growth theory rests on the foundations put by US economist Robert Solow (1924-) in the 1950s and 1960s. The Solow growth model is very neoclassic in that it focuses primarily on the supply side. The Solow model seems to implicitly assume that, as long as the supply of goods increases, economic growth can be attained. In this way it is apparently different from Keynesian models of which focus is on the demand side of the economy such as inflation and unemployment. One of the major central reason by Solow to come up with the Solow model came from the desire to know what happens in the long run to an economy in which capital accumulation is taking place. In pursuit of an answer to this question Solow came up with a degree of mathematical and analytical work. Solow pursued a model of an economy in which one has a single good that can be consumed or invested, and he says the total output in the economy Y to the total labour supply L and the stock of physical capital K. When Solow talked of physical capital he meant things like machinery, buildings, equipment, things used by labour to make products. The aggregate measurement of output is symbolised by (Y), labour (L) and capital (K). This means that Y,L and K are variables describing the whole economy. The Solow growth model tells us that in the long term, the development of a closed economy will remain at a steady state, where there is no more growth. In figure 2, the economy has settled down in point E. Here, the fraction of an average worker output that is being saved, equals the average required investment to account for the depreciation and decay. This being achieved with k1 amount of capital per worker, the economy produces an output of y1 per worker, the economy produces an output of y1 per worker. A sudden fall in the household saving ratio to s*< s leads to negative net investments F minus E: workers only save a fraction s* of still the same y1, and therefore there is not enough being saved in the economy to be able to finance the decay of the capital stock at k1. As the level k1 cannot be retained by the average worker which is (negative net investments), the output per worker y has to start to decrease. In a dynamic process, the economy will move along the curve y=f(k), that means the amount of output per worker y will decrease, until it settles at a new steady state, where the net invstements equal zero. This being achieved at point E*, the resulting capital intensity is k*, with which an output of y* can be produced with y* being smaller than y1. In other words, a fall in the household ratio leads to a decrease of the amount of capital stock, a closed economy is able to to retain in the long term. The decay in the existing capital stock cannot anymore be completely replaced by investments, as there is not enough money being saved in the economy due to the fall in the household saving ratio. These resulting negative net investments will force the economy to decrease its output to the level y*. Only here, the amount being saved in the economy can again replace the complete decaying capital stock, which means the economy settles at a new long term equilibrium, a new steady state. The fall in the household saving ratio has therefore reduced the productivity of the average worker in the economy. PART B How far do models of corporation and bargaining alter our understanding of the potential for corporation between states. In this essay, I will focus myself on two models of cooperation and bargaining. The first model is called realism and its thrust is to say that the international political systems as a whole is anarchic in so far as there is no world government but what exists are multiple competing sovereigns. In terms of cooperation and bargaining between states realism poses real challenges to interdependence and specialisation. The second model is called liberalism and like realism it begins by acknowledging that the system is of course anarchic but it goes a bit further to argue that the interests that states seek to pursue in conditions of anarchy are shaped very much by the nature of the society, domestic, and transnational over which they seek to rule and particularly liberals stress the role of dominant powerful groups within society in shaping the nature of the national interests and this is clearly illustrated in a story about the development of India`s national interest in chapter 6. The fundamental difference between the two models is that liberalism says it is not just anarchy plus the distribution of power, it`s anarchy, and the distribution of power plus interdependence. The prospects for cooperation between states under conditions of both anarchy and interdependence bring to fore three aspects of the game. The first, the game is positive-sum when states are concerned purely with their absolute gains but the chance for bargaining and cooperation to mutual advantage are real and if the positive-sum is changed negatively it results in zero-sum games in which neither will be prepared to move from the original position hence blocking cooperation. The third is when states care about both their absolute gains and their relative positions giving us an indeterminate outcome and it very much depends on how the nations weigh the one against the other. In answering the question topic therefore, I am diving into a web of complexity. The realists`philosophical thrust claims that in an anarchic system, what then differentiates states are rather their capabilities as compared to their functions. In short it is the power of states, not their common purposes (survival), that differentiates one international political system from another (Bromley, 2004 p113) In the Realist mode therefore, the state will seek to avoid as necessary as possible forms of interdependence that create vulnerability in relation to issues of security, so they will avoid all forms of subordination with relation to other states in terms of power, since the superior power of some may also threaten the security of the weak. An example in our world today could be United States with the killing of Osama Bin Laden, where the US Navy SEALS are accused of transgression and trespassing into Pakistan without sovereign rights. In just some few words one could say that the international political systems between and among states according to realists comprise an anarchy of similar, competing political authorities in which each strives to maintain or improve its relative power base. Mexico epitomises this concept in the 1910 revolution and the subsequent creation of the PRI in 1929 which fostered a strong nationalistic ideology geared toward maintaining the independence of the country from foreign economic and political influences. Having outlined in short the essence of realist philosophy, there is need therefore, to ask what implications does this realist thinking have on cooperation and bargaining between states? The realist thinking has very essential implications in the fact that cooperation between states have to be severely limited even with big organisations like WTO because what should be avoided at all costs are dependencies. Even if there are benefits that accrue from cooperation with another state, you simply cannot depend on another country since this can create vulnerabilities lets say in cases of diplomatic fallout or cases of war. Another recent example is the treacherous diplomatic fallout between United Kingdom and Malawi with consequences on bilateral relations and especially the impact it will have on a largely dependent country Malawi. That limits considerably the scope for cooperation. According to Huysmans the other element that restrict cooperation between states, or even regional blocks in this case, sometimes like the European Union, â€Å"they are not calculating primarily their benefits from cooperation in terms of what they would gain in comparison to their major competitors, because what matters is not how much richer I become as a state, what matters is how much richer I become as a state compared to you, because then I`m more powerful, can translate to military power, economic power and so on† (Huysmans, Audio CD, 2010) In short state actors have to guarantee their own self-preservation, that is to say individuals in a state of nature or states in an anarchic international system will not willingly cooperate if the result is an increase in vulnerabilities and/ or decrease in relative power. Paul Hirst, a sociologist and political theorist served a blow to to realists`arguments by going against the view that sovereign control of territory is forged purely internally by arguing that states need to interact in the anarchic realm of international politics with other states. The achievement of sovereignty therefore, is at least partly the product of agreements between states in the form of recognition of each others`sovereign rights (Bromley 2004, p120) In this case therefore one dependents on the other. This then is the best chance to bring into play liberalism which argues that what we need to look at is the way in which the different national interests of states, that are shaped by the societies over which they rule, are configured together when put together at an international system. What we have are states all interacting with one another, all chasing national interests, as defined by their dominant groups, and those interests configure in different ways sometimes states interests are conflictual, sometimes cooperative and at some points mutually beneficial. Trade liberalisation is an example where arguably, the interests of states that are mutually engaging in trade liberalisation are not in conflict. They can both benefit from trade. States may come to view their position in relation to the others in a much more absolute terms and as a consequence of that, with full understanding of the fact that the structure of international system is interdependent as well as anarchic, enduring cooperation is at least a possibility. The states according to Bromley face an environment of what is called â€Å"strategic inter-dependence† to mean the strategies that one can champion are conditioned by their anticipation of the strategies that others will pursue (Bromley CD 2010). Unlike, the realists, the assumption is that when states`interests interact internationally, it is not always the case that states will focus on their position or be worried about dependence, and the argument pursued is that security is only one value among others, that security will be balanced alongside other considerations like economic welfare, promotion of cultural values, or whatever. In this regard Mexico is a perfect example, in so far as Mexico joined NAFTA, not worrying so much about its position vis-a-vis its dominant neighbour, the United States but increasingly focusing on the absolute gains that Mexico might make through those policies. Chapter 9, says states sometimes interact in positive-sum ways, meaning when they interact they both gain from cooperation and bargaining, sometimes they interact in ways that are zero-sum; if I gain you lose or otherwise it is negative-sum in which both sides lose. The realists model that Jef outlines seems to advocate or assume that all cooperation because they are relative ains, are zero-sum; if I gain you lose but according to liberal thinking there are situations when it is a win-win situation (Bromley CD 2010) The Liberal model also argues that there are many situations where mutual dependence does not imply vulnerability vis-a-vis security or even worry about their relative position vis-a-vis other states and an example could be that as a country, we can come to define our national interest in terms, not of how we are progressing vis-a-vis another country but how we are coping vis-a-vis last year, focused only on our growth rate. The core claim of liberal model is that once you recognise the strategic nature of interdependence and once you recognise that the national interest is socially shaped by society and not just deriving from your position in the state system, then the possibilities of cooperation are far much greater. Concluding remarks draws three general conclusions, the game is positive-sum if states are geared solely with their absolute gains, there is chance for co-operative bargaining to mutual advantage. Anarchy is no danger to cooperation in this world. Secondly, if states evaluate their positions purely in relation to others, then all games even positive-sum ones are turned to zero-sum ones where neither will be prepared to move away from the original thereby blocking cooperation as was seen between the superpowers during the Cold War. Thirdly, when states care about their absolute gains and their relative positions, the outcome is indeterminate and depends on how they weigh the one against the other. If relative considerations do not weigh too heavily in their calculations, states may still find themselves in a positive-sum game.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Free Essays on Diamonds On The Inside

When you live in a small town, you often find that your life is being dissected, piece by piece, by the community. In high school, I was in what one would call the â€Å"cool† or popular crowd. I wore whatever name brand clothes were popular at the time; I only hung out with the coolest people and of course, I only dated guys from inside our little clique. I was named Class Favorite all 4 years and was also on Homecoming Court my senior year. Life, in a teenager’s life, was good. Yet, as we all know, no one can be happy when living in a cookie cutter type world. Our community had set forth this mold on who we should be and what we should act like. For the majority of my clique, we were the first ones at church on Sunday, never missing a day of Sunday school. Yet we were also the drunkest ones at Prom and Homecomings. We held offices in our school Y-Club and would talk about how we only wanted the best in our clubs. We were supposed leaders in our school, yet when I look back now, I’m kind of glad nobody followed too much. To other students in our high school, our clique had certain things to live up to. We were to have the hottest guys and the prettiest girls in our clique and everyone was supposed to drive the nicest cars. At dances, we all had to have the best clothes and get the drunkest and at school we were to have the best grades. That was their mold for us, and our purpose was to fill the mold. To parents and member in our community, we had a simple job. We were to be the smartest, most Christian, best looking, and the friendliest people. This is how they wanted us to be and this is how we tried to be. It was like they were reliving their high school lives through us. We were just like puppets and the community and our fellow students held the strings, whether knowing it or not. At my school, we had 2 separate dances. There was the Black Prom and the White Prom. Some people ... Free Essays on Diamonds On The Inside Free Essays on Diamonds On The Inside When you live in a small town, you often find that your life is being dissected, piece by piece, by the community. In high school, I was in what one would call the â€Å"cool† or popular crowd. I wore whatever name brand clothes were popular at the time; I only hung out with the coolest people and of course, I only dated guys from inside our little clique. I was named Class Favorite all 4 years and was also on Homecoming Court my senior year. Life, in a teenager’s life, was good. Yet, as we all know, no one can be happy when living in a cookie cutter type world. Our community had set forth this mold on who we should be and what we should act like. For the majority of my clique, we were the first ones at church on Sunday, never missing a day of Sunday school. Yet we were also the drunkest ones at Prom and Homecomings. We held offices in our school Y-Club and would talk about how we only wanted the best in our clubs. We were supposed leaders in our school, yet when I look back now, I’m kind of glad nobody followed too much. To other students in our high school, our clique had certain things to live up to. We were to have the hottest guys and the prettiest girls in our clique and everyone was supposed to drive the nicest cars. At dances, we all had to have the best clothes and get the drunkest and at school we were to have the best grades. That was their mold for us, and our purpose was to fill the mold. To parents and member in our community, we had a simple job. We were to be the smartest, most Christian, best looking, and the friendliest people. This is how they wanted us to be and this is how we tried to be. It was like they were reliving their high school lives through us. We were just like puppets and the community and our fellow students held the strings, whether knowing it or not. At my school, we had 2 separate dances. There was the Black Prom and the White Prom. Some people ...

Monday, October 21, 2019

Biography of Thomas Cole, American Landscape Painter

Biography of Thomas Cole, American Landscape Painter Thomas Cole was the British-born artist who became known for his paintings of American landscapes. He is considered the founder of the Hudson River School of painting, and his influence on other 19th century American painters was profound. Cole’s paintings, and paintings by those he taught, are known to have influenced attitudes toward American expansionism during the 19th century. The glorification of the land and the panoramic views encouraged optimism toward settling the vast lands of the West. Cole, however, had a pessimistic streak which is sometimes indicated in his paintings. Fast Facts: Thomas Cole Known For: Founder of Hudson River School of painters, admired for his majestic landscapes of distinctly American sceneryMovement: Hudson River School (American romantic landscape painting)Born: Bolton-le-Moors, Lancaster, England, 1801Died: February 11, 1848 in Catskill, New YorkParents: Mary and James ColeSpouse: Maria Bartow Early Life and Career Thomas Cole was born in Bolton-le-Moors, Lancaster, England, in 1801. He studied engraving briefly in England before emigrating to America with his family in 1818. The family arrived in Philadelphia and resettled in Steubenville, Ohio, where Coles father established a wallpaper engraving business. After becoming frustrated working in the family business, Cole taught art in a school for a brief period. He also received some painting instruction from a traveling artist, and tried striking out on his own as an itinerant portrait painter. Portrait of Thomas Cole, American painter. Smithsonian Institution / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain Cole realized he needed to be in a city with many potential patrons, and returned to Philadelphia, where he painted portraits and also found work decorating ceramics. He took classes at the Philadelphia Academy and, in 1824, had his first exhibition, which was held at the school. In 1825 Cole moved to New York City, where he began to focus on romantic landscapes, the beautifully lit panoramas that would become his enduring style. After taking a trip up the Hudson River, he painted three landscapes, which were displayed in the window of a Manhattan art store. One of the paintings was purchased by artist John Trumbull, who was widely known for his paintings of the American Revolution. Trumbull recommended that two of his artist friends, William Dunlap and Asher B. Durand, purchase the other two. Trumbull appreciated that Cole had been inspired by the wildness of American scenery, which other artists had seemed to ignore. On Trumbulls recommendation, Cole was welcomed into New York Citys cultural world, where he became acquainted with luminaries such as poet and editor William Cullen Bryant and author James Fenimore Cooper. Travels and Inspiration The success of Cole’s early landscapes established him so he could devote himself to painting full-time. He began to travel in the mountains of New York State and New England after purchasing a house in Catskill, New York. Photograph of Catskill Mountain House, a painting by American landscape artist Thomas Cole. Francis G. Mayer  / Getty Images In 1829 Cole sailed to England on a trip financed by a wealthy patron. He made what was known as the Grand Tour, visiting Paris, and then Italy. He stayed for weeks in Florence before going on to Rome, hiking much of the way. He eventually returned to New York City in 1832, having seen major works of art in Europe and having sketched scenery that would be used as material for landscapes. In 1836 Cole married Maria Barton, whose family lived in Catskill. He settled into a fairly comfortable life as a successful artist. The self-made gentry of the region admired his work and purchased his paintings. Major Works A patron commissioned Cole to paint five panels which would be known as The Course of Empires. The series of canvases essentially predicted what would become known as Manifest Destiny. The images depict an allegorical empire, and proceed from Savage State to Arcadian or Pastoral State. The empire reaches its zenith with the third painting, The Consummation of Empire, and then descends to the fourth painting, Destruction. The series ends with the fifth painting, titled Desolation. Thomas Coles The Course of Empire - Consummation, 1836, oil on canvas, 51 Ãâ€" 76 in, New York Historical Society.   Fine Art / Getty Images During the 1830s, as Cole was painting his Course of Empires series, he was harboring gravely pessimistic thoughts about America, lamenting in his journal that he feared the end of democracy. One of his major paintings, dating from 1836, is titled View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm - The Oxbow. In the painting, a pastoral area is shown along with a portion of untamed wilderness. On close examination, the artist himself can be found in the middle foreground, on a promontory, painting the Oxbow, a bend in the river. In his own painting, Cole looks out over the tamed and orderly land, yet he is located in the wild land which is still darkened from the passing storm. He shows himself in communion with untamed American land, perhaps purposely keeping a distance from the land which has been transformed by human society. View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, After a Thunderstorm The Oxbow.   Getty Images Legacy Interpretations of Coles work have varied over time. On the surface, his works are generally appreciated for their majestic scenes and striking use of light. Yet there are often darker elements present, and many paintings have dark areas which seem to raise questions about the artists intent. Coles paintings show a profound reverence for nature, which can appear idyllic or wild and violent within the boundaries of the same canvas. While still a very active artist, Cole became ill with pleurisy. He died on February 11, 1848. His influence on other American painters was profound. Sources Thomas Cole. Encyclopedia of World Biography, 2nd ed., vol. 4, Gale, 2004, pp. 151-152. Gale Virtual Reference Library.Hudson River School of Painting. American Eras, vol. 5: The Reform Era and Eastern U. S. Development, 1815-1850, Gale, 1997, pp. 38-40. Gale Virtual Reference Library.The Hudson River School and Western Expansion. American Eras, vol. 6: Westward Expansion, 1800-1860, Gale, 1997, pp. 53-54. Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Sunday, October 20, 2019

Definition and Examples of Spin in Propaganda

Definition and Examples of Spin in Propaganda Spin is a contemporary term for a form of propaganda that relies on deceptive methods of persuasion. In politics, business, and elsewhere, spin is often characterized by exaggeration, euphemisms, inaccuracies, half-truths, and excessively emotional appeals. A person who composes and/or communicates spin is referred to as a spin doctor. Examples and Observations I would define spin as the shaping of events to make you look better than anybody else. I think it is . . . an art form now and it gets in the way of the truth.  Ã‚  (Benjamin Bradlee, executive editor of The Washington Post, quoted by Woody Klein in All the Presidents Spokesmen: Spinning the News, White House Press From Franklin D. Roosevelt to George W. Bush. Praeger Publishers, 2008) Manipulating Meaning Often associated with newspapers and politicians, to use spin is to manipulate meaning, to twist truth for particular endsusually with the aim of persuading readers or listeners that things are other than they are. As in idioms such as to put a ‘positive spin on something’or a ‘negative spin on something’one line of meaning is concealed, while anotherat least intentionallytakes its place. Spin is language which, for whatever reason, has designs on us...As the Oxford English Dictionary confirms, this sense of spin emerges only in the later 1970s, originally in the context of American politics.   (Lynda Mugglestone, A Journey Through Spin. OxfordWords Blog, September 12, 2011) Deception We live in a world of spin. It flies at us in the form of misleading commercials for products and political candidates and about public policy matters. It comes from businesses, political leaders, lobbying groups and political parties. Millions are deceived every day†¦all because of spin. ‘Spin’ is the polite word for deception. Spinners mislead by means that range from subtle omission to outright lies. Spin paints a false picture of reality, by bending facts, mischaracterizing the words of others, ignoring or denying evidence, or just spinning a yarnby making things up.  (Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation. Random House, 2007) Spin and Rhetoric The implicit sense of immorality attached to spin and rhetoric leads lawmakers and candidates to use these words to undermine the sincerity of the opposition. As then House Leader Dennis Hastert declared in a 2005 debate over the estate/death tax, You see, no matter what kind of spin our friends on the other side of the aisle try to use, the death tax simply isnt fair...All of this points to an atmosphere of moral ambivalence that surrounds the modern practice of spin and rhetoric. At the level of principle, rhetorical speech is most often seen as disingenuous, inauthentic, and even morally dangerous. Yet at the level of practice, it is often accepted as an inevitable and necessary part of competitive party politics.   (Nathaniel J. Klemp, The Morality of Spin: Virtue and Vice in Political Rhetoric and the Christian Right. Rowman Littlefield, 2012) Managing the News [One] way the government manages the news is by inserting into newscasts prepackaged reports that get their message out or put a positive spin on the news. (Note that the power of government to censor is much greater in many other countries than in the United States and in some other industrial democracies.)  (Nancy Cavender and Howard Kahane, Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric: The Use of Reason in Everyday Life, 11th ed. Wadsworth, 2010) Spin vs. Debate Democrats have been known to conduct their fair share of spin. During the presidential election campaign season of 2004, some liberal Democrats indulged in inflammatory and unsubstantiated attacks on the right by comparing the Bush administration to Nazi Germany, associating the Republican Party with a racist fringe candidate, and allegingwithout evidencethat Bush advisor Karl Rove was the mastermind behind the attacks on John Kerrys war record. These occurrences of manipulative rhetoric [led] one commentator on political spin to conclude that, in the heat of the campaign, reasonable debate is again falling by the wayside.  (Bruce C. Jansson, Becoming an Effective Policy Advocate: From Policy Practice to Social Justice, 6th ed. Brooks/Cole, 2011) Spin Doctors [In a 1998 interview that Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott] gave to the Independent, . . . he said we need to get away from rhetoric and back on to the substance of government. That statement apparently constituted the basis for the Independents headline: Prescott bins the spin for real policies. The spin is an allusion to New Labours spin-doctors, the people responsible for the media presentation of the Government and for putting a media spin (or angle) on its policies and activities.  (Norm Fairclough, New Labour, New Language? Routledge, 2000) Etymology From Old English spinnan, draw, stretch, spin

Saturday, October 19, 2019

Response Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Response Paper - Essay Example The author’s mastery of English composition is facilitated only when he is able â€Å"to create an English self, and be that self†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ (Shen, 95). This involves: exchanging the Chinese Marxist philosophy of collective materialism for English idealism and individuality; discarding the circuitous Chinese pattern of approaching a topic in favor of the direct English ‘topic sentence;’ avoiding Chinese pictorial descriptions instead of English verbal descriptions. This concept of adopting an identity in effective writing also forms the crux of Barbara Mellix’s essay, â€Å"From Outside, In.† Mellix’s essay, â€Å"From Outside, In,† explores her evolution as a writer in terms of an African-American who speaks ‘Black English.’ She effectively relates the complexities that arise from speaking what are essentially two different languages: ‘Black English,’ and ‘Standard English.’ While the former is her own language, which â€Å"bubbled in our throats and rolled across our tongues, a balming† (Mellix, 76), the latter is the â€Å"language of others† (Mellix, 81). Standard English is reserved for special occasions and for formal writing. Learning to speak fluent Standard English is relatively easy for Mellix, but her writing continues to remain mechanical. As she struggles to become proficient in the written language, she is constrained by the difficulty of composing in Standard English: â€Å"I couldn’t think and feel genuinely in that language† (Mellix, 80). Her ultimate mastery of English composition comes about only when she learns to overcome her self-consciousness as a speaker of Black English, and convince herself to confidently assume a rightful place in the culture of Standard English. Fan Shen and Barbara Mellix adopt new, but different, identities for effective English writing. Shen and Mellix both adopt new identities to succeed in Engl ish writing. They agree that proficiency in written English requires the writer to reconcile a dichotomy in identity and â€Å"to assume a culture† (Mellix, 84). Shen must change his ‘Chinese identity’ for an ‘English identity,’ while Mellix must learn to ignore her identity as an African-American who speaks a black vernacular. Both of them must learn to be comfortable in the identities they assume for writing English. Shen’s assumption of his ‘English identity’ requires him to assume individuality, and a direct approach to a topic, while Mellix must learn â€Å"to shut out my black English† (81). Shen and Mellix create new identities and balance them with the old. Both of them accept this new identity as an enriching addition to their personalities. Shen welcomes the change which â€Å"has added a new dimension to me and to my view of the world† (101), while Mellix rejoices in the new ability to discover previously unknown aspects of herself. While Shen and Mellix share the experience of assuming new identities as writers, their concepts of identity differ. Shen’s new identity differs from that of Mellix. Shen keeps his Chinese and English identities distinct and separate, but Mellix blends her old and new selves. For Shen, the

Friday, October 18, 2019

Theories about whether or not virtue can be taught Essay - 93

Theories about whether or not virtue can be taught - Essay Example In the Meno, Socrates states that virtuous and wise people are not very good at imparting these qualities to others. For example, while Themistocles, the Athenian statesman and soldier could teach the skills of shooting javelins and standing upright to his son Cleophantus, no one ever stated about Cleophantus that he was virtuous and wise, and this holds true for Pericles and his sons Xanthippus and Paralus; Lysimachus and Aristides, his son; and Thucydides and his sons Stephanus and Melesias. Since there are apparently no teachers of virtue, it was inferred by Socrates that it is not possible to teach virtue; and since it cannot be taught, virtue cannot be translated as a kind of knowledge. Meno questions that if it is not possible to teach virtue, then how could good men exist? Socrates retorts that Meno and he overlooked that it is possible to execute a right action without knowledge. This can be explained in terms of the quality of guidance offered by two men to Larisa, one of wh om has been there whereas the other just knows about the way and has never actually been to Larisa. Of the two, the one who knows the way to Larisa would serve as a good guide, but so would be the other man who has never been to Larisa. If it is believed that truth as a guide is just as good as the man who is aware of that truth, it implies that a correct opinion is no less good a guide for the correct action than knowledge. In this case, Meno wonders what the factors that distinguish knowledge from correct opinion are, and also asks why should knowledge be preferred over correct opinion or vice versa? Socrates addresses these questions by saying that correct opinions can be interpreted as Daedalus’s statues, who was a highly skilled craftsman and mythological architect. The statues of Daedalus needed to be tied to prevent them from running away. Similarly, it is possible to tie down the correct opinions with the reason whereupon they discontinue being correct opinions and  becoming a form of knowledge.  

World War II Pacific Campaign Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

World War II Pacific Campaign - Essay Example The resultant effect of any war may be positive or negative depending on the actual causes and the main reasons as to the breakout. Positive effects of wars occur if by the end of the specific war, the participant embraces peace on the account of fearing each others’ strength and war capabilities. Sometimes the end of the given war may prove blessing moment for the particular participants especially upon achieving economic stability derived from increased production activities and sales of war equipments to the other participants. The negative effects of any war involve the massive loss of lives of the soldiers participating in the given war. Economy of some of the participating parties may also end up crushing beyond repair, thus marking the error of economic struggle. World War II was one of the magnificent types of war having been fought across all the six world’s continents. The reasons for the outbreak of this war related to the Global economic depression that begu n in 1922, and shook the world’s unity and trust1. The result of the untrustworthy among nations especially in Europe was the fight for economic and military dominancy over the region and world in general. Following the massive destruction witnessed, friendly nations across the world begun to initiate alliances that would enable them fight the common aggressors and attain peace. Attaining this peace took a very long process that saw increased devastation of properties and lives of the conflicting alliances. However, after the long struggle and massive devastation, the world finally achieved the long lasted peace, but leaving behind scars that have never disappeared to date. Fascism defined the benchmark of power organization across the world upon the onset of the World War II. The spirit of fascism first occurred in Italy in 1920, when country was under the rule of Benito Mussolini. This antidemocratic spirit then spread to Germany as embraced by Adolf Hitler, Spain as adopte d by Francisco Franco and Japan under Hideki Tojo. Remaining countries major countries like Britain, France, and Russia and by extension USA opposed fascism. 2The spirit of fascism saw countries like Italy and Germany breaking the initially signed Versailles Treaty intended to limit imperialism of the parties. Japan also being under the military rule, planned to increase its territory across China and elsewhere in the world to consolidate land for its industrial raw materials and market. 3These quests for power saw the world into the WW II, with Germany shaking Europe with great war force. Japan also continued to break through China and some parts of Europe while at the same time killing and torturing innocent citizens. In response to this feud in Europe and desire to restore peace, the Soviet Union lined up with Communists countries in Europe, Britain, France and USA to form the Popular Front. The group mainly comprised of members who condemned fascism and its effects in Europe and world in general. The Popular Front however stumbled upon the official inception of World War II, when France and Britain attacked Germany with USA withdrawing to take a neutral position. In 1940, USA tended to favor and side with Britain after signing pact that would allow USA offer military assistance and supplies to Britain. In 1941 after the US Presidential elections, Presidential elect Roosevelt sensed danger to the US security earmarked by increasing attack on Britain. For this reason, he instituted the Lend-Lease Act that would see USA provide direct assistance to Britain4. After facing severe attacks from Germany, Soviet Union (Russia) also sought for inclusion in the Lend-Lease Act

Transformational Leadership and Risk Taking to Improve Student Essay

Transformational Leadership and Risk Taking to Improve Student Achievement - Essay Example To be successful, schools must develop a clear sense of purpose, strong commitments on the part of their staffs, and productive working relationships with their communities. In a study conducted by Hillard (2009), the effectiveness of professional interactions on teachers and administrators as a faculty group in school improvement practices and educational reform to improve instruction and learning were the main findings of the research. To create long-term solutions for systemic change in a learning environment there was an intense emphasis on practical methods. If leaders focused on previous aspects or formulas, it is considered a reasonable or a practical approach. But conquering today’s difficult problems and ultimately achieving success requires creative leadership (Palus & Horth, 2005). In the case of complex challenges, an organized and a planned approach becomes essential; the alignment of structure paired with energy and support, and a commitment to a mission and visi on comes from creative leadership (Palus & Horth, 2005). The task of change is difficult because of the many variables that contribute to the growth of educational leaders. As stated by Bass (2007), many challenges face the strategic leader who must deal with both the need for continuity and the need for change. In addition to the need for continuity, a strategic leader puts an emphasis on setting direction for the organization. Given the turbulent environments that organizations work within, continuous learning is a key driver of their ability to remain adaptive and flexible - that is, to survive and effectively compete (Zagorsek, Dimovski, and Skerlavai (2009). Creating value and purpose for the organization is an essential part of leadership. However, creating goals and creating value is not enough; the leader must ensure that such change is sustainable. Remaining faithful to the direction set forth by an educational leader is key to the development of his or her staff (Jacobson, Johnson, Ylimaki, & Giles, 2009). Leadership can be related to the interaction between the leader and the follower. However, the numerous facets of such interaction and the intensity of the working relationship influence the outcome – accomplishing the goals set. Effective leadership can be observed when organizations develop all members’ skills and values related to organizational learning (Collinson, 2008). Many l eaders become effective due to the quality of the followers. Some researchers maintain the traditional views of a leader as a taskmaster and as one who relies on situational variables and contingency approaches produced by previous factors that guide their performance (Antelo, Henderson, & St. Clair, 2010). A transformational leader conducts him or herself in ways that are different from the convention or norms; leaders pay more attention to the needs of others, not just as elements of the workplace, but as people (Trapero & de Lozada, 2010). An analysis of the theory of transformational leadership as it relates to new principals from the leadership academy and student achievement will be studied. According to Cowie and Crawford (2008), given the significance of the post of principal and the complex changes in the principal's role in recent years, the extent to which principals’ preparation relates to what is expected of them once they are in post and what it is that they act ually do is critically important. School districts and other educational agencies are dispensing money and manpower in the development of leadership for their organizations. As stated by Barnett and Shore (2009), instead of having to create change efforts, organizations should be built to change. In an attempt to understand what

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Chemistry in Daily Life Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Chemistry in Daily Life - Essay Example This world is made up of matter. We human beings are part of matter as we live in this world. Our body is made up of matter of different kinds. Matter is embedded in everything that contributes to protect our life - right from the food we have to the environment we live in. And, from what we eat to where we live, it is all related to chemistry. The human body thrives on organic compounds like proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, vitamins, etc., and defends itself with enzymes such as catalase, reducing agents such as glutathione and cysteine, and we eat antioxidants such as vitamin C, E and polyphenol, etc.,) as our food to survive. Men in pre-historic age lived by using natural things / materials to a large extent. By the passage of time, man has now learnt to use natural resources to develop things for us as per his needs. Today, there is hardly any area in which Chemistry does not play a critical role in a man's daily life. Toiletries, cosmetic and beautifying products are some other items which are of use in our daily life. There are products like carbolic acids, toothpaste, mouth-fresheners, moisturizers, skin creams, face powders, deodorants, shampoos and soaps which sets off a day in our life. In all these products, lots of chemical ingredients are used. Carbolic acids are used as disinfectants to protect the bathroom and toilets from causing infections and keeping them clean. We start our day early morning by brushing our teeth. We use tooth paste to keep our teeth fresh, shiny and to protect them from decaying. We also use mouth fresheners (liquid) to keep bad breath - Halitosis in scientific term - at bay. Toothpaste includes water (H2O), Glycerol (CH2OH), Dibasic calcium phosphate (CaHPO4), Sodium N-lauroyl sarcosinate, Carrageenan, Fluorides, etc., and some toothpastes even contain salt in their ingredients. Isn't it amazing that there are so many chemical ingredients involved in a small tube of toothpaste! Cosmetic items like moisturizers, skin creams, face powders, deodorants, lipsticks, shampoos and soaps include numerous ingredients like water, emulsifiers, preservatives, thickener, color and fragrance components. A bathing soap may contain chemical additives like caustic soda, citric acid, sodium chloride, mineral oil, scent, etc. Similarly, a detergent soap and powder and dishwasher soap or powder may contain many chemical compositions. Chemistry and food As we enter the kitchen, the main object that stands out is the stove. Most of the kitchen in this modern world is furnished with gas stoves. A gas stove mainly runs on cooking gas containing butane, ethane and propane and may also include methyl or ethyl mercaptans. Though not substantially used of late, stoves running on fuel like kerosene and gasoline had been of much use in the yesteryears and are still in use in remote places where there is scarcity of cooking gas. What is essential to lead a healthy life is food. Every food that is cooked includes chemicals which further multiply into more chemicals due to the reaction while cooking. For instance, rice contains carbohydrates and when it is cooked, it undergoes many chemical reactions, multiplying the available chemical elements into numerous other chemical

Does the rotation of auditors improve the quality of auditing Essay

Does the rotation of auditors improve the quality of auditing - Essay Example In the provisional report released by the panel, it was proposed that, for there to be audit quality, audit firms must be rotated periodically (Whitehouse par. 4). This proposal by the U.K. Competition Commission is in line with the United States Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s (PCAOB) concept, which proposed compulsory rotation of audit firms. According to PCAOB, the proposed regulation would set a threshold on the number of years that a registered public audit firm could act as the auditor of a public company, noted Bhika and Francis (par. 2). This proposal came about out of the increasing need to improve audit quality in both the U.K. and the U.S. Audit quality, according to Arter (3) is a process involving a systematic examination of internal and external auditor’s quality system. Audit quality is seen as an important part of quality management system in an organization. Quality audit ensures that audit companies perform their duties objectively, and ind ependently. Therefore, the U.K. Competition Commission and PCAOB believe that rotation of auditors of public companies will help increase competition among audit firms, which will also increase the quality of audit. This will be of great benefit to the shareholders since it will help safeguard shareholders interests by increasing the managers’ accountability. A report released by the U.K. Competition Commission showed that about 31% of top 100 public companies in the U.K. and 20% of the top 250 had been sharing the same audit firm for more than two decades. This raises concern since it does not promote the spirit of competition, thus resulting in lower quality, higher prices and less innovation. In addition, this results in failure of audit firms to protect the interest of shareholders (Whitehouse par. 5). The U.K Commission is also concerned that the audit market, subjugated by the Big 4, is constrained by factors that prevent companies from changing auditors. In addition, t hese factors allow auditors to focus more on satisfying the needs of managements than those of shareholders. A study also established that most companies find it difficult in comparing alternative audit firms with their existing auditors, as they prefer continuity. As a result, they incur significant costs in hiring and terminating the services of auditors. Therefore, the reluctance of these companies to change auditors limit reduces their bargaining power. All these problems, according to the U.K. Commission can only be addressed effectively through mandatory rotation of auditors (Whitehouse par. 6). Audit rotation, according to PWC (par. 2), pertains to setting a limit that ensures that a particular auditor does not overstay as an auditor for a particular client for too long. Instead, the auditors are required to move to terminate their services with the firms they have been working for after the expiry of the set time limit to find other clients. Perceived advantages One of the p erceived advantages of audit firm rotation is that it increases audit quality (Bhika and Francis par. 6). Those in support of proposed rotation of audit firms in the country claim that the establishing term limit for audit firms will help in eliminating some of the â€Å"chumminess† that might exist between companies and audit firms, thus promoting increased skepticism, independence and objectivity.

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Transformational Leadership and Risk Taking to Improve Student Essay

Transformational Leadership and Risk Taking to Improve Student Achievement - Essay Example To be successful, schools must develop a clear sense of purpose, strong commitments on the part of their staffs, and productive working relationships with their communities. In a study conducted by Hillard (2009), the effectiveness of professional interactions on teachers and administrators as a faculty group in school improvement practices and educational reform to improve instruction and learning were the main findings of the research. To create long-term solutions for systemic change in a learning environment there was an intense emphasis on practical methods. If leaders focused on previous aspects or formulas, it is considered a reasonable or a practical approach. But conquering today’s difficult problems and ultimately achieving success requires creative leadership (Palus & Horth, 2005). In the case of complex challenges, an organized and a planned approach becomes essential; the alignment of structure paired with energy and support, and a commitment to a mission and visi on comes from creative leadership (Palus & Horth, 2005). The task of change is difficult because of the many variables that contribute to the growth of educational leaders. As stated by Bass (2007), many challenges face the strategic leader who must deal with both the need for continuity and the need for change. In addition to the need for continuity, a strategic leader puts an emphasis on setting direction for the organization. Given the turbulent environments that organizations work within, continuous learning is a key driver of their ability to remain adaptive and flexible - that is, to survive and effectively compete (Zagorsek, Dimovski, and Skerlavai (2009). Creating value and purpose for the organization is an essential part of leadership. However, creating goals and creating value is not enough; the leader must ensure that such change is sustainable. Remaining faithful to the direction set forth by an educational leader is key to the development of his or her staff (Jacobson, Johnson, Ylimaki, & Giles, 2009). Leadership can be related to the interaction between the leader and the follower. However, the numerous facets of such interaction and the intensity of the working relationship influence the outcome – accomplishing the goals set. Effective leadership can be observed when organizations develop all members’ skills and values related to organizational learning (Collinson, 2008). Many l eaders become effective due to the quality of the followers. Some researchers maintain the traditional views of a leader as a taskmaster and as one who relies on situational variables and contingency approaches produced by previous factors that guide their performance (Antelo, Henderson, & St. Clair, 2010). A transformational leader conducts him or herself in ways that are different from the convention or norms; leaders pay more attention to the needs of others, not just as elements of the workplace, but as people (Trapero & de Lozada, 2010). An analysis of the theory of transformational leadership as it relates to new principals from the leadership academy and student achievement will be studied. According to Cowie and Crawford (2008), given the significance of the post of principal and the complex changes in the principal's role in recent years, the extent to which principals’ preparation relates to what is expected of them once they are in post and what it is that they act ually do is critically important. School districts and other educational agencies are dispensing money and manpower in the development of leadership for their organizations. As stated by Barnett and Shore (2009), instead of having to create change efforts, organizations should be built to change. In an attempt to understand what

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Does the rotation of auditors improve the quality of auditing Essay

Does the rotation of auditors improve the quality of auditing - Essay Example In the provisional report released by the panel, it was proposed that, for there to be audit quality, audit firms must be rotated periodically (Whitehouse par. 4). This proposal by the U.K. Competition Commission is in line with the United States Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s (PCAOB) concept, which proposed compulsory rotation of audit firms. According to PCAOB, the proposed regulation would set a threshold on the number of years that a registered public audit firm could act as the auditor of a public company, noted Bhika and Francis (par. 2). This proposal came about out of the increasing need to improve audit quality in both the U.K. and the U.S. Audit quality, according to Arter (3) is a process involving a systematic examination of internal and external auditor’s quality system. Audit quality is seen as an important part of quality management system in an organization. Quality audit ensures that audit companies perform their duties objectively, and ind ependently. Therefore, the U.K. Competition Commission and PCAOB believe that rotation of auditors of public companies will help increase competition among audit firms, which will also increase the quality of audit. This will be of great benefit to the shareholders since it will help safeguard shareholders interests by increasing the managers’ accountability. A report released by the U.K. Competition Commission showed that about 31% of top 100 public companies in the U.K. and 20% of the top 250 had been sharing the same audit firm for more than two decades. This raises concern since it does not promote the spirit of competition, thus resulting in lower quality, higher prices and less innovation. In addition, this results in failure of audit firms to protect the interest of shareholders (Whitehouse par. 5). The U.K Commission is also concerned that the audit market, subjugated by the Big 4, is constrained by factors that prevent companies from changing auditors. In addition, t hese factors allow auditors to focus more on satisfying the needs of managements than those of shareholders. A study also established that most companies find it difficult in comparing alternative audit firms with their existing auditors, as they prefer continuity. As a result, they incur significant costs in hiring and terminating the services of auditors. Therefore, the reluctance of these companies to change auditors limit reduces their bargaining power. All these problems, according to the U.K. Commission can only be addressed effectively through mandatory rotation of auditors (Whitehouse par. 6). Audit rotation, according to PWC (par. 2), pertains to setting a limit that ensures that a particular auditor does not overstay as an auditor for a particular client for too long. Instead, the auditors are required to move to terminate their services with the firms they have been working for after the expiry of the set time limit to find other clients. Perceived advantages One of the p erceived advantages of audit firm rotation is that it increases audit quality (Bhika and Francis par. 6). Those in support of proposed rotation of audit firms in the country claim that the establishing term limit for audit firms will help in eliminating some of the â€Å"chumminess† that might exist between companies and audit firms, thus promoting increased skepticism, independence and objectivity.

Beazer Homes Case Essay Example for Free

Beazer Homes Case Essay Investors were lead to believe that the company financials were healthier than they actually were, as evidenced by the changes noted when the financial statements had to be restated. As a result of doing this, investors who were under the impression of a healthier position, continued to invest in an organization that was essentially doing nothing more than stealing their money; money which could have been invested into a different enterprise rather than padding the pockets of executives that didnt earn it. As a result of having to restate financial statements, the per share price of Beazer Homes dropped from the $35/share price level in may, to approximately $11/share by the end of July. This is a significant loss in wealth for investors. In addition to the allegations against Mr. Rand for possible accounting fraud, allegations were also brought against Beazer Homes for mortgage fraud. To address the question as to which is a more serious offense, it would be our opinion that both would carry an equal weight of seriousness. On the one hand, investors were misled, as noted above, and this led to a significant loss of wealth for many, especially those individuals and/or institutions that may have held a large position. On the other hand, to address the issue of mortgage fraud, new homeowners were oftentimes cheated out of money that they paid to Beazer Homes. A example of this is when Beazer Homes would require purchasers to pay a fee for interest discount points at closing. Then Beazer Homes would keep the cash received and not lower the interest rate. This is just one example, but it can be an extremely costly one when you look at how much a . 25 percent or . 5 percent reduction in an interest rate can be over the life of a 20 or 30 year fixed rate mortgage; thats if Beazer Homes wasnt trying to convince people that an adjustable rate or hybrid mortgage would be better for their situation. Additionally, Beazer Homes ignored income requirements when making loans to unqualified purchasers, which not only put the purchaser in jeopardy of having the income needed to make their ayments, but in the event of default or foreclosure, it can have a significant impact on the home values of the neighborhood. As a result of these legal issues with Beazer Homes, the SEC issued a notice to the Beazer Homes CEO called the Wells notice. The Wells notice was created under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which states that if a firm has to restate their financial statements, the SEC can require the CEO and CFO to return any and all bonuses that were received during the period of restated financial statements. Additionally, the CEO and CFO do not need to have any knowledge of errors. The SEC issued the Wells notice to the Beazer Homes CEO, Ian J. McCarthy, on 13 November 2009, indicating that the SEC would be brining a civil case against him to collect incentive compensation. In the notice issued to the CEO, there was no indication or allegations of cover-up, or misconduct, on the part of Mr. McCarthy with respect to the financial statements or other disclosures that were published during the period in question.

Monday, October 14, 2019

UN peacekeeping operations

UN peacekeeping operations â€Å"Why are the UN peacekeeping operations rarely successful? Explain using appropriate examples†. A. Introduction With the end of the Cold War, a new generation of peacekeeping operation was born. On the one hand, the deadlock situation lived before in the Security Council was overcame for a more coordinated one. On the other hand, â€Å"almost all new armed conflicts have occurred within the territories of a sovereign state† (Doyle and Sambanis, 2006, p.3). This new frame claimed for a more robust peacekeeping operations able to deal with intrastate conflicts. As the 1990s passed, UN experienced difficulties to reach it objectives, changing the initial optimism for a more pessimistic position. The complexity of intrastate conflicts -waged within the population, with weak governments and serious humanitarian problems- required multidimensional peacekeeping missions. During this decade, interventions into states in conflict were justified as humanitarian intervention. Peace operations carried on during this time leaved a negative trace -Bosnia, Somalia, Rwanda. The rarely successful of UN peace operations drove the organization to consider a serious change on the peace operation structure. The lack of consistency and determination of the mandates could not be sustained any longer. In words of the Secretary-General Kofi Annan peace operations are meant â€Å"(†¦) to intervene: to prevent conflict where we can, to put a stop to it when it has broken out, or -when neither of those things is possible- at least to contain it and prevent it from spreading† (Kofi Annan, 1999, p.4). The results of this change of lenses are the UN mandates in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL 1999-2005) and Haiti MINUSTAH (2004-Present). However, further consequences of this shift will come with the consolidation of the Brahimi Report (2000) in future missions. The aim of the present essay is to offer a critical analysis of the effectiveness of UN peace operations launched in the post-Cold War period, supporting the arguments with examples of the most controversial peace operations of 1990s -UNOSOM and UNAMIR. To get this approach, the structure of this essay is composed by three sections. This first one introduces the main characteristic of peace operations, articulating an understanding of the modus operandis of UN and the key problems. The second section comments the main difficulties that the coordination between the political sphere (UN) and the operational sphere (battlefield) has been facing in concrete situations -Somalia and Rwanda- showing the deterministic connection of events. Finally, a brief conclusion with the main findings and future expectations. B. Burying the seed of failure. ‘Peacekeeping is a complicated concept with complicated uses. Being the result of a difficult coordination between the political sphere UN, Secretary-General, Security Council and Member States and the operational sphere type of conflict, geographical area, and parties confronted-, peacekeeping operations lacked the consistency that should had to be effective. The problems begin with the absence of a definition of peacekeeping in the Charter of United Nations. There is no specific Article of Chapter that refers precisely to what peacekeeping operation entails, the criteria to establish it, or guidelines for it deployment.[1] According to the Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali (1992) peace operations concern ‘the deployment of a United Nations presence in the field, hitherto with the consent of all the parties concerned, with the aim to terminate the conflict and recover security in the region. Peacekeeping forces are meant to protect civilians, provide aid, supervised ceasefires, military demobilization and elections in order to bring back the state in conflict into peace and stability. As a result, peace operations during the 1990s were characterized for more complex affairs and much longer duration represented by multidimensional missions. Peace operations are, according to Fridley (2002), all UN missions involving military personnel, mandated by the Security Council and operating under the UN command. Four types of peacekeeping operations can be distinguished: (i) observation missions, (ii) traditional peacekeeping missions, (iii) multidimensional missions, and (iv) enforcement missions. The first three are resolutions taking under the Chapter VI, while the last one is under the Chapter VII (Fortna, 2006, p.6-7). Growing in complexity from one to four, the last two are applied more often since the end of the Cold War to end the conflict and improve the prospects for peace (Doyle and Sambanis, 2006). However, the optimism for a wider peacekeeping with more resources defined by Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali in his Agenda for peace (1992), ended with the opposite results than those expected. I argue in this essay that UN peacekeeping operations rarely succeed due to problems of coordination and determination. Let me go into the main handicaps. Political Sphere United Nations peace operations, as mentioned above, are the result of a mandate emanated from the Security Council (SC). Composed by fifteen members, five of them permanent and with veto power China, France, Russia, United Kingdom and United States (P5) -, the SC is responsible to make resolution after a recommendation for peace mission made by the Secretary-General. To approve the mandate, its required a majority of nine members. Besides the coordination needed to get the minimum votes, the resolution can be block by one of the P5. The decision of one of the members to use the veto power depends on her interest and aspirations the veto problem. This is the first setback on the way to peace. For example, in January of 1997 China used its veto power to block a peace mission to Guatemala designed to verify Guatemalas signed peace accords. The reason why China took this decision was because she did not like Guatemalas close ties to Taiwan.[2] During the process to approve a Resolution, other problems can emerge. The ‘posturing problem is the drafting of an elaborated and abstract resolution that most of the time does not contain what is needed to solve the conflict -too weak, or too pretentious This was the case of Somalia; one of the objectives of UNOSOM II was the disarmament of the militias, however, the implementation of the mandate was not feasible, specially after the withdraw of USA troops. The ‘coordination problem arrives when the great powers should define the nature of the conflict and take the most effective way to solve it; this is the crux for a appropriate design of a successful operation. However, this coordination problem is the responsible of deliberately vague mandates and a mode to get consensus between the members of the SC. Once a mandate is approved by the SC as a Resolution, the deployment of the peace forces depend on the contribution from Member States, as it is specified in the Fact Sheet of United Nations Peacekeeping. However, the authorization of the deployment does not guarantee its effectiveness.[3] As I discuss next, these inconveniences at the political level affect the operational one; a delayed resolution and an inadequate strategy have terrible consequences on the final result of the peace operation Rwanda (1993), MINURCA (1998).[4] Operational Sphere Intrastate conflicts are difficult to solve. The fundamental distinction between types of civil wars -ethnic, separatism, religion- and the parties involved make each conflict different not only the operational level, but also in the political articulation of it (Byman and Seybolt, 2003). This information should be taken into consideration for the SC to articulate a mandate that responds to the situation. But, the SC responses are not as straight forward. Crisis and its answers are shaped by the decision of those that compose the SC, who are determined by their interest and the internal situation of their country as it was mentioned before with China in 1997. However, when the conflict is considered ‘a threat to peace and the SC is able to articulate a Resolution, the intervention should be legitimized. Intervention can only take place when the state is (i) engaging in a systematic human right violations, (ii) is incapable of protecting human right violations due to the breakdown of the state authority, or (iii) when the government in power is unlawfully constituted (Semb, 2000). Justified in terms of humanitarian claims under Chapter VII (Articles 41 and 42)[5], the intervention must have the voluntary consent of the parties to the presence and activity involved in the mission[6]. (Fridley, 2002). The mandate is to relieve humanitarian crisis, as it was the case of Somalia (UN OSOM 1993) when the state breakdown. The success of the operational sphere depends, then, on the adequacy between the mandate and the conflict situation. Coordination The two spheres must be well coordinated to terminate the conflict. Different situation can be originated from this. It could be the case that the lack of interest form the member states to intervene generates the absence of intervention or a more complicated bargaining process to involve state members on the mission . As Wilson (2003) stress, â€Å"in the post-Cold War era the absence of a UN military capacity has meant that when the SC has at least been able to use its Character VII powers at an unprecedented rate, it has been forced to rely on a decentralized approach to enforcement the action and entrust operations to those actors willing to conduct them on its behalf†. Most of the time, this calculation is made in terms of cost-benefit analysis; when the conflict provides more loses than gains, the state will be reluctant to provide troops at the beginning of Rwanda crisis in 1993, most Member States where not interested to intervene. But, this is a double-sided sword. States can also see the opportunity to defend her interest as it was the case of UK in Sierra Leone in 1999 and Franc e in Rwanda. It could also be the case that the SC approves a Resolution and Member States agree to provide the troops as it was the case of USA with Bosnia (1992) and Somalia (1992) respectively. However, when the purpose of the mission is not clear, the precision on the solving-conflict situation is inexistent and incoherent, creating a disarticulates mission. This difficulty can be solved. Resolutions already deployed are reinforced by the events on the conflict area; a new Resolution can then answer the needs of the conflict. This was the case, for example, of UNOSOM I and a later UNOSOM II. However, when the Secretariat is not supportive enough, there is not real response to the conflict situation, and then, the mission failed Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali with UNAMIR. The complexity of levels and coordination between the spheres and within them are not following any patter. Although, the interdependence between decision-making -systematic setbacks that decrease the possibilities to obtain a coherent mandate- and conflict events -the necessity of a strong mandate to operate consistently- determines the character and effectiveness of the mission. Gilligan and Stedman (2003) address the vagueness of this UN internal process, â€Å"standards of the UN provide little guidance as to the actual decisions of the Security Council regarding when and where peacekeepers will be deployed†. This links the criteria problem; UN decision between Chapter VI or Chapter VII to generate the mandate that will determine the core of the peace operation. Mandates under Chapter VI lack the strength needed UNMOP (1996-2002) -, and mandates of enforcement under Chapter VII are costly for state members UNOSOM (1992-1995).[7] The inadequacy of institutional structure to respond effectively, the intermittent communication between spheres, and the vacuity of the mandates ended with the dominant tendency to fail. By the end of 1990s, UN was aware of this setback. The result to this declined support for peacekeeping operations was the Brahimi Report (2000). Composed by fifty-seven explicit recommendations and over one hundred implicit ones, it was prepared for the Millennium Summit. It claims for a relation between the magnitude of the conflict and the resourced and supported operation deployed to solve it. It also stresses (i) the need of criteria to avoid the intervention in conflicts that cannot be solved, and well-supported plans when it is required an intervention; (ii) a better understanding of the conflict, and coherence between the mandate and the real situation. (iii) This implies more flexible administrations rules capable to show in the Resolution a â€Å"greater delegation of authority to the field†; (iv) Clear and concrete mandates; (v) and, last but not least, a rapid deployment of the peace operation to be ready to operate within week six and twelve. Since then, a slightly modified typology has been applied. Mission as UN MIL (2003-Present), MINUSTAH (2004-Present), and UNAMID (2007-Present) were designed under this focus.[8] From my point of view, this repost stresses the most controversial points that generate inappropriate mandates. However, this only recommends certain actions on the operational sphere that can help to increase the effectiveness of the peace missions. It does not mention that the problem of coordination also involves part of the structure of UN. Even though it is possible to improve the articulation between the two spheres, states members can provide or move back troops from the operation if they consider it appropriate, interest will remain in the atmosphere of the SC, and the criteria for intervention will depend on the SC decision. Hence, the Brahimi Report is a valid document to improve the immediate problems, but does not mention the roots of them. C. Harvesting failures. The problematic coordination between the political level and the operational one, and also problems within the structure of peacekeeping operations, carry with it another obstacle: time. Since the beginning of the conflict till the deployment of the peace forces, the conflict has different picks of intensity. During this time, more elements are involved in the conflict (children soldiers, natural resources) and more destruction is generated (infrastructure, deaths, famine, etc). The longer it takes to deploy the peace operation, the more complex it will be to solve the magnitude of the problem. And this was the case of most UN peace operations during the 1990s. Nonetheless, the complexity and wide range of areas that the mission should cover, made the peace operations complicated to assess. A problem arrives then, the criteria to determine how much forces and commitments should be taken to solve each conflict. It is generally argued that UN â€Å"should have been done less in Somalia, and cold have done much more in Rwanda† (Frarrel, 2007). The case of MONUC (1999-Present), UN mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, is a good example. The recommended force of 6,000 troops is too small to present a credible military deterrence, but is too large for a symbolic presence considering the extension of the territory; the lack of infrastructure represented and extra complication to an already difficult operation. In same line of a criteria problem, we also have the lack of consistency in the decision-making of UN -discussed in the former section. Generally, in peace operations, the objectives are not well defined. Mandates produced by the UNSC can be indecisive, written with abstract concepts that make its application inconsistent with the real conflict -too pretentious for the force deployed or too scarce for the actual need. Military commanders will applied the mandate as precisely as possible to solve the actual situation where they find, but this does not solve the problem. The unity of command is another setback. On the one hand, troops are provided by a number of Member States, with different training and equipment. The motley composition of troops needs to operate with determination, a good coordination and synchronization. However, such adequation in time and space is nearly idealistic. On the other hand, the states members that provided troops can end their cooperation to the mission if they consider that their troops are in serious threat cost-benefit analysis. This was the case of USA in Somalia during UNOSOM II, who showed to be really sensitive to casualties withdrawing its forces after the death of eighteen soldiers. Here I describe two of the most sounded UN peace missions that gather together all the difficulties mentioned before: UNOSOM, and UNAMIR.[9] The reason why I chose these two cases is the relation that connects the two: the passive reaction to the later one was a consequence of the negative results of the former. The first conflict represents the new challenges that peace operations faced at the beginning of the 1990s. The second one a passive attitude toward the conflict, consequence of the Bosnia (1992-1995) and Somalia (1992-1995) failures. Somalia (1992-1995) United Nations Operations in Somalia (UNOSOM I) was deployed in mid-1992 when the country reached the lower situation of her civil war and a terrible famine hit her population. The civil conflict took the country into a complete anarchic situation, where the distribution of aid failed landlords manipulated it as power. By the end of the summer of 1992, 300,000 Somalis were dead. The UNSC approved the Resolution 794 to let UNITAF, a US 37,000-strong force, to resolve the situation and establish the adequate situation for a proper distribution of aid. However, by December 1992, 95% of the population was malnourished and 70% in imminent danger of death by starvation (Western, 2002, p.115). The mandate was created to demilitarized zones to get a better distribution of the aid. In mid-1993 UNOSOM II was deployed with 28,000-strong UN force to fulfil a more ambitious mandate: the disarmament of the parties and the reconstruction of the Somalia government. However, all the efforts were truncated; the ceasefire with the warlords was broken when the paramilitary group attacked a UN patrol killing twenty-four Pakistani soldiers. UNSC Resolution 837 determined the end of the conflict; but the result was the opposite when the 3rd of October of 1994 a US helicopter was shot down; eighteen US soldier were killed. The Clinton administration withdraws her troops within months and UNOSOM II kept active till 1995 without a strong leadership and too ambitious objectives to be accomplished. [10] Even though the money invested and the strong military presence in Somalia, UNOSOM II failed in its mandate: to restore a long-term order. The difficulties faced in Somalia made the Security Council members reluctant to engage in similar conflicts, the passive reaction to the genocide in Rwanda can be explained under this focus (Semb 2000). Rwanda (1993-1994) The ethnic conflict in Rwanda ended in a terrible massacre of 800,000 Tutsi and moderate Hutu. The precedent of such irrational situation was an instable political situation when the Hutu-moderate government introduced a multi-party democracy that ended with the exclusion of the Hutu extremists.[11] This radical faction started a terror camping, after the accidental death of the President, to exterminate the Tutsi population of the country. By April of 1993, when the genocide started, there was a UN peacekeeping force with a limited mandated deployed in Rwanda. Composed by 2,500-strong United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) was designed to monitor the ceasefire between the government and the Rwandese Patriotic Front.[12] The peace operation was â€Å"understaffed, under-resourced, and unauthorized to use force to prevent crimes†.[13] The UN response the 27th of April was inadequate: to re-establish the ceasefire. The awaited Resolution 918 to expand UNAMIR to 5,500 troops to protect the population arrived the 17th of May, too late. By July the genocide was already committed. The disintegrated situation in Rwanda was denounced by the UNAMIR Force Commander, Major General Romà ©o Dollaire, in February 1993. The UN could have been able to do much more; if not to stop the genocide, at least it could have reduced the terrible consequences of it. Boutros-Ghali was unable to push an adequate resolution and the SC was blocked by USA and UK. It can be appreciate from the examples examined the difference of commitment to bring into an end the conflict. However, both situation ended in failure. Both cases have in common the weak coordination between the political and operational spheres that generated late and inconsistent mandates. Somalia demonstrates the compromise of USA to finish it, but in the end the situation was reversed and such commitment was shown not to be that strong. Rwanda is in the opposite side of the spectrum, there was no interest part as the failure of Somalia for intervention. After a decade of rarely successful operation, the ‘credibility of UN was damaged, as it was assumed by the UNSC in November 2000, Resolution 1327. D. Conclusion: awaiting for a better harvest. The main reasons why UN peacekeeping operations during 1990s rarely succeeded were problems with coordination to approve a resolution and the inconsistence of delayed responses. I argued that the intensity of the conflict aggravated through this ‘decision time determined the structure, durability, complexity, and the final balance of these peacekeeping operation. In a simple line, we can say that the objective of the UN forces were not clear by the time they went into the conflict area. This triggered a whole succession of complications such as a deficient coordination, an irregular institutional behaviour, and the lack of criteria to establish the adequate measure of forces. Missions were then no strong enough to be able to take robust actions against peace spoilers. Overall, missions tended to fail. As I argued before, the complexity of intrastate conflicts and the corresponding peace operation can get worse rather than better if (i) the expected peace operations has not a clear objectives already designed by the time of it implementation, (ii) there is no coordination between the area of the conflict and the SC to empower the strategy to wage the conflict, and (iii) if there is no suitable ‘time-reaction from the authorities to operate on the conflictive area to stop the violence. Conflicts experience different waves of violence, and the grade of destruction increases when the peace forces are not effective. So, the longer the conflict, the more elements are involved, and the more complex the peace operation should be to re-establish peace (e.g. Children soldiers, infrastructure, mechanism of corruption, etc). In other words, the longer to make a resolution and deploy the peacekeeping troops with a specific and consistent mandate, the less effective the operation will be. The structural and functional problems considered here made clear a claim for robust mandates, that is, the implementation of the appropriate force to achieve the mission mandate, to protect civilian in danger, and provide the suitable condition to deploy the mission (Yamashita, 2008). A strong justification must support this type of robust mandates. As it was the case of Sierra Leone in 1999 (UNAMSIL); the Resolution 1313 of the 4th of August of 2000 was the result of the breakdown of the Agreement. This Resolution authorized peacekeepers to deter and counter the threat of RUF responding robustly to any imminent direct use of force (Yamashita, 2008 p. 620). This new direction of peacekeeping has also its institutional consequences. Recently published, the 2008 Principles and Guidelines Material for Peacekeeping[14] outlines the interconnection between the two spheres mentioned before. In order to get that, the SC decisions are influenced by the agreement reached and the parties that compose the conflict. The result of a good coordination will produce a suitable mandate for the conflict see also the Brahimi Repost already mentioned. To sum up, peacekeeping is not risk free, this is the main reason why if UN is going to intervene in a conflict must do it with the strength and consistency required for an effective action. Once the operation is in the conflict, it must be able to complete the mission successfully fruit of the satisfactory coordination between the political sphere and the operational one being able to bring peace where it is needed.[15] The actual deployed missions generated under this new wave of peace keeping MINUSTAH (2004-Present), UMIT (2006-Present), UNAMID (2007-Present) will show if the coordination and consistency problems, that were the pulse under which peacekeeping was shaped during the 1990s, has been solved. E. Bibliography. Annan, K. â€Å"Reflections on Intervention† in Kofi Annan, The question of Intervention, New York: United Nations, 1999. A.J. Bellamy, ‘The â€Å"Next Stage† in Peace Operations Theory? International Peacekeeping, Vol. 11, no. 1, 2004, pp. 17-38. J. Boulden (ed.) Dealing with conflict in Africa. (London: Palgrave-McMillan, 2003). D. Byman T. Seybolt, ‘Humanitarian Intervention and Communal Civil Wars: Problems and Alternative Approaches, Security Studies, Vol. 13, No. 1 (Autumn 2003), pp.33-78. Donald, ‘Neutrality, Impartiality and UN Peace-keeping at the Beginning of the 21st Century, International Peace-keeping, Vol. 9., No. 4, (2002), pp. 21-38. J. Darby R. MacGintty, (eds), Contemporary Peacemaking: Conflict, Violence and Peace Processes, (London, Palgrave, 2003) Doyle and Sambanis (2000) â€Å"International Peacebuilding: A theoretical And Quantitative Analysis† American Political Science Review, Vol. 94, No. 4 (Dec. 2000), pp. 779-801. David M. Edelstein, ‘Occupational Hazards: Why Military Occupations Succeed or Fail, International Security, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Summer 2004), pp. 49-91. Also useful for following week. T. Farrell, ‘Humanitarian Intervention and Peace Operations, in J. Baylis, J. Wirtz et al, (eds), Strategy in the Contemporary World: An introduction to strategic studies, (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 313-334. Fortna, V. (2006). Does peacekeeping work? Shaping belligerents choices after civil war. Oxford: Princeton University. Fortna, V. (2004) â€Å"Does Peacekeeping Keep Peace? International Intervention and the Duration of Peace After Civil War†. In International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 2 (Jun. 2004), pp. 269-292. Findlay, T. (2002) The use of force in UN Peace Operations. Oxford: Oxford University Press. M. Goulding, ‘The Evolution of UN Peacekeeping, International Affairs, Vol 69, No 3, 1993, pp. 451-464. J-M. Guehenno, ‘On Challenges and achievements of Reforming UN Peace Operations, International Peacekeeping, Vol 9, No. 1, Spring 2001, pp. 69-80. Guilligan and Stedman (2003) â€Å"Where do the Peacekeepers Go?† International Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 4, Dissolving Boundaries (Dec. 2003), pp. 37-54. M. Pugh, ‘Peacekeeping and Critical Theory, International Peacekeeping, Vol. 11, no. 1, 2004, pp. 39-58. A. J. Semb, ‘The New Practice of UN-Authorized Interventions: A Slippery Slope of Forcible Interference?, Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 37, No. 4, (2000), pp.469-488. The United Nations Blue Books Series, Volume VIII The United Nations and Somalia 1992-1996. (New York: Department of Public Information, 1996). J. Western, ‘Sources of Humanitarian Intervention: Beliefs, Information, and Advocacy in the U.S. Decisions on Somalia and Bosnia, International Security, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Spring 2002), pp. 112-142. G. Wilson, ‘UN Authorized Enforcement: Regional Organisations versus ‘Coalitions of the Willing, International Peace-keeping, Vol. 10, No. 2, (Summer 2003), pp. 89-106. H. Yamashita, Impartial Use of Force in United Nations Peacekeeping, International Peacekeeping, Vol 15, No 5 November 2008, pp. 615 630. [1] J.M. Guà ©henno (2002) [2] Francisco Villagran de Leon, Embassador of Guatemala to Canada (January 1997) for the New York Time, available at [3] The P5 has had the tendency to pas the resolutions, but has not been able to provide the means. [4] Edelstein (2004) [5] Semb (2000) [6] This can take place once a ceasefire agreement for the deployment of peace forces was reached. [7] Doyle and Sambanis, 2006. [8] For more detailed information, [9] Due to the complexity of the intra-state conflicts, I do not discuss the historical facts that composed the each of these operations. I will only concentrate in those events that where significant for the failure of the mission and that allow me to establish a critical analysis of the cases. [10] The United Nations and Somalia (1996), Boulden (2003) [11] Wilson (2003) [12] Boulden (2003). [13] Farrel, T. (2007) p. 320 [14] Available at [15] â€Å"Military intervention is a nasty business. It should never be the first option considered, but sometimes it is the only choice† (Beyman and Seybolt, 2003 p. 77). UN Peacekeeping Operations UN Peacekeeping Operations Peacekeeping was never has been mentioned in the UN Charter, but it has been a very effective means to respond to regional conflicts or civil wars. Peacekeeping, according to Mingst and Karns (2000), is the respond to deadlock of the Security Council to intervene civil wars due to the great veto powers. It helps the implementation of cease-firing agreement, prevents hostilities and it uses troops and civilian personals from the member states that voluntarily contributes their personals. It was first used, he adds, in the late 1940s to monitor the cease-fire agreeing in the land of Palestine and Kashmir. Since 1991, The UN has deployed many peacekeeping operations. It was launched in such countries as, Angola, El Salvador, Western Haiti, Cambodia, Rwanda, Yugoslavia etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Some of which were successful, yet some of which were not. Here, we will only examine on the UN peacekeeping operation in Rwanda (UNAMIR). We will discover whether or not the UNAMIR was successful. Firs t, we will go briefly through the root cause of the conflict inside Rwanda. Second, we will look at UNAMIR mandate to see what task it was assigned to undertake. Later, as it is well-known that this peacekeeping operation was a failure, we will examine on why it was not able to fulfill its job. Yet, we still believe that there were some positive points of this operation too. Therefore, we will also find out what are all those points are. At last, we will come to the conclusion with the outcome of UNAMIR, and answer the objective question, Was the UN peacekeeping operation in Rwanda successful or not? Root Causes of the Conflict In order to understand the root causes of civil war inside Rwanda we need to look back to colonial periods. In one of her research, Heleta (2006) illustrates that Rwanda was made up of majority Hutus and Minority Tutsis. Hutus were mainly lower class people whereas Tutsis were mainly the nobles. They spoke the same language and lived side by side, yet they sometimes intermarried. Since 1890, according to Howard, Rwanda was under the colonization of Germany, and Belgium after the end of World War I. During colonial period, minority Tutsis was in favor of both colonial masters. Rwanda gained independence in 1962 after the majority Hutus raised up against Belgium, who promoted and placed many Tutsis in many positions of the administration. They also threatened the Tutsis to leave the country. Eventually, Major General Juvenal Habyarimana, a Hutu, in 1973, created an authoritarian government after staging a coup. Bruce says, the civil war erupted when Rwandese Patriotic Front (RPF), a mo vement which was mainly made of Tutsis, started the offensive in from Ugandan-Rwandan border. After a series of fighting between the RPF and the FAR (Forces Armà ©ss Rwandise) or the government military; and many negotiations resulted in cease firing that did not really last for long, the two warring parties agreed on Arusha Agreement of August 4, 1993. During the peace talks progress, Howard says, a new Hutu movement started to gained power and established their own militias to disrupt the peace talk and reconciliation. This is the Hutu extremist group that plans the genocide of the minority Tutsis. Heleta (2006) says, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Hutu radicals, who saw no other solution to the Hutu-Tutsi problem but to exterminate the entire Tutsis Population in Rwanda. The Arusha agreement was signed by both warring parties, and both parties consented the UN intervention to facilitate the implementation of the agreement. UNAMIR Mandate The UN resolution of peacekeeping operation is authorized by the Security Council to determine the size and its mandate in which any decision requires at least nine out of 15 votes, and is subject to a veto by any of the five permanent members- United States, United Kingdom, Russian Federation, France, and China. Importantly, to implement the peacekeeping operation, the member states are asked to voluntarily contribute in term of troops and civilian polices, equipment, supplies, transportation, and logistical support, and also the General Assembly is responsible for approval of budget and resources of the mission. Each and every United Nation peacekeeping operation is implemented with its own purposes and objectives. A paper that unequivocally describes the purpose and objectives is called mandate. Now we will examine what UNAMIR was originally assigned to do. From the outset, UNAMIR was created to facilitate the implementation of the Arusha agreement. The mandate stated that UNAMIR would observe the cease-fire, provide security and stability in Kigali, ensure the disarmament and create the non-military zone, assist in land mine clearance activity, monitor human right and the return of refugees, and prepare for the election. As it was implemented under the Chapter VI of the UN, the use of its force was strictly limited for only self-defense (Howard, 2008). Later, after the eruption of the mass killing, UNAMIR mandate was extended to mediate the two warring parties, protect the civilian who sought refuge with UNAMIR and provide many other humanitarian aids (Bruce, 2007). UNAMIR did receive consent from both warring parties, but why was it impossible to achieve? We will answer this question in the following section. Failure and Causes Why it is a failure? The outbreak of the genocide in the face of the presence of the UN peacekeeper clearly demonstrates that the mission is a failure. According to Howard (2008), the mission was mandated to maintain peace, security and stability inside the country, but apparently it could not accomplish its tasks. The genocide killed approximately 800,000 people in just over 100 days. The UN peacekeeper was not able to respond when they were under attack from the Hutu extremists. They proved to be militarily weak, when 10 Belgium peacekeepers were killed and no respond was given from them. Instead of giving any response, the Belgium withdrew all their force; this paved the way for the genocide. What could have been worse while UNAMIR could not even prevent the outbreak of the genocide, and UNAMIR also was voted to reduce its size for the operation? In the following section, we will examine what were the obstacles, impediments and other contributing causes that contribute to its frustrating failure. What made it a failure? The failure of United Nation Peacekeeping Operation in Rwanda was result many contributing causes. The major cause is the lack of political interests from member states, especially the United States, the most prominent member of the United Nation Security Council, to take any action in response to the crisis. Howard (2008) argues that the Security Council intentionally did not want to identify the problem, the genocide. None of the members inside the council would dare to challenge the new disinterest of the US. The reason of the disinterest, he adds, was the incident of October 5 1993, in which the US rangers died in Somalia. The encouragement of new peacekeeping operation also declined. Similarly, the Secretary-General, Boutros Ghali, was dysfunctional. The report of violence in April 1994 in Rwanda did not come into the hand of him in time. The Secretary-General was touring around Europe, and came back to New York only a week after the report had been submitted. Eventually, the Secretary-General did produce a report to the Security Council, a mere report. In the report, the Secretary-General did present but did not recommend any of the following suggestion: withdraw all the force, send in massive peace enforcement force, and withdraw majority of the force to save the peacekeepers life while maintaining international community presence inside the country. In the report to the Security Council, the Secretary-General missed one crucial point; identify the violence as genocide. If the report had mentioned about the genocide, the Security would have decisively taken action against it (Howard, 2008). If the Secretary had mention genocide in the report, the action would h ave been taken decisively under Article II and 1948 Genocide Convention. Found in same book, Vaccaro (1996) says The failure [UNAMIR] was twofold: not enough accurate analysis was available to the Council, and the information that was reported seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Some particular members such as US and Belgium endorsed the immediate withdrawal of the troops from the operation, complaining that they were under pressure of the mounting billion dollars operation debt; therefore, they need save up in order to pay off the debt. Besides, the United Kingdom opposed the suggestion of sending more forces into operation arguing that lessons learned from Somalia case proved that stronger force still would not be able to complete its mission, and would even worsen the situation there (Howard,2008). Eventually, the decision to downside the scale of operation was reach unanimously. The US disinterest and Secretary-Generals dysfunction created many problems. As the most prominent member of the council, no member was willing to challenge US. The US did not support the mission in Rwanda; therefore, this leads to many problems such as troop contribution, funding, etcà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Howard (2008) states, The council did not recommend adequate funding nor did countries provide adequate troops, given the extensive mandate assigned to UNAMIR. Jones (2007) argues that the political uncertainty during the birth of UNAMIR illustrates its destiny. Such uncertainty would provide limited implementation of its mandate, communication to its political master to respond to the problem effectively. Not only the Secretary-General that was dysfunctional, the UN headquarter also was. A report, known as black file by Canadian Major-General Romeo A. Dallaire, was sent to the UN headquarter. The report explained the plan for genocide that was not planned by President Habyarimana but by a group of Hutu extremist. It also stated the plan to kill Belgian peacekeepers to provoke the withdrawal of them, and kill all the Tutsis. The information of this report was given by a high-level official in the government who gave this information in the return of protection from the UN. When the report come into the UN headquarter, it was put aside and ignore. General Dallaire was only told to alert Belgian, French, and US, and not to attack the weapon warehouse that he wanted to. Three months later, everything mentioned in the report became real. Ten Belgian peacekeepers were killed along with Prime Minister Agathe Uwlingiyimana. Another contributing cause to the failure is the finance and logistic problems. The deployment of the UN peacekeeper to Rwanda was conducted in such a very slow manner. Jones (2007) describes the UNAMIR as financially and logistically very weak. He explains that the force was deployed in small detachment rather than concentrated force. The deployment of such small detachment did not provide much deterrence, and proved to be weak when the ten Belgium peacekeepers were killed by the extremist Rwandan. In term of financing the operation, it received its budget installment 8 months after the budget planned went to the UN Fifth Committee; the Advisory Committee on Activities and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ). Its budget was endorsed only two days before the genocidal attack broke out, and ultimately received all its financial support one month after the attack had stopped. Moreover, UNAMIR never obtained critical asset such as intelligence capacity and defensive equipments (Jones, 2007). UNAMIR was only equipped with such armored personal carriers that was contributed from the UN operation in Mozambique. Many of those were not working, and this proved no sign in respond to the genocide. And when they were not equipped with advanced equipment, how could they face with the army with such sophisticated weapon? According to its mandate, UNAMIR was deployed under the Chapter VI. Therefore, the weakness of UNAMIR lays in its mandate, in which it was stated that the use of force was strictly limited to only for self-defense. Jones (2007) argues that this weakness contribute a lot to the failure. When the genocide broke out, the UN peacekeepers were not able to respond and to confront the army with such sophisticated weapons. Moreover, the collecting weapon method was not included in its mandate. Howard stressed that While the Secretary-General had recommended that the force be charged with collective weapons as a way to enhance the security, the Council did not include the provision in the mandate. After the killing of the Belgium peacekeepers, Belgium government unilaterally withdrew its own force from Rwanda to prevent further causalities of their personals. According to Jones (2007), this action is called Non-response. Belgium did not seek for further method to keep peace inside the region, but they withdrew their own force and this decreased moral of the other peacekeepers there. They did not only withdraw their force, they also persuaded the others troop contributing nations to do so as well. Obviously, they did this because they wanted to lower their embarrassment. This would make the peacekeeping force even weaker, and also made other countries reluctant to contribute their force. Even the new reinforcement of UNAMIR (later known as UNAMIR II) was approved in December 1994, with the mandate to protect civilians by granting 5,500 peacekeepers; however, there were not adequate troops and equipment to operate its mission. The reason of this is straightforward. UNAMIR II got narrow support from the Security Council with ten votes in favor and five abstentions by China, New Zealand, Brazil, Nigeria, and Pakistan. As a result of no immediate available force to operate, the reinforcement was only deployed in August 1995, by which the genocide had already reached its peak in mid-may and started become less severe (Jones, 2007). In short, UNAMIR II was a humanitarian mission rather than an effective peacekeeping operation. Positive points about UNAMIR The operation of UN in Rwanda is mostly considered as the failure because the lack of resources of UNAMIR in field and the limited political will commitment of UN member states and international community. Even though, they are recognized as the failure; UN had done several commitments to help Rwanda as well. These commitments would be counted as small success for UNs operation. First of all, In October, 1993 the Security Council, by its resolution 872 (1993), established the international force, the United Nations Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) to help the parties implement the agreement, monitor its implementation and support the transitional Government. In addition, UNAMIR troops managed to protect thousands of Rwandese who took shelter at sites under UNAMIR control. Howard (2008) says, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦some UNAMIR troops had begun to protect civilian against genocidal attacks, which was the morally appropriate action to take civilian protection could have been included as part of a new mandate, but it was not. Next, UNAMIR also continued its efforts to ensure security and stability, support humanitarian assistance, clear landmines and help refugees to resettle. Then, when Rwanda conducted the meeting with the United Nations Development Program in 1996, international donors pledged over $617 million towards the reconstruction of the country, United Nations agencies have continued to provide humanitarian aid and to assist in the return of the refugees. After that, On 8 November 1994, the Security Council established the International Tribunal for Rwanda for the sole purpose of prosecuting persons responsible for genocide and other Rwandan citizens responsible for genocide and other such violations committed in the territory of neighboring States, between 1 January 1994 and 31 December 1994. And UN also support Rwandas national program for capacity building and contribute to the strengthening of local government and local development partner, as well as civil society actor. Conclusion In short, United Nations peacekeeping operation in Rwanda was a failure. Even though, it also had some positive points. Later in this section, we will access a very brief summary, personal analysis and recommendations. Summary UN peacekeeping operation in Rwanda (UNAMIR) was created to facilitate the implementation of the Arusha Agreement after many bitter fighting between the government and Rwandan Patriotic Front. It was mandated to ensure peace and stability in the capital Kigali, to create weapon-free zone around the city, to help clearing land mines, and to assist the returning of Rwandan refugees. However, it was not a satisfied and successful story. Ten Belgian peacekeepers were killed by the radical Hutus, and the number of international force was decrease. This paved the way for genocide to break out, which killed almost 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus of Rwandan. Disinterest of the member states to deploy the mission in time and effectively, dysfunction of the Secretary-General were the two main reasons contributing to the failure. UNAMIR was also weak in term of financial, logistical, and military, while it was only allowed to use weapon in the means of self-defense. Personal Analysis and Recommendations After examining UNAMIR, we have found its weakness and we also have come out with what could be done to improve future peacekeeping operation. We will begin with our personal analysis. We have found that the most prominent cause of the UNAMIR is the US disinterest in authorizing the mission. After the US peacekeepers were killed in Somalia, the US became reluctant to deploy another mission, fearing further casualties of their soldiers. Therefore, the peacekeeping was lack of leadership. As Jones (2007) says, The political reluctance, which attended the birth of UNAMIR, shaped its destiny. Another significant factors contributing to the failure is the inadequate of the information by the Secretary-General. The report that the Secretary-General submitted to the Security Council did not mention the violence as genocide, while it was genocide in every aspects of its but its name. If the Secretary-General had mentioned about the genocide, serious action could have been taken. After giving our own analysis, here we will articulate our recommendation. What should be done to improve the effectiveness of the UN peacekeeping operation? First, UNAMIR should have been deployed under Chapter VII (peace enforcement) rather than under the Chapter VI. UNAMIR was in no position when the genocide broke out, because its use of weapon had been restricted to only self-defense. Therefore, we suggest that future peacekeeping operation to be deployed under Chapter VII (peace enforcement). If the mission is deployed with a broader use of weapon, the peacekeepers might use it to protect civilian to raid weapons warehouse, and for many other humanitarian purposes. Second, so far we have seen that only after the mission is authorized, then the troops are mobilized. UNAMIR II was authorized, but at that time it did not have immediate available troops, and it needed to wait for the member states to contribute their troops. This is a time wasting process. Therefore, we would sugge st that the peacekeeping troops to be mobilized in advance. In other word, we suggest that UN should have the reserved troops for emergency.