![COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE AND MANAGEMENT EFFICACY](/api/image/getbookcoverimage?id=document_cover-page-image_466089.jpg)
COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE AND MANAGEMENT EFFICACY
COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE AND MANAGEMENT EFFICACY
Keywords: competitive intelligence management; efficacy; competitive advantage; security
More...Keywords: competitive intelligence management; efficacy; competitive advantage; security
More...Keywords: Centre for Advanced Study; CAS; CAS-Sofia; Newsletter; CAS Newsletter; CAS Newsletter 2005
Articles, pictures and interviews can be reprinted only with the consent of Centre for Advanced Study Sofia (CAS - Sofia). Any citations should be duly acknowledged.
More...Keywords: international system; theoretical filter; theorization; interpretative grid;
The article intends to uphold the idea that the assessment of the international security environment represents a very difficult and complicated task similar to the academic endeavor to conceptualize the international/global system, theoretical instruments being necessary to be developed in approaching the subject. Theoreticians of the world systems apprehend that,just like the systemic perspective is created by the analyst, the same way the assessment of the international security environment depends on an implicit or explicit assumed theoretical filter by the analyst or the security community.Just as theoreticians of the international systems notice that the systemic perspective is firstly and inevitably a theoretical artifact, the article aims to point out a series of conceptualizations of the international systems that can be used as theoretical grids in the assessment of the international security environment
More...Keywords: illegal migration; the globalization phenomenon; Gordian node; conversion to democracy; Middle East; Africa.
Illegal migration has achieved paroxysmal odds in 2015, and even if the amplitude of the phenomenon has decreased it continues to incite, an already largely divided European community, at ample and heated discussions. This “Gordian node”, a real challenge forth European Union, is a direct result of the explosive mix between: the attempts of “converting to democracy”, globalization phenomenon and the increasing poverty at alarming levels in the deliberately destabilized regions of Middle East and Africa. The interests of the great powers, in order to protect Western multinationals or the race after hydrocarbon, have made vast and prosperous regions to ruin, becoming again pre-modern enclaves characterized by confusion,chaos and despair. Notions as Europe or USA are no longer causing former reverberations in the Arab world and have lost most of its advantages except some corrupt, unfair and abusive “export democracies”. These produced imbalances require a redefinition of the concept of sovereignty, and in order to stabilize the situation, the need for concessions and balance is acutely felt.
More...Keywords: technological singularity; security, exponential evolution; logistic evolution;
This paper addresses the issue of security and the international security environment through the hypothesis of technological singularity. Technological development and its consequences on the future of humanity are topics that have been deeply debated over the last few years in the Western academic world. The advocates of the technological singularity hypothesis, forth most part, believe that the accelerated pace of technological development, especially in the field of artificial intelligence (AI), will lead to a period of such profound changes of society beyond which it is almost impossible to foresee what the future of humanity will look like.Analyzing a number of issues regarding the technological singularity hypothesis, I have tried to highlight the consequences of accelerated technological development on current security paradigms, as well as the military challenges that come with technological advancement.
More...Keywords: Preševo; Bujanovac; Albanians in Macedonia; Albanians in Montenegro; Kosovo-conflict;
The discussions summarized in this report took place on December 1 and 2, 2000, in the Vougliameni suburb of Athens, Greece, at a gathering of senior political leaders from Southeast Europe. The Project on Ethnic Relations (PER) convened the meeting, in an informal and neutral setting, to help these leaders in their mutual search for solutions to the bitter aftermath of ethnic strife and warfare that devastated parts of their region during the 1990s, and to encourage them to exchange ideas about how to prevent continuing interethnic rivalries from breaking out in renewed violence. Behind the prosaic title of the Athens discussions —“Albanians as Majorities and Minorities: A Regional Dialogue”— lie some of the most explosive issues of the day: the future of the status of Kosovo; relations between Serbs and Kosovar Albanians in Kosovo and between Serbs and Albanians in Serbia proper; the survival of the Yugoslav Federation, the territorial integrity of Serbia and Macedonia; and the ebb and flow of influence between Albania and Albanians living outside its borders. The outcomes of these questions will affect the entire region, including even Greece and Italy and, indeed, the international community itself, for decades to come.
More...Keywords: hybrid warfare; power; post-conflict societies; military and nonmilitary actions;
The Hybrid War is a system of social, military and non-military actions,carried out in a discreet operational area characterized by political and economic states driven by events. The final result of the actions is the dissolution of statehood.Starting with the Cold-War Era, the most effective strategy of defeating undesirable state sovereignty proved to be its destruction, peaceful or violent, by itself (from inside),through discrete social actions, followed, as appropriate, by events management and the restoration of social order through military action. Thus, the role of the military structures has gradually changed, involving the change of organization and training, from the role of the main force of destroying the opponent to the force specialized in post-conflict social status management.On the other hand, in the Age of Information, within the Knowledge-based Society,space and time have become discontinuous and asynchronous through the universalization of electronically mediated communication and the virtualization of human interactions. This development made possible this type of war, the hybrid, characterized by the physical absence of the external military opponent in the decisive action phase and its emergence, with a stabilizing role, in the phase of managing the results.
More...Keywords: european union deterrence Initiative; european army; military capabilities; military budget; smart defense; pooling and sharing;
At a global level, we are witnessing an arms race that has not been seen since the Iron Curtain was lifted. The threats to our country are mainly coming from the East,where Russia exercises its status as a regional power and tends to change the world order by redefining the power poles and redefining the spheres of influence. At this point, Romania can assume the position of guarantor of security at the level of the eastern part of NATO and of the European Union, which generates stability in the region, including in the Balkans. But in order to achieve these goals, besides a very well-established diplomacy, there is a need for military capabilities that can lead to discouragement.
More...Keywords: mass-media; culture; traditional; identity; communication and security;
Today, our society can be described in a multitude manners and ways, using a mixture of chosen words that can have sometimes a powerful impact over the audience. In our case, we would like to describe our society through the words: complex, interconnected and unaware. It seems that because of the high consumption of the means of mass communication, all of the fields of activity of the society are affected, including areas such as security. In this article we will try to describe and to demonstrate that the media culture, which is expanding rapidly, can and will continuously affect and lead to the transformation of the (security) environment.
More...Keywords: threat; national security; investigative powers; beneficiaries.
This essay discusses the necessity of defining the content of the concept of threat to national security, not from the point of view of a particular criterion, but from the perspective of describing social behavior and the subjects involved in dealing with and addressing the situations that disrupts the state of national security. It also tries to specify some content elements for the national security threat concept and to bring to the readers’ attention the importance of this concept to the Romanian national security architecture.
More...Keywords: Russia; Ukraine; NATO; deterrence and defence; Eastern Europe; Black Sea; strategy.
The hereby paper elaborates on the North-Atlantic Alliance’s response to the Russian Federation’s aggressive actions against Ukraine in 2014, going through the main steps that the Allies have chronologically taken in order to enhance deterrence and defence, in what was a completely new relation with the Russian Federation, once a partner of NATO.Generally explaining the measures on deterrence and defence, the paper also approaches in a more detailed manner the Allied decisions dedicated to the Northern and the Southern segments of the Eastern border, so as to arrive to the conclusion that, be it the Baltic states, Poland, Romania or Bulgaria, they are all facing the same security threat and measures must be seen in a coherent and unitary approach. Debating on Russia’s main reason for its actions in the region, the hereby paper will conclude on the necessity for NATO to have a clear strategy on Russia’s assertive actions on the Eastern border.
More...Keywords: international law; international norms; sovereignty and self-determination; maritime security; regional security; leadership.
This article presents some considerations regarding the geopolitical and strategic importance of the Black Sea region and potential threats or risks to security, stability,prosperity and cooperation. The study tries to demonstrate the availability of some solutions for the improvement of peace and stability in this part of the world. The international norms regarding the sovereignty and the self-determination, and the logic of conflict in the Black Sea region, needs to be discussed more and have to be analysed in detail.Much has been written about the importance of the Montreux Convention (1936) and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea or the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in many books, memoirs or studies, and every day around the world, people or organizations discuss the major problems after the Russian-Ukraine conflict.Political leadership could be the key point for security and prosperity in the Black Sea region,in Euro-Atlantic and Euro-Asian areas. Only together, bridges can be built over the Black Sea for present and future generations
More...Keywords: Democratic institutions; Transnistria conflict; capacity of administration; juridical system; economic reforms; foreign trade; social development; human traffic; migration; border control;
The reports in the "Euromonitor" series aim at independent and objective monitoring of the implementation process of the Republic of Moldova - European Union Action Plan. The actions adopted and implemented by both signatories of the Plan will be monitored quarterly. The action plan is a complex document, structured in 7 chapters, which provides for the implementation of about 300 actions, some defined more or less precisely, others very ambiguous. Unable to monitor such a complex document, the authors of "Euromonitor" focused on priority actions, identified in the Action Plan itself.
More...Keywords: Democratic institutions; Transnistria conflict; capacity of administration; juridical system; economic reforms; foreign trade; social development; human traffic; migration; border control;
The reports in the "Euromonitor" series aim at independent and objective monitoring of the implementation process of the Republic of Moldova - European Union Action Plan. The actions adopted and implemented by both signatories of the Plan will be monitored quarterly. The action plan is a complex document, structured in 7 chapters, which provides for the implementation of about 300 actions, some defined more or less precisely, others very ambiguous. Unable to monitor such a complex document, the authors of "Euromonitor" focused on priority actions, identified in the Action Plan itself.
More...Keywords: Syrian crisis;Refugees;Security;Terrorism;
The Syrian crisis is the most complex crisis (political, social, humanitarian, security) in the world, since World War II.In regards to the 1951 „Geneva Convention on the Status of Refugees”, states have an obligation to provide refugees with a form of primary protection, which is not intended to replace asylum, but rather to provide an intermediate and immediate protection measure.At European level, for asylum seekers and refugees, there are several programs (developed by international institutions such as "UN for refugees" and "UNHCR") for integration into the host country during the temporary stay and return to the country of origin, when there are safety conditions. If this solution is not viable, they can opt for relocation to a third country.Effective management of the crisis created by the refugees flow requires the adoption of a common political agenda for European states to eliminate inequalities between states and focus on building viable economic strategies.Therefore, it is necessary to develop policies or strategies designed to provide refugees with a sense of security in the host country and their social assimilation, without being forced to give up their cultural identities.This article aims to analyse the strategies of the European states involved in this phenomenon, applied in the "Syrian refugee crisis". At the moment, the biggest part of the effort of counter-terrorism is focused on the criminal justice system. This means focusing almost exclusively on those who already intend to commit a crime and not on prevention. The legal repercussions can further encourage radicalization, which can degenerate later.
More...Keywords: Pandemic;COVID-19;Museum Visiting;Cultural Policy;Princely Court of Targoviste;
The new coronavirus (Covid-19) is one of the main challenges world today has to address. With no large scale availability vaccine yet, and more or less experimental medical treatments for curing the disease, we can safely say that we are still far behind a solution to this problem. This new pandemic is considered the biggest threat to the global economy since the Second World War and there is no aspects of human life have not been affected it, spiritual ones included. Its high contagiousness, as well as novelty, raised all kind of challenges and one of the main ones was our manner to produce answers, in early stages at least, this creating problem on its own and of its design. As well as all the other institutions, theatres, cinemas, concert halls, spaces of socialization and in the same time places of wonder, knowledge and spiritual enrichment the museums were heavily affected by the pandemic crisis, especially those who’s collections are not, but in very small proportion available, to the public through virtual media. Such a case is „Princely Court„ National Museums Ensemble from Targoviste, Dambovita County, Romania. The present paper proposes an overview of the highlights in institution′s activity the past years in comparison with how the pandemic crisis affected its activity in the past months and what were the responses given to keep the museum in the eye of the public. It will also try to summarize how and to what extent the activity went back to „normal” after the emergency state earlier imposed was lifted and how the visitors responded to the new realities.
More...Keywords: administrative issues;trust in political leaders;voting intentions;
The survey was conducted between 1-5 August 2020 on a sample of 911 inhabitants of the city. He measured people’s opinion about the mayoral candidates, voting intentions, comparisons between the main competitors, the expectations of the population from the future mayor, the evaluation of the current mayor’s involvement in various administrative issues.
More...Keywords: administrative issues;trust in political leaders;voting intentions;
The survey was conducted on August 1-4, 2020 by interviewing 502 people living in the commune. He measured the way in which the City Hall managed a series of issues, the priorities of the population, the perception of the current mayor, of the main competitors, comparisons between them, voting intentions.
More...