Tourism as a Catalytic Force for Low-Politics Activities between Politically Divided Countries: The Cases of South/North Korea and Taiwan/China

Tourism has played a significant role in influencing international relations, political policies and world peace. This study analyzes the relationship of politics and tourism between two pairs of politically divided nations: South/North Korea and Taiwan/China. It compares the impact of tourism on the cross-straits relations between Taiwan and China as well as inter-Korea relations. By applying the Tourism Evolution Model of Butler and Mao, this study finds that the Mt. Kumgang tourism development is a barometer not only measuring the willingness of the two Koreas to engage each other in low-politics activities but also the current status of South-North relations. This article analyzes tourism as a low-politics activity influencing initial reconciliation between governments, and discusses the Mt. Kumgang tourism development as a symbolic joint venture for inter-Korean economic relations. It also compares and contrasts tourism as low-politics activity between China and Taiwan.     

The effects of tax instability on budgeting and financial management in developing countries

Budgeting and financial management in developing countries is made particularly difficult by fluctuations in revenues. This paper considers the variety of factors that underlie such revenue variability, including policy, economic and administrative phenomena. Empirical analysis of government revenue in stability in both Bangladesh and Burk in a Faso is conducted to document the extent of the issue and to suggest how such analysis can shed light on the underlying causes of revenue fluctuations.     

A Requiem for American Counterinsurgency

Counterinsurgency as an operational method employed by the American military to achieve policy aims at a reasonable cost in blood and treasure has failed miserably. The idea that it has worked should be buried in the ground with a requiem stating that counterinsurgency is dead. Unfortunately, a large group of writers over many years have constructed a deeply flawed narrative that suggests that it is alive and well and continues to shape and influence American foreign policy toward and activist use of American military force in the world's troubled spots.     

U.S.-Russian Strategic Arms Reductions: Nonlinear Challenges,Practical Opportunities

The Obama Administration's desire to push forward with strategic nuclear arms reductions during the President's second term requires the navigation of numerous shoals and reefs. U.S. and Russian negotiators will have to overcome both political and military obstacles to accomplish post-New START reductions in long-range nuclear weapons. For example, efforts to reduce offensive nuclear weapons are complicated by U.S. and NATO plans for missile defenses deployed in Europe and by exigencies in U.S. and Russian domestic politics. In addition, the military-technical aspects of cyber war and nuclear deterrence can no longer be treated, analytically or practically, as isolated compartments. This article considers several aspects of the relationships among possible post-START offensive force reductions, advanced conventional weapons including missile defenses, and emerging cyber capabilities.     

Remembering to Forget: A Note on the Duration of Campaign Advertising Effects

Exposure to an Obama campaign ad as part of an Internet survey conducted during the final weeks of the 2012 presidential race produced a substantial 2.8-point increase in intentions to vote for Obama. A post-election follow-up survey found an increase in reported votes for Obama that was only half as large, consistent with the notion that ad effects decay over time. However, a closer look at the pattern of decay indicates that the effect of ad exposure remained virtually constant among people who were undecided or predisposed to support Obama. The reduced aggregate effect was almost entirely attributable to Romney supporters who moved toward Obama in the immediate wake of ad exposure but returned to Romney by Election Day. This divergence is inconsistent with an interpretation of decay as reflecting simple forgetting. Rather, it suggests an active process of motivated reasoning in which short-term persuasive effects are gradually eroded or even reversed by counterarguing among people predisposed to resist them.     

Standardisation: A tool for addressing market failure within the software industry

Despite the maturity of the software industry, empirical research demonstrates that average software quality, when measured through the presence of software defects, is low. Such defects cause a wide array of issues, not least in the form of vulnerabilities, which support a multi-billion pound a year industry of fraud in cyber crime. This paper suggests that this is the result of market failure stemming from two factors: the first is that information asymmetry prevents the establishment of software quality prior to purchase; whilst the second is that the legal provisions available under private law are unable in their current form to adequately address software liability issues. On that basis this paper proposes the use of standardisation as a tool to address both of these shortcomings by providing an industry benchmark against which software quality can be ascertained, as well as forming a legal tool for determining causation for the purposes of establishing legal liability.     

Internet of things – Governance quo vadis?

The Internet of Things (IoT) as an emerging global Internet-based information architecture facilitating the exchange of goods and services is gradually developing. While the technical aspects are being discussed in detail a legal framework does not exist so far. The first supranational organization trying to work out an IoT governance framework has been the European Commission by appointing a large group of experts to examine the relevant aspects of a possible IoT governance regime. In the meantime, however, the activities have been degraded. Nevertheless, even if the differences between the IoT and the Internet have been overestimated at the beginning, many elements of the IoT differ in part from the corresponding problems in the Internet. Therefore, an analysis of the major IoT governance issues (legitimacy, transparency, accountability, anticompetitive behavior) seems to be worthwhile to conduct.     

Digital identity,privacy and the right to identity in the United States of America

This article analyses digital identity as an emergent legal concept in the United States of America, as a consequence of the move to place all federal government services on-line. The features and functions of digital identity and its legal nature are examined, and the consequences are considered.     

The retention of personal information online: A call for international regulation of privacy law

New technologies permit online businesses to reduce expenses and increase efficiency by, for example, storing information in “the cloud”, engaging in online tracking and targeted advertising, location and tracking technologies, and biometrics. However, the potential for technology to facilitate long term retention of customers' personal information raises concerns about the competing right of individuals to the privacy of their personal information. Although the European Commission has recently released a proposal for regulation to “provide a data subject with the right to be forgotten and to erasure”, neither the OECD Privacy Guidelines nor the APEC Privacy Framework includes any requirement to delete personal information. While New Zealand includes a “limited retention principle” in the Privacy Act 1993, apart from one limited exception the privacy principles cannot be enforced in court. Taking New Zealand privacy law as an example, this paper examines the issue of retention of customer data, explains why this is a serious problem and argues that although it could be addressed by appropriate amendments to domestic laws, domestic privacy legislation may not be sufficient in an online environment. In the same way as other areas of law, such as the intellectual property regime, have turned to global regulatory standards which reflect the international nature of their subject matter, international privacy regulation should be the next stage for the information privacy regime.