Counterspace Operations and Nascent Space Powers

In twenty-first-century warfare, satellites have become indispensable for gaining dominance in battlespace. This highlights the need to protect space assets while countering the qualitative edge that space can provide to adversarial actions. Hence, “counterspace operations” continue to gain the attention of military planners and researchers around the globe. Although it is the major space powers that have developed requisite capability and are showing more concerns for space security, these concerns are global in nature. As such, there is a need to develop a framework that can be utilized by nascent space powers to ensure protection of their space assets. This research work is intended to draw the attention of policymakers, space-technology protagonists, and military personnel, particularly of nascent space powers, to these global concerns. It gives an overview of counterspace operations and explores the doctrinal view-point of major military space powers for safeguarding their own space programs and negating the advantage of space to the enemy. Based upon this, a step-by-step approach is proposed for nascent space powers for embodying of elements of counterspace operations to remain protected during peace, crisis, or war.     

Can Knowledge of Islam Explain Lack of Support for Terrorism? Evidence from Pakistan

In this research note we employ the work of Wiktorowicz who suggests that persons who are knowledgeable of Islam may be more capable of critically evaluating the claims of militant recruiters and ideologues and thus be more resistant to their appeals than those who are not knowledgeable. This gives rise to an interesting research question: Does knowledge of Islam reduce support for Islamist militancy? To evaluate this research question, we employ data derived from a nationally representative survey fielded among 16,279 Pakistanis in 2011. Using several survey items, we construct a “knowledge index” to measure respondents’ basic knowledge of Islam, which is our principal independent variable. To operationalize support for militancy we use two survey items that query respondents about their support for two prominent Islamist militant groups based in and from Pakistan: the Afghan Taliban as well the sectarian group, Sipah-e-Sahaba-e-Pakistan (also known as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Ahle Sunnat Wal Jamaat). We use ordinary least squares regression to evaluate the impact of our independent variables upon support for these two groups, controlling for other relevant factors. We find that knowledge of Islam does predict less support for these two groups; however, other variables such as sectarian organization and ethnicity have greater predictive power.     

Female genital cutting in Egypt: drivers and potential responses

ABSTRACT

Female genital cutting (FGC) is a major issue at the interplay of faith and health in development. The practice is in part faith-inspired, and has clear negative health impacts. The prevalence of FGC remains especially high in Egypt. This article reflects on some of the factors that lead to the perpetuation of the practice by analysing data from the 2014 Survey of Young People in Egypt. The focus is on whether religiosity, acceptance of traditional gender roles and discrimination, attitudes towards women’s autonomy, and age at marriage affect attitudes towards FGC, controlling for other factors. The results suggest that all these factors do indeed play a role.     

Enhancing Smallholder Access to Agricultural Machinery Services: Lessons from Bangladesh

Resource poor smallholders in developing countries often lack access to capital goods such as farm machinery. Enabling adequate access through machinery services can thereby significantly contribute to food security and farm incomes. At the core of the service provision model is the lead farmer, who makes the initial investment in agricultural machinery, and provides services to others on a fee-for-service basis. Profiling the lead farmers can thereby provide important lessons and scaling implications. The present paper provides a case study of Bangladesh, using primary data to characterise the lead farmers. General education, credit availability and risk taking attitude play significant roles in whether or not a farm household will be a lead farmer in Bangladesh.     

Empirical examination of public debt sustainability in African economies: A panel data analysis

This study intends to investigate public debt sustainability across 29 Sub-Sahara African (SSA) economies, employing various econometric specifications, for the sampled years 1996–2020. The study employs Bohn's (Are stationarity and cointegration restrictions really necessary for the intertemporal budget constraint? Journal of monetary Economics, 54(7), pp.1837–1847.) framework of sustainability as the baseline model to assess public debt sustainability across the sampled Sub-Sahara African economies. As additional tests of public debt sustainability in order to support the baseline findings, the study also employs panel unit root and timeseries unit tests. The baseline findings from the OLS, panel quantile and instrumental panel quantile regressions show that public debt is sustainable across the panel of SSA economies. The positive and statistically significant response of primary balance under the Bohn's framework of sustainability manifest that the intertemporal budget constraint is not violated in the sampled economies. The consistency in the estimates under the OLS, panel quantile and instrumental panel quantile regressions also show that the estimates are robust throughout the estimation process. Also, utilizing the panel unit root test for public debt sustainability, the findings show that public debt is stationary over the sampled years which implies that intertemporal budget constraint holds and that public debt is sustainable across the sampled SSA economies. However, the timeseries analysis indicate that although majority of the SSA economies have sustainable public debt ratios, four countries namely Uganda, Sudan, Togo and Cote d'Ivoire have unsustainable public debt ratios. The study has important policy implications in terms of prudent public debt management and fiscal management for the sampled SSA economies.     

Framework for teachers' acceptance of information and communication technology in Pakistan: Application of the extended UTAUT model

The motive of this research paper is to investigate the teachers' adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) in Pakistan and the application of extended UTAUT model in a new context. A number of factors can cause changes in intention towards the usage of ICT including social, behavioral, and psychological factors, but this study, using the UTAUT model, is limited to examining the behavioral determinants of teachers' acceptance of ICT. To achieve the objective, a quantitative approach was adopted where questionnaire‐based data were obtained for analysis. The analyses were conducted on 341 valid responses that were collected from the teachers of high secondary schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan. Getting the data analyzed through SPSS and AMOS, our results show that performance expectancy, efforts expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and information technology capabilities play a significant role in shaping teachers' adoption of ICT. Moreover, behavioral intentions mediate the relationship between the predictors and ICT usage. Based on the findings of this paper, administrators and government are recommended to spend additional efforts and money by launching programs for their teachers to increase the usage of ICT in their teaching and schools. The study provides numerous insights for teachers, school administrators, and government ICT‐based smart teaching and learning institutions.     

Tea culture and industry: Customer tea buying decision‐making power shaped by social capital in the presence of mutual trust

This study contributes to the literature on tea culture and industry by examining the impact of social capital on customer perception which controls the decision to buy the tea products. Prior research suggests that individual cognition is the most essential element to target to achieve the required tea purchasing decision power. Individuals who socially connect and share views via social media are more likely to share a buy recommendation that psychologically inspires the buying decisions of customers. For present study data were collected through a structured questionnaire from 300 universities students usually use social media to get required information, knowledge and ask from other friends regarding product recommendation which is more trustworthy and easily accessible. The findings of the present study provide new insights into the development of the tea industry and encourage the use of tea products.