Raising Seoul's global competitiveness: developing key performance indicators

This paper develops a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) for Seoul city administration, inaugurated in 2006. Proper establishment and application of the KPIs into its administration would not only help in accomplishing municipal leadership's strategic initiations but also enhance Seoul's global competitiveness. At the same time, the KPIs can be a good communication tool through which the leadership and city customers can communicate with each other.     

The Effect of Age Structure on the Abrogation of Military Alliances

Scholars of alliance politics have ignored a potentially important factor that shapes foreign policy: the age structure of a state. In this article, we argue that an alliance member is more likely to terminate the alliance in violation of the terms when the state’s youth ratio is high. The demographic pressure of a high youth ratio raises potential for political instability domestically, which in turn increases the risk of radical foreign policy changes. We demonstrate the effects of a state’s age structure on its alliance policy by examining alliance termination by violation from 1950 to 2000. Through quantitative analysis, we find that youth ratio is a strong and significant predictor of alliance abrogation. A brief examination of several examples illustrates two paths by which the pressure created by a high youth ratio contributes to political instability and results in alliance abrogation—leadership change that brings about a new foreign policy and appeasement of the population through abrogation of an unpopular alliance.