Information technology and transitions in the public service: A comparison of scandinavia and the united states

New information technologies have the potential for transforming the ways governments are organized, the activities they perform, how they perform them, and the nature of work itself. Governments in the U.S. and Scandinavia have followed fundamentally different approaches to the introduction of computing and to dealing with its effects. These differences in approach to automation have influenced each country's view of the role of government in anticipating and dealing with the effects of changes in computer technology on the public service workforce.     

information technology and the political world: the impacts of it on capabilities,interactions, orientations and values

A framework is developed for analyzing the impacts of information technology on politics and the public sector. By analyzing the findings in all relevant empirical research studies published in 16 scholarly journals during a six-year period, the incidence and direction of key impacts of IT are specified. In general, there is a limited number of empirical studies, with more case studies than studies based on survey-research, more analyses of U.S. politics and government than ones on other advanced democracies, and more focus on the local level than the national level. Overall, the research concludes that the impacts of information technology are generally positive, especially regarding the enhancement of capabilities, such as efficiency, effectiveness, and information quality. Impacts are more mixed on patterns of individual and group interactions and on orientations toward decision and action. The area in which the research identifies the most negative effects is the impacts on values, such as privacy, legal security and job enhancement.     

American elites' strategic thinking towards Korea: From Kennan to Brzezinski

America's foreign policy elites have made different assessments of South Korea's value as an alliance partner, largely depending on their strategic beliefs and visions. Balance-of-power realists like George Kennan have tended to let the regional problems be taken care of by the regional major powers, thus attaching less strategic value to such peripheral states as Korea. On the other hand, globalists like Paul Nitze have emphasized America's preponderant role in maintaining global stability, attaching greater importance to the US-Korean alliance. This article investigates the American foreign policy elites' strategic thinking toward Korea by reviewing the thoughts of Kennan, Nitze, Kissinger and Brzezinski. It then draws out implications for the future US defence commitment to Korea.     

Global Luck Egalitarianism and Border Control

This paper discusses what implications global luck egalitarianism (GLE) has for border control. Some authors suggest that an open‐borders policy follows from GLE. The idea is that various unchosen inequalities inevitably follow from differences in birthplace, such that GLE will always have principled reason to condemn closed borders. Others are skeptical of the assumption that GLE will have liberal implications for border control, because open borders may have other, adverse effects that outweigh the reductions in unjust inequality. Against such skeptics, we argue that GLE will (typically) have quite liberal implications for border control. However, this connection is not a principled one: Whether (and to what extent) GLE favors opening or closing borders will depend upon empirical circumstances.     

The European Union,regional integration,and conflict transformation in the South China Sea territorial disputes

Asia Europe Journal - This study assumes that the EU can contribute to a constructive transformation of regional conflicts in the South China Sea. To prove this assumption, the author investigates...     

A Simple Method of VNTR D1S80 Locus Allelic Ladder Construction for Capillary Electrophoresis‐based Genotyping

VNTR D1S80 locus genotyping has been largely replaced in forensics by STR. As the statute of limitations on murder cases was abolished in the Republic of Korea in July 2015, the demand for re‐analysis of DNA from unresolved murder cases has increased. The National Forensic Service includes several recorded D1S80 genotypes as crucial clues. Here, we re‐established the D1S80 analysis system using capillary electrophoresis and confirmed the reproducibility of the system by comparison with the genotypes of eight DNA samples that had been analyzed using PAGE in 2006. In addition, we created an allelic ladder via new methodology using flanking region sequences. A single DNA sample (K562) and seven primers were used for the new ladder, which contains 12 alleles. Although artificial owing to the use of the flanking region rather than repeat unit reduction, the method is rapid and simple, and could be applicable in any laboratory.