The prism of strategic culture and South Asian nuclearization

In this paper, Ken Booth's concept of strategic culture is drawn on to examine India and Pakistan's nuclear policy options/policies. The thrust of the argument is that the perceptions of India and Pakistan's strategic insecurities as interpreted by their security managers, through the prism of their strategic cultures, have, in conjunction with material, domestic and technological factors, defined their nuclear trajectories. In framing the argument, although appreciative of the material (realist) realm, attention is drawn simultaneously to the inter-subjective (constructivist) realm, namely, that productions of insecurities are also ‘cultural’. This constructivist line of analysis, which draws attention to culture ‘as both a source of insecurity and an object of analysis’ in international relations, has implications on the future of a nuclearized South Asia.     

Strategic drift in international non‐governmental development organizations—putting strategy in the background of organizational change

Although the use of strategic planning has become widespread in INGDOs they have often been accused of strategic drift—continuous change in their strategic directions with plans only loosely coupled to their activities. However, the way that they prioritize their activities, and the reasons why strategic drift occurs has generally escaped in‐depth research. This article draws on detailed, qualitative research of strategic planning meetings at the executive levels in a major INGDO, carried out between July 2006 and December 2007 to identify the reasons why strategic drift occurs and the role of strategic planning. It was found that by deliberately crafting multiple, ambiguous, and ambitious strategies, managers were able to effect organizational change, not by literal strategy implementation, but by using these strategies as metaphors to harness consensus and legitimacy in key stakeholder groups. Senior managers utilize the symbols, language and deliberative arenas of formal strategic planning to effect organizational change; however, strategy, in rational terms, needs to be located in the background for its role to be properly understood. The research unpacks complex decision‐making processes in an INGDO and, contrary to normative literature, recommends that, in order to avoid inflationary planning, managers should not take their strategy literally. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The mediating effect of good governance on the relationship between managerial roles and personal development： A structural equation modeling （SEM） approach

One of the challenges faced by public sector managers particularly is the problem of identifying and determining their roles, their personal development and how to effectively implement the concept of good governance in their organizations. Given a dynamic changing and continuing insight into public organizational effectiveness, public sector managers are rethinking how best they could accomplish their roles in order to attain their organization roles and objectives. This study examines the mediating roles of good governance in the relationship between managerial roles, development roles, strategic roles and personal development. In determining this relationship, a hypothetical model of the relationship among roles of public sector managers, good governance and personal development is developed. The results suggest that the managerial roles has more positive and significant influence on personal development than the development roles and strategic roles. Empirical study supports the institutional theory （Scott, 2001） in the hypothesized model. The empirical findings confirm that good governance has a significant and positive impact on the relationship between managerial roles and development roles to the personal development of public sector managers. This proves that the management system theory （Katz ＆ Kahn, 1966） is supported whereby public sector manager roles served as an input, while good governance as a process and personal development as an output. Based on empirical findings, it is suggested that personal development should be referred as an ideal social behavior of public sector managers. Overall, the study supports the hypotheses that good governance plays a mediating role in the relationship between public sector manager roles and personal development. This is consistent with governance theory （Lynn, 2001）. One particular contribution of this study is the development of structural equation model to determine the relationships between managerial roles, good governance and the personal dev     

Homogeneous National Management Policies or Autonomous Choices by Administrative Units? Inter- and Intra-Country Management Tools Use Variations in European Central Government Administrations

ABSTRACT

This article presents an original research on the use of management tools in central government departments and agencies in 16 European countries. It is based on a survey conducted among senior managers (n?=?5,998). The analysis shows that the use of management tools results from a combination of top-down implementation of a list of management tools at the national level, combined with a bottom-up independent selection of tools by administrative units. The variation in management tool use depends on the type of tool. While the uses of a HRM tool, such as performance-related pay, or a financial tool, such as risk management, are heavily influenced by national public management policies, service quality-type tools, such as user surveys or quality management systems, tend to be chosen in a more autonomous manner by different administrative units, especially agencies.     

Building foundations for the comparative study of state and non-state terrorism

In this article, we argue that a comparative study of state and non-state terrorism that uses the minimal foundationalist definition of terrorism as its central analytical framework offers a unique and instructive approach for answering the question: “what is terrorism?” To date, most recent comparative case study analyses of terrorism focus on ideologies, political/governance models, structural/contextual enablers, practices, organisational structures, and/or the basis of issues such as trust, belonging, and membership. We uniquely contribute to the growing literature on comparative terrorism studies by comparing and contrasting state and non-state terrorism on the basis of strategic communication vis-à-vis the preparation, execution, and outcomes of political violence (the “terrorism attack cycle”), the instrumentalisation of victims, and fear management. We argue that state and non-state terrorism are co-constituting and co-enabling phenomena, possibly best conceptualised as two bounded and coiled strands of the political violence DNA.     

美澳双边安全关系的新发展、战略限度与中长期态势

奥巴马上任以来,美国和澳大利亚双边安全关系出现了新进展:两国安全合作的战略地位提升,技术层面的合作不断加深,安全政策的协调更加密切,澳大利亚在地区安全秩序上进一步偏向美国。但这种新发展也有一定的战略限度,即避免过度激怒中国。由于密切的中澳经济关系、中澳两国间不存在直接的领土冲突以及相对中立更有利于澳大利亚的地区影响力,澳美安全合作短期内存在这样的战略限度。此外,美国国内政治和外交政策走向的不确定性以及澳大利亚和其他亚太国家关系的发展变化,也是影响澳美安全合作战略限度的因素。两国中长期的安全关系总的来说会朝着更加密切、重要和一体化的方向发展,但这一态势最终取决于地区力量结构以及中美澳三边关系的变化,原因在于,美澳两国之间的安全合作没有太大的现实障碍,并有相当的动力继续加强安全上的合作。同时,随着澳大利亚与《跨太平洋伙伴关系协定》成员的经贸依赖关系的加深,对中国经济依赖度的降低可能成为一个影响澳大利亚外交政策选择的长期重要因素。     

中国海峡西岸经济区加大开发力度问题探讨

该文通过论证海峡西岸经济区加大开发力度的综合优势,对海峡西岸经济区加大开发力度的区域价值进行定位,分析了海峡西岸经济区加大开发力度的障碍因素,提出了海峡西岸经济区加大开发力度的推进对策。     

机关政治思想工作在构建社会主义核心价值体系中的作用

党的十六届六中全会首次提出社会主义核心价值体系这一重大命题，并在十七大上向全党提出了建设社会主义核心价值体系的重大战略任务。充分发挥思想政治工作作用，是我们党长期以来整合社会思潮、调节利益矛盾的行之有效的重要手段，特别是处位特殊、影响力大的机关政治思想工作，在构建社会主义核心价值体系过程中尤为重要。     

战略管理思想在公共部门组织绩效评估中的应用

公共部门组织绩效评估存在一系列困难,解决这一系列困难需要引入战略管理思想,使绩效评估从职能性评估走向战略性评估。