Humanitarian NGOs work on social security and health security at local, regional and global levels. Natural and artificial disasters have increased worldwide in the past, and our future will not be immune. The role of civil society organizations (CSOs) is seen in mixed light, as local, regional and global CSOs exist and operate worldwide. The local group includes those active and valuable only in a single city or town; the regional group consists of those with a national or continental presence; and the global group includes those active locally, regionally and visibly on several continents. One such international organization is the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta. Understanding the NGOs activity management philosophy and the existence of humanitarian NGOs in the global security arena, and understanding the global activity management of the Order of Malta’s Organisation, The Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta, requires an analysis of international security, the structure of European security and the security issues in Hungary, and the interconnections between them.
During consideration of the organizational ecosystem’s effectiveness, a company shall consider the interests of a wide range of stakeholders. This includes the integration of the variety of organizational events in which any stakeholder is involved. Using this approach, the effectiveness of the organization can be measured in terms of satisfaction expressed by each of the stakeholders, where the role of the society as a stakeholder is recognized with increased attention to the customer relations. The current Consumer Relationship Marketing is an important marketing concept to retain and develop the customer loyalty. The customer-focused approach is one of the important tools for managing these relationships aimed at obtaining sustainable long-term profits. More recently in scientific and practical activities, we face examples and concepts such as customer-focused marketing; customer-focused information system; customer-focused strategy; structure; business; management system, etc. Therefore, it is always an important factor in research. Over many years of customer-focused research, the language and understanding between business researchers have been established; and knowledge has been structured. But despite the empirical evidence of structure, we reluctantly hear and acknowledge the metaphor of customer-focus. The aim of this study is to propose alternative aspects of customer-focus from existing research. Therefore, our research suggests to study the influential factors that enterprises experience in the context of a customer-focused strategy using the methodology of a systematic background paper review. In order to develop this document, the following databases were used – ResearchGate, Emerald, Publons, Sciencedirec. The topics defined to consider the customer-focus were selected as antecedents of satisfaction; customer loyalty; factors of total quality management and their dependence on specific marketing aspects. Thus, the research question was formulated as follows - What factors have influenced the adoption of a customer- focused strategy?
The subject of the study is economic relations between USA and China. The aim of the study is to characterize the dynamics of the world-system status of China in the XX-XXI centuries and the economic characteristics of its mode of production at present. The main idea of the article is to substantiate the untenability of considering the real state of the economic system of China as “socialism with Chinese characteristics”. Currently, China is integrated into the world-system according to the Beijing Consensus model. The model of China is a specific Asian capitalism, in which a special mode of capital accumulation is formed - with a higher role of the state in the process of capital accumulation than in the fourth cycle of capitalist accumulation. Its world-system status can be characterized as a strong semi-periphery, which entered the competition for hegemony in the next system cycle of capitalist accumulation. If the motion path leads China to the goal, it will be for the first time a specific non-Western hegemony. This research result allows determining the prospects for changing relations in the world economy as a result of the completion of the fourth system cycle of capitalist accumulation.
This scientific paper provides an analysis of the formation and functioning of intellectual property objects. The influence of creation of intellectual property on the level and manifestations of national security of the countries of the world was determined. An analytical study of the current state and leadership in the world market of intellectual property objects has been conducted, the process of protection of intellectual rights and national interests of countries has been identified. Recommendations for combining the concept of national security and the intellectualization of world trade have been formed.
With the changing global security situation, increase in external threats or emergence of new ones (cyberattacks, onconventional warfare models, etc.), countries must feel concern regarding consolidation of their security (e.g. Novikovas et al. 2017; Šišulák 2017). The fight against terrorism and the mitigation of climate change are key challenges facing global social changing. The issue of climate change is in synergy with the concepts of ecological, economic and energy security. Global development increasing demand of energy, triggered by increasing population and respective increase of economic activities, and consequent environmental degradation (Tvaronavičienė, 2016). Climate change and increasing human activities posing a serious threat to the ecological security in different fields (Li et al. 2017). Terrorist attacks in the USA, floods in 2002, shaped new attention EU Institution to Critical Infrastructure (CI) concept, as an element of security. Critical infrastructure, as a phenomenon (for example energy), has become an argument in making political decisions (Tvaronavičienė, 2012). One of the ecological security elements is municipal waste management, which, as a business sector, is characterized as a complex phenomenon, which includes: infrastructure-engineering, administrative-functional, political and technological aspects. The aim of the topic is to analyze the municipal waste management sector as a phenomenon of national security. The topic reveals theoretical insights of the municipal waste management sector, identified it as a critical infrastructure object, in the context of Lithuanian national security. The object - peculiarities of legal regulation of critical infrastructure in EU and Lithuanian legal acts. The authors applied scientific methods such as document analysis, teleological, critical-analysis, comparative and generalization.
This article presents a relatively new dimension of kidnapping, known as ritual kidnapping, which has been battling security and polity in Nigeria. The concepts of ritual and ransom kidnapping are explored and analysed within this text through the adoption of a theoretical framework on security with qualitative methods to explain the causes of kidnapping and ritual kidnapping, an overview of security in Nigeria, and a discussion surrounding the challenges regarding implementation of security within Nigeria. Drawing from results acquired during this study, it can be argued that while the concept of security is yet to be agreed on internationally to suit the needs of different states, Nigeria should adopt a hybrid security in addressing issues such as ritual kidnapping and other crimes in the country.
The wider awareness and recognition of human security threats has developed over the last several decades. Spurred on by globalization, greater human mobility, global media, economic interconnectedness and technological advancements, the securitization of non-military security threats have deepened and widened security discourses. The percieved risk posed by truly global threats have resulted in new international regimes and cooperation, national governments have reevaluated their national security strategies, and grassroots movements have revealed and mobileized individuals around the world to action. Global health security threats, and in particular, pandemic diseases, are one just one of many threats currently facing the global community that has the potential to envoke fear and feelings of insecurity and panic, particularly when securitized through twenty four hour news networks and social media. The purpose of this study is to explore the securitization process of a health security threat, the 2014 Ebola outbreak, and risk perceptions of individuals living in a global city geographically distant from the outbreak. This study reports the findings from interviews with eleven individuals based in the United Arab Emirates to explore their individual risk perceptions of the outbreak of the Ebola virus, and to understand how information about the outbreak was obtained, processed and consequently construed by these individuals. The findings suggested that with the increasing securitization of diseases, individual risk perceptions of the 2014 Ebola outbreak were a reflection of a variety of discourses concerning the security issue at the national and global levels. Therefore, in light of the increasing emergence and re-emergence of pandemic diseases and transborder global threats, it is important to consider individual perceptions of the threats and the influence of government, media (traditional and social media), and individual experiences in a global and interconnected world.
Recent migration and other security crisis have made the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region one of the most problematic and challenging for Europe. The lack of effective decisions to solve it raises the question, weather EU has ever had any good strategy for the relations with this region. This article examines the path of “Euro-Med partnerships” and the recent developments within the EU’s external policy titled “Union for the Mediterranean”. Since 1995, when “Barcelona process” was established, the European Union has been developing economic and political relations with the Mediterranean countries in North Africa and Middle East (MENA) region. Within this period EU has introduced several initiatives focused on the same region including “Barcelona process”/ “Euro- Mediterranean Partnership”, “European neighborhood policy” and the newest one- the Union for the Mediterranean. Nevertheless, the results of the policies are far from satisfying the initial goals. Various institutional structures, which have been established for building the partnership, did not contribute much for settling the recent migration and asylum crisis in the EU either. This article analyzes the reasons and the main institutional frameworks paying attention on the goals’ set and comparing it with the achievements of the EU policies in MENA region. It is stated that EU stance is rather based on “low politics” issues leaving aside the “high politics” questions for many years. We argue that the EU’s external policies directed towards the Mediterranean region, namely the Union for Mediterranean (UfM), did not live up to its expectations and is more focused on low politics, topic-specific issues, rather than solving the major political challenges of the Mediterranean region.
This article analyses military activities in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) from a legal point of view. It starts from the discussion of the principles of Mare Liberum and Mare Clausum, which are at the basis of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). This latter is the main instrument regulating the relations among states at sea. The tension between the two principles reflects the tension between coastal State control and maritime State that dominates the whole discussion on which this article is written. The analysis is supported by a recent example, namely the NordBalt case that clearly shows both the uncertainty of the issue and the relevance of the topic in the relations between states.
This paper focuses on terrorist attacks carried out by so-called ‘lone wolves’ or ‘lone actors’. It provides an analytical evaluation of the basic characteristics of these attackers and discusses possible access to their identification in society. To create the profile of a ‘typical’ lone wolf, we collected information from a database of lone wolves who committed their terrorist attacks in the United States, Canada, the European Union, Switzerland, Norway and Australia from 1998 to 2016. Based on these data, it was demonstrated that lone wolves are not homogenous group, therefore, there is no one ‘typical’ lone wolf. Instead, three main groups of lone wolves were identified: 1) lone wolves with a criminal past, 2) lone wolves with a mental illness and 3) young lone wolves coming from minority groups in the country. These characteristics could be used as an auxiliary tool by state security forces during identification of potential lone wolf terrorists.