Vishwanathan Anand

Viswanathan Anand Country India Born11 December 1969 (age 40) Mayiladuthurai, Tamil Nadu, India TitleGrandmaster (1988) World Champion 2000–2002 (FIDE) 2007–present (undisputed) FIDE rating 2804 (No. 1 in the November 2010 FIDE World Rankings) Peak rating 2804 (November 2010) Viswanathan Anand, (Tamil: , IPA: [? i n? a? t n ? a? n? n? d? ]; born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess Grandmaster and the current World Chess Champion. He held the FIDE World Chess Championship from 2000 to 2002, at a time when the world title was split.He became the undisputed World Champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008. He then successfully defended his title in the World Chess Championship 2010 against Veselin Topalov. As the reigning champion, he will face the winner of the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2012. Anand is one of six players in history to break the 2800 mark on the FIDE rating list, and in April 2007 at the age of 3 7, he became the world number-one for the first time. He was at the top of the world rankings five out of six times, from April 2007 to July 2008, holding the number-one ranking for a total of 15 months.In October 2008, he dropped out of the world top three ranking for the first time since July 1996. Anand officially regained the world number one ranking on November 1, 2010, after having defeated the reigning world #1 Magnus Carlsen in the Bilbao Masters. Anand became India's first grandmaster in 1987. [1] He was also the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India's highest sporting honor. In 2007, he was awarded India's second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, making him the first sportsperson to receive the award in Indian history.Today he remains one of elite chess players in the world. [2] Anand has been described by Lubomir Kavalek as the most versatile world champion ever, since Anand is the only player to have won the world chess championships in many formats including Knockout, Tournament, Match, Rapid and Blitz. [3] Contents [hide] †¢1 Personal life †¢2 Chess career o2. 1 Early career o2. 2 World Chess Champion ?2. 2. 1 FIDE World Chess Champion 2000 ?2. 2. 2 World Chess Champion 2007 ?2. 2. 3 World Chess Champion 2008 ?2. 2. 4 World Chess Champion 2010 ?2. 2. 5 World Chess Championship 2012 o2. 3 FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion 2003 2. 4 Other results o2. 5 Rating †¢3 Personality †¢4 Controversies †¢5 Notable tournament victories †¢6 Awards †¢7 Sample game †¢8 See also †¢9 References †¢10 Further reading †¢11 External links [edit] Personal life Anand was born on 11 December 1969 in Mayiladuthurai, a small town in Tamil Nadu, India in a Tamil Iyer (South Indian Brahmin) family. Shortly thereafter, his family moved to Chennai, erstwhile Madras, where he grew up. [4] His father, Viswanathan Iyer, is a retired General Manager of Southern Railways, and his mother Susheela, housewife and chess/film/club aficionado and an influential socialite.He has an elder brother, Shivakumar who is a manager at Crompton Greaves in India and an elder sister Anuradha who is a teacher at the University of Michigan. [5][6] Anand is 11 years younger than his sister and 13 years younger than his brother. He was taught to play chess by his mother. He described his start in chess in a conversation with Susan Polgar: I started when I was six. My mother taught me how to play. In fact, my mother used to do a lot for my chess. We moved to the Philippines shortly afterward. I joined the club in India and we moved to the Philippines for a year.And there they had a TV program that was on in the afternoon, one to two or something like that, when I was in school. So she would write down all the games that they showed and the puzzles, and in the evening we solved them together. Of course my mother and her family used to play some chess, and she used to play with her younger brother, so she had some background in chess, but she never went to a club or anything like that. So we solved all these puzzles and sent in our answers together. And they gave the prize of a book to the winner. And over the course of many months, I won so many prizes.At one point they just said take all the books you want, but don't send in any more entries. [7] Anand did his schooling in Don Bosco, Egmore, Chennai and holds a degree in commerce from Loyola College, Chennai. His hobbies are reading, swimming, and listening to music. He is married to Aruna Anand and lives in Collado Mediano in Spain. [8] In August 2010, Anand joined Board of Directors of Olympic Gold Quest, a foundation for promoting and supporting the India's elite sportspersons and potential young talent. [9][10][11] [edit] Chess career [edit] Early career Anand's rise in the Indian chess world was meteoric.National level success came early for him when he won the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship wi th a score of 9/9 in 1983 at the age of fourteen. He became the youngest Indian to win the International Master title at the age of fifteen, in 1984. At the age of sixteen he became the national chess champion and won that title two more times. He played games at blitz speed. In 1987, he became the first Indian to win the World Junior Chess Championship. In 1988, at the age of eighteen, he became India's first Grandmaster by winning Shakti Finance International chess tournament held in Coimbatore, India.He was awarded Padma Shri at the age of 18. Anand at the Manila Olympiad 1992, age 22 â€Å"Vishy†, as he is sometimes called by his friends, burst upon the upper echelons of the chess scene in the early 1990s, winning such tournaments as Reggio Emilia 1991 (ahead of Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov). Playing at such a high level did not slow him down, and he continued to play games at blitz speed. In the World Chess Championship 1993 cycle Anand qualified for his first Candi dates Tournament, winning his first match but narrowly losing his quarter-final match to Anatoly Karpov. 12] In 1994–95 Anand and Gata Kamsky dominated the qualifying cycles for the rival FIDE and PCA world championships. In the FIDE cycle (FIDE World Chess Championship 1996), Anand lost his quarter-final match to Kamsky after leading early. [13]Kamsky went on to lose the 1996 FIDE championship match against Karpov. In the 1995 PCA cycle, Anand won matches against Oleg Romanishin and Michael Adams without a loss, then avenged his FIDE loss by defeating Gata Kamsky in the Candidates final. 14] In 1995, he played the PCA World Chess Championship 1995 against Kasparov in New York City's World Trade Center. After an opening run of eight draws (a record for the opening of a world championship match), Anand won game nine with a powerful exchange sacrifice, but then lost four of the next five. He lost the match 10? –7?. In the 1998 FIDE cycle, the reigning champion Karpov was granted direct seeding by FIDE into the final against the winner of the seven-round single elimination Candidates tournament.The psychological and physical advantage gained by Karpov from this decision caused significant controversy, leading to the withdrawal of future World Champion Vladimir Kramnik from the candidates tournament. Anand won the candidates tournament, defeating Michael Adams in the final, and immediately faced a well-rested Karpov for the championship. Despite this tremendous disadvantage for Anand, which he described as being â€Å"brought in a coffin† to play Karpov,[15] Anand was able to draw the regular match 3-3, forcing a rapid playoff. However, the rapid playoff was won 2-0 by Karpov, allowing him to defend his FIDE

The Meiji Restoration

university of georgia| The Meiji Period made Japan big! | Midterm Question 2| | christian driver| 10/23/2012| | The Meiji restoration in Japan is known as the end of Japan’s isolationism, and its entrance into the world as a global player. However, the Meiji restoration is chiefly responsible for the development and advancement of Japan as an eastern world power. Japan’s economy was greatly bolstered and new philosophies and ideals from the west flooded in. These ideas opened minds to different ways of thought.The reason the Meiji restoration took place is due to the western powers and cultural and political turmoil. When the â€Å"black ships† arrived in Japan, the Tokugawa shogun realized that they were technologically outclassed by the western nations, he agreed to treaties that put the west at an advantage, and Japan at a disadvantage. Many leaders were angered by these treaties and feared that Japan would share the same fate as many other Asian countries. Th us, the Meiji emperor was â€Å"restored† to power, but he did not rule directly.He was expected to accept the advice of the daimyo that had overthrown the shogun, and it was from this group that a small number of ambitious, able and patriotic young men from the lower ranks of the samurai emerged, to take control and establish the new political system. At first, their only strength was that the emperor accepted their advice. In addition several powerful feudal domains provided military support. They moved quickly, however to build their own military and economic control.By July 1869, the feudal lord had been requested to give up their domains, and in 1871 these domains were abolished and transformed into prefectures of a unified central state. The abolition of feudalism made tremendous social and political changes possible. Because of the Meiji reforms millions of people were suddenly free to choose their occupation and move about without restrictions. By providing a new envi ronment of political and financial security, the government made investments in new industries and technologies possible.The government led the way by building railways and shipping lines, telegraph and telephone systems; three shipyards, ten mines, five munitions works, and fifty three consumer industries (making sugar, glass, textiles. cement. chemicals, and other important products)[Taira,85]. This was very expensive, however and strained government finances, so that in 1880 the government decided to sell most of these industries to private investors, encouraging such activity though subsidies and other incentives.Some of the daimyo and merchants who built these industries established major corporate conglomerates called zaibatsu, which controlled much of japans modern industrial sector. The government also introduced national educational systems and a constitution creating an elected parliament called the diet. They did this to provide a good environment for national growth, win the respect of the westerners, and build support for the modern state.In the Tokugawa period, popular education had spread rapidly, and by 1872 the government established a national system to educate the entire population. By the end of the Meiji period, almost everyone attended the free public schools for at least six years. The government closely controlled the schools; making sure that in addition to the skills like mathematics and reading all students studied â€Å"moral training†, which stressed the importance of their duty to the emperor, the country and their families [Fridell, 823].Catching up on the military sector was a high priority for Japan in the era of European and American imperialism. To win the recognition of the western powers and convince them to change the unequal treaties that Japan had been forced to sign in the 1850’s, Japan changed its entire legal system, adopting a new criminal and civil code modeled after those of France and Germany. The we stern nations finally agreed to revise the treaties in 1894, acknowledging Japan as a equal in principle, although not as an international power.Universal conscription was introduced, a new modeled army after the Prussian force, and a navy modeled after the British was established which led to new conflicts of interest in Korea and Manchuria. This time between Russia and Japan , led to the Russo-Japanese war in 1904-05. The Japanese army won this war, gaining territory and finally some international respect. Japan further increased its influence on Korea and annexed it completely in 1910 [parsons,23]. In Japan, the success in war caused nationalism to increase ven more, and other Asian nations also started to develop national self confidence. The relatively quick success of the Japanese was not to be attributed mainly to external factors, such as the impact of the west on Japan, because other countries of comparable experience or size reacted quite differently to external variants a nd pressures. The reasons should rather be sought in internal changes, such as the great homogeneity of the Japanese people and their strong self-identity. Their awareness of the possibilities of learning abroad was also a distinct advantage.Even the social tensions of the late Tokugawa times were an asset to a country facing great changes. And it should be remembered that, though Japan was preindustrial in economy and feudal in political pattern, its economic and political institutions were highly complex and sophisticated. The country had standards of bureaucratic rule that did not suffer by comparison with the west in honesty or efficiency. With perhaps 45 percent of its men and 15 percent of its women literate, Japan also was not far behind the leading countries of the West in literacy levels.Another important factor was that the change could be justified by Japanese minds, not through newly learned foreign concepts, such as democracy or, later, communism, but by Japan’s own ancient system of imperial rule. The utilization of a native ideology undoubtedly smoothed an otherwise wrenching change and made it somewhat less traumatic. Japan became a very robust nation with as much potential as any western country. The Meiji reforms helped create an industrial, capitalist state with a powerful economy and military.The government also introduced a constitution by creating an elected parliament called the diet to win the respect of westerns and to generate a good environment for national growth. Japan gained recognition by the West and stayed an independent country. The Meiji restoration was very significant and fundamental for Japanese economy and the recognition of the rest of the world. Millions of people were suddenly free to choose their occupation and move without trouble.The main effect of the Meiji restoration was that it formed a strong, unified and centralized government which regulated all the aspects of society and in addition the government set up new universities and new school to teach people the modern technology. Work sited Cite your info here, this is an example of how to do it! Straight copied and pasted from the jstor: The Abdominal Skeleton of Tropidurid Lizards (Squamata: Tropiduridae) Omar Torres-Carvajal Herpetologica , Vol. 60, No. 1 (Mar. , 2004), pp. 75-83 Published by: Herpetologists' League Article Stable URL: http://www. jstor. org. proxy-remote. galib. uga. du/stable/3893573 This is how you edit it ! Omar Torres-Carvajal,The Abdominal Skeleton of Tropidurid Lizards (Squamata: Tropiduridae), Herpetologica , Vol. 60, No. 1 (Mar. , 2004), pp. 75-83,Herpetologists' League, http://www. jstor. org. proxy-remote. galib. uga. edu/stable/3893573 Remember to catalogue multiple citations in alphabetical order and to indent every line after the first one. Take out extra words such as â€Å"Published by†, etc. and try to remove the hyperlinks! Everything else is edited, but since I did not receive the citation s you have to edit this yourself! Good luck and see you tomorrow in class!

The Ceo’s Decision-Making Process Model on Service Offshore Outsourcing: Using Theory of Reasoned Action (Tra)

THE CEO’S DECISION-MAKING PROCESS MODEL ON SERVICE OFFSHORE OUTSOURCING: USING THEORY OF REASONED ACTION (TRA) Mark Yang Department of Information, Operations and Technology Management College of Business Administration The University of Toledo 2801 W. Bancroft St. Toledo, Ohio, USA 43606 Phone: (419) 787-3453 Fax: (419) 530-2290 E-mail: [email  protected] utoledo. edu Jeen Lim Department of Marketing and International Business College of Business Administration The University of Toledo 2801 W. Bancroft St. Toledo, Ohio, USA 43606 Phone: (419) 530-2922 Fax: (419) 530-4610 E-mail: jeen. [email  protected] du ABSTRACT This present study attempts to fill the gap through providing the CEO’s decision-making process model with regard to service offshore outsourcing activities which becomes important strategy to maintain firm’s competitive advantage. Arguably, the CEO is the main domain of decision making authority on such important agenda of the firm as service off shoring. The research model includes 1) key antecedents of service offshoring deriving from various outsourcing literatures, 2) CEO’s propensity (attitude and subjective norm), intention and behavior, and 3) regulatory environmental factors.As a theoretical base, Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) will be used. Managerial implication as well as future research direction will be provided. Keywords: Offshore outsourcing, Key Antecedents of Service offshoring, Decision-making process, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) INTRODUCTION Recently, service offshoring has brought the tremendous increasing attention and concern to both practitioners and researchers due to the rapidly-changing structure of the U. S. mployment and the growing importance of its significant impact on the U. S. economy. This trend has been more and more visible due to â€Å"the rise of globally integrated knowledge economy†, which has both good and bad impact on the U. S. econo my: it may be good because U. S. firms may enjoy the cost benefits, utilizing large best pools with relatively low cost; it may be also bad because they are likely to lose control of their core businesses or lose white-collar jobs of the U. S. counterpart.Up to now, large body of research has addressed the various issues of service offshoring. However, current scholarly works tend to be fragmented and especially, few attempted to examine inside of firm’s decision-making process with regard to service offshore outsourcing. Such decision-making process model may be useful to contribute to the previous – 4491 – body of research on service offshore outsourcing in that to my knowledge, very few papers produced from top management perspective (except [47]) and this process model may help top management, esp.Chief Executive Officer (CEO) avoid to make hasty decision, resulting in saving huge economic losses. This paper is organized as follows. The following section pro vides literature reviews. The third section presents the research model which includes such variables as 1) key antecedents which are major criteria for determining service offshoring drawn from the extant literatures on outsourcing activities; 2) CEO’s propensity; 3) CEO’s Intention and Behavior; and 4) regulatory environment (moderating variable). Series of research propositions are developed.The conclusion section provides the managerial implication as well as future research direction. LITERATURE REVIEW The role of top management on affecting firms’ strategy choices and performance has been well-documented [13] [14] [40] [9] [15]. Quality of leadership of top management, esp. CEO, determines the fate of the firm. For example, under Jack Welch’s leadership General Electric Company (GE) within 20 years has been drastically transformed into one of the largest and most admired company with $ 500 billion’s market value from a market capitalization o f $12 billion.It shows the critical role of CEO in advancing the firm in terms of organizational performance. Excellent outcomes start with wise and prudent decision-making. In that regard, CEO is considered the main domain of decision-making authority on important agenda of the firm such as offshoring service. Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) [12] [2] is a general model that does not specify the beliefs that are operative for a certain behavior [8]. The TRA postulates that one’s behavior is determined by his /her behavioral intention (BI) to perform the behavior.BI is divided into two conceptually distinct variables: 1) one’s attitude (A) toward performing the behavior, and 2) one’ subjective norm (SN) about performing the behavior. Once attitudes and subjective norms are formed, CEO may have inclination whether or not to make certain choices. Actual behavior is the transmission of such intention into action. Significance of the role of environment on the strate gy formulation and organizational outcome has been extensively examined [25] [29] [16] [24]. The CEO’s decision to offshore services will be greatly contingent on the regulatory environment a firm faces.The regulatory environment can, to some extent, act to facilitate or hinder offshoring. Regulation environment becomes a moderating variable that can weaken or enhance the relationship between (1) the drivers of offshoring and top management’s propensity; and (2) top management’s propensity and intention and actual behavior. RESEARCH MODEL The research model is about the CEO’s decision making process on service offshore outsourcing. It includes four key antecedents (i. e. , decision-criteria) of service offshore outsourcing and the CEO’s propensity, intention and behavior.This model also attempts to examine the moderating role of regulatory environment between (1) the key antecedents and the CEO’s propensity; and (2) the CEO’s propensi ty and the CEO’s intention and behavior. Cost Advantage ([18] [19]) Cost advantage refers to the extent to which a client firm can achieve cost reduction, productivity or profitability through service offshore outsourcing activities. One of the most commonly quoted reasons is that managers feel that they can gain cost advantages by employing – 4492 – outside suppliers to perform certain services and produce certain products.Cost reduction remains the major explanation for the drivers of outsourcing. Some researchers argue that an important foundation of cost reductions is the outsourcing firm’s access to economies of scale and the distinctive know-how or expertise that a large outsourcing vendor (i. e. , supplier) can bring. [4] [32] Nohria and William [30] discovered that to be a steady industry winner, a firm must increase its productivity by around twice above than the industry’s average. There are a number of studies that focus on explaining th e relationship between outsourcing and productivity growth.Today’s knowledge and service-based economy offers numerous opportunities for wellrun companies to increase profits through outsourcing [30]. When used properly, outsourcing can boost profitability to the firm in many ways (i. e. , staffing, capabilities, facilities, and payroll, etc). The most obvious reason why a firm offshores services is also for cost advantage. In regard to offshoring activities, wage differential (i. e. , lower labor cost with comparable quality of work) between U. S. and other developing countries motivates top management to offshore. Risk Control ([17])Risk control refers to the degree to which a client firm control the risk such as amount of involved outsourcing value (i. e. , scale of the contract), outsourcing complexity (i. e. , level of contract difficulty) and outsourcing duration (length of the contract) that might occur through outsourcing. Management needs to assess and evaluate the r isks and their impact at various levels such as strategic, tactical and operational levels [43]. The level of contract complexity also can influence on the level of risk. Complexity refers to the degree to which activities are diversified with the outsourcing function.The more complex a contract is, the more risky its implementation is. Length of contract duration [19] can affect the complexity of an outsourcing relationship. When an outsourcing contract’s duration requires a longer period of time, both diversity of business relationships and complexity of contract management increase. As a result, longer duration contracts expose the outsourcing company to greater level of risk due to managerial uncertainty. Infrastructure Maturity ([17] [23]) Infrastructure maturity refers to the degree to which both firms (i. e. , client and vendor) have developed telecommunications (i. e. Internet and mobile telecommunication) and transportation (i. e. , logistics, 3PLs) infrastructure. T echnology advancement makes organizational and national borders less significant when it comes to the decision regarding relocation of service functions. Telecommunication infrastructure is essential for electronically transmitted services. Lack of telecommunication system will be a hurdle for trade with U. S. Transportation infrastructure refers to the availability of logistics. The increase in competition and growing awareness of the role of logistics lead more companies to exploit the potential of outsourcing.Cultural Compatibility ([20]) Cultural compatibility refers to the degree to which both firms (i. e. , client and vendor) can interchangeably accept cultural dissimilarities including language (i. e. , English), ethnic linkage, or cultural difference. In the context of a firm’s offshoring decision, language similarity between a client and vendor firm is important. Language similarity is measured by the extent to which a vendor firm is exposed to English (i. e. , Engli sh fluency). Ethnic linkage is also important for offshoring outsourcing service activities. Ethnic linkage between the managers of both firms (i. . , client and vendor) in origin and destination countries increases cultural compatibility. Such – 4493 – linkage improves social capital [45]. Cultural difference refers to the degree to which firms may not accept a counterpart’s culture. These cultural differences may increase difficulties associated with managing employees. We propose that four factors that have influenced firms’ outsourcing decision will affect to some extent firms’ service offshoring decision. Therefore, we regard these four factors as the key antecedents of the CEO’s decision for service offshore outsourcing.Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) In firms’ decision-making for service offshoring, CEO is the key person who actually involves in that process with collaborative effort of top management and board of directors. Ac cording to TRA, attitude toward offshore outsourcing services is generated by the individual’s salient belief about the consequences of adopting service offshoring practices (behavioral beliefs) and evaluation of these consequences (i. e. , positive or negative outcomes). Positive feelings toward offshoring will lead top management to form optimistic attitude, in turn intention to behave (i. e. willingness to offshore outsourcing services). After careful examination of the four key antecedents, i. e. , cost advantage, risk control, infrastructure maturity, and cultural compatibility, the CEO forms positive or negative attitude toward offshoring. Subjective norm is generated by the normative beliefs that the person attributes to what relevant others (i. e. , social referents) expect her to do with respect to adopting offshoring services as well as her motivation to comply with those beliefs. Social referents possibly include firm’s board of directors, stockholders, firm ’s customers, or CIO [47].The strength of social referents’ normative belief and motivations will actually determine the CEO’s final decision to offshore services. Once attitudes and subjective norms are formed, the CEO may have inclination whether or not to make decision for offshoring services. In turn, actual behavior will be transmitted from such intention. The above discussions lead to: Proposition 1: The key antecedents of service offshore outsourcing, (a) Cost Advantage, (b) Risk Control, (c) Infrastructure Maturity, and (d) Cultural Compatibility will have a positive impact on top management’s attitude and subjective norms to offshore outsourcing services.Proposition 2: Top management’s positive attitude and norms that was formed through careful assessing key antecedents of service offshoring will have a positive impact on top management’s actual behavior (i. e. , both intention and decision to offshore services). Moderating Effect: Regulatory Environment ([17] [20]) Regulatory environment refers to explicit regulative processes, existing laws and rules that influence offshoring outsourcing [49]. In this case, government plays a major role.For example, in case of offshoring software industry, government can affect restrict or facilitate the import and export of equipment, software, or data across the country. Government is also the main enforcers of intellectual property laws (i. e. , patent, copyright) 36]. Companies in the U. S. will not choose to offshore key functions if they are concerned about the security of key processes or products [37]. Generally, three types of regulatory factors can be categorized: 1) Tariff/ Non-tariff barriers; 2) privacy laws and 3) rule of law.We propose that above regulatory environment factors will play moderating roles in affecting the relationship between the key antecedents and the CEO’s final decision to offshore outsourcing services. Proposition 3: The relationship between (1) the key antecedents and the CEO’s propensity and (2) CEO’s propensity and intention and behavior for offshore outsourcing services will be moderated by regulatory environment. – 4494 – Table 1: Key constructs (Definitions and Supporting Literatures) Construct Definition Literature Cost Advantage (CA) The degree to which a client firm can achieve cost reduction, operating efficiency (i. . , productivity) or profitability that is related to economic benefit through service offshore outsourcing activities Smith et al. , 1998; Jiang et al. , 2006; Jiang et al. , 2007 Risk Control (RC) The degree to which a client firm controls the risk that might occur through service offshore outsourcing activities, risk such as amount of involved value (i. e. , Scale of the contract), complexity (i. e. , Level of contract difficulty) and duration (Length of the contract). Smith et al. , 1998 Stremersch et al. , 2003; Carson, 2007; Jiang and Qureshi, 2006; Jiang et al. , 2007 Infrastructure Maturity IM) The degree to which both firms (i. e. , client and vendor) have developed telecommunications (i. e. , Internet and mobile telecommunication) and transportation infrastructure. Cultural Compatibility (CC) The degree to which both firms (i. e. , client and vendor) can interchangeably accept different cultural backgrounds including language (i. e. , English), ethnic linkage, or cultural difference. Kshetri, 2007 Regulatory Environment (RE) Explicit regulative processes, existing laws and rules such as trade barriers, privacy laws and rule of law that influence service offshore outsourcing activitiesScott, 1995; Jahns et al. , 2006; Kshetri, 2007 Jahns et al. , 2006; Metters and Verma, 2008 Figure 2: Theoretical Model Key Antecedents Cost Advantage (CA) Risk Control (RC) Infrastructure Maturity (IM) H1 The CEO’s Attitude and Subjective Norms toward offshoring Hservices 3 (PROPENSITY) Cultural Compatibility (CC) H3 Regulatory Environment (RE) – 4495 – H2 The CEO’s DecisionMaking to offshore services (INTENTION) (BEHAVIOR) CONCLUSION Nowadays, outsourcing and offshoring decision is not an alternative option to choose but a mandatory passport to lead firms to sustain competitive advantages over rivals.In this regard, this paper seems to be of less value because many firms offshore service jobs anyway. However, the key antecedents that were shown in present study may help management as useful decision tools and become critical in succeeding to reap the full benefits of the offshoring activities to the firm. This is a meaningful attempt to go inside of firms’ decision-making process though it may not be perfectly useful for managerial decision. It is primarily because through this model, management can rethink before they launch the service offshoring activities, asking themselves â€Å"why we pursue† and â€Å"then, how we can reap the full benefits. This present study attempted to c onsider four key antecedents of service offshoring which are important decision-credentials for top management, esp. CEO to offshore. Although these are not direct determinants of service offshoring decision, they are the ones in which firms need to consider before actual decision is made in that they encompass different aspects. Cost advantage and risk control are considered economic aspects. Since cost elements are always one of the most important reasons for firms’ decision of certain activities, cost advantage and level of risk control needs to be carefully examined before initial launch is kicked off.Infrastructure maturity is considered environmental or infrastructural aspect. Availability and development of telecommunication and transportation infrastructure is critical for service offshoring—its fast and reliable delivery. Lastly, cultural compatibility is considered cultural aspect. Language (i. e. , English) fluency, ethnic linkage, or cultural difference wil l actually determine long-term relationship between a client and vendor firm across the country.These decision-criteria will help top management to consider the different aspects of offshoring activities, which are economic, environmental (infrastructural) and cultural dimensions. This present study also identified three different aspects of regulatory environment which are trade barriers, privacy laws, and rule of law. Trade barriers are associated with a relation-type regulatory factor in that they determine the magnitude of relationship between countries which are involved in offshoring activities.Privacy laws are coupled with a risk-type regulatory factor in that lack of privacy laws will make a client firm to be exposed to information (data) loss. Rule of law such as political institution, court system or sound citizenship is linked with security-type regulatory factor in that poor rule of law (i. e. , vendor firm) is regarded as major obstacles to offshoring and cause to criti cal security problems. For future research, three major works need to be done. First, to make empirical study possible, measurement items for each key antecedent and CEO’s propensity, intention and behavior need to be developed.For operationalization of key variables, more refined work should be continued. In this case, both secondary data and survey method may be appropriately used. Second, for completeness of the model or further analysis, outcome and performance measure might be added. Third, for extension of this paper, it might be an interesting attempt if general decision-making process model which includes other top management teams and board of directors is provided. * References Available Upon Request (Mark Yang: [email  protected] utoledo. edu) – 4496 –

Unit 8 Application 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Unit 8 Application 1 - Essay Example es in recruitment, include Medical/Healthcare, Engineering/Technical services, Information Technology, Professional positions, Executive positions and international Recruitment. However, clients who come up with staffing needs that the organization does not serve are not turned away, but it recruits specialists in that field on contract to undertake the recruitment for that specific organization. Being one of the leading recruitment agencies in US, the organization’s size comes with a total number of 28 staff members, who are involved in different functions in the organization. The organization also takes recruiters on contract during hiring, whenever the organization has inadequate recruiters (Heneman, Judge and Kammeyer-Mueller, 2012). Most of the employees in the organization are recruited directly by the organization from its large database of job seekers, which greatly minimizes recruitment costs for the organization. Most of the internal recruiters in the organization have different recruitment expertise and specializations to serve different client needs (Gully and Phillips, 2010). In this paper, the focus will be on the Senior Recruiter Job position at the USA Staffing Network, Inc. In order to get the right information and as much detailed as possible, it was important to take up a middle level or senior position in recruitment organization, which would provide the desired information in this study. Consequently, the Senior Recruiter Job position was a favorite choice. The choice of this job position is informed by the fact that it has a high responsibility at the organization and hence the person in-charge is very knowledgeable of the various function of the organization (Gully and Phillips, 2010). Further, the person has a wide experience working as a recruiter and hence will give a more detailed insight in to how recruitment and staffing organizations functions. The Senior Recruiter in a staffing organization is a crucial person in the core

CASE 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

CASE 3 - Essay Example During the hiring process, it is pivotal to identify the skills required to fill the position and neglect favoritism in hiring method. It is right for George to report against unethical and favoritism activity (Arnold, Arnold & Venessa, 2010). It is pivotal for George to report against the matter to the authority who can take necessary steps to provide credible solution and nullify the issue. Report submitted by George must provide necessary action against the supervisor. The recruitment and selection procedure must be consistent and fair. The recruitment process must be legally defensible and it can be ensured by developing proper person specification and job description to provide the description of the role of the employees required. This orders as to be supported by every hierarchy level, managers and supervisors (Anonymous, 2011). Every employee wants to be ensured fairness and this can be created by consistency of administration. This can help to create fair recruitment process that can help employee like George to feel part of hospital. The nursing supervisor of George has already filled position despite of having experienced nurse like George. This is sense of favoritism can strain the morale of workplace environment. Many of supervisors tend to show favoritism by gender and sexual orientation and even they do not recognize the negative impact of favoritism (Calvasnia, Calvasnia & Calvasnia, 2008). In-depth training and guidance must be recommended to supervisors to diminish the rate of favoritism in hospital. There must be transparency on any workplace and supervisor must be transparent to take any necessary step for the benefit of organization. The concern of George on fear of termination or retaliation can be negotiated in certain steps. Firstly, George must analyze the reason behind the favoritism. Secondly, talk to other colleagues regarding the issue. Then report to

A Critical Review in the Contemporary Themes in Youth Work Practice, Essay - 4

A Critical Review in the Contemporary Themes in Youth Work Practice, Thematic Area Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing - Essay Example Brendtro, Ph.D, the President of Reclaiming Youth International. The main message of the article is that a crisis should be perceived as a unique opportunity that can help a student or a young person come to grips or understand an important life problem. As opposed to a glass half empty, successful management of a crisis requires looking at it as a glass half filled with water. This understanding is critical in successfully managing the crisis, therefore illuminating the pattern of self-defeating behavior of the student and providing strength-based skills. In this regard, LSCI is presented as an advanced and effective strategy of this paradigm to help promote understanding and change (Perry & Hambrick, 2008, pg. 34). In my opinion, the authors stress upon focusing upon the LSCI as opposed to other traditional approaches used to help troubled youth. Traditional approaches, or alternatives to the LSCI method, are explained and presented as reactive in nature and ineffective for solving youth problems. The LSCI, on the other hand, seeks to focus on understanding the facts and causes of counterproductive conflict styles. In support of the theories and principles presented by the authors is my own experience as well as broader research and reading on the subject. Several experts and scholars on the issue of ways of reclaiming young people who show patterns of self-defeating behavior are in favor of the LSCI approach as opposed to conventional approaches, which are seen as reactive. My evaluation of what the authors presented in this article is that it is exactly right and effective in especially the present-day challenging environments for youth growth and development. One of the major reasons why I am in support of the theories presented by the authors is with regard to the interventions for various patterns of self-defeating behavior common among young people and children. The LSCI process has been broken down into six stages

Research Training Programme Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Research Training Programme Project - Essay Example Future analysis of this panel could be effected by correcting the mistake. Additionally, only two years of the four year programme was utilized, as the other two years could not provide an adequate percentage of the data. The importance of this data cleaning should be considered when the final results are analysed. Cleaning is a judgmental process which sometimes removes items which are of great importance to those providing the data. Only by repeating the data collection can any factors which occur again and again be noticed. This paper is based upon research done by Loughborough University as part of a review of the Business School's Training Programme. This research was conducted over a number of weeks at the beginning of 2006, and a survey was conducted amongst former students, questioning them about their experiences and opinions of the course. The intention of the questionnaire was to discover whether the students had benefited from the course, and whether they felt that the teaching was adequate. As this was a group working, there were a number of meetings throughout the weeks to try and ensure co-operation and agreement amongst all the members. After a series of meetings and interviews in January, the questionnaire was sent out to students in March, and received back in April. This data was then input into a SPSS program, from which the results in this paper are taken. At the design meetin... From these results we will need to conduct an analysis to try and find some significant results. Why that use of design THE NATURE OF THE QUESTIONNAIRE The questionnaire that was sent to the students was divided into five sections, each dealing with a different topic. In the first section, for example, the questions concerned the personal details of the student, age, nationality and so on. In the second section, we asked them about the relevance of certain topics to their research. The third topic concerned the usefulness of the training programme; the fourth dealt with improvements to the student's relationships, and the fifth and final section asked the students to rate their satisfaction with the course. The design of this questionnaire was to enable us to demonstrate whether the training programme met the students' requirements, whether it improved their interpersonal relationships, and whether they felt the course had proved satisfactory. The first section allowed the students to be readily quantified and compared, which can prove useful when considering results, the other sections concentrate upon the courses, and the benefits and satisfaction the students felt that they had gained. . Other aspects of these results may become significant when we are comparing the results via SPSS. As the aim of this project is to improve the teaching of business courses at Loughborough, then consideration of the benefits to the students, and the improvements in their relationships, must be included while analyzing their satisfaction. Analysis The analysis of this questionnaire was conducted using the SPSS system of statistic management. This programme provides the analyst

Long-Term Assets (Assignment 8) Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Long-Term Assets ( 8) - Assignment Example Generally, the company recorded a positive change in its long term assets which is a positive thing. However, the financial statements and notes to the financial statements of Pentair Inc do not disclose vital information such as accumulated depreciation. Instead, the company has computed the combined values which make it impossible to identify specific information. Does your firm report any intangible assets on the balance sheet? If yes, describe the policies, e.g., method and estimated life, your firm uses to compute amortization expense. YES. Pentair Inc uses the unit-of-activity method in the amortization of intangible assets such as patents. The company provides for an estimated useful life of five years ending in the year 2017. If yes, describe the acquisitions or disposals that occurred. In April 2012, Pentair acquired Sibrape including its subsidiary at a cost estimated to be $21.5 million. However, the company did not record any disposals during the same period. How do your firms long-term asset ratios compare to those of your comparison firms? Are they high, low, about the same? Is there anything specific about your firm, its industry, or your comparison firms or industries that tend to explain the differences between your companys long-term asset ratios and those of the other firms? Discuss and explain. Pentair’s long-term ratios are almost the same to those of comparative firms. This is because most of the ratios among the firms are within the same range. However, there are some slight differences between the ratios and this can be attributed to the difference in the sizes of the firms and how they manage their long-term assets. Bigger and well managed firms have higher long-term assets ratios compared to other firms. In most cases, the size of a firm is measured by the level of its revenues or assets. In this case, we can measure the size of a

MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING - Essay Example If the situation is allowed to continue, the company would continue to build its raw material stocks and incur inventory cost on them. The suppliers would start demanding payments for the raw material and in the long-term, this would lead to higher working capital requirement. Finished stocks: While the sales are close to budgeted figures, the finished stocks have increased by 46% compared to budget. The increase in finished stocks means that the production of finished goods was more than sales. In planning for production, the previous stocks that the company already had may not have take been into account. Another possible reason for increase in finished stocks could be return of goods from customers that bought the goods in previous budget period. If the finished stocks are allowed to continue to increase, the company would incur unnecessary inventory cost. After a certain stage, this would become unsustainable as finished goods would stay in inventory with inventory turnover decreasing and leading to higher working capital requirement. Debtors: The outstanding receivables have increased by 50% compared to budget with sales same as budgeted.... Bank: The bank component turning negative means that the company has used up all the money in its account and now has a loan from the bank to the amount of ? 39,000. If this is allowed to continue, the bank would keep charging interest leading to lower profitability for the company. For any new payments to be made, the company would need to draw more credit from the bank or would need to pass on all money received from customers to the suppliers. The company’s cost of capital would increase making investments in some projects less lucrative. Creditors: The liability to creditors has decreased by 77% compared to budget. The decrease in the creditors’ component means that the suppliers have been paid off a higher percentage than budgeted. Because the raw material stocks have increase and the creditors’ component has decreased, it means that all previous credit from suppliers has been repaid and a larger proportion of purchases during this budget period have been pa id off as well. If this is allowed to continue, the company would be effectively paying its suppliers before getting money from the customers leading to high working capital requirement for the company, in turn leading to necessity of raising more money for the company. B) Procedures that could be put in place to control the various elements Raw material stocks: In order to reduce the raw material stocks in the short-term, the company needs to be stricter on the re-order level of the raw materials. If not already defined, the re-order levels for all raw materials needs to be defined with the procurement department and strict adherence must be ensured in placing to new orders. No new orders for raw materials should be made until the stock quantity reaches the re-order level.

Theory That I find Most Appealing Essay Example for Free

Theory That I find Most Appealing Essay Theories are constructed to help in explaining, predicting and mastering phenomena. They are made to be as general as they could be in order for a certain phenomena to fit in. But mostly, there is a great effort in depicting what is there in reality. Like how chemists uses theories to understand chemical reactions, how there is an effort to identify which theory is closest to explaining how the universe took place, there is also theories that are used by those studying humans. Humans are the most unpredictable of all creatures. They could deviate from the norms and mores and traditions etc. that is why it is also essential that we understand them and explain why they act such things by using theories. The personality theory I find most appealing falls under the humanistic approach draws attention to the idea that an individual has immense freedom to know which way to take, whether it may be regarding personal growth, worth identified as one’s own or simply self-fulfillment. With this, I further limited my choice of personality theory to Snygg and Combs’ Theory of Motivation. Theory of Motivation explains that there is a basic need in each and every one of us to preserve and enhance our phenomenal self. Phenomenal self is defined as the person’s own view of himself or herself. This view explains a certain behavior by the way it was acquired by a person as s/he goes through his/her life. The experiences s/he gains and his/her conscious mind works on having a certain behavior. This theory does not take into consideration the subconscious mind like Freud does. This theory also explains that a person maintains or pushes for a better personality as s/he goes through life. Thus this makes one fully conscious of what processes one underwent and the effects it did to his/her personality. A person’s view is said to be developed over and over as s/he continuously journey through life but is limited by her/his way of seeing things by her/his previous experiences and the kind of socialization s/he was given upon growing up. Basically, this theory has the decency of realizing that a person isnot dictated by simply wants or needs or emotions or his/her subconscious mind that s/he cannot control what s/he should do. This theory recognizes the fact that a person could choose what to do with his/her life. But this theory fails to acknowledge that a person could be affected by his/her surroundings in making a sound choice or decision. Say, one is definitely against abortion, but growing up poor and seeing your parents crawling on fours just for you to have a descent life, just so you could finish college would give you a dilemma. To think twice whether you should abort that child given your circumstances or push for it despite the laid down consequences. But what is nice about this theory is that it sees a potential in human that just by having the ability to asses ourselves and the previous experiences we garnered we could be able to further upgrade ourselves. Just like a robot that is reprogrammed in a way that suits the present situations and having a wider scope of abilities. I guess, this theory backs up the clichà © that â€Å"experience is the best teacher†. And it gives a little efficiency by saying that we also learn by how we are brought up. Our lifetime is not enough to experience and learn from all the mistakes we could and should commit just to learn something new. That is why we should also learn from the mistakes of others. Weighing what is right and wrong, a perfect blend of emotion and rationality will definitely bring us to the right direction. theory. (2007). Wikipedia. Retrieved June 05, 2007, from Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory snygg and combs. (2007). Brainmeta. Retrieved June 05, 2007, from Brainmeta: http://brainmeta.com/personality/snyggcombs.php humanistic approach. (2007). The Psi Cafà ©. Retrieved June 05, 2007, from The Psi Cafà © A Psychology Resource Site: http://www.psy.pdx.edu/PsiCafe/KeyTheorists/HumApp.htm snygg and combs. (2007). Social-Psychology. Retrieved June 05, 2007, from Social-Psychology: http://www.social-psychology.de/do/pt_snyggcombs.pdf

Unified Power Quality Conditioner Engineering Essay

Unified Power Quality Conditioner Engineering Essay Abstract-The aim of this paper is to present a constant frequency unified power quality conditioning system(CFUPQC)which consists of an unified power quality conditioner(UPQC) extended by adding a frequency changer in between the shunt active filter and series active filter . The series active filter and shunt active filters mainly used to compensate the voltage, current imbalance and harmonics. The frequency converter is used to compensate the supply frequency when it varies beyond the power quality limit. The proposed configuration all converters are connected back to back on the dc side and share the common dc link capacitor. The simulation results are presented to confirm that the new approach has better performance than the traditional UPQC. Index Terms-CFUPQC, frequency changer, voltage source converter (VSC), Matlab simulink INTRODUCTION Uunifed power quality conditioner is an advanced concepts in the area of power quality control. The basic working principle of unified power quality conditioner is based on series and parallel power converters that share a common dc link [1].Unified power quality conditioner is used to compensate voltage sag, voltage swell [2] , current harmonics [3] it is also creates an impact on the reactive power [4] through shunt voltage source inverter and series voltage source inverter. In order to avoid the switching oscillation, a passive filter is applied at the output of each inverter. At the output of shunt inverter a high pass second order LC filter is allocated and the output of series inverter low pass second order LC resonance filter is allocated. UPQC controller provides the compensation voltage through the UPQC series inverter and conditioning the current through the shunt inverter by instantaneous sampling of load current and source voltage. The reference current are compared with the shunt inverter output current (,) and are fed to hysteresis type (PWM) current controller. There are some problems with PQC. As the supply frequency changes the UPQC will not compensate the voltage sag and swell and current harmonics properly. This happens due to the presence of LC filters at the Inverters output terminals. It is directly affected by the variation of supply frequency. Fig.1: Basic Configuration of Constant Frequency Unified Power Quality Conditioner (CFUPQC) Fig 1 shows the proposed improved configuration of constant Frequency unified power quality conditioner. This modified unified power quality conditioner concepts enables the PWM converter to perform not only active filtering purpose, also the function of frequency changer. The compensation principle of the CFUPQC will be described in the coming sections. The proposed unified power quality conditioner has to satisfy the following requirements. Reactive power is maintained at minimum value. The load voltage should be maintained at the rated supply voltage. Maintain the input current with very low harmonic content. Assure the supply frequency is permissible within the power quality limits .The simulations result will be presented to validate the proposed CFUPQC. frequency quality indices In order to characterize the power system frequency under normal operating condition the following indices are used Where fr is the rated frequency (50 or 60) Hz and f is the real frequency. The relative frequency deviation (2) The integral deviation during the delay required to ensure appropriate of clock synchronized to the electrical network frequency (3) According to the standard En 50160/2006rated frequency of supply voltage is 50Hz.Under normal operation conduction the mean value of the fundamental frequency measured over loss stay within the following range. 50 Hz+ 1%.ie 49.5-50.5Hz for 99.5%of the year 50 Hz+ 4%.ie 47-52Hz for 100%of the time. But as power frequency may not be exactly 50Hz within the time interval. The fundamental frequency output is the ratio of the number of integer cycle counted clearing 10s time interval divided by the cumulative value of the integer value. The step taken to maintain the frequency with in required limits render deviation from the normalized value very rate phenomena. In this way an analysis is of the influence of frequency variation on the final customer is only for a reduced interval about +3Hz of the rated value and for rather short period. Within the reduced variation field (40%)a considerable number of static customers are not affected by the system variation(rectifier , resistance, ovens, electric arc ect)but 60%of the consumers (fans, motors ect)affected by the frequency variations. The asynchronous and synchronous driving motors connected the supply network used extensely in individual acceleration have the power frequency changes. Depending on the mechanical characteristic spee d of the motor and also depends on the supply frequency [13].The speed of asynchronous motors or synchronous motor unlimited drags to the electric power supply variations s proportional to the applied voltage frequency. The frequency variation leads to the correspond modification of the process production time throughout the supply with a reduced frequency depressing the supply frequency capacitive circuit, transformer, relay coil are affected Constant Frequency Unified Power Quality Conditioner (CFUPQC) CFUPQC structure Fig.3: Proposed Configuration Modified configuration of UPQC consist of shunt active filter, series active filter, voltage source inverter and voltage source converter shown in Fig(3).CFUPQC similar to the UPQC expect the frequency changing section. UPQC has the potential drawbacks in the hybrid filtering performance. Since its filter in characteristics depends on load impedance and supply frequency. CFUPQC series active filter is used for compensation the voltage harmonics and voltage imbalance In addition the voltage source converter supplies the AC to DC power and is fed to common DC link. The CFUPQC consists of parallel active filter (PAF) that eliminates load harmonics and compensates load reactive power. The control equation is Ipf=G.IL (4) Where g is the control function, is fundamental frequency.IL is the load current, Ipf is the parallel filter input current components for compensation are extracted from load current and load voltages using theory while the converter is a current controlled device using 20 kHz clocked hysteresis band. Series active filter (SAF) that compensates supply harmonics flicker, voltage sag/swell, unbalance and diode + capacitor type load harmonics to flow in to the parallel filter. Control equation is comp (5) Where k is regulator gain, Usf is the series filter voltage, Ish are harmonic supply current and Ucomp is compensation voltage needed to remove supply voltage imperfection. Ish are extracted to theory. Active rectifier (AR) for real power transfer to/from common DC bus and for DC bus control. Switching losses and power received from the dc link capacitors through the series inverter can decrease the average value of dc bus. Other distortions such as unbalanced conditions and sudden changes in load current can result in oscillation in dc bus voltage .In order to solve the fluctuated dc voltage the three phase rectifier is used .DC bus voltage is maintained constant using three-phase rectifier converter for bi-directional power flow and is controlled in such a way that it is insensitive to supply voltage imperfections. Rms value of the output voltage Vorms=0.9558Vml Rms value of the output current Iorms=0.9558Iml Where ml is maximum value of line current. Multi stage 48 pulse voltage source inverter (VSI) supplies the constant power frequency when the supply frequency will change. Here multilevel voltage source inverter is used, to eliminate the harmonic component of the output. The frequency converter is placed in between the series and shunt active filters. Normally the voltage source converters (rectifiers) generate the current harmonics. In order to avoid the harmonics and reactive power the rectifier is placed at the middle of the two active filters. Similarly if the load is increased voltage dip may occur in front of voltage source inverter. At the same time series active filter compensate the voltage problems. Control system of the CFUPQC shunt Part Fig.4: Control System of the Shunt CFUPQC 1) CFUPQC shunt inverter control system: In the Fig (4) shows the shunt inverter controlling block diagram of CFUPQC using synchronous reference frame theory where the sensitive loads current are . The measured currents of load are transferred in to frame using sinusoidal functions through synchronous reference frame conversion. The sinusoidal functions are obtained through the grid voltage using phase lock loop(PLL). Here the currents are divided in to ac and dc components (6) (7) The equation (6) and (7) and are the real and reactive components.ac components and dc elements can be derived by low pass filter.are the dc components and are the ac components of . The control algorithm corrects the systems power factor and compensates all the current harmonica component by generating the reference currents given in equation = (8) = (9) The reference current is transferred in to frame through reverse conversion of synchronous reference frame. Resulted reference current () and the output current of shunt inverter () are fed to the hysteresis band controller. Now the required controlling pulses are generated and the required compensation current is generated by the inverter applying these signals to shunt inverters power switch gates. 2) CFUPQC Series Inverter Control System Fig.5: Control System of the Series CFUPQC 2) CFUPQC series inverter control system: Fig (5) shows the CFUPQC series inverter controlling block diagram using synchronous reference frame theory. In this method the desired value of load phase voltages in d axis and q axis is compared with the load voltage and the result is consider as the reference signal. The supply voltage detected is detected and transformed in to the synchronous reference frame using (10) The compensating reference voltage in the synchronous reference frame is defined as (11) The compensating reference voltage in (11) is then transformed back into the reference frame .Resulted reference voltage () and the output current of shunt inverter () are fed to the hysteresis band controller. The required controlling pulses are generated and the required compensation voltage is generated. 3) Control system of 48 pulse voltage source inverter: 48-pulse voltage source converter consists of four three phase, 3-level inverters and 4 phase-shifting transformers creating phase shift of +/- 7.5 °degree. This transformer setup neutralizes all odd harmonics up to 45th harmonic. Eight 6-pulse inverters are combined to obtain a 48-pulse with the purpose of reducing harmonic content. Table 1 shows the values of phase shifts which are applied to the inverter voltages in two steps, namely in firing pulses and in Zig-zag transformers, to create a 48-pulse waveform at the output . Table 1:48 Pulse voltage source Inverter Coupling transformer Gate pulse pattern Phase shifting transfer Y-Y +11.25 ° -11.25 ° Δ-Y -18.75o -11.25o Y-Y -3.75o +3.75o Δ-Y -33.75o +3.75o Y-Y +3.75o -3.75o Δ-Y -26.25o -3.75o Y-Y -11.25o +11.25o Δ-Y -41.25o +11.25o content in the order of n= 48m ±1, where m= 0, 1, 2. The main-inverter intermediate-circuit capacitors together have an energy storage capacity of only 15 J/kVA. An output switching frequency of 1 kHz is chosen, which is fairly reasonable for this converter. Input is a frequency reference, which is passed through a rate limiter in order to be within the limits of maximum acceleration. Fig.6: Control System of the Frequency changer CFUPQC Except for the 23rd and 25th harmonics, this transformer arrangement neutralizes all odd harmonics up to 45th harmonic. Y and D transformer secondarys cancel harmonics 7+12n (7, 19, 31, 43,)and 5+12n (5, 17, 29, 41,) .In addition, the 15 ° phase shift between the two groups (Tr1Y and Tr1D leading by 7.5 °, Tr2Y and Tr2D lagging by 7.5 °) that allows cancellation of harmonics 11+24n (11, 35,) and 13+24n (13, 37,). Considering that all 3n harmonics are not transmitted by the transformers, the first harmonics that are not canceled by the transformers are therefore the 23rd, 25th, 47th and 49th harmonics. By choosing the appropriate conduction angle for the three-level inverter (ÏÆ' = 172.5 °), the 23rd and 25th harmonics can be minimized. Using a bipolar DC voltage, the voltage source inverter thus generates a 48-step voltage approximatly a sine wave. The secondary sides of the coupling transformers are connected in series to sum the output voltages of individual VSIs and resul ts in a multi-pulse phase voltage which can be expressed mathematically as follow (12) Both equations (12) and (13) which are phase-to-phase and phase-to-neutral voltage representations, respectively, show that harmonics up to 47th order are inherently filtered. The signalization of the 48-pulse inverter are generated for the inverter having -41.25 of gate pulse phase and directly fed to the corresponding inverter. PWM signals for the remaining inverters are obtained by applying relevant phase shifts to the set of PWM signals generated. For example, in order to obtain the pulses for the inverter having -11.25o of gate pulse +30o of phase shift is applied to the closed loop current controllers output. In practice, the phase shifting of the pulses is realized by applying a delay in the first cycle. The generated set of pulses is the earliest set appearing at the time-line and since it is not possible to apply a negative delay the earliest appearing set is generated and the rest are delayed accordingly. When the supply frequency is exceeded beyond the power quality limit the constant frequency voltage source inverter control system change the load from source power supply to the constant frequency inverter power supply. Simulation Results The proposed system, simulation results is simulated by MATLAB software. Fig 7Current harmonic minimization when the supply frequency is normal In the above simulation some capabilities of UPQC to solve power quality problems are shown. The nonlinear load which is produced harmonic current to the network. Fig. 7 shows that the shunt part of UPQC compensates these harmonics Components when the supply frequency is normal. Now assume that a deep and unbalance voltage sag, as occurs at t = 0.2 s to 0.25 s and voltage swell occurred 0.26 and lasts for 0.3 second. Fig.8. Sag swell condition when the supply frequency is normal In Fig(8) the UPQC inject the compensation voltage via series inverter and compensate efficiently at 0.2 second sag condition and voltage swell condition at supply frequency normal (60Hz) Fig .9.Series UPQC when the frequency exceed the power quality limit In fig 9 shows the operation of UPQC when the supply frequency exceeds the power quality limits the output was not found satisfactory .The supply beyond the power quality limit (greater than 63 Hz)at 0.25 second the load voltage waveform varies. The frequency increase rapidly the voltage waveform highly distorted as shown in the simulation results Fig 9. Based on the simulation result Fig 10 it is intended that if the supply frequency varies greater than power quality limit the load current wave form is distorted. If the frequency increases the wave form also distort rapidly as shown in fig10. Fig 10. CF- UPQC Operated when Frequency greater than the Power quality limits Fig 11. CF- UPQC Operated when Frequency greater than the Power quality limits Fig 11showsthe proposed CFUPQC model was simulated for a period of 0.01 sec to 0.5 sec from the results in fig 11, it was seen that at 0.28 sec the supply frequency crossed the power quality limit at 0.29. Fig.12. CF-UPQCs inverter supplying current under over frequency condition The above simulation shows the 48 pulse inverter carries the load current when the supply frequency varied beyond the power quality limit. When the frequency exceed the limits at 0.28 sec. the voltage source converter supply the power. The above simulation result Fig(13) clearly shows when the frequency changes the asynchronous motor speed also changes and the UPQC also not deliver the voltage sinusoidal. In this case the load connected in to paper mills, relays are affected. Fig.13. UPQC connected asynchronous motor under over frequency condition Fig.14. CFUPQC connected asynchronous motor under over frequency condition The proposed model simulation fig 14 shows when the supply frequency change the motor speed not changed and the CFUPQC also work satisfactory TABLE I11 PARAMETER VALUES OF THE UNDERPROPOSED SYSTEM Power quality problems UPQC UPQC CF-UPQC CF-UPQC Frequency Hz 58-62Hz >62Hz-60-

Understanding The Russian Sphere Of Influence Politics Essay

Understanding The Russian Sphere Of Influence Politics Essay The aim of this chapter is to bring out the elements behind Russias quest to maintain a sphere of influence around itself. In doing this, one should not just look at present Russian politics and recent attempts by Russia to restore its former sphere of influence. One has to look briefly into the history of Russia from the time of the Tsars and during the Communist regime. The Tsars had always desired to create a sphere of influence which would act as a belt of protection for Russia. One has to look at Russias geography to understand this key element in Russian foreign policymaking throughout the centuries. In 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia lost various regions which were the ex-Soviet Republics. Since then, Russia has retreated progressively. NATO expanded eastward in Europe since 1994 causing Russia to be suspicious and resentful. After the September 11 attacks, the USA established military bases in Central Asian countries to support its military operations against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and initially Russian President Vladimir Putin gave his support, though he would resent long-term American military presence in what Russia perceives its sphere of influence. In the Far East, Russia faces a rapidly rising China as a potential superpower. So, it is understandable that Russian foreign policymakers have to counterbalance all these factors. Russia is not just a European power but also an Asian power. All these factors contribute to the multivector characteristic in Russian foreign policymaking. One must not forget that Russia also has its economic interests i n the Central Asian region and not just military and political interests. The setting-up of the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) and the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) show how Russia is trying to adapt to its loss of empire. One must not forget that the collapse of the Soviet Union took place twenty years ago and that Russia is still going through what is called its imperial syndrome. This chapter has the aim of demonstrating the change and continuity in Russian foreign policy through its history to the present day. 2.1 The Tsarist roots When Russia began to expand as an empire, the Tsars always had the intention to use to newly conquered lands as belts of protection around Russia. This can be traced back to the time of Ivan III, also known as Ivan the Great. He started by what historian call the collecting of the Russian lands which was followed by wars with Poland in the West (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 18). Ivan IV, known as Ivan the Terrible, conquered lands from the Tatars and Russia reached the Caspian Sea (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 19). In 1613, Mikhail Romanov was elected Tsar, hence starting the 304-year Romanov dynasty. Under his reign and his sons reign, Russia fought eight wars with Poland and it retook Kiev, which had the capital city of the first Russian state, the Kievan Rus (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 19). So, in this time frame, one can see Muscovy expanding its territory and sphere of influence. The ascension of Peter I, known as Peter the Great and his subsequent reign (1689-1725) had a lasting effect on Russian foreign policy. He is known for his secularization and modernization of the Russian Empire along European lines (Hosking, pg 76). He too focused on expanding Russian territory and had one of his first successes when he captured the fort of Azov from the Turks, thus giving Russia access to the Black Sea (Hosking, pg 76). He then proceeded to war with Sweden and the victories he attained there such as the capture of the river Neva in 1703, Narva and Dorpat in 1704, gave Russia access to the Baltic (Freeze, pg 114). The Treaty of Nystad with Sweden in 1721 crowned Russias achievements in the Baltic and Sweden lost its place as a European great power to Russia (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 20). With these conquests, Peter the Great brought Russia closer to Europe as he had always desired and Russian foreign policy took a new dimension from then on. In 1689, there was the Nerchinsk Treaty between the Russian Empire and China where the two powers agreed to divide their spheres of influence which led to China keeping Mongolia under its dominion and Russia keeping land north of the Amur river (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 20). After the death of Peter the Great, there was the Kyakhta where Russia and China agreed to set up formal diplomatic relations and paved the way for trade between the two powers (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 20). Under Catherine the Great, Russia continued to expand its territory and this is seen in the partitions of Poland which brought Belarus (White Russia), Lithuania and Western Ukraine under the Russian realm (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 20). Russias military forays southwards resulted in two wars with Turkey and these culminated in the treaties of Kutchuk Kainardji (1774) and the Treaty of Jassy (1792) which gave Russia control of the north Black sea coastline from Azov to Odessa (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 20). After the victory against Napoleon in 1815 and the Congress, Russias Tsar Alexander I was able to demonstrate Russian power to Europe (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 21) and Russia added Finland and lands in the south and Central Asia to its dominion. Nicholas Is reign (1825-1855) saw Russia turning its attention on the Ottoman Empire which was referred to as the sick man of Europe and this is seen in the Russian ambition to take Constantinople and get naval access to the Mediterranean Sea and the base at Sevastopol (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 21). However, one can see the role of ideology behind Russias expansionism such using the protection of Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire to justify its wars with Turkey, which one of them resulted in the independence of Greece (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 21). In the second half of the 19th century, Russia began looking eastwards again and started to violate the Treaty of Nerchinsk by penetrating deeper into Chinas territory. In 1860, Vladivostok was founded and in 1860, the two powers signed the Treaty of Peking where Russias new gains in the Amur region (legalized since 1858) were consolidated and China and Russia agreed on the new border along the Ussuri river (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 24). In Central Asia, Russia took Tashkent in Uzbekistan in 1865 and Merv in Turkmenistan in 1884 (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 24). To reassure Britain that it was not going to pursue its conquests south to India, Russia signed an agreement with Britain that it was going to limit itself to northern borders of Afghanistan (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 24). One must not exclude the ideology of Pan-Slavism from Russian foreign policymaking during the time of the Tsars which had considered Moscow as the Third Rome and the Tsar as the protector of all Orthodox Christians (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 25). This led to tensions with the Ottoman Empire resulting in a war in 1878. In the early twentieth century, Russia had tension with Japan over territories in the Far East and this culminated in a Russo-Japanese war in 1904-1905, which to Russias humiliation, Japan won (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 27). So, Russias ambitions in the Far East were limited to the northern part of Manchuria, the northern half of Sakhalin island and had to accept Koreas incorporation in the Japanese sphere of influence (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 27). What was the motivation behind the Tsars aim of expanding their realm? Robert H. Donaldson and Joseph L. Nogee give a variety of reasons. The geography of Eurasia may be one of the explanations for Tsarist Russia to acquire all those land to create a protective barrier around itself. Russia also wanted ice-free harbours which led to its ambitions to take harbours in the Black Sea and the Baltic as well as Pusan in modern South Korea culminating in the war with Japan in 1904-1905 (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 29). The autocratic ideology of the Tsarist system is also listed as a reason. The Tsars expressed their autocratic character by pushing for conquering of new lands and military expeditions (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 30). Even Henry Kissinger, in his book, Diplomacy, agrees with the view that Tsarist autocracy led Russia to behave in that way in the international relations of the time (Kissinger, pg 140) 2.2 Continuity under the USSR The continuity with the Tsars thinking was most clear under Joseph Stalins rule. In August 1939, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed an agreement known as the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact where they agreed to share Eastern Europe between their spheres of influence. Through the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, Russia regained those lands such as Eastern Poland, the Baltic states, Bessarabia and northern Bukovina (Kenez, pg 135). The motivation to expand Russias territory could not be clearer. In October1944, there was the Percentage Agreement between British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to divide spheres of influences of their states in Eastern Europe (Dunbabin, pg 87). The element of continuity with the Tsars thinking of expansionism is clear. After the Second World War, the USSR did not make it a secret that it wanted to keep Eastern Europe under its orbit as well as export its Communist ideology throughout the world. The USSR was using the banner of Communism and proletarian internationalism to spread its influence around the globe. The West responded by the enactment of the Truman Doctrine which had the intention of containment (Best, Hanhimaki, Maiolo, Schulze, pg 220). In June 1947, the European Recovery Program, better known as the Marshall Plan was launched in order to help Europe recover and stem the tide of Communism (Best, Hanhimaki, Maiolo, Schulze, pg 222). This was part of the containment policy. On the 4th of April 1949, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was set up to challenge Soviet hegemony (Best, Hanhimaki, Maiolo, Schulze, pg 223-224). The Soviet response was to create the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance, COMECON in 1949 to create sociaist planned economies in Eastern Europe (Best, Hanh imaki, Maiolo, Schulze, pg 219). In 1948, the USSR expelled Yugoslavia of Jozip Broz Tito because Tito did not want to have Stalin dictating to him how to govern the country (Best, Hanhimaki, Maiolo, Schulze, pg 219). In May 1955, the USSR set up the Warsaw Pact as a response to NATO as Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev said we wanted to make an impression on the West (Dunbabin, pg 221). In 1956, Hungary under Imre Nagy rebelled because it did not want to remain under Soviet domination and left the Warsaw and the Soviets response was to send tanks to crush the uprising (McCauley, pg 340). In 1968, Czechoslavakia, under the leadership of Alexander Dubcek, attempted to create socialism with a human face, unlike the rigid Soviet communism which is known as the Prague Spring. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was alarmed by this since he feared it could spread and create a domino effect and the USSR would lose its sphere of influence in East-Central Europe. The USSR tried to exert pressure on Dubcek (Dunbabin, pg 568) but when it saw that it was not enough, it launched a military invasion on 20th August 1968 to crush the Prague Spring and remove Dubcek from power (Dunbabin, pg 569). This showed that the Sov iet Union feared that different interpretations of Marxism among its satellites would lead to collapse of Communism and lose its strategic sphere of influence. Due to the upheavals that took place, the Brezhnev leadership came up with the Brezhnev Doctrine which claimed that it was the sole right of the USSR and the Warsaw Pact to take action against socialist countries which deviated from Soviet Communism (Best, Hanhimaki, Maiolo, Schulze, pg 274). The message the USSR sent to the rest of the world was that it will not tolerate any changes to the political-economic system it had created in East Europe, its sphere of influence. This was because it felt highly threatened by those changes. The West gave its response in the Helsinki Final Act in 1975 where it accepted the Soviet sphere of influence in Eastern Europe but the USSR agreed to accept the human rights basket, which would have serious consequences for the USSR in the 1980s (Dunbabin, pg 571). 2.3 Post-Communist Russia and Sphere of Influence Thinking in Current Russian Foreign Policy At the collapse of the Soviet Union, many former Soviet Republics which were also part of the Tsarist Empire became independent. Russia had lost those lands which had provided a belt of protection for Russia for centuries. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991and up to the late 1990s, the newly constituted Russia began to use the term near abroad for its former Soviet republics (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 163). In this part, the setting up of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC), Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) and Russias participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and their usefulness to Russia in maintaining its sphere of influence will be analyzed. This part aims to put under focus Russias aims and aspirations behind the setup of these organisations. The interests Russia has in keeping Central Asian states, Ukraine, Belarus and other ex-Soviet states will be analyzed. Russia has and still claims that it uses multilateralism to achieve its aims of maintaining its sphere of influence and checking other powers such as China in the East. To analyze this in more detail, the focus will be on Russias behavior both in the institutions it is part of and leads and its behavior towards the smaller ex-Soviet republics. Russias activities in the CSTO and SCO will also be analyzed as well as its successes and failures in preserving its sphere of influence. 2.3.1 What are Russias interests and motivations, and how does it view itself and the countries surrounding it? The best way to start the subject is to look into Russias interests. Historically, the ex-Soviet republics were part of the USSR and before the October Revolution of 1917. It is not restricted to this reason though. Russia has economic interests as well as competing new powers for influence. This is most felt in the Central Asian region. For Russian political analyst Dmitri Trenin, this is sphere of interest rather than sphere of influence, as he points out in his article in The Washington Quarterly. Trenin outlines three types of interests that Russia has the ex-Soviet states. The first includes the military and security reasons, secondly, Russias economic interests and thirdly, the cultural aspect. Regarding Russias security and military interests, Trenin mentions the CSTO as a way for Russia to maintain its influence and dominance in most of the ex-Soviet republics and also to combat Islamic extremist movements (The Washington Quarterly, October 2009). Trenin goes on to refer to t he fact Russia would like the CSTO to on the same level with NATO and that this would create the new European security architecture thus leading to the legitimization of the primacy of Russia in its former Imperial and Soviet subjects (The Washington Quarterly, October 2009). Trenin maintains that Russias intention is halt US and NATO encroachment in its perceived zone of responsibility and he refers to the August 2008 war with Georgia. By taking a heavy-handed attitude towards Georgia, Trenin suggests, Russia was sending a clear message to NATO that it would accept anymore intrusion in the ex-Soviet space (The Washington Quarterly, October 2009). So, the real reason behind the war was Mikhail Saakashvilis explicit intention to get NATO membership for Georgia. Russia also thinks that the USA is using democracy encouragement in order to draw the ex-Soviet states away from Russias influence (The Washington Quarterly, October 2009). The second reason, the economic interests of Russia, also cannot be ignored. Russia has millions of foreign workers who come from the CIS member states, a factor which gives Russia an upper hand in dealing with its neighbours (The Washington Quarterly, October 2009). Another important economic factor is energy. The ex-Soviet states around the Caspian Sea are rich in energy resources and Russian energy companies such as Gazprom, the Russian state-owned gas corporation, would like to be the ones that have control over these resources especially oil and natural gas (The Washington Quarterly, October 2009). Russia has also worked towards economic integration in Eurasia and this is seen in the Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) and Russia has made no secret of its wish to have a customs union with Kazakhstan and Belarus (The Washington Quarterly, October 2009). So Russia also uses economic means to preserve its influence and its interests. In the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, Russia has forked out billions in funds to help the economies of the former Soviet Republics to recover (The Washington Quarterly). Thirdly, there is the cultural aspect. Dmitri Trenin makes a reference towards the presence of millions of Russian inhabitants in post-Soviet countries and how the Kremlin tries to use the case of Russian minorities for its political advantage. This has been listed as one of the objectives of Russian foreign policy in the Russian Foreign Policy Concept of 2008 signed by President Dmitri Medvedev (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, 12th July 2008). This objective of Russia protecting ethnic Russians in the neighboring countries has also one been one of the first objectives of Vladimir Putin since he first came to power as Russian President in 2000, as outlined by Ingmar Oldberg in his article for the Swedish Institute of International Affairs (The Swedish Institute of International Affairs, 2010). Russia has been taking advantage of its cultural predominance to use the Russian minoriti es in the neighboring countries to preserve its influence and has used many methods to try to achieve its objective such as the media, issuing of passports and backing pro-Russian political parties in these states (The Swedish Institute of International Affairs, 2010). One has to appreciate the fact that Russian culture, especially the language is a very strong factor. 2.3.2 Organisations which Russia uses as part of its objective of preserving its sphere of influence In this section, the focus is on organisations such as the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) and Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). The aim of this part of the chapter is to give a short history of each of these organisations and more importantly, Russias role in them and what Russia hopes to achieve by being active in these organisations. Is Russia using these organisations as a new way to portray itself as upholding the principles of multilateralism while at the same times keeping the post-Soviet republics under its influence? Does Russia behave as an equal partner or is it the dominant member due to its military strength? The best way to answer these questions is to analyse these organisations and Russias role in them. 2.3.2.1 Commonwealth of Independent States The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) was born out of the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union. After the Soviet Union collapsed, 15 newly independent states emerged. Russia wanted to use the CIS in order for it to be able to maintain its influence in the newly independent states (Nogee and Donaldson, pg 165). It wanted to create The Baltic states kept away from joining and Georgia left the organisation after its August 2008 war with Russia. Ukraine, which in the early 1990s was under the leadership of Leonid Kravchuk did not want much integration in the CIS in order to preserve Ukraines independence (Donaldson and Nogee, pg 166). As a sign of continuity with the Tsarist and Soviet foreign policy thinking, Russia placed huge importance to the CIS as way of protecting itself with friendly countries, and this was mentioned in the 1993 Russian Foreign Policy Concept (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 154). With the establishment of the CIS, Russia was aiming for a common econ omic space, a common market, co-ordinated customs policies, cooperation in the environmental protection, developing communication and transport systems and combating organized crime (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 154). Much of these ambitions aims were not achieved and in 2005, President Vladimir Putin himself complained that the CIS did not achieve what Russia envisioned a decade earlier (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 154). Stina Torjesen, in a contribution to the book The Multilateral Dimension of Russian Foreign Policy, lists some reasons why Russia did not achieve as much as it hoped for in the 1990s regarding the CIS and CIS integration. Torjesen mentions reasons such as that coordination was not executed well, that when it came to implementing policies, Russia was either slow or didnt implement them at all, causing the other partners to be irritated, Russia in the 1990s was going through economic hardship which led to difficulty in implementing proposals and that Russias behavio r was still zero-sum instead of being a multilateral partner (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 155). Russia still sought to be the dominating party and sought primacy over other partners. So Russia deserves part of the blame for the failure to achieve the earlier objectives behind the creation of the CIS. Lilia Shevtsova, in her book Lonely Power, believes that Russia does not treat its neighbours as equals and cares about its primacy (Shevtsova, pg 90). Shevtsova makes a reference to a speech by President Dmitry Medvedev at the Council of Foreign Relations where the Russian President stated that Russia had a sphere of privileged interests (Shevtsova, pg 89). There were attempts by some post-Soviet republics to try to lessen their dependence on Russia and this is seen in organisations they set up such as GU(U)AM (Mankoff, pg 247). This consisted of Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan (which left the organisation), Azerbaijan and Moldova. GUAM as organisation was first set up in October 1997 (Tsygankov, pg 126). Uzbekistan left the organisation in May 2005 (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 173). After the summit in Kiev on 23rd May 2006, GUAM had a new name: Organisation for Democracy and Economic Development GUAM (Organisation for Democracy and Economic Development GUAM). The August 2008 war with Georgia also spoke volumes about Russias efforts to preserve its sphere of influence. Moreover in May 2009, Russia sent in extra 1,800 troops into Abkhazia and South Ossetia which inflamed suspicions in the West that Russia was up to its tricks again, that pursuing its domination of its neighbours as well as punishing Georgia for the pro-Western path it had taken (The Jamestown Foundation, 6th May 2009). After all, President Medvedev had made no secret of Russia wanting to be responsible for what he described as Russias privileged sphere of influence (The New York Times, 31st August 2008). US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US President Barack Obama did not agree with Dmitry Medvedevs position (OpenDemocracy, 20th April 2009). Russias cutting of the gas supply due to a crisis with Ukraine was interpreted as Russia using its energy resources to punish those countries which took positions against Russia such as Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko, claims which Russia denied and Russia counter-attacked by claiming it was a quarrel over payments (Valdai Club, 13th January 2009). Lately, Russia has had problems over gas with Belaruss President Alexander Lukashenko but analysts claim that Russia uses its position of energy supplier to bend its neighbours to its will. This was the case with Belarus in June 2010 since Russia had been very irritated with Lukashenkos lack of recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent states and retaliated by banning milk from Belarus (The Economist, 24th June 2010). 2.3.2.2 Collective Security Treaty Organisation The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) is the military organisation Russia uses in order to maintain its influence in the post-Soviet states. One has to remember that out of all the former Soviet states, Russia is the most militarily and economically powerful and these factors do give it primacy in the CSTO. From the beginning, Russia intended that the CSTO will be used to create protection and security for Russia by having an organisation which included the former Soviet states (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 182). Before the CSTO was established in 2002, there was an agreement, the Collective Security Treaty (CST), signed in May 1992 at Tashkent by Russia, Armenia and the former Central Asian Soviet republics but Turkmenistan remained out (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 183). After the fall of the USSR, Russia and the former Soviet states began discussing how to have a single military space under the CIS (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 183). So the CST, and later the CSTO, was to work under the CIS. The objective of a creating one military structure was not achieved because each state chose to have its national army but the CST helped to bring the new states armies to cooperate when a threat emerged (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 183). Throughout the 1990s, there were discussions on what type of military organisation the CST members national armies were going to set up (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 183). The discussions were between whether there should be a decision-making structure similar to the one of NATO, which the majority of CST members wanted, or having a hierarchical structure, as Russia and Uzbekistan wanted (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 183-184). In the end a mixture of both was chosen. One can remark that the fact that Russia wanted a hierarchical structure tells much about what its role in the CST was going to be. It sought to be the leader and not an equal with the other partners. By the mid-1990s, the CST had been successful in dealing with many challenges and Russia, through its military advantage, played a central role in helping Central Asian states to safeguard their borders and training their armies (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 184). But there was still no proper organisation of a supranational nature and this was seen in the civil war in Tajikistan in 1992, when the CST members did not work together and Russia and Uzbekistan helped the Tajik government (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 184). In 1993, peacekeeping troops from CST and CIS states Russia, Kazak hstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan did come to Tajikistan aid, but Russia was the dominant partner and its actions, such as supporting militarily the Tajik government of the day, were not multilateral (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 185). In this incident, one can see Russia acting as the dominant partner and this is something which the other states took note of. So Russia had some part of the blame for the failure to develop a fully-fledged multilateral military organisation. Its actions contradicted its objective of collective action. The maintenance of its sphere of influence was what mattered most. However, in the late 1990s, there was military cooperation between the CST members which was led by Russia such as military exercises in 1999 and 2000 (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 185). In October 2000, the CST members proceeded to cooperate on the issue of terrorism and this culminated in an agreement in Bishkek between Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to create an anti-terrorist center where they could share intelligence on terrorists (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 185). On May 25th 2001, cooperation increased and this led to the creation of the Rapid Deployment Forces to deal with security in the region (Eurasianet, 25th May 2001). This increase in cooperation led to the creation of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) in May 2002 with Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Armenia being the members (Wilson Rowe and Torjesen, pg 185). In October 2002, the Charter of the CSTO was signed and it came into effect from the 18th September 2003 (CSTO Official Website). In 2003, Russia began to improve on the already existing facilities at the airbase at Kant in Kyrgyzstan, and in 2006 added more personnel at the base (Mankoff, pg 268). After the 2005 Tulip revolution, the USA had to pay $200,000,000 yearly to keep its airbase at Manas while Russia did not have pay any rent, though it did provide military hardware to Kyrgyzstan (Mankoff, pg 268). In August 2008, after the war with Georgia, Russia asked the CSTO members to recognize South Ossetia (The Times, 30th August 2008) after China and four Central Asian countries had refused to recognize South Ossetia. This is another proof of how Russia wants to use the CSTO to be on par with NATO and trying to stop NATO from encroaching in its neighbourhood. In 2009, the Kyrgyz government announced to the USA that it was going to close down Manas airbase and this was soon after Russia promised more than $2 billion in aid to Kyrgyzstan on condition that the Kyrgyz government tells the US to leave the Manas Airbase (San Francisco Chronicle, 22nd February 2009). The Russia aim to keep Kyrgyzstan under its sphere of influence could not be clearer. On February 4th 2009, at a CSTO summit in Moscow, Russia and the other member states set up the Collective Rapid Reaction Force (CRRF) and it must be pointed out that Russia was once again the dominant player because it had the greater military power and it provided all the weapons, as Aleksei Malashenko from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (Moscow) argued (Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty, 4th February 2009). This shows again how Russia uses the CSTO for its central objective of maintaining its sphere of influence. It claims that the CSTO is there to fight terrorism but Russia uses the war on terrorism to make the CSTO one of its foreign policy tools. In fact, one can see this when in the same summit, Uzbekistan demanded special concessions for itself as a condition to join the CSTO (RIA Novosti, 4th February 2009). In May 2010, Belarus decided to contribute over 2,000 personnel to the CRRF after its ratification of the Moscow agreement (RIA Novosti, 26th May 2010). Si nce then, the CRRF members have practiced military exercises in October 2010 (RIA Novosti, 22nd October 2010). However, there were some disappointments and the latest one has been during the political upheaval in Kyrgyzstan when President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was overthrown. Russia did not send peacekeeping troops as Medvedev said that Russia and the CSTO would not participate in Kyrgyzstans domestic unrest (Global Post, 15th June 2010). Russia caused disappointment by its behavior because it showed a lack of consistency and did not act with its CSTO partners to send a peacekeeping mission to Kyrgyzstan. This shows that Russia uses organisations such as the CSTO to give an image that it is working multilaterally with its partners, but in reality it does the opposite. 2.3.2.3 Using economic means to protect interests and maintain sphere of influence The Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) Russia does not only create military organisations to preserve its sphere of influence, but it also uses economic means. Since the collapse of the USSR, Russia has tried hard to create customs union and foster economic integration in the CIS and recently it seems to have had some successes. Russia wants to follow the example of European integration and apply it to the CIS. The Eurasian Economic Community (EurAsEC) is Russias tool to achieve this objective. Some of the objectives behind creating the CIS were to create a common economic space and a common market and deepening cooperat