Term Paper – DHS

Introduction

 The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is made up of federal departments and agencies that play wide-ranging duties including protecting the nation against threats. It is important to understand that in the 1990s, there were significant terrorist incidents such as the World Trade Centre bombing, Olympic Bombing, among other incidents. The American public recognized that the cold war gave rise to the transnational terrorism where the disaffected groups were interested in mass destruction. During this period, the United State did not have a good strategy to combat terrorism and for this reason, there were many proposals including forming a centralized policy, strengthening the existing institutions, and establishing federal agencies. However, it is important to understand that these proposals were not related to counterterrorism.  Therefore, President Bush established an office of Homeland Security and it was responsible in coordinating terrorism. The Congress proposed the formation of a new federal agency that could offer counterterrorist efforts.  The Bush administration sponsored these proposals and in 2002, the Homeland Security Act was approved. The establishment of the new department was the most significant restructuring of the federal agencies in that the Department of Homeland Security has 22 government agencies that is in a single organization and that is in charge of various roles and responsibilities. 

Changes in homeland security since its inception

 Since 2001, the DHS has changed in a remarkable way as it has given rise to national security. Johnson & Hunter (2017) assert that during the September 11th attack, the state and local law enforcement agencies did not offer an effective response to the attack due to failure to define their roles, lack of a unifying strategy, and lack of funding.  However, after the September attack, the period that followed was referred to as a new policing era since, at this time, the law enforcement agencies focused on shifting from traditional approaches to new approaches that would focus on analyzing and deterring local crimes, , target-oriented strategies,  and  offer proactive responses  (Johnson & Hunter, 2017).   When the homeland security was developed, the state and local law enforcement agencies acted as the first terrorist since they are close to their communities, and that they would effectively engage in counterterrorism activities.  The state and local agencies improved their homeland security activities with the help of the National Strategy (Johnson & Hunter, 2017).  The latter came up with recommendation activities that the agencies would follow. They include; 

 National incident management system (NIMS)

            The Bush administration established management systems to homeland security for the purpose of managing domestic incidents.  It established the Homeland Security Presidential Directive 5 (HSPD-5) and its primary responsibility was to create a National Response Plan and incident management system (Johnson & Hunter, 2017).  The purpose of these initiatives was to come up with a standardized method which the state and local agencies would use to respond to terrorist events.  The HSPD-5 forms a single management system that enables all level of government to work efficiently together in prevention, and preparation.

 All-hazard plan

 Since the 9/11 attacks, the DHS has changed in that the National Strategy for Homeland Security recommended that all states should have a hazards plan or in other words they should identify all events, how they will occur, and the operations plans (Johnson  & Hunter, 2017).   This approach was created toward emergency preparedness and the primary aim was to mobilize the government agency, the families, as well as the business to come up with a preparedness plan which includes resources and protocols.  All-hazard approach means that the responsible agencies should classify the hazards that damage the environment, the properties, and hazards that cause injury (Johnson & Hunter, 2017). This would help the management agency to provide an effective response, aid in recovery, and cooperate with the Federal Government in managing terrorism.

 Agency mission statement

 The National Security for Homeland Security recommended that the agency should create goals and objectives to communicate the homeland security activities so that the employees, as well as the stakeholders, can understand the primary activities, as a result, create unanimity of purpose (Johnson & Hunter, 2017). The goals and objectives would allow the agency to allocate resources,   and provide purpose and direction.

 Intelligence gathering

            The DHS has improved in that it formed intelligence units that use intelligence gathering for investigative functions.   The intelligence gathering helps the agency to gather information concerning crimes and the information helps the agency keep the homeland safe (Johnson & Hunter, 2017).  It is important to understand that prior to 9/11, there was a difference between domestic intelligence and foreign intelligence.  Today,  there is no difference since terrorist threats both in local and outside the country are considered as national security threats and this means that foreign intelligence play a significant role in preventing local threats and vice versa.

 Mutual aid

            The DHS has changed in that today, the U.S law enforcement is decentralized and this means that there is a mutual aid agreement between agencies.  All agencies share resources that aid them in gathering information and responding to terrorist attacks (Johnson & Hunter, 2017).  Note that terrorist employs high explosive weapons and this means that the agencies need specialized resources and a high level of preparedness in order to improve the response.  Today, the mutual aid agreements allow the state and local to meet the challenges by using specialized resources.

 NGO partnerships

 Today, homeland security has formed an effective partnership with NGOs and as a result, the law enforcement agencies, as well as the NGOs, perform critical functions using adequate resources (Johnson & Hunter, 2017).  They coordinate in providing critical services such as food, water, communications, and other services.

The relationships between the DHS and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies

  Law enforcement and intelligence agencies have strengthened homeland security.  Today, the DHS does not work alone but it partners with many departments and agencies including federal, state and local leaders, private sector, and community-based organizations.  Since 9/11, law enforcement, the intelligence agencies, and the DHS have worked collaboratively to prevent criminal activities. These agencies form an information sharing environment where they shape policy, address technical and legal issues, and develop strategic ways to combat terrorists (Bean, 2009). Over the years, the Intelligence Community is made up of both intelligence and military agencies and their primary role is to conduct intelligence activities.  The agencies are controlled by the office of National Intelligence and the office ensures that the agencies maintain homeland security and employ the counterterrorism strategy to combat terrorism.  The Intelligence Community play a significant role in the U.S by ensuring the security of citizens, supporting the  DHS,  supporting the office of Intelligence and Analysis,   and delivering intelligence to other partners (Bean, 2009).  Focusing on the Department of Homeland Security, its mission is to maintain security through prevention, and protection.  As a cabinet department, it established the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act and the National Counterterrorism Center. This means that DHS is made up of many elements that work together to maximize national security. Other agencies such as the FBI, the Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Central Intelligence Agency are not part of the DHS but they work together to maintain homeland security (Bean, 2009).  For instance, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is the main law enforcement agency and since 9/11, it has expanded its role as a counterterrorism force.  It strengthens the Department of Homeland Security through allocating resources to the employee. Today, it pays greater attention to investigating terrorist attacks and preempting them.  Counterterrorism and counterintelligence are the core work of the agency which aims at protecting the nation against catastrophic terrorist attack (Bean, 2009).  It is important to understand that the main aim strategy of homeland security is information sharing. It focuses on building a trusted partnership where various agencies share information toward ensuring national security.  The Department of Justice works with the DHS to provide information-sharing systems and preparedness efforts.

The current structure of the DHS

            After the September 11 attack, President Bush established an organizational structure.  He created an office of Homeland Security, the Homeland Security Council, and selected Tom Ridge as the head of the office (Sandler & Enders, 2011).  During its initial formation, the DHS' roles were categorized into security and investigations, preparedness and recovery, training and development, and management and operations. However, the DHS was reorganized since the initial structure was not effective and as a result, other compatible components were formed (Sandler & Enders, 2011).  The following is the current structure of the DHS;

• Departmental Management and Operations- it manages the Department of Homeland Security and its offices.
• Analysis and Operations- it works with other DHS components, state and local departments, and the intelligence community in gathering information.
• Office of the Inspector General- it conducts internal fairs in the inspections and investigation units.
• Us Customs and Border Protection- it provides border security.
• US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)-ICE works together with the law enforcement agencies in keeping America safe through removing terrorists, illegal immigrants, and nuclear materials from the US (Sandler & Enders, 2011).
• Transportation Security Administration (TSA) - it ensures that the US transportation system is safe. It conducts risk management and employs technologies to counter terrorists' efforts.
• US Coast Guard- the role of this armed service is to protect the US maritime interest and the marine environment through conducting drug interdiction, and search-and-rescue mission (Sandler & Enders, 2011).
• US Secret Service- this is a mission agency whose role is to protect the US leadership and protects the US against the currency counterfeit.
• National Protection and Program Directorate-it play a significant role in protecting the US infrastructure such as the communication systems (Sandler & Enders, 2011). It conducts risk assessment and management, provides effective measures to threats, and aids in recovery.
• Office of Health Affairs- it provides biodefense and biosurveillance to the DHS.
• Federal Emergency Management Agency-FEMA acts as a government agency in coordinating response efforts to disaster.
• Science and Technology Directorate- this play an important role in providing the DHS with the current knowledge and equipment that are effective in addressing natural threats.  It works with the research centers to conduct research concerning the aspects of terrorism (Sandler & Enders, 2011).

Changes to the current structure of the DHS

            The structure of the DHS play a significant role in promoting greater security standards. However, other aspects need improvement in order to do its job effectively. First, the current structure has a decentralized power and makes a weak structure. For example, each component has its power and congressional outreach offices and this does not bring operational effectiveness due to lack of cohesiveness (Sandler & Enders, 2011).  It is important for the departments to work as a cohesive whole to improve effectiveness and efficiency.   The second reform should be on the Department of Science and Technology Directorate.  The department should improve its operations by setting aside more time and resources on long-term research about the useable technology that can benefit other DHS components (Sandler & Enders, 2011). The third reform should be on the National Protection and Program Directorate.  Note that this department protects the cyber-networks and it should improve its practices through working together with the private sector and government agencies to combat the rapidly increasing cyberspace threats.

Challenges of homeland security that the United States needs to address

 The top characteristics that the US need to address are coordinating the homeland security department, implementing the management functions, and managing risks in a strategic way (Painter, 2017). First, the US should address the issue of leadership and coordination  and promote effective partnership with other agencies and private sectors in sharing information.  Second, the US should address the issue of management functions for various departments (Painter, 2017).  Currently, there are many agencies and the US should increase leadership commitment and implement strategies to manage the functions and prevent management challenges.  It should allocate enough skilled personnel and ensure an integrated management system in order to make effective decisions (Painter, 2017).  Finally, the US should come up with strategic program planning that would allow the DHS to make investment decisions and meet strategic needs.

Existing roadblocks to DHS

 The existing roadblocks that prevent the DHS from addressing the most important issue are; cybersecurity, lack adequate research and development, and lack of adequate modernization (Painter, 2017).  Cybersecurity is the greatest threat affecting the DHS. Due to the dramatic rise of information and communication technology, and cyber-capabilities, the DHS is unable to protect itself from these threats.  However, the DHS will be able to coordinate other functions if only it addresses the issue of cyber threat through the sharing of information in various sectors (Painter, 2017).  Second, DHS lack adequate research and development.   Uncoordinated research programs act as a roadblock or rather it prevents the department from engaging in research and development and in engaging in its critical mission (Painter, 2017). The last roadblock is lack of adequate modernization to support the Coast Guard.  The latter provides maritime security and protects the US environment but the armed force lack modern resources.

Role cyber terrorism in future attacks

 In the future, the threats of cyber-terrorism will change due to the development of new technologies. Cyber threats will be more advanced since criminals are using more sophisticated tools and vulnerabilities will continue to get worse unless the US and its allies implement cyber protection efforts (Blane, 2003). Note that there is a rise of the internet and cyberspace and the technological advanced is allowing criminals to communicate and exchange ideas.  Thus, in the future, there will be new threats and the terrorist group will have the power and ability to attack the US and its allies and cause death.

            What I consider as the largest cyber threat is the Internet of Things device threats.  Cyber terrorists are using IoT-enabled device to access a network.  The problem with the IoT is that the service providers are unable to manage them since they lack a security-first mindset (IT-Online, 2019).  They are unable to manage IoT risks and also the company's staffing and budgets are inadequate.  It is recommended that the company should offer employee training so that the workforce can learn about the IoT devices including the risks management, and cyber risks. 

Conclusion 

 Since the inception of the DHS, it has played significant roles in protecting the US from terrorists' threats.  It has provided border security and emergency response and more importantly, it prevents the nation against future attack.  It was created in 2002 as a comprehensive national strategy and it is made up with different departments and agencies whose its major goal was to prevent terrorism, among other goals.  The DHS works together with law enforcement and the intelligence agencies to ensure that the nation is secure and resilient.   The agencies have a holistic management approach that enables them to promote security and resilience.  There is a big change in the DHS in that today, the department has various agencies such as the Border and Transpiration Security, emergency department, science, and technology department, among other departments.  However, the DHS faces challenges such as lack of a clear mission for the agencies, lack of clear roles in individual, local and state agencies, and lack of adequate funds.  In the future, there should be strong coordination and cooperation among the agencies and build a cohesive culture toward preventing future attacks.

References

Johnson, T. C., & Hunter, R. D. (2017). Changes in homeland security activities since 9/11: an

examination of state and local law enforcement agencies’ practices. Police Practice and

Research, 18(2), 160-173.

Bean, H. (2009). Exploring the relationship between homeland security information sharing &

local emergency preparedness. Homeland Security Affairs, 5(2).

 Sandler Todd., & Enders Walter. (2011). The Political Economy of Terrorism. Cambridge

University Press

Blane, J. V. (2003). Cybercrime and cyberterrorism: Current issues. New York, NY: Novinka

Books.

Painter, W. L. (2017). Selected issues in homeland security policy for the 115 th Congress.

Congressional Research Service. Washington.

 IT-Online. (2019). IoT: on the rise and under threat. WordPress.  Retrieved from: https://it-online.co.za/2019/05/31/iot-on-the-rise-and-under-threat/

Al Qaeda

 Al Qaeda is a global terrorist network whose history dates back to the 1970s during the time of Soviet invasion in Afghanistan. During the 1970s when the Soviet Afghan war was happening the Soviet Union aided the communist Afghan movement. Muslim declared the holy war on the invaders.  This holy war was led by Muslim rebels that were known as Mujahideen, Osama Bin Laden was responsible for providing them with money and guns. Later the movement was joined by Abdallah Azzam. They continued to grow into a large network that was financially equipped such that when the Soviet Union left Afghanistan, they created the Al Qaeda to deal with holy wars arising in the future, but Bin Laden had other plans that included taking the war to other nations. After the death of Azzam Bin Laden was left as the reigning leader of the Al Qaeda (Cragin,2014).

There are certain aspects of Al Qaeda that set them apart or make them similar with other terror groups such as Boko Haram. One of the similarities between these two terror groups is that they exploit the propaganda purpose of pornography violence such as chopping off heads and arms.  The beliefs of Al Qaeda have set them apart from Boko Haram, Al Qaeda are more political since their strategies are politically influenced while Boko Haram are concerned on establishing Gods kingdom mainly in the Nigeria. Al Qaeda has taken its operations global while Boko Haram is mainly in Nigeria (Raineri, & Martini, 2017).

            Al Qaeda is responsible for hijacking four planes on September 11, 2011. This hijacking resulted to a mass murder that left 2,977 people dead. Al Qaeda also attacked two Black Hawk helicopters in 1995 in Mogadishu. This terror group is also responsible for bombing a car that destroyed a building that was leased by the US military while they were in Saudi Arabia in 1995. In 1994 they admitted to bombing the US embassies in East Africa, Kenya and Tanzania. In 2000 the group also took credit for bombing the U.S.S Cole in Yemen where it had stopped to refuel, this bombing killed 17 sailors and injured 39 of them. This group is also responsible for bombing Madrid in 2004, London in 2005. It is also responsible for some failed bombing attempts such as the attempt on Times Square in 2010 (Cragin, 2014)

Currently, Al Qaeda a critical terrorist threat, this was concluded in 2015 when the groups Yemeni affiliates were credited with the bombing of a French magazine the bombing saw 12 people dead.  In 2017 the vice president of Iraq concerned that the terror group was seeking an alliance with ISIS.  They are operating in various parts of the world such as North & East Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. Despite being located in different parts of the world the leaders of these groups report directly to their current leader Ayman al-Zawahiri (Cragin, 2014).

            The United Nations is at the forefront when it comes to fighting terrorists. The UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy has Five pillars. These pillars are addressing to eliminate the conditions that create a conducive environment to carry out terrorism, preventing and fighting terrorists, building the capacity of their state members to fight terrorists, and ensuring human rights are not overlooked while fighting terror groups (United Nations, n.d).  These global efforts are enough to contain terrorism since their main five functions are well identified and the United Nations understands the threat of terror groups and they have the will and resources to contain terrorism. The global efforts have also managed to constrict Al Qaeda’s ability to operate (Sawyer, & Foster, 2008).

References

Cragin, R. K. (2014). A Recent History Of Al-Qa'ida. The Historical Journal, 57(3), 803-824.

Raineri, L., & Martini, A. (2017). ISIS and Al-Qaeda as Strategies and Political Imaginaries in    Africa: A Comparison between Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. Civil     Wars, 19(4), 425-447.

Sawyer, R., & Foster, M. (2008). The resurgent and persistent threat of al Qaeda. The ANNALS    of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 618(1), 197-211.

United Nations (n.d). UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. Retrieved from;             https://www.un.org/counterterrorism/ctitf/en/un-global-counter-terrorism-strategy

Final Paper Assignment

Introduction

 The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has attracted global supporters and affiliate groups in other countries and as a result, the group has the power and effort to conduct transnational terrorism. ISIS is a strong terrorist group that uses strategies and tactics to pose a significant danger. ISIS terrorists are nontraditional enemies; meaning that they do not use traditional ways during the operation but they employ modern tactics. Note that ISIS has a hierarchical military command that enables it to act as a military. It also has an effective organizational structure including centralized decision making, making it easier to adapt to the changing situations and achieve its territorial objective. Another important thing to understand is that the ISIS has increased its territorial force by the use of sleep cells.  Note that ISIS's objective is ‘to remain and expand', and it continues to expand its operations beyond Ira and Syria. The ISIS has spies or sleep agents stationed in different regions of the world doing espionage work. Thus, ISIS has become a global actor and it is using a global strategy. Thus, the U.S should adopt strategic options to degrade and defeat the terrorist group. The research paper has found that intelligence gathering is the best approach to address ISIS threats. The approach does not punish past crimes but it focuses on understanding the future by gathering information and analyzing numerous data and investigating a crime. The information is derived from police reports, public records, internet, court records, self-published books, television broadcast, among other sources. The information is helpful since law enforcement will be in a position to make an informed decision, and understand different crimes and terrorism.  Thus, the Central Intelligence Agency should be in the forefront to maintain national security and identify an intelligence issue through collecting the information and come up with countermeasures.  To gather effective information, it is recommended that the surveillance process require security apparatus or sophisticated tools so that people can collect the appropriate information and protect sensitive information. The U.S. intelligence community should focus on using the approach of intelligence gathering and employ a new intelligence system to respond to the ISIS transnational terrorist attacks and reduce the ISIS threats. Intelligence gathering will protect the nation's borders, and more importantly, improve the emergency responses.

  ISIS is the deadliest terrorist group in the world. The group is known to control Syria and Iraq but today, ISIS is beyond these territories. Today, the group has grown dangerously and it has increased the real threat in the Soviet states and beyond. The terrorist group remains capable of attacking other countries by the help of sleeper cells.  The latter is increasing attacks and this is the main challenge as to why the U.S is unable to fight terrorism. The research paper has found that ISIS has employ sleep cells or agents in different target countries. Their role is to act as spies and deep cover agents and to share the information with the sponsors. They live like a normal citizen since they acquire jobs, get married, and build identities. To complete their mission, the ISIS provides the sleep cells with propaganda materials through social networks with the aim of attracting media attention and enemies. Today, it is hard-to-detect global terrorism since the terrorist groups are using underground terror networks which enables them to exploit modern technologies and cause violent attacks. Thus, modern technology, as well as the sleeper cells, are making it hard to attack the terrorists despite the security measures.  To mitigate these challenges, and degrade the ISIS, there is a need for effective counter-terrorism strategies.  Note that ISIS is underestimated and this makes it hard to identify and address the challenges posed by the terrorists.  The effort to combat the terrorists should not come from the federal officials only, but the law enforcement from both state and local level, the corporate managers, the public health, among other stakeholders should be in the forefront to prevent attacks.  To combat terrorist threats efficiently and successfully, the research paper recommends the intelligence-led policing. The U.S and other countries have used various methods such as problem-orientated policing and community-orientated policing. Even though these methods have strengths, the major weakness is that they focus on a local area. Thus, it is important to apply the intelligence-led policing to address more serious threats. To respond to crimes, law enforcement agencies should employ the approach of intelligence gathering to collect information and make a sound decision. The information collected will enable them to analyze crime, conduct effective investigations, and understand the crime patterns and criminal behaviors. The law enforcement should be involved in strategic intelligence to understand the criminal environment, set objectives, policy and allocate resources and strategies toward reducing threats posed by the terrorists. It is also recommended that the policymakers should come up with a new system for gathering national security information in order to improve security and maintain privacy. There should be a proper use of information technology and procedures to foster collaboration, ensure accountability, and share the right information with the right people.  

Benefits of Everything but Arms Initiative

            Everything but arms is an initiative that was introduced in the year 2001 under the European Union Generalized Scheme Preference. The initiative gives Least Developed Countries (LDC) an opportunity to export their produce duty-free and quota-free market access for all it produces except the arms and ammunition as it is indicated by the name.

            The access to the benefits of the scheme is usually automatic for the LDC, and therefore there is no application that will be needed for the countries in order to access the benefits of the initiative. The countries are added or even removed to the appropriate list by delegated regulation (Frazer, 2017). However, in the case of significant violation of the current principles of human rights and also labor rights, the Everything but Arms initiative benefits can be withdrawn.

            From 2011, the European Union has set up favorable rules of origin for the LDC in a few of the products. For example, the regulation for the initiative increased the allowance for the use of non-originating materials for most of the manufactured goods and also made an allowance for garments which have undergone a single transformation into the market.

            The European Union also provides for smooth transition of the African countries and also others by establishing a transitional period of three years that will allow the countries to move out of being LDC into other categories. This period of transformation enables the countries to have enough time to lower the risk for development of adverse effects that may result from a direct removal as it will affect the operations and also the supply of the products into the market.

            The everything but arms initiative makes an essential contribution to the development even though the most significant impact of the initiative is not felt directly. Some of the direct effects that will be felt in the least developed states are always positive, but the impacts are moderate because the supply capacity of these countries is still small (Ito & Aoyagi, 2019). The initiative improves the access of African exports to the European Union market. This will create a broader market for goods as the number of consumers of the products also increases and thus bring more profits and increase the income of the country.

             Furthermore, the larger the market of the goods into the market will lead to demand in the production of the products which will thus create more jobs for the citizens of that country and in the long run reduce the level of poverty for its citizen (Coulibaly, 2017). This will reduce the level of dependence of the people to the government and also will improve the living standards of the people in the country which will impact even in the health of the people.

            The opportunity given to the least developed countries to export their products is likely to boost developments of the country because the level of production will also go high. With low levels of restriction of products into the market and with no extra charges, the products are likely to remain affordable, and thus a large number of individuals will consume it, and that means the market for the product also increases.

            The initiative increases the value of the produce, and this is because the level of competitions for the products in the developed and the industrialized countries will also go up. This will promote a better market and also an increase in the value of the products in the market (Orbie & Martens, 2016). This will boost better earnings for the farmers and also the individuals involved in the production of the products or the good.

            The impact of the EBA on the least developed African countries will depend on some of the factors such as the capacity of the country to increase the supply of their products to the market and also the extent to which the initiative will bring changes and results to better access of their products into the market. If there is increase in the market access and the production of the good remains the same, the supply will also remain the same, and this will thus make least changes and little changes in the benefits to the market. Also if the country had already access to the market and there will be no improvements in the access, small benefits will also be drawn from the initiative.

            The amount of money from the taxation of the products exported to the European Union will thus move to the supplier because the product is not taxed although it is not possible to determine the amount from the action. The removal of the taxation of the products will result in some improvements, and this will occur if the supply chain will gain a significant benefit in the tax relief and therefore earn more.

            The impact of the least developed countries producers earning more will, therefore, increase their capacity to increase the volume of their exports into the markets. This is the result of the initiative. The countries which may have supplied the products into lower-priced markets are able to divert the products into the European Union market, and this will earn more export revenues for the country, and thus it will be a dynamic gain for them (Kennes, 2018). This revenue can be used in the development and boosting other sectors in the country.

            However, it is unrealistic to expect a massive impact from the initiative due to the fact that most of the least developed countries supplying to the market have a little surplus and therefore they are not able to increase the amount of produce to export to European Union market. Some of the ways the countries can increase their exportation into the markets are the diversion of the products from other markets and an increase in the imports into the country for consumption to allow more production for export. The two ways are likely to be done by a country if the prices in the European Union market are higher than in other areas and will involve mainly the products that country have been relieved by the European Union.

            Some of the African countries that have benefited from everything but arms initiative are Rwanda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. The levels of exports to the European Union from Rwanda was low before the introduction of the everything but arms initiative. After the introduction of the initiative, the levels of exports has increased and become the highest in 2016 amounting 414 million euros.

            The figures shows the level of exports to EU market before and after the introduction of the everything but arms initiative. This is clearly shows that there has been massive increase in exports to the EU and therefore it has benefited from the initiative.

            Tanzania exports to the EU has also increased since entry into the everything but arms initiative. The exports of Tanzania before the initiative were low but after the levels have been high and reaching 1096 million euros in 2011. The levels have remained high all above 888 million euros since 2011. The market for Tanzania goods has therefore risen and it is indicative of benefits of good market.

There have a lot of changes in the European Union market as the countries are able to export more to the market and also their supply quantity also increases. For example in Ethiopia where the export increased from the time the initiative was introduced in the European Union. Since 2001, Ethiopia considered the use of EBA initiative to export to the European Union, the amount of the exports from the country increased from 2001 up to 201 and from 2012 to 2016 the trend for exports to the European Union declined. However, the fact remains that the exports of Ethiopia to the European Union is still in a good position than the way it was back in 2001 and also other periods before that.

            The agricultural product mainly dominates the major export to the European Union market from Ethiopia. The agricultural products were mostly featured on coffee and flowers, and it accounted for a more significant percentage of more than 78% of all the exports from Ethiopia to the European market in 2016. It is therefore clear that the country is yet to realize its export potential to the European Union market.           

            From the table above, it is clear that the exports to the European Union market from Ethiopia are the agricultural products. Others include the textile and other its products, footwear and its parts and non-agricultural products (Staritz & Whitfield, 2017). The availability of a market for the products and also the removal of taxation makes it more favorable for the products to compete in the market. This thus is beneficial to the country as the market is not only widened but also made it more desirable to compete with other products from the developed countries.

Compared to other regions Ethiopia’s export to European Union has been declining. And the main reason for this may be due to the increase in the number of trading, and there is other emerging export destination due to the high demand and also presence of other GSP schemes which are offered by other trading partners which are as important as European Union. However, even after the decline in the trend, when compared to other regions, the European Union remain the most significant destination for exports from Ethiopia.

              Even though the country has a great opportunity which is offered by the EBA scheme, it has never been able to make use of the European Union market; this is due to challenges which are experienced in the supply chain and that are very crucial in the production sector. First, the country has limited productivity. The amount of produce does not reach the surplus, and therefore the country cannot be able to export a large quantity to the market.

             Besides, it is very likely that the will be no change that can be seen if the amount of products supplied to the market remains the same even if the market is duty-free. The amount produced is what matters, and thus the inability of the country to be in a position to provide enough means that it cannot have enough to export to other markets. However, the European Union market has helped in offering the market for the little the country produces.

            Ethiopia also has a challenge in the diversification of the economy; this is because the areas of production have been mainly focused on the agricultural products which thus is the backbone of the economy. This does not provide the opportunity for the country to move and focus on other sectors in the economy.

            There are also low levels in the structural changes and also little industrial development. Infrastructure is essential for the development of a country, and therefore, lack of enough infrastructure will derail the rate of expansion of other sectors in the country (Ito & Aoyagi, 2019). The industrial development is also crucial in the processing of material which will then improve the quality and also add the value of the products in the market. Exportation of raw produce does not give the amount of the product in the export market because they are unprocessed.

            There are also issues with the logistics and other services such as the quality certification, port services, and customs are also a problem and therefore before the supply of the products to the actual destination. There are a lot of challenges that are faced in the way, and the market for the product was also small; thus there was little profit from the sector.

             The competition from other developed countries and also high and therefore the products from the country had diverse challenges and could not yield enough profits. The levels for technology were too low, and the transfer linkages for the produces was also minimal. This was a big challenge because the products that were produced had a smaller market for it.

            After the introduction of the initiative, there have been drastic changes that occurred which includes development and also an improvement in the delivery of services to the producers. This included the addressing of the supply side constraints. This has improved the process of delivery of the product to the European Union market. The removal of the duties for the product also let in an increase in the profitability of the products and even gave motivation to the farmers to continue with the production.

             EBA opened up a broader market for the product as the products are able to compete in the international markets. This is because the removal of the duty on the products reduced the cost to the producers and also reduced the prize of the produce in the market (Coulibaly, 2017). This will thus make it compete favorably with others which are produced in other countries cheaply. The rise in the market for the product and also increase in the profitability allowed for more production because the producers have the resources to invest. This fosters the development of the country.

            The initiative has also improved and also increased the country’s export revenues because of the removal of the trade barriers and the duties on the export sector. This provides the country with that capability to provide job opportunities to its citizens and therefore promote growth and development of the country (Frazer, 2017). It will also be able to expand other sectors of the economy and also build roads, hospitals and also promote industrialization of the country.

            Continuous production of products depends on the demand and also the profit the producer gets. This is highly facilitated by the availability of a market where the products will be sold and also a market which has little or fair competition for the products. The introduction of the EBA initiative in the European Union market gave the least developed counties an opportunity to sell their products to a broader market at no extra cost.

            The fact that EBA has made a significant impact on the exports of the product in the least developed countries in Africa, it has also facilitated in the reform of the CAP regime and improved the negotiations on trade in the World trade organization. This has improved the trade in the union which thus results in improvements in the export sector of the least developed countries in Africa.

            It is true that the European Union waive almost 50 countries which are considered as the Least Developed Countries under the Everything but Arms initiative. This all is under the generalized system of preferences, and it assumes that the exporters who are in developing countries claim the minimized or the zero available tariffs.

            The complex consideration that has been made such as the rules of origin and the side rules on the labor and human rights that have also exceeded the international standards hinder businesses from choosing the tariff preferences (Frazer, 2017). They claim that the rule of origin that enables one to qualify  for EBA for ornaments are difficult and they are the one that hinders the developing countries from transition up the value chain from agriculture and other products  into manufactured products

            There is also claim that the reports that were made concerning the introduction of the EBA initiative found out that there is no observable effect on the African least developed countries exports and also little impact on the development in the poorest countries. The exporters in the developing countries also claim that tariff barriers prevent them. The farmers have to compete with products which have been subsidized domestic production underpinned by the Common Agricultural Policy which does not only apply in the European Union.

            There are also concerns that have been raised by the African dairy farmers concerning the overproduction of milk by the European Union-subsidized farmers. They claim that they are gradually removed from their home markets as the European producers are forced to move and look for other alternative markets. The farmers, therefore, claim that the initiative is not fair to them.

            The farmers consider that they are losing a lot of money because they are not able to compete with the products which are brought into the market into the country. The produce that is imported into the market from the Least Developed Countries are not imposed on duty and therefore, the market prices at the time are lower than what they would sell their produce at; thus the market becomes competitive. This will make them sell their products at a lower prize which then drives them into loses.

            They also claim that the amount of products that are delivered into the market by different countries causes flooding of the market and thus the supply becomes more than the demand which generally leads to a reduction of the price of the products. This will consequently lead to a decrease in profitability and sometimes lead to loses. The market is therefore unfavorable for them due to the resulting decline in pricing of the products.

Conclusion

            Everything but arms initiative has opened a larger market for the products from the less developed countries such as Tanzania, Rwanda and also Ethiopia in Africa. This has resulted in the improvement of the exports into the European Union. However, it has also caused some challenges to the European Union farmers as they are forced to look for market for their goods yet the initiative allows imports for goods without imposing tax. This thus makes the goods less and rises the level of competition with the European farmers’ products. It has also be noticed to have little change in countries which has less surplus products to export to the market. On the other hand countries with surplus produce have noticed a significant increase and also returns from the market.

References

Coulibaly, S. (2017). Differentiated Impact of AGOA and EBA on West African Countries. Manuscript. Africa Chief Economist Office, The World Bank.

Frazer, I. (2017). Governance, Capacity and Legitimacy: EPAs, EBA and the European Union’s Pacific

Ito, T., & Aoyagi, T. (2019). Did the least developed countries benefit from duty-free quota-free access to the Japanese market?. Japan and the World Economy, 49, 32-39.

Kennes, W. (2018). How Brexit may affect ACP-EU relations.

Orbie, J., & Martens, D. (2016). EU trade policy and developing countries: towards a more ethical agenda?. In Different glances at EU trade policy (pp. 73-82). CIDOB.

Staritz, C., & Whitfield, L. (2017). Made in Ethiopia: the emergence and evolution of the Ethiopian apparel export sector. CAE Working Paper 2017: 3, Center of African Economies, Roskilde University, Roskilde, DK). Available at https://typo3. ruc. dk/fileadmin/assets/isg/02_Forskning/CAE/CAE_WP3_Staritz_and_Whitfield. pdf.

In this paper the idea of military government and the definite occurrence of the army functioning as an administrative role within the federal government- usually results into conventional preservation of the citizens. Usually, examining the role of the military governments only pertains war periods. Nevertheless, with the two superpowers rising into dominance in the year 1945 after enthusiastically supporting peace, it revealed that the military can play many roles apart from fighting wards.

 Causes of military governments

The only thing that makes military government worth of attention is the mechanisms that extend their rule or the ending their rule unlike other forms of leadership or regimes. More so, the military governments often differ from civilian forms of government thus civilian government often do their best to prevent the such forms of government from ascending to power. Furthermore, in the specific case of military governments, military deploy some technics for the sake of protecting the territory and the interests of the government of the people they often work for the sake of applying certain encounters and generating income.

 In the case of keeping up with the personnel and streamlining, it helps in giving military a dictatorial style of doing things which often leave many people unsatisfied improving. In terms of priorities, in the 1980s, for instance, Latin American regions whose government single handedly defeated via military forms of government, went ahead to establish democratic frameworks in order to gain power through the people and destabilize the military regimes. Therefore, history tends to focus on the past experiences of military governments hence giving lead to the objectives of the military government. In the end, the military forms of government usually exist under violent circumstances most of the times.

Generally speaking, democratic types of government often contains of three arms: the executive, the judiciary and the legislature. In this type of government, the police often fall under nonpartisan arm of the government. This aspect makes one of the vital and highly recognized contemporary western liberty democracies. Therefore, the plan is to give people an accurate basis upon which the military government relies on to operate and exist as an administrative institution. For the sake of giving people an effective response and providing efficient power sharing skills.

Regardless of the common notions surrounding military governments, seem not to have their origin from non-western regions. All through the 1945 to 1977,more than a quarter of the  nations within Latin America and Asia, had their some sort of  military government guiding their rule of law and participating in the daily running of the government. Needless to say, In Latin America alone, has already had more than 22 forms of military governments from 1945 to 1954 compared to other past decades. In 1962, most political scientist argued that military forms of government arise due to poor leadership skills brought about by the civilian governments. In the year 1945 to 1955, the government had more military interventions in more than 64 nations. However, as years went by the European nations also developed a sense of military government in the approach to administration of the government as illustrated by napoleon Bonaparte.

Military nations seem to be a predicament associated with third world nations. Economics suggest than military interventions, which usually leads to the formation of military government usually succeed due to poor GDP.

The Bell Curve

Introduction

The Bell Curve is the work of, Charles Murray a political scientist and Richard J. Herrnstein a psychologist. In their book, these two argue that human intelligence is influenced by factors such as genetics and environmental factor. They debate that people with poor genetics live in poor areas, attend poor schools, and become poor in life while those who are born with intelligence as part of their genetics live in conducive areas and good neighborhoods, attends good schools and become rich later in life. This definition has been said to be biased but that is not the case since research conducted proofs that intelligence is associated with genetics and environment.

In their work, they associate poverty with people of low intelligence since they do not go beyond and try to eradicate poverty. Low grades in schools are associated with low intelligence, students with low intelligence have a high chance of dropping out of school and a low chance of even attaining a college degree. People with low intelligence are always associated with unemployment and idleness and a high percentage of themselves end up involving themselves in crime. Marriages build by these people mostly end up with divorce, some people do not even get married and end up with children from wedlock. Children born of these people tend to be more dependent on other people. These people tend not to care about the politics of their nation and often fail to vote (Conley, & Domingue, 2016). This conclusion drawn from many pieces of researches proves that these two had no intentions of being biased in their work.

Herrnstein and Murray can be said to be more truthful than biased. People with high intelligence associate with each other. Looking at the society we live in, high school graduates with high intelligence are graduating and going to top colleges where they interact and form relationships with each other, and then later start working at top jobs offered to people with high intelligence. These top jobs help them to afford to live in luxurious estates. These people later give birth to children with intelligence similar to theirs.  These children follow in the footsteps of their parents and continue that cycle. Looking back in history sons and daughters of intelligent men became intelligent. An example is the greatest composer Johnathan Sebastian Bach, his son Wilhelm Friedmann rose to be a great composer just like his father (Ragin, & Fiss, 2017). This child born to a great intelligent composer becomes a great composer too, this is explained by the fact that he inherited the genetics of his father and also because he was raised in an environment of a composer. This is evidence enough that intelligence is inherited genetically and is also influenced by the environment.

            Intelligence just like any other factors is determined by the genetics and environment. Research conducted on the genes that influence intelligence found out that quite a large number of genes are involved, each gene making its own contribution to an individual’s level of intelligence. Intelligence is something that can easily be influenced by the environment surrounding an individual. Taking an example of a child who is raised by good parents, given a good education and raised in a good neighborhood free of crime, the child has high chances of being intelligent since the environmental factors surrounding the child are conducive (Bartholomew, 2004). This is proof that genetics and environment play a major role in determining the intelligence of an individual.

In society, people of the same social class associate themselves with each other. People of high intelligence associate themselves with people with the same intelligence. These intelligent people build their own communities where they grow each other. They build a society with good schools where their children attend and associate with each other. The people with low intelligence also form their own societies, unlike the societies of those with high intelligence these societies are filled with poor people, crime is the order of the day in these societies, they have schools where their children attend, these schools are poorly equipped (Devlin, 1997). The environment that surrounds the low intelligent children affects their intelligence much further. It is pure truth that the environment has effects on intelligence and the authors had no intention of being biased towards the communities of the poor.

Conclusion

 The Bell Curve is the work of two authors who set out to explain that the level of an individual’s IQ is determined by the genes they inherit from their parents and the environment that surrounds them. According to them, people of high intelligent become productive in society while those with low intelligent tend to become poor people in society.  The environment is a major factor that affects intelligence, children whom their parents are living in a poor neighborhood attend poor schools and becomes poor later in life while children whom their parents are living in a rich neighborhood attend good schools and becomes a productive people later in life. People with high intelligence tend to live in the same communities while people with low intelligence tend to live in the same communities. The work of these two authors cannot be referred to as biased since the facts that they were arguing out can clearly be seen in today’s society.

References

Devlin, B. (1997). Intelligence, genes, and success: Scientists respond to The Bell Curve. New     York: Springer.

Bartholomew, D. J. (2004). Measuring intelligence: Facts and fallacies. Cambridge, UK:             Cambridge University Press.

An Introduction to Hernstein & Murray’s The Bell Curve – A Macat Psychology Analysis”.          Retrieved from; https://youtu.be/T67Uvx46s4o 

Conley, D., & Domingue, B. (2016). The Bell Curve Revisited: Testing Controversial       Hypotheses with Molecular Genetic Data. Sociological science, 3, 520–539.             doi:10.15195/v3.a23

Ragin, C. C., & Fiss, P. C. (2017). Intersectional inequality: Race, class, test scores, and poverty. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago press.

Introduction

The idea of political philosophy came into America political knowledge from German sociology; where it has an extended and diversified lineage. The German culture did not merge to form one articulate description of tradition, relatively; various writers emphasized dissimilar features of political principles such as the overall communal customs and practices, birthright of the past, acceptable manners of rationality and acting among other aspects that later form political system of political linkages. Understanding political systems from a holistic nature helps create a clear picture of the status of political systems. This paper’s main argument centers on elections as the best political linkage that enables American democracy.

Functions of elections

 Elections create basic contributions to democratic authority. Since direct democracy- a system of authority in where political choices come directly from qualified populations is unreasonable, majority nations have democratic governments where representatives make decisions. Elections give voters the chance of choosing leaders to hold office for a certain period of time after which they can hold them accountable, either due to bad or good performance. Undermining accountability occurs when leaders holding office do not care if they make it back into office or not (Gierzynski 122). In addition, undermining accountability occur when one coalition party dominates and the voters do not have alternatives to pick out from during elections. Nevertheless, holding elections after a certain period remains the best way of facilitating democracy in America. The likelihood of monitoring leaders by requiring them to subject to elections after a certain periods of time helps deal with succession issues which comes with leadership and hence enhances democracy and its persistence. Moreover, in some regions, electoral processes are highly competitive and empower candidates or political party formations to uncover their track records and manifestos for the sake of future elections and staying in office. Elections act as platforms for the debate on public concerns and simplify the manifestation of community’s perspectives. Therefore, elections give political education to all people and make sure the openness of democratic governments to the society it serves. In addition, elections function as a means of legitimizing the activities of elected leaders, yielding power.

            Elections support the steadiness and legality of the political system unlike other political linkages such as political parties, which express the opinion based on selfish interests rather than catering to the needs of the public (Gierzynski 132). Just like how public holidays honor shared experiences, elections connect people to each other and thus authorize the practicality of state. Consequently, elections assist in the acceleration of social and political incorporation.

 Another important aspect about election is that it carries a self-actualizing resolution by endorsing the value and dignity of each person as a human being. Voting provides the people with the chance of voicing their say through their vote, political parties, in the process satisfying their need to belong government (Gumbel 207). Even if a citizens decides not cast a vote, the actions still satisfies the person as he or she separates themselves from the political community. For accurate motives, whether a person takes time to vote, or not does, all decisions are democratic rights, which later display equality within the community. Both decisions impact the electoral process and makes huge difference in the process and either way, a person decision not to vote reflects on the final results of the election.

Whether in democratic administrations or authoritarian governments, elections have ceremonial facets. Elections and the campaigns foregoing them are theatrical occasions escorted with rallies, placards, and live television broadcasting all of which indicate the importance of the event (Gumbel 197). Applicants, political parties and stakeholders represent various aims appealing to the signs of patriotism, transformations and future promises. Whatever the unusual state, local disparities, elections events bring out strong sentiments and then direct them toward shared symbols, which then interrupt the usual way of the life within the community.

 Elections have to be free and fair so that it can represent the will of the people. A nation cannot claim it is democratic yet the elections are not free and fair to everyone. Serious improvements cannot take off without legitimately elected leaders in the government (Gumbel 110). Elected leader are charged with meeting the needs of the public hence through fair and free elections, they represent the actual needs of the people and must remain accountable to citizens. For an election to be fair and credible, specific political freedoms namely, liberty to speak, interact and gather need to be put in place hence granting people  all the tools they need to achieve parity within the community.

In summary, Elections are key tools that assist nurture political starts and enlarge political participation in all the areas of a nation. Electoral processes provide political parties and community assemblies a chance to organize resources and funding to drive their agenda and win the heart of the public before the voting day. In addition, elections encourage debating on vital national issues and community dialogue. Therefore, there is need for a country to come up with a solid framework that would support elections.

Works cited

Gierzynski, Anthony. Money rules: Financing elections in America. Routledge, 2018.

Gumbel, Andrew. Down for the Count: Dirty Elections and the Rotten History of Democracy in America. New Press, The, 2016.

Introduction

In the year 1971, founding fathers of America included the First Amendment in the already existing constitution. The first amendment stated that the country should not have any established religion. In fact, this was a first-hand practice in terms of the correlation between church and state. The authors of the amendment dreaded absorption of power especially within the confines of religion. After the passing years, since its insertion in the constitution, the first amendment proved vital on religious establishments within America. In the preceding two hundred years, the only issues The First Amendment had, pertained to offering mail services on a Sunday, spiritual bigamy, Sunday closing regulations for commercial enterprises and prayers within public institutions. This paper seeks to discuss Donald Trump sentiments from a constitutional perspective and whether his comments would go against the First Amendment. Secondly, the paper will take the plaintiff side in such a scenario.

Constitutional perspective of Donald Trump’s remarks

After the 2015 terrorist attack in Paris, Trump, during a press conference, advised the American administration to shut down Mosques, insinuating that terrorists hack their plans within mosques (Saeed, 2017). Fundamentally, Trump’s comments aimed at isolating and pointing out a specific religious establishment for sanction solely because its followers obeyed specific beliefs. The first amendment does not condone such utterances neither does it support the closure of religious institutions because of unfounded or biased opinions. Instead, the first amendment safeguards religious freedom and prohibits rules and regulations that would result into lack of citizens exercising their religious liberty in their own country.

 Trump argued that his sentiments targeted Mosques, which taught radical Islamic lessons hence contributing to terrorism (Saeed, 2017). Even after altering his comments, going around closing mosques goes against the First Amendment. The First amendment gives Americans the right to worship and liberty to join any religious gathering they deem fit.

 The free speech article within the first amendment, gives Americans the authority to stop hateful speeches, which provokes instantaneous violence, but not general contentious speeches that have the potential of sparking violence in the near future (Kessler, 2016). Trump also claimed as the president, he would put in place limitations on the first amendment, consequently controlling press material.

            Demographic reports reveal that an estimated two and half million Muslims live in United States of America (Kessler, 2016). The figure may be a rough estimate but much higher, let’s say, 3 million. Going by the figure, New York has 100 mosques. In the end, closing down mosques would step on the toes of many innocent Muslims and infringing on their rights and personal freedom spaces since sometimes they use the mosque as a social gathering location.

The founding father of America came from various religious upbringings and acknowledged that the only way of safeguarding religious freedom was separating the government from religion (Kessler, 2016). Therefore, they came up with the First amendment, hence successfully separating the state from religion matters. This primary liberty is one of the main reasons America was able to avert religious disagreements that tore other countries apart.

 The establishing section of the first amendment does not allow the administration to approve or reassure religious matters in any manner. This is the underlying reason why United States of America does not identify itself with any religion. In other words, America has no official religion (Kessler, 2016). In addition, this implies that the government supports no religion, financially or in any other given way. However, many academic coupon curriculums go against the law as they lend money from public coffers to academic institutions promoting religion.

The free exercise article gives the public the right to worship or not worship at all; the choice entirely lies with them (Kessler, 2016). The government or in this matter Donald Trump cannot reprimand Muslims by closing Mosques. Hence, Donald Trump has no right to interfere, generalize, and discriminate Muslims.

The plaintiff side

            Shutting down mosques is synonymous to impeding an individual’s life (Redish, 2015). Radical groups such as ISIS strike fear in the heart of men simply because they hold varying religious beliefs. This is a problem because it is an uphill task giving people the chance to convert from one religion to another.

For religious freedom and laws regulating its practice, the emergence of clear ethical strategies for study and practice are characteristically sophisticate. For instance, few systematic fields depend on culture, religion, and political systematizations to define their functionalities or regulations governing them (Redish, 2015). Constitution and the laws governing religion are not any different. Moreover, few constitutional segments have the ability to undo the first amendment. Due to its direct association with both public and personal freedom, the public view it as vital and mandatory. Therefore, the law should punish provocative speech.

Discrimination refers to the process of favoring one person over another or treatment of a person unfairly. The reason for preferring may be due to race, sex, or religion (Redish, 2015). Voluntary prohibition is one of the approaches of helping protect religions .One of the benefits of voluntarily prohibition is that it provides alternative perspectives into various situations. For instance if the prohibition only considered religion voluntary prohibition provides a good foundation to input other ideas and opinion in the law on religion which in turn strengthens the law. The allowance that comes with applying a prohibited law from any angle may lead to a discovery of multiple channels of existence.

Furthermore, it insulates Muslims from any discrimination that may occur in the working environment. Within any human society or environment, a relationship usually develops between people from different religion backgrounds. The relationships focus mutual respect type of relationship (Redish, 2015). This implies that a Muslim has to carry out his or her duties as stipulated by the organization he or she works under. However if there is not law that monitor the relationship, discrimination may take place in any area. More over an employer may abuse his or her authority. Voluntary prohibiting is one of the factors that may unknowingly promote some facets of discrimination. Laws may offer double protection of both the worker and the employer .The law does not only protect the employee but the worker as well

All in all, Diversity not just something that occurs because it is ethical but it is a way of representing the face of the today’s society. Research proves that the more diverse in the work place, produces good output. This productivity relies on the fact that diversity increases competition between workers, which in turn influences the quality of workforce hence any interference with religion will have a pendulum effect on productivity. A diverse workforce is more likely o to find various unique ways of carrying out activities and solving problems within an enterprise. The extent to which diversity goes to strengthen organization and social capital is an important aspect that comes about due to effective communication and varying skill sets that come about in the process of implementing or selecting a diverse workforce. Insight   and other ethical principles are just some side effects of diversity.

Reference

Kessler, J. K. (2016). The Early Years of First Amendment Lochnerism. Colum. L. Rev., 116, 1915.

Redish, M. H. (2015). Fear, Loathing and the First Amendment: Optimistic Skepticism and the Theory of Free Expression.

Saeed, A. (2017). Freedom of religion, apostasy and Islam. Routledge.

Importance of voting in a democratic society

            Voting is that action or the process by which citizens of a particular democratic state indicate their choice, opinion or their will on certain decisions for example when choosing a candidate through a means such a ballot. In a society that respects democracy, it is usually essential to realize availability of a government that considers the will of its people a priority, thus a democratic government is a government that respects the will of the people (Boas and Taylor 72). Abraham Lincoln described a democratic government as a government of its people and it’s ruled and works for its people.

            A democratic government that is functioning is usually approved by the people and considered the government that operates the whole nation. People pass the government that is to govern them through voting in the government that they want. Voting in most of the democratic governments has an age limit, these people are considered adults, and therefore they can make informed decisions on how they want to be ruled (Boas and Taylor 75). All the eligible people have the right to vote for their preferred candidate, and thus voting gives the citizens the right to choose who they want.

            Leaders in most democratic states represent the people who voted for them and thus liable to them. It is also considered that one person represents a single vote and voting is a patriotic right of choosing a representative government, and it is the only way people express their opinions. An individual choice is then translated into the final tally where the decision of the majority is considered the final determination of the people. Abraham Lincoln said that no man could be good enough to govern another without consent from those men (Ezrow, Lawrence and Georgios 7). Voting is the way people permit to be ruled by the people they choose, and it is usually the priority duty of democracy as it stands for what the citizens believe in.

             Furthermore, voting is the voice of citizens at any levels of the government and all the areas that affect the lives of the citizens, through voting the people have the power to eliminate an oppressive government and any threats that they may pose to the people. Voting in responsible government has a good impact on the lives of its citizens and also that of the future generations; thus being a patriotic citizen is making the right decision on voting because it matters.

             Also, in a democratic society, voting is usually optional and it gives its citizens a chance to practice their right without any discrimination. People have the same rule of one person, one vote and therefore, all individuals are identical with a single opportunity to make decisions on their government (Gauja and Anika 32). When the citizens of a democratic society know the roles of their government, they are most likely to participate in creation and implementation of public policies.

            Voting determines the future of a nation, and it shows the commitment that people have concerning the way they want to be governed. Through this, the leaders have to rule for the interest of its people and that of the nation in general. Voting also enables the people to vote for people with good and new ideas that will be able to transform the society to a better one, and it is the way to practice democracy (Gauja and Anika 36). It is, therefore, suitable to note that voting is the best way a patriot can show love for his/her country and exercise the democratic right.

Work cited

Boas, Taylor C. "Voting for Democracy: Campaign Effects in Chile's Democratic Transition." Latin American Politics and Society 57.2 (2015): 67-90.

Ezrow, Lawrence, and Georgios Xezonakis. "Satisfaction with democracy and voter turnout: A temporal perspective." Party Politics 22.1 (2016): 3-14.

Gauja, Anika. Political parties and elections: Legislating for representative democracy. Routledge, 2016.

Air Power

Emergence of new technological advancements in business sector or a war comes with its fair share of advantages and disadvantages in terms of expenses and effectiveness. Previously, marginally, some technological findings may seem precise and usable from the genesis of development but fail to take off. Conversely, it takes effort before an innovative expertise replaces an ancient one. Hence, it takes finances before an innovative machinery breaks through and creates a new dimension for human communities all over the world. In the military department, airpower, that is, any guidable element that flies or moves in air, controlled from afar or directed is subject to technological strategies. John Warden III possess a vast knowledge and experience in administration, strategizing, development, writing and speaking on military issues and even sometimes commercial subjects. This paper will carry out an in-depth evaluation of Colonel John A Warden III’s suggestions on how air power overhauled the nature of war through the ‘warden’s Rings’ model and the air campaign of 1989. Furthermore, the essay will look into the appropriateness of utilizing air power campaign since 1989.

Warden Rings’ Models

After much research and publication, Colonel John Warden introduced the world into an innovative era of wartime targeting (Warden, 2011). Warfighters were no longer short of resources and strategies compared to past years, where a poorly framed system selected a wartime target. Relatively, Warden offered warfighters with creative up to date systems and equipment such as the five ring scheme concept that intensely improved the warfighter’s capabilities regarding isolation and narrowing down to targets.

 It is an undisputable fact that airpower played a major role in a military operations such as Desert Storm. In fact, including the media journalists ascertained airpower was a hallmark success in most military operations such as Desert Storm (Warden, 2011). There was no debate surrounding the model’s ability to deliver success within any operations. However, some people believe that airpower alone could not deliver the victory but it had to work hand in hand with other military departments. Much of Desert Storm military operations’ success came from the manner in which the commanders executed the operations and the aspects of air power they decided to incorporate in the operation to bring about fruition. One of the incorporated aspect was John Warden’s ‘instant thunder’ strategy.

            The history behind the supporting of Warden’s five-ring concept lies in Carl Clausewitz’s theory on ‘magnum opus’. According to Clausewitz, to effectively defeat an opponent, the state should concentrate heavily on countering the strengths of the opponent, in this instance, if the enemy depends on ground power the air (Gregory, 2015). Warden adopted this sentiments or principles and took them a notch higher hence creating another concept. Warden’s theory intended to direct wartime target assortment. In addition, he viewed an enemy as a structure patterned or coordinated with rings, each ring signifying the enemy center of operations that if properly examined would lead to victory against the enemy. Identifying enemy organization, one was likely to identify the flow of power from the center to the subordinates. Therefore, according to warden, using the ring model would attack the enemy and hurt them where it matters hence making the war expensive for them.

Descending in terms of vital elements, from the deepest to the remotest ring: administration ring which manages the entire system that is leaders of nation; systematic essential rings which caters to the needs of major productions and transport of other supplies hence essential for survival of operations for example oil, finances and food stocks; infrastructure ring that coordinates other rings consequently harmonizing the entire operation of the system (Gregory, 2015). Lastly, the population ring features nonmilitary personnel and other procedures that support the military operations indirectly without actual contact.

Warden alleged that the objective of any war was to manipulate the enemy into doing one’s request without them actually realizing it. With the right approach, one could successfully achieve this objective through speedy, concurrent attacks targeted at the inner ring, which represents administration ring (Karbasian, & Abedi, 2011). Only if a military is not in a position to attack the opponent’s leadership ring does Warden Advice on attacking other rings that support the leadership ring.

On a supplementary note, critics doubted Warden’s ring model structure concept meant for wartime targeting. One of the model’s critics claimed that Warden’s model fails to capitalize on the relationship formed from one ring to another and most importantly, falls short of mentioning whether attacking one ring will make another ring fall hence collapsing the entire enemy camp (Karbasian, & Abedi, 2011).. Still, other critics claim that Warden’s theory may contain some utility aspects despite people assuming it is a failure before trying and testing the entire model. While countering their arguments, Warden convinced many people that his template resulted to minimal harm during war and whatever outcomes from the model saves finances and lives in general.

Whether Warden’s ring model concept presents real time wartageting capabilities, is under constant debate day in day out. However, the Warden rings concept, got merit, and credible despite the numerous critics thrown at the concept. Ring model not only delivers as Warden suggests, but also gives warfighters better insight of the lion share contribution  airpower made and continuously keep making during wars (Nikolic, 2018). Secondly, the ring theory model, as some scholars note, gives military warfighters with accessible gears for wartime aiming. Notwithstanding, basic principles composing the ring model dictate that no real harm can come after utilizing Warden’s model. In other words, running or operationalizing the ring model may lead to breaking international regulations, domestic laws, and mannerisms.

As stated previously, leadership at the midpoint of the prototype represents the top structure of the enemy. The other sections relate to military activities, frameworks, general populace, and systematic elements (Nikolic, 2018). The ring model is one of the most coveted military concepts ever advanced since its inception. The most notable element of the ring theory is its systematic perspective when it comes to managing and restricting the enemy in their own territory. In this regard, the application of the theory can generate list of intended targets in preparation for an attack. The ring theory also presents a person with options drawn from its framework hence does not rely on hearsay or unfounded speculations. This is because, by establishing a solid framework, the theory produces reliable information traceable and verifiable. Most importantly, military managers can utilize the system formula to chart vital enemy targets.

 Based on ring theory principle, in the event of a war, the nation’s leadership divides into two sections: military and civilian administrators (Abruzzino, 2013). Civilian leaders’ term used in this case implies heads of government, defense ministers, and other high-ranking people serving various positions within the government. The second category consists of people who avoid doing the actual dirty work but contribute in one way or another in the execution of the war. While it raises ethical questions, there are many civilians administrators in latter group, perhaps judges, and leaders of other dockets.

Similar to the soldiers, they instruct, military leaders fall under combatant category during a war. Their respective governments normally instruct them on what to do and what not to do hence they are under special directions from the top government leaders. Therefore, military leaders carry out atrocities during war periods (Correll, 2013). Simply put, during war, the ring theory target military leaders due to the active role they play during war. For example, the British army tried to kill Marshal Erwin and admiral Isonoku during the World War II. Killing or attacking military leaders does not contradict international laws governing universal institutions because they themselves take part in atrocities during the war hence it balances the odds. At the end of the day, the ring theory achieves its objectives within given time.

It is very hard defining the legitimacy and ethics of the wartime when it target civilian administrators. Such difficulty primarily emergences from the fact that it may bear the aspects of assassination (Skattum, 2014). The word assassination is vague but regardless of the manner in which one decides to describe the word, assassination is an illegal act under any international law. Some countries define it as killing someone who belongs to a particular army or political side without trial.

 In 1995, Warden campaigned for a strategic vision explaining his win in desert storm operations that marked a milestone in airpower technology. Warden developed his theory based on various air power with an adversary falling under the five-ring strategy. It is good to note that ring model is only a plot or a plan and not an actual strategy (Correll, 2013). Warden highlights airpower as being able to create force that jumps from external rings into the inner most core of the adversary’s rings. Which warden claims is the most viral part of the ring because of the delegation and dispensation power associated with leadership. Leaders are the brains that power the war, they provide resources and have authority to direct the way things are run within the adversary camp.

            Warden came up with the paralysis strategy, where the airstrikes aimed at the center of the ring, were unstoppable and the enemies were helpless. As the concept states, the airstrikes are rationale and direct along enemy lines (Correll, 2013). The practicality of the concept relies on the fact that central target will collapse the entire system without failure. Hence if central government decentralizes its functions, it will be hard collapsing the entire system by attacking the main leadership heads.

 The gulf war justified Warden’s theory but after careful scrutiny, it may not be the actual case. The army failed to attain an accurate target for the Ba’ath government together with its communication center (Nikolic, 2018). Despite the huge obliteration shaped by air campaign, it still needed ground militaries strategies to remove Iraqi inhabitants from Kuwait and then initiate a truce. Enlarging the survey takes some of the credibility of the theory away. Even though some instances of air power needed assistance from other sections of the army, it does not entirely mean the five ring theory does not hold water. There is no doubt airpower was a key element in defeating Germany, Japan and the Taliban administration but the success relied on central ring targets. In fact, The American administration engaged military personnel on the ground with important targets in various terrorist establishments after airpower failed delivering positive results.

 Therefore, the theory is effective but relies on continuous assistance from other sectors of the military. For example, the warfighters on the ground can collect intelligence on the location of the central ring then plan on how airpower can effectively attack the identified location (Karbasian, & Abedi, 2011). Nevertheless, the attacking the central ring remains a favorable strategy for American military planners because gives an accurate and quick victory. In addition, the theory has a strong foundation without risking the lives of military personnel carelessly. Thus, a tactical attack has strong ripple effect due to the aspect of combined airpower application and using other sectors of military.

 I summary, Air prohibition gives various options, which are flexible, and one can implement them from a remote place. Hence, it is not a matter of interdiction but proper application of various airpower strategies (Karbasian, & Abedi, 2011). On other hand, if one cannot target leadership ring, then the hitting the enemies’ vital features such as oil, food and other vital components may also cripple the enemy camp. In order to for the five ring theory to work out, the entire military personnel have to use a multiple approach and map out all the rings in the enemy camp. Hence Warden advices against attacking the central ring without sweeping through the content of other rings per se.

Reference

Abruzzino, D. R. (2013). Old wine in new bottles: Douhet, Warden, and counterinsurgency. Journal Article| Jul, 18(8), 39pm.

Correll, J. (2013). The assault on EBO. Air Force Magazine, 51.

Gregory, R. H. (2015). Clean bombs and dirty wars: air power in Kosovo and Libya. U of Nebraska Press.

Karbasian, M., & Abedi, S. (2011). A Multiple Objective Nonlinear Programming Model for Site Selection of the Facilities Based on the Passive Defense Principles. International Journal of Industrial Engineering and Production Research, 22(4), 243-250.

Nikolic, N. (2018). Connecting Conflict Concepts: Hybrid Warfare and Warden’s Rings. Information & Security: An International Journal, 41, 21-34.

Skattum, M. M. H. (2014). Air Campaigns: Fact Or Fantasy?. Pickle Partners Publishing.

Warden Iii, J. A. (2011). Strategy And Airpower. Air Univ Maxwell Afb Al Airpower Journal.

With reference to the Australian party system, are minor parties and independents relevant to Australia’s Parliamentary democracy?

1. Interpretation

The paper will examine the relevance of the minor parties and independents to the Parliamentary democracy of Australia.  

The discussion will focus on Australian Parliamentary Democracy, which is based on the concept of proportional representation, and allows the formation of minority parties and the election of independents. It will also analyze how the independents and minor parties influence the party that is to form the government. While minority parties' influence has traditionally been less, allowing many independent members in the House can present difficulties in forming the government and passing bills. The influence of the Minority Parties and Independents can largely be felt in the House of Representatives

Thesis Statement

The minority parties and independent members are an essential part of the parliamentary democracy of Australia since they can affect the party to form the next government and passage of bills in the House.

2. Key Themes

                             The basis of Minority Parties and Independents

The Australian's Parliamentary democracy involves the selection of representatives at various levels through regular popular elections. The concept of minor parties and independents was introduced with an aim of ensuring that there is proportional representation at all the levels of parliament in Australia. The result has been a sizeable representation of independents and minor parties in the parliament. Independents are occasionally elected, but often become associated with some party in the parliament (Singleton et al.  2012). The political parties are proving to be an important part of the country's Parliamentary democracy since the government appears to be formed, and work within the "party system" (Singleton et al.  2012). Formation of political parties involves groups of individuals with common ideas or interests while aiming at forming a government or having a strong influence on the current government.  The contribution of independents and minor parties to the revolution in the operation and role of the parliaments has been observed since the 1960s. The establishment of a different range of biased selections for voters of Senate elections and House of Representatives is one of the effects. In the country, there is an independent representative or senator or a minor party (Singleton et al.  2012). However, even though the independent and minor party candidates vie for a House of Representatives posts, they have minimal chances of succeeding and their probability of winning depend on greatly idiosyncratic local aspects(Sharman, n.d). One of the aspects includes can be a recent decision by the candidate to defect from a major party.

The dynamics of Minority Parties and Independents Representation

 The inclusion of independents and minor parties has led to injection into national politics of regional component. For the Senate, the independents and minor parties' senators regularly have distinct constituencies in regional areas and may use the Senate to highlight the concerns for their states. They are able to use their position to further issues that they have seen as interests of their constituents (Singleton et al.  2012). The presence of minority parties and independents create a forum for discussing legislative policy and a chance to effectively scrutinize the executive that extend past the partisan politics.

 Granted, the Australian politics is derived from the two-party system, since the election of MPs to the Parliament (House of Representatives) allows the Coalition (made up of the Liberal, National Parties and Country liberal) or Labor Party to clinch the majority seats. Hence, they are eligible to form the government. The minority parties and independents also become members of the Federal Parliament (Sharman, n.d). When an individual joins a political party, they indicate that they align to a range of general principles and ideas regarding how the best manner of governance. However, the independent person does not have to agree with some aspect of the policies adopted by parties if they do not subscribe to the underlying principles or ideas. Strong party discipline hinders a vibrant democracy, where a wide range of perceptions and stands are advocated (Sharman, n.d). In parliament, an independent is not part of the system where people are usually required to vote in a manner that their own views will be compromised (Sharman, n.d). The independents status is largely enhanced if they are able to obtain "balance of power" in the house, which entails the ability to influence a majority vote in case numbers are even.

                                   Argument against Minority Parties and Independents

The formal discipline associated with large parties, where members are expected to vote according to the position of the party, is viewed as important in controlling a parliament with varying intentions and perspectives. Forming a government in a political environment where there is no discipline of people with varying intentions and perceptions would not be possible, and passing new laws would encounter difficulties (Kefford, & Weeks, 2018). Since parliamentary democracy is most of the times seen as party democracy, it is also supposed that independents have a negative effect on the performance and steadiness of the executive and the legislature. If the parliament was made up of independent members who have no institutionalized connection with other members, it would lead to almost chaos (Kefford, & Weeks, 2018). The reason is that it can be hard to get the non-partisans to toe the line, and really difficult for them to abstain from voting and thus, back an unpopular administration. Moreover, the formation of the next government can be very difficult or impossible, and the country would face political instability, and related economic consequences (Kefford, & Weeks, 2018). Also, minor parties in Australia have had little effect on the House of Representatives in Australia, which makes independents the obvious option that major parties would look to in forming a new government.

3. The Current Situation

The formation of a government by majority parties can be influenced mostly by the independents, even though the minority parties can also affect the system. The parliamentary democracy allows the idea of proportionate representation, which gives the independents and minority parties to represent issues that affect their constituents. Too much influence from both parties can make the formation of government extremely difficult.  Currently the Participation of Independent and minority party representatives have been well established in the House. For instance, the work of the senate is such that it can accommodate the notion that governing parties or opposition parties may not have the majority in the house. Hence, the minor parties and independents play a significant role in every aspect of function of legislature. It is in the House of Representatives that these parties can make or break the government.

4. References

Kefford, G., & Weeks, L. (2018). Minority Party Government and Independent MPs: A Comparative Analysis of Australia and Ireland. Parliamentary Affairs. Pp. 4-7

Sharman, C., (n.d).The Representation of Small Parties and Independents. Retrieved from: https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/pops/~/link.aspx?_id=F74BDE214CB64985BCC43D1C76A15BF4&_z=z

Singleton, G., Aitkin, D., Jinks, B., & Warhurst, J. (2012). Australian Political Institutions eBook (10th ed). Melbourne: P. Ed Australia. 362-368

Hershey, M. R. (2017). Party politics in America (17^th Ed). Routledge. Pp.49-51

Moon, J., & Sharman, C. (2003). Australian politics and government: The commonwealth, the states, and the territories. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Pp.114-116

Kefford, G., Murphy-Gregory, H., Ward, I., Jackson, S., Cox, L., & Carson, A. (2018). Australian politics in the twenty-first century: old institutions, new challenges. Cambridge University Press. 188-192

What is more important our privacy or national security?

 Privacy and security are inter-related concepts and both are essential in our life.  However, privacy or national security is a topic of discussion  since some people suggest that national security is necessary whereas others suggest that privacy is necessary than national security (Chandler, 2009).  In order to understand what is more important between the two, it is important to recognize what is privacy and what is security. Privacy can be defined as a state in which a person has the right to autonomy and control over personal information, places, and things.  Security, on the other hand, can be defined as a state in which people have freedom against potential damage, hostile forces and unwanted change through protection and surveillance (Chandler, 2009). These definitions help understand the root cause of the argument between the two terms since the more the security, the less the privacy. In this discussion, the main argument is that national security is more important than privacy.

 First, it is important to understand that in today's world, technology has brought massive positive and negative impacts on our life.  The new technology has increased threats and terrorism and these negative impacts have introduced the debate on privacy and national security (Chandler, 2009). Focusing on the rise of threats in our modern world, my opinion is that national security is more important than privacy not protect against terrorism but also in other domains. People who support privacy should know that security is a human right and every person is legally entitled to protection against harm and damage.  Privacy is also a human right and every person deserve privacy in order to develop dignity, identities, self-realization, personality, well-being, self-respect, autonomy, and make decisions (Chandler, 2009). However, national security matters more since individuals cannot enjoy privacy without security.  The importance with national security is that its intention is not to interfere with personal privacy but intends threats so that people can enjoy privacy and autonomy, and human security such as political rights, health, economic welfare and basic needs like food and shelter.

  Security is powerful as ensures physical survival through the protection of people and property. For example, when the citizens encounter threats such as armed robberies, murders, terrorist attacks, and even natural disaster, their start to express their grievances to the government and demand for public security (Chandler, 2009). In addition to public security, citizens also demand aviation security such as protection from explosive device and security of airports.  They also demand infrastructure security such as protection of water reservoirs, seaports, nuclear power plant and more (Chandler, 2009). This means that security is a public good and privacy is under security or rather, privacy is achieved when there is security.  An important point is that security maintain privacy and without security, citizens cannot enjoy privacy. Thus security and privacy are closely associated but between the two, security is vital not only in promoting public safety but also in ensuring that human beings access their rights.  For example, citizens need social well-being, economic freedom, data security, freedom of movement, right to life among many rights (Chandler, 2009). However, these rights and privacy cannot be achieved without security and therefore, security is a number one priority, a primary obligation, and a prime value.

  The last point is that privacy is important but it also needs to be monitored or in other words, privacy protection is needed. Note that privacy is threatened by many things such as surveillance cameras, data breaches, cybercrime, identity theft, data collection, and lack of security in the Internet of Things, social networking and more (Laidey, 2015). Note that each person has the right to privacy and in this case, it is the role of the National Security Agency to protect individual privacy by controlling the social media and conduct surveillance. Thus, security is valuable as it ensures social stability and human well-being. Citizens should understand that security is a basic right and individuals cannot survive without national security.

.

Reference

Chandler, J. (2009). Privacy versus national security: Clarifying the trade-off. Lessons from the

Identity Trail: Anonymity, Privacy and Identity in a Networked Society, Oxford

University Press, Oxford, 121-138.

Laidey, N. M. (2015). Privacy vs. National Security: Where Do We Draw the Line?. World

Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Social,

Behavioral, Educational, Economic, Business and Industrial Engineering, 9(6),

2235-2238.