Relationship Between Russia and China

Relationship Between Russia and China The new era of Russia and China Tension in Ukraine, Natural Gas Contract and the future Chuqing Hu chuqing[emailprotected] The recent history The relationship between China and Russia has always been complicated. In early 1960s, also Russia (the formerSovietUnion) had been support China to rebuild the country after war diminished, friendship between the two countries diminished mainly due to the dissension on the war between China and India. During the war, the SovietUnion made public its stand to support India which significantly deteriorated its relationship with China. The incompatibility wasn’t softened until 1980s when MikhailGorbachev became the president of SU and started to remedy the relationship with China. Since then, China and Russia has been on their way to a new era of competitive cooperation, or we can also call it â€Å"cooperative competition.†[1] Year 2014, a new era evolved after the tension of Ukraine In the past few months, as stated by U.S. president Barack Obama, â€Å"Russia’s aggression towards former Soviet states unnerves capitals in Europe while China’s economic rise and military reach worries its neighbors.†[2] From March 2014, the issue in Ukraine treaded on sensitive ground for China, and it has contorted itself to find a neutral diplomatic position.China has long been holding the position of not to interfere in the internal affairsof other countries. However, this belief was kind of dimmed when China failed to state its position to the referendum in Crimea, Ukraine. China’s action was viewed as a silent support to Vladimir V.Putin as other western countries all clearly stated their opposition against the referendum. [3] China’s silence brought new harmony to its relationship with Russia and this has been viewed as the turning point of the strategic alliance between two of the most powerful countries in the world. Two months later, on May 20th, 2014, Russia clinched a US$400-billion deal to feed China around 38 billion cubic meters of natural gas via pipelines at a chummy price of $350-$400 per thousand cubic meters(TCM), shaking up an industry that is used to fetching $500-$600 per TCM from Asian markets. The deal prompted much commentary on the agreement’s potential to reshape global energy markets and tilt the balance of influence in Ukraine and, more broadly, inEurope. [4] Apart for the contract, Putin’s visit to China in May also brought about various strategic business alliances between the two countries, which include mining, electricity, border trade, automobile, etc. A formal alliance or a double jeopardy Some people would imply that China and Russia are forming a formal alliance in order to compete with the U.S. and Europe. However, although the two countries are in honeymoon in the past few months, uncertainties still exist and I assume it’s too early to call it a formal alliance. Foremost, since the two countries have different visions regarding their future, both economically and politically, the discrepancy of the visions of two countries will make the alliance not as strong as some people imagined. What matters most to China? Growth, growth and growth. China has been struggling with the slowdown of its GDP growth in the past year and the promise of 8% annual growth was broken due to the slackness of industrial manufacture and the rising cost of capital. At this moment, a long-term energy contract with a quite favorable price will a good stimulator to its economics. At the same time, Chinese government is also concerned with the destabilization aroused with its own borders. An alliance will also enhance the protection of its national interests since Russia is a neighbor as well as a friend. What matter most to Russia? Recovery, recovery and recovery. After deep recession, Russia has been long for a recovery in both its economics and international political status. Russia was known for its aggression when it was once on its greatest prosperity. In the recent years, as the financial recovery was on its way, Russia again started to strive for more political interests, especially towards former Soviet states. However, it’s also crystal clear that because of tension between Russia and the U.S., the western world will be never on Russia’s side regarding international affairs. The only and most power ally Russia can rely on has to be China. Putin’s visit and the multi-billion contract showed Russia’s generosity and its high expectation for the relationship. However, if Russia keeps raising its aggression after the tension in Crimea, this will put China in a very awkward situation – to keep supporting Russia with equivocatory and to risk its future to be sanctioned by the western or to break its friendship with Russia and risk what happened in the 1950s to happen again? It’s a double jeopardy for China. â€Å"China’s leaders can’t afford to side with Russia, and they cannot side with Russia’s forceful policy.† According to Titus C. Chen, a research fellow at the Institute of International Relations at National Chengchi University in Taiwan.[5] Neither of them is an ideal choice for the Chinese authority since China definitely doesn’t want to be friend with Russia and be enemy with rest of the world. Envisioning the future There are mutual strategic needs as both China and Russia want to create a multipolar world which is not dominated by the U.S., particularly as China is now facing threats from the US-led alliance in Asia These two powerful countries although holding different goals in the alliance, are a formidable pair and can alter the international system. China knows that, Russia knows that, and the rest of the world is more or less afraid of that. The pair will accelerate the economic growth in both Russia and China, which is favorable for both of the countries. This suggests that, as long as Russia doesn’t get outrageous in its foreign policy, the friendship will be very well maintained in the near future. However, due to the historical mistrust, the lack of a common threat and conflicting interests in Central Asia, the sustainability of the partnership is questioned.[6] Besides China and Russia, U.S. is also playing and important part in the relationship. If U.S. keeps pushing China or Russia aggressively to the corner, this will certainly reinforce the China-Russia Alliance. If U.S. changed its position in order to drive a wedge between the two countries, the situation will become more unpredictable but also more interesting.   The tough road between Russia and China, multiple contributors, Voice of Russia, 2014 China-russia-and-the-outlook-for-the-liberal-international-system, Ali Wyne , www.warontherocks.com, Jun 2nd 2014 China Torn Between Policies and Partnership, Andrew Jacobs and Somini Sengupta, New York Times, March 12th, 2014 Russia-China Gas Deal Narrows Window for U.S.Exports, Richard Martin,Forbes, May 30th, 2014 China Torn Between Policies and Partnership, Andrew Jacobs and Somini Sengupta, New York Times, March 12th, 2014 Are China and Russia Moving toward a Formal Alliance?, Dingding Chen, The Diplomat, May 30th, 2014

A Memorable Event

Steps to Writing a Memorable Event Essay X Elliot Quimby Elliot Quimby has been a freelance writer, editor and proofreader since 2008. Quimby has written, edited and proofread grant proposals, press releases, cover letters, resumes and website content. Quimby earned a Bachelor of Arts in creative writing and literature as well as linguistics at the University of Michigan. Quimby has contributed to a blog on Urbanministry. org. By Elliot Quimby, eHow Contributor The memorable event essay is a common assignment in writing classes and can also be part of a college application.The exercise helps you practice your writing and narration skills. The advantage to you as the writer is that you don't need to do a lot of research because you will write from experience. 1. Brainstorm * List memorable events worthy of your essay. These may include births and deaths of loved ones, rites of passage and turning points in your life. Sometimes something simple can be especially memorable, like going t o a concert or playing outside with your family. Begin several days before your essay is due, if possible.Choose from your list an event that is complex enough for the length of your essay. If you can't describe the event in detail, it may not have been very memorable. Choose an experience you don't mind sharing with your audience. 2. Identify Theme * Think about why your event was memorable. What about it was different from your daily routine? How did the event affect the rest of your life? Identify the main reason you remember this experience. This will be your theme. * Sponsored Links * Free GRE Practice Test Take our 20 minute practice test and get your results right away. www. estden. com 3. Outline * Create a general outline of what happened. Include details that relate to your theme. Remember to include an introduction and conclusion. Add any background information your reader needs to know to understand what happened and why it was important. If you get stuck, consider Willi am Strunk's suggested structure for a narrative of a historical event: â€Å"A. What led up to the event. B. Account of the event. C. What the event led up to. † Write * Write your first draft based on your outline. Create a separate paragraph for each major point in your outline.Concentrate on the content of your essay rather than grammar, spelling and mechanics. Remember to explain what you were thinking when your memorable event happened. Why did you react the way you did? What did or didn't you know about what was happening? Did you realize right away that this was something you would always remember? Use language that will help the reader feel the way you did. Edit * If possible, leave your essay alone for an hour or a day before beginning to edit. Read your essay as if someone else had written it. Does anything seem confusing?Did you clearly explain why your event was memorable? Are there details that do not support your theme? Sometimes you will need to re-write a para graph or more. You may need to delete unimportant paragraphs. Fix any grammatical, spelling or mechanical errors. Run a spell-check. Read through your essay several times before turning it in. If you can, get someone else to read it and give you feedback. Read more: Steps to Writing a Memorable Event Essay | eHow. com http://www. ehow. com/way_5682169_steps-writing-memorable-event-essay. html#ixzz2Ooj9885U

Ideo: the Organization and Management Innovation in a Design Firm and the Role of Alliances and Collaboration

Introduction Schumpeter (1949) wrote of the individual and collective embodiment of the â€Å"entrepreneurial spirit† – the â€Å"Unternehmergeist†. One company that channels this â€Å"geist† is the Sillicon Valley, California-based design and consultancy firm, IDEO. Founded in 1991, this self-styled innovation and design firm balances process and product innovations grounded in a human-centred design philosophy. Through this approach IDEO elided the pitfalls of the technology push versus demand-led innovation dichotomy to produce products and services that feel just as good as they work. In the latest rankings IDEO was listed at no. 10 on Fast Company's Top 25 Most Innovative Companies (2009) and no. 15 on Fortune's 100 most-favored employers by MBA students (Universum 2009). This paper attempts to analyse the principles and practices at IDEO using two frameworks namely: 1. the organisation and management of innovation and research and development (R&D) and 2. strategic alliances and collaboration. The discussion on organisation and management would be focused primarily on innovation since R&D as a portfolio at IDEO is still emergent. As a consequence also, its alliances and collaboration strategies and activities are described in the context of IDEO as a highly sought-after development partner. Analysis of the responses of senior business managers to what they considered to be the top three challenges of innovation management revealed that creating an innovative culture, attracting and maintaining diverse talents and finding the right balance of the incremental and the radical were uppermost (Tidd and Bessant 2009). Smith (2008) identified nine key factors that impact on an organisation’s ability to manage innovation: management style and leadership, resources, organisational structure, corporate strategy, technology, knowledge management, employees and the innovation process. The Oslo Manual defines †Innovation† as â€Å"the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organisational method in business practices, workplace organisation or external relations. † (OECD 2007). This definition encompasses the common elements of innovation as proposed by arlier authors such as Schumpeter, Freeman, Rothwell and Gardiner, Drucker, Porter, Schumann, Merrifield etc. (Tidd and Bessant 2009; Innovation Zen 2006) Organisation and management of Innovation Since the introduction of ‘creative destruction' Schumpeter (1942), there has been a growing confidence that the basic elements of successful innova tion can be distilled through careful observation, and that they can be adopted and managed by firms to create and sustain competitive advantage. A number of authors (Abernathy and Utterback 1978; Teece 1986; Henderson and Clark 1990; Tushman and Anderson 1990; Christensen 1997 etc. have proposed various bivariate frameworks for assesing possible innovation types (incremental, radical, modular, architectural, product, process, market, organizational, complementary, disruptive etc). See Figure 1. Despite the variety, a basic conclusion however is that this mode of analysis can adequately inform strategic and organizational decisions and that different kinds of innovation require different kinds of organizational environments and managerial skills (Tushman and Anderson 1986). Figure 1: Component and architectural innovation (Henderson and Clark 1990) Source: Tidd and Bessant (2009) Models of the Innovation process and the dynamics of its articulating phases have been proposed by a number of authors (Myers and Marquis 1969; Von Hippel 1976; Tidd et al 2001 etc. ). Tidd and Bessant (2009) detailed a linear model with four phases (search, select, implement and capture). The authors made the distinction that innovation management is essentially about creating conditions within an organization to increase the likelihood of a successful resolution of multiple challenges under high levels of uncertainty (Ibid, p. 70). This view reinforces Tushman's (1977) assertion that organization and management of the process is characterized by different types of decisions, coordination challenges and patterns of communication. It is important to note here that though the innovation process is commonly depicted as a linear unidirectional sequence, in practice, the activities are inherently iterative and often occur in parallel (Rothwell 1992; Weiss 2002; and Brown 2008). Innovation and R at IDEO IDEO's approach to the organization and management of innovation and R&D can be summarized by the phrase: â€Å"design thinking†. Tim Brown (2008), CEO of IDEO, explained that it is centred on meeting people’s needs in a technologically feasible and commercially viable way. Design thinking is an example of the systemic and integrative approach to innovation highlighted in Hughes (1983) and Rothwell (1992). The model attempts to understand the innovation challenge as a dynamic interplay of human, business and technology factors. See Figure 2. Figure 2: Designing thinking at IDEO Source: adapted from Weiss 2002. IDEO's variation of the innovation process (cf. Tidd and Bessant 2009 etc. ) comprises five phases: Understand the market, the users, the technology, the constraints; observe people in reallife situations; visualize new-to-the-world concepts and the potential users; evaluate and refine the prototypes; and implement for commercialization (Kelley 2001). Empathetic research, brainstorming and rapid prototyping are core routines developed in the execution of the IDEO innovation process. Brainstorming is the idea engine of IDEO's culture. It is used to generate multiple and varied ideas about possible solutions to the innovation challenge. A session lasting no more than sixty minutes is conducted under the following rules: defer judgment; build on others' ideas; one conversation at a time; stay on topic; encourage wild ideas; go for quantity; be visual (Kelley 2001). Rapid Prototyping involves early development of a wide range of low-fidelity prototypes from which to learn. Teams evolve and refine ideas, answering multiple detailed questions through rounds of successively higher-fidelity prototypes. This routine permeates the company's design practices in all spheres (Coughlan et al 2007) and is universally codified in two IDEO mantras â€Å"build to learn,† and â€Å"fail forward† (Kelley 2001). The company organizes its R&D portfolio into 19 Focus Areas supported by 13 teams as shown in Table 1. Teamwork is an imperative at IDEO. For each project a number or relevant teams would be assembled from persons within the company, or externally from persons within their ‘talent ecosystem'. The teams meet regularly to exchange information on progress and to make sure each other's activities remain focused and complimentary (Hawthorne 2002). Table 2 summarizes some of the human-centred research work undertaken at IDEO. The popular Method Cards is result of this kind of research and development work at the company. The collection of 51 cards is used to evaluate and select the empathic research methods that best inform specific design initiatives. How and when the methods are best used are explained together with demonstration of how they have been applied to real design projects (www. ideo. com). Table 1: IDEO Focus Areas and Teams Source: Adapted from www. ideo. com Table 2: A sample of research at IDEO Source: Adapted from Venkatraman 2005 The ten personas shown in Table 3 were developed by Tom Kelley for enhancing innovation at IDEO. Consideration of these personas influences the company's policy of recruitment of T-shaped people †with at least one deep area of expertise and a broad reach of other skills and experiences. † (www. ideo. com). â€Å"We've found that adopting one or more of these roles can help teams express a different point of view and create a broader range of innovative solutions† (Kelley 2001, p. 7). Table 3: IDEO's innovation personas Source: Adapted from Kelley 2001 At IDEO the Ways to Grow tool (Figure 3) is a framework used to a) identify the type of growth intended, b) scope the challenge and deploy an appropriate innovation process, and c) assess the effectiveness of the portfolio of innovation efforts. It identifies four possibilities for growth and three basic archetypes of innovation outcomes: Incremental, evolutionary, revolutionary (Jacoby and Rodriguez 2007). Cf. Henderson and Clark 1990 etc. Figure 3: IDEO's Ways to Grow and Innovation Outcomes cf. Figure 1. Source: Jacoby and Rodriguez 2007 The model suggests that an incremental project requires execution-focused process and people while a revolutionary project would require exploration-focused processes and people (Jacoby and Rodriquez 2007). Ways to Grow is employed in this manner by IDEO to track, understand, and assess its in-progress portfolio of innovation projects using measures of innovation effectiveness. The projects can be mapped onto this tool creating a dashboard of initiatives that can be updated and referenced. All these organizational and management approaches mean little without a way of integrating them in a creative and sustainable organizational culture. Culture is difficult to define, but for IDEO it's probably: the not infrequent managers' informal chats with their carefully selected T-shaped employees (Brown 2007); the company-wide Monday morning meetings and Friday afternoons show and tell; the playful open layout of the workspaces decorated with personal eccentricities (Kelley 2001); the formal and informal reward systems where some compensation decisions are based largely on reputation among fellow designers and formal peer reviews (Hargadon and Sutton 1997); or just the personal satisfaction of the team members knowing that they are part of something big and exciting and creative. Strategic Alliances and Collaboration Gulati (1998) defines strategic alliances as voluntary arrangements between firms involving exchange, sharing, or co-development of products, technologies, or services. They can†¦ take a variety of forms, and occurring across vertical and horizontal boundaries. The fundamental imperative for strategic alliances and collaboration as suggested by authors like Teece (1986) is that it is extremely difficult for one company to possess all the requisite skills and competencies to implement all the phases of the innovation process. Among the motives for the formation of alliances and collaborations are reduction of cost, uncertainty, and time of R, response to changing customer and market need, lack of internal resources and knowledge transfer (Kogut 1988, Gulati 1998; Littler 1993 in Tidd and Bessant 2009). IDEO is not a R-intensive firm, its motivations for participation in strategic alliances and collaboration are not necessarily those of an active seeker. However, IDEO has benefited from its role as consultant and a highly ought-after collaborator. â€Å"What's unique about IDEO is that we straddle both sides of the innovation business, as both practitioners and advisers. † (Kelley 2001, p. 4). IDEO's 5000+ employees in more than 20 studios on three continents do work for clients in multiple industries across the globe. The company's website lists an astonishing diversity of products and services created in collaboration with some 300 clients in 28 different industries. Hargadon and Sutton (1997) aggregated qualitative data which indicate that IDEO's employees learn about potentially useful technologies through their extensive work and incorporate that knowledge into the creation of new products and services for industries where there is little or no prior knowledge of these technologies. This movement of technologies between industries is a form of technology transfer and diffusion (Rosenberg 1982; Hughes 1989). The company recognises the potential of its network position (Conway and Steward (1998) and instructs its employees in the Methodology Handbook to â€Å"Look for opportunities to expand network and/or industry knowledge. † (Hargadon and Sutton 1997). These integrative activities according to Hargadon and Sutton are an example of technology brokering. IDEO's brokers in effect act as technology ‘gatekeepers' as described in Allen (1977) and Rothwell (1992). IDEO is uniquely positioned to facilitate R&D-intensive firms in the completion of their innovation process through to commercialization. The company's positioning is validated not only by its rapidly expanding client portfolio but by industry outlook. Ferguson and Taylor (2004) affirmed that many innovation-focused organizations, including those with extensive R programs, are looking outside for assistance, especially in the early stages of searching for promising technologies and developing a vision based on working models. For established firms with strong technology-focused research, the services of design firms, with expertise in user knowledge, is useful in balancing exploration and exploitation of their technical knowledge (Venkatraman 2005). Eastman Chemical, HP, Intel, P and Samsung initially sought IDEO as an exploration alliance partner. P have extended the collaboration to joint product development with product ideas mainly generated by IDEO (Ventkatraman 2005). As IDEO continues to deliver award winning products and services to clients firms along the entire value chain it may soon have to think about if and how it should reposition itself for example mass production and marketing of high quality innovative consumer goods. Issues like these lead to considerations about the possible alternative opportunities available for leveraging a company's resources, position and linkages to create sustainable value. In the light of global challenges such as poverty, health, water, energy, and economic empowerment what is the role of innovation and research and their management and what sort of alliances and collaboration would be needed to deliver adequate responses? What is the future of social entrepreneurship? To deepen understanding of these challenging questions, Paul Bennett, chief creative officer at IDEO, visited Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank fame to get an immersive experience of this maturing entrepreneurial spirit. Reflecting on his encounter in the Financial Times Bennett (2009) asserted that sustainability and growth for the organisations of the future demands accepting responsibility for the †bank accounts† of purpose, people and learning. Bennett summarizes his own thinking with a quote from one of his clients: â€Å"The future isn't going to be designed on an Excel spreadsheet. † Whatever new tools emerge for future planning, its not hard to imagine that some of those would emerge from the studios of IDEO.

Book Review on the Prejudice in Irseal Essay - 527 Words

To preface this review I want to begin by saying how much I enjoyed this book. I was skeptical about it because I had never heard of it before and because it was assigned in a class. However, I was pleasantly surprised how intrigued I became and how invested I was in the story. I know very little about the prejudices in Isreal amongst the Arabs and the struggles they meet. The book contains two stories, which at first seem unrelated, but eventually run into one another. The first story presented is about a lawyer, whose name we never learn and is always referred to as â€Å"the lawyer.† I was curious throughout the book why that was, potentially it was an attempted to shadow identity or make the character more relatable. The lawyers story†¦show more content†¦While the lawyers story focuses on class discrimination, we see the effects of racism against Arabs. Amir’s narrative continually refers to having to show his identity card to classify his nationality. B oth the lawyer and Amir attempted to recreate a new identity for themselves. Amir, nevertheless, took this cause more literally. At first it was a harmless swap of identity card to get into a prestigious art school, but it quickly progressed and led to Amir completely taking the identity of the Jewish boy he took care of. Due to his false Jewish identity, he was treated differently in the art school than how he would have been if he were truthful about his heritage. Learning the author’s background, it is easy to see the motivation for the writing of the novel. Sayed Kashua is a Israeli Arab authors who has written four books and is a journalist who is known for his humoristic columns. The authors was born and raised in Tira, in the Triangle region of Israel. He attended a prestigious Israeli school. The connections between him and the characters he created are obvious. Again, I loved this book. Although it dragged at times, I thought it was fantastically written. I found my self invested in the life of the characters, especially as I was rooting for Amir to find true happiness. Even past its entertainment value, the book helped me have a