Securing Europe's Critical Entities from Cyber Attacks

The revised NIS-2 Directive has been assigned to the Committee on Industry, Research, and Energy (ITRE), within the European Parliament, and is intended to form one of the baselines for the European cybersecurity framework, as well as act as a central tool in advancing Europe's strategic autonomy and the Digital Europe Programme (3). The intention is that cyber resilience must be considered a priority at board and senior management level rather than be confined to the remit of technical teams. European Parliament Adopts New Draft Directive," Technology Law Dispatch, Reed Smith LLP, 20 Jan. 2022.

Lt Gen Kamal Davar says... India and the new geopolitical churnings

According to the WHO, this virus still exists in many parts of the globe in some form or the other. After the end of the Cold War in the early 90s, the global geopolitical and geo-economic divide, consequent to the ongoing Russo-Ukraine War, has never been so harshly polarised. [...]it is pertinent to note what President Xi had spoken recently in the National People's Congress stating that he will endeavour to "more quickly elevating the armed forces to world-class standards-and make it a great wall of steel." Importantly, for decades, India does carry some moral authority with itself with its foreign policy based on the Nehruvian concept of nonalignment now aptly called 'strategic autonomy' which has been long respected by the 'third world' now referred to as the 'global south'.

State-level data on TANF policy changes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVE: COVID-19 mitigation measures prompted many states to revise the administration of their welfare programs. States adopted policies that varied across the U.S. to respond to the difficulties in fulfilling program requirements, as well as increased financial need. This dataset captures the changes made to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, from March 2020 through December 2020. The authors created this dataset as part of a larger study that examined the health effects of TANF policy changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. DATA DESCRIPTION: TANF is the main cash assistance program for low-income families in the U.S., but benefits are often conditional on work requirements and can be revoked if an individual is deemed noncompliant. Structural factors during the COVID-19 pandemic made meeting these criteria more difficult, so some states relaxed their rules and increased their benefits. This dataset captures 24 types of policies that state TANF programs enacted, which of the states enacted each of them, when the policies went into effect, and when applicable, when the policies ended. These data can be used to study the effects of TANF policy changes on various health and programmatic outcomes.

Response of forest management institutions to health-related shocks. Learning from the Busitema Forest Reserve of Uganda during the COVID-19 outbreak

There is extensive literature on forest management institutional responses as a function of socio-economic and political factors, albeit limited evidence on responses triggered by health shocks. To bridge this gap, this paper analyses forest management institutional response approaches around the Busitema Forest Reserve in Uganda, using the COVID-19 pandemic as a case. Household surveys (n = 135), focus group discussions (n = 4) and key informant interviews (n = 8) provided the relevant data. The results indicate that compliance with formal and informal institutions increased during the pandemic;this was attributed to fear and uncertainty about the mode of spread of the COVID-19 virus, which was flagged by mainstream media as a zoonotic disease. Formal institutional enforcement agents, therefore, used the pandemic to forward their agenda and reinforce rules that aim to exclude local people from resource appropriation in this reserve. The response was further manifested through the transposition of existing institutions to new functions, changes in rule application and the introduction of new rules. These responses paved the way for formal institutions to tighten their control of forest resource use by allying with informal institutions. The study provides complementary evidence on institutional change with an emphasis on COVID-19 as a health-related trigger.

The War in Ukraine: How Putin's War in Ukraine Has Ruined Russia

The first two months of war alone turned the Russian clock back decades, undoing thirty years of post-Soviet economic gains and reducing the country to an international pariah state. Three decades after the collapse of the Soviet empire, Russians are being dragged back in time to when Soviet citizens lived isolated from the rest of the world, in a bubble of failed ideology and misinformation. That system fell apart under just the kind of autarky and autocracy that Putin hopes to reimpose. Just as the Soviet system collapsed, Putin is also failing Russia, erasing the gains of the postcommunist period in a feckless attempt to rebuild a doomed empire.

Thinking Resistance, "Emergency,” and Kismet: A Response to Dylan Rodríguez's Presidential Address

The battles over masking only amplified preexisting culture and race wars in which entrenched libertarianism and neoliberal individualism evaded the economic and existential precarity caused by degraded social welfare and state health care. Counterterrorism projects such as Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) introduced by Barack Obama have relied on recruitment of community members, social service providers, and educators for self-surveillance and self-regulation of political expression and community organizing: a liberal counterterrorism approach for "reformist reform.” 5 Nabeel Abraham and Will Youmans provide important analyses of the "Containment System” in response to the War on Terror, based on "entrepreneurial opportunism” (Rodríguez) by Arab and Muslim American educators, professionals, and community leaders (including in the nonprofit industrial complex), some of whom collaborated with federal and state agencies.6 Academic Containment Reckoning with these critiques from critical Arab American or Southwest Asian and North African (SWANA) studies requires grappling with the long history of anti-Arab/Muslim state policies of surveillance, policing, and mass incarceration that preceded 2001. The Zionist lobby and anti-Palestinian organizations such as the Anti-Defamation League have increasingly deployed the language of tolerance and civility to tar critics of Israel with charges of anti-Semitism.7 These liberal strategies, illustrating Rodríguez's argument, can be more damaging than frontal attacks on the Palestine justice movement because the language of racism is harder to challenge

The timber industry in Russia under sanctions: Losses and opportunities

The article considers the prospects of the domestic timber industry in the con-text of sanctions restrictions. Based on the data on average annual trade flows for 2018—2020, the potential damage from trade restrictions is assessed. Particular attention is paid to the fifth package of EU sanctions, which contains the most severe restrictions on trade with Russia for a wide range of forest commodities. The potential loss of income for the Russian timber industry from the ban on exports to the EU is estimated at 3.5 billion dollars. The ban on imports from the EU countries may also be sensitive for the industry, but it should not be regarded as fatal. The possibilities of partial replacement of the deficit of products for a considerable list of goods are shown. At the same time, the violation of free trade in forest products because of sanctions becomes a new turn in the spiral of the global crisis, which began in the pandemic COVID-19. Consequently, the damage to countries imposing sanctions on Russia is also significant. The most affected will be the largest RF trading partners in Europe — Finland and Germany, as well as the Baltic States. A sharp increase in logging in the EU against the background of the energy crisis creates an additional opportunity for the Russian timber complex. The reciprocal nature of economic losses, as well as multiple examples of circumventing sanctions in other industries, suggest that the most likely scenario will be attempts to maintain trade relations while formally implementing the imposed restrictions. © 2023, Russian Presidental Academy of National Economy and Public Administration. All rights reserved.

The timber industry in Russia under sanctions: Losses and opportunities

The article considers the prospects of the domestic timber industry in the context of sanctions restrictions. Based on the data on average annual trade flows for 2018-2020, the potential damage from trade restrictions is assessed. Particular attention is paid to the fifth package of EU sanctions, which contains the most severe restrictions on trade with Russia for a wide range of forest commodities. The potential loss of income for the Russian timber industry from the ban on exports to the EU is estimated at 3.5 billion dollars. The ban on imports from the EU countries may also be sensitive for the industry, but it should not be regarded as fatal. The possibilities of partial replacement of the deficit of products for a considerable list of goods are shown. At the same time, the violation of free trade in forest products because of sanctions becomes a new turn in the spiral of the global crisis, which began in the pandemic COVID-19. Consequently, the damage to countries imposing sanctions on Russia is also significant. The most affected will be the largest RF trading partners in Europe - Finland and Germany, as well as the Baltic States. A sharp increase in logging in the EU against the background of the energy crisis creates an additional opportunity for the Russian timber complex. The reciprocal nature of economic losses, as well as multiple examples of circumventing sanctions in other industries, suggest that the most likely scenario will be attempts to maintain trade relations while formally implementing the imposed restrictions.

The Violence of Non-Violence: A Systematic Mixed-Studies Review on the Health Effects of Sanctions.

The use of sanctions as a policy tool to affect change in the political behavior of target states has increased over the past 30 years, along with a concern about their impact on civilian health. Some researchers have proposed that targeting sanctions can avoid their moral costs, yet others have challenged this claim. This systematic mixed-studies review explored the debate about targeted sanctions by appraising their health effects as reported in the medical and public health literature, with a global focus and through the COVID-19 era.We searched three electronic databases without temporal or geographical restrictions and identified 50 studies spanning three decades (1992-2021) meeting our inclusion criteria. Using a piloted form, we extracted quotations addressing our research questions and identified themes that we grouped according to the effects of sanctions on health or its determinants, generating frequency distributions to assess the strength of support for each theme. While no study posited a causal relationship between sanctions and health, or engaged the morality of sanctions, most implied that when sanctions were present, health was inevitably impacted, even for sanctions ostensibly targeted to minimize civilian harm. Our findings suggest that given the integrated nature of the global economy, it is all but impossible to design sanctions that will achieve their stated goals without inflicting significant harm on civilians. We conclude that the use of sanctions as a policy tool threatens global health and human rights, especially in times of crises.

Russia–Ukrainian war: measuring the intraday risk dynamics of energy futures contracts using VaR and CVaR

PurposeThis paper investigates the influence of the ongoing crisis of Russia's incursion on Ukraine on the risk dynamics of energy futures contracts with high-frequency data on four different futures contracts using risk metrics of value at risk (VaR) and conditional value at risk (CVaR) for the USA market.Design/methodology/approachThe author used different generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity - Extreme Value Theory (GARCH)-EVT models and compared the performance of each of the competing models. Backtesting evidence shows that VaR and CVaR combined with GARCH-EVT better estimate risk.FindingsThe study results show that combined risk metrics are efficient and adaptive to estimating the risk dynamics and backtesting of the models, revealing that the autoregressive moving average (ARMA) (1,1)-asymmetric power autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (APARCH) model performs relatively better than other models.Practical implicationsThe paper has practical implications for different market participants. From the risk manager's and day traders' angles, the market participants can estimate the risk exposure in the energy futures contract and take positions accordingly. The results are important for oil-importing countries due to the developing supply crisis and price escalation, which can brew inflation in the economy.Originality/valueTo the best of the author's knowledge, the paper is the first to throw light on the risk angle of energy futures contracts during the ongoing crisis of the Russia–Ukraine war.

Who Rules Bangladesh?

However, as the United States has become a major stakeholder of interests in Bangladesh, the power play between India and the United States may seem like a battleground of equal parties. On the surface, Bangladesh appears to be a small South Asian economic powerhouse. Ever since 2021, the United States State Department has been stating candidly that the U.S. no longer views Bangladesh through the lens of India and a phenomenal shift has been occurring. [Extracted from the article] Copyright of Pulse International is the property of Knowledge Bylanes and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Development of Trade and Financial-Economical Relationships between China and Russia: A Study Based on the Trade Gravity Model

This article empirically assessed new opportunities and provides a conceptual justification for promising areas of trade and financial and economic relations between China and Russia amidst ongoing global turbulence, the post-COVID situation, and sanctions pressure. The study utilized the trade gravity model, taking into account the latest trends in the development of the research subject and object, as well as current challenges and trends in the global economy. The study revealed similarities between the political systems, reforms, and policies of China and Russia, with centralized power structures overlapping and supporting each other at international forums such as the UNSC. The findings suggest that both countries plan to increase trade volume in the next two years, with China focusing more on trade and economic development, while Russia works to promote security and political stability. This study provides valuable insights into the economic relationship between Russia and China, its impact on the US and Europe, and highlights the need for effective policy interventions to address the challenges posed by this relationship. It offers significant theoretical and practical contributions, including the potential to unlock the potential of national economies, increase their competitiveness and help states enter a phase of advanced and sustainable development. This article provides several policy recommendations to ensure the long-term sustainability of the economic relationship between Russia and China and foster mutual understanding and trust between their peoples. These include promoting trade diversification, enhancing financial cooperation, addressing trade barriers, strengthening political and security coordination, mitigating negative impacts on other countries, promoting sustainable development, and fostering people-to-people exchanges. © 2023 by the authors.

Building a GVAR Model for the Russian Economy

The relationship between the economies of various countries and their dependence on the world markets indicate that for econometric analysis of the impact of external shocks on a particular economy, it is necessary to use a model of the global economy. The aim of this paper is to build a global vector autoregression model (GVAR), including Russia as one of the regions, and to obtain the impact of some external economic shocks on Russian macroeconomic indicators. We build a model that includes 41 of the world's major economies, including Russia, and the oil market. The special features of our model are structural shifts in the dynamics of Russian output and the new specification of oil supply and oil demand. Impulse response functions are used to obtain quantitative estimates. In this paper, we analyze the reaction of outputs, oil production volumes and oil prices in response to the output shocks of China and the United States. In response to the negative shock of output in the world's leading economies, outputs in the rest of the world declined for at least the first year after the shock. There was also a significant decline in oil prices and no significant change in oil production volumes in most countries. In addition, as part of the conditional forecast, we estimated the impact of the decline in global demand due to the Covid-19 pandemic on the Russian GDP as 1,3% drop. The rest of the decline in Russian GDP can be attributed to the internal effects of the pandemic (lockdown). We also obtained a scenario forecast of the dynamics of Russian GDP depending on a decrease in trade and Russian oil price discount, within which the fall in Russian output could reach 3.3% in 2022. © 2023 Publishing House of the Higher School of Economics. All rights reserved.

Are Bitcoin and Gold a Safe Haven during COVID-19 and the 2022 Russia–Ukraine War?

Our investigation strives to unearth the best portfolio hedging strategy for the G7 stock indices through Bitcoin and gold using daily data relevant to the period 2 January 2016 to 5 January 2023. This study uses the DVECH-GARCH model to model dynamic correlation and then compute optimal hedge ratios and hedging effectiveness. The empirical findings show that Bitcoin and gold were rather effective hedge assets before COVID-19 and diversifiers during the pandemic and Russia–Ukraine war. From hedging effectiveness perspectives, gold and Bitcoin are safe-haven assets, and the investment risk of G7 stock indices could be hedged by taking a short position during thepandemic period and war except for the pair Nikkei/Gold. Additionally, gold beats Bitcoin in terms of hedging efficiency. We thus demonstrate the central role of Bitcoin and gold as financial market participants, particularly during market turmoil and downward movements. Our findings can be of interest to investors, regulators, and governments to take into consideration the role of Bitcoin in financial markets.

A Review of Competitive Balance in European Football Leagues before and after Financial Fair Play Regulations

This paper analyses competitive balance in 24 top-division domestic football leagues in Europe before and after the implementation of UEFA's Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations. Our analysis covers 22 seasons between 2000/01 and 2021/22 and utilises indicators of overall league concentration and dominance. Seven of the 24 leagues examined have seen a statistically significant worsening of league concentration post-FFP, fourteen leagues experienced a decline in the number of top-four finishers and thirteen saw a reduction in the number of unique title winners. The weight of evidence indicates that FFP has adversely affected competitive balance in several European football leagues.

Police officers' punitiveness in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of fear, attribution and self-legitimacy

PurposeThe focus of this study is to examine Indian police officers' punitiveness toward violators of criminal sanctions attached to COVID-19 mitigation laws enacted by the Indian Penal Code. The authors draw from the conceptual frameworks and correlates typically employed in traditional crime and justice research and adapt them to the context of the pandemic. Additionally, the authors examine whether officers' punitive attitudes are related to their belief in self-legitimacy and their job assignment (civilian vs. armed personnel) in a country with inherited colonial policing legacies.Design/methodology/approachData for the study came from 1,323 police officers in a northern state of India.FindingsFindings suggest that officers with vicarious fear of COVID-19 infections (e.g. infection of family members) find the sanctions associated with the new laws harsh. Additionally, officers who subscribe to the classical attributions of offenders feel that the laws are not punitive enough. In contrast, those with deterministic views perceive the sanctions as excessively harsh. Findings also suggest that officers' self-legitimacy, and belief in the authority and responsibility vested in them, is a key predictor of their punitive attitudes. Finally, officers assigned to police lines are more punitive than those designated to patrol/traffic work.Research limitations/implicationsData or prior research on officers' punitive attitudes toward other violations (non-COVID-19 violations) is unavailable for comparison with this study's findings.Originality/valueNo prior research has examined the relationship between police officers' perceptions of self-legitimacy, their belief in the authority vested in them by the state, their belief in their role as police officers and their relationship to their punitive attitudes.

Economic Sanctions During Humanitarian Emergencies: The Case of North Korea

summary North Korea is experiencing yet another cycle of humanitarian distress. While sanctions are not the primary cause, they are a contributing factor. This essay examines the channels through which sanctions affect the North Korean economy and reaches four conclusions: First, sanctions have contributed to a deterioration of economic performance. Second, the UNSC's 1718 Sanctions Committee should consider a thorough review to identify goods that would warrant blanket humanitarian financial sanctions have raised the risk premium on all financial transac-tions with North Korea;the sanctioning authorities need to do a better job of clarifying transactions permissible under humani-tarian exemptions. Finally, while the global community should reassess its policies, the government of North Korea bears respon-sibility as well. The benefits of sanctions relief will be diminished if North Korea refuses to engage constructively with the tional on a broader range of issues running from basic humanitarian relief to economic reform. Analysis

RUSSIAN SOCIETY'S RESPONSES TO THE SOCIAL CHALLENGES OF THE PANDEMIC

The purpose of the article is to determine the national characteristics of overcoming the social consequences of the pandemic in the Russian society. The planetary spread of the COVID-19 virus, which takes place regardless of state national borders, has highlighted the strengths and weaknesses of world integration on a global scale and, at the same time, has shown the reserves of a national solution to economic, political and cultural problems in a pandemic situation. The author proposes the author's solution to the problem of Russia's place in the world civilizational process, determines the specifics of the country's civilizational development, which determines decision-making in the management of social processes, using civilizational approach, historical and comparative methods. The result of the study is the substantiation of the position on the crisis of the globalization project, the signs of which are the inability of the world community to ensure intercultural interaction and consolidate in solving the problem of the pandemic, as well as the refusal to recognize Russian achievements in the fight against the virus. It was concluded that only national-state localization and tough government decisions can have positive consequences in an extreme situation. The practical value of the results of scientific research lies in the possibility of using the conclusions that we justified to assess the social situation and develop specific political and economic measures to overcome the negative social consequences of the pandemic in Russian society, to organize tolerant intercultural communication in the world community. © 2022, Journal of Community Positive Practices. All Rights Reserved.

WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS OF UKRAINE CONFLICT O EU FOREST PRODUCTS TRADE?

After the changes in globally traded forest products patterns and supply chains caused by the COVID 19 pandemic, currently, there is another geopolitical event that has a direct impact on a whole spectrum of markets, not least the timber market. The current situation in Ukraine resulted in many sanctions imposed by the global community and regional groups on Russia, some of them directly targeting the trade with forest products. EU is a significant global player on forest products market. In 2020 it contributed to 42% of the world total export and 32% of the world total import of forest products. As the EU member states to a large extent depends on international trade there is a need to examine what may be the implications of such sanctions on the EU wood trade patterns and consequently on the supplies for forest based industries. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to quantify the EU's dependence on timber from Russia and to indicate the possible impacts on international timber trade. © 2022 15th International Scientific Conference WoodEMA 2022 - Crisis Management and Safety Foresight in Forest-Based Sector and SMES Operating in the Global Environment. All rights reserved.