text:
Start & Grow Your Dream Business
Welcome to Your PR Playbook
It's Great to Meet You (1:43)
Before You Begin Reaching Out to Media & Influencers (1:59)
Collaborating with Influencers
The New Media Landscape (2:09)
Media Outreach Case Study (12:37)
Collaborating with the Rising Stars & Emerging Influencers (3:54)
Building Your Lists of Targeted Bloggers & Vloggers (0:50)
Essential Elements of Your Digital Press/Media Kit
Your Digital Press Kit (1:28)
Your Profile & Product Fact Sheets (5:02)
More Components of A Digital Press Kit (2:36)
A Writing Shortcut & A Very Important Question (2:32)
19 Questions That You Must Answer for Media & Influencers (6:14)
Media and Influencer Outreach Essentials
How to Reach Out to the Media & Influencers Like a Pro (3:08)
Be Persistent & Predictable (1:31)
Setting Trends & Sharing Stories (1:46)
Creative Ways to News Jack Your Competition
Spying on Your Competition & Stealing Their Coverage (1:38)
Growth Hacking Know How - Tips to Blow Up Your Brand
Great Advice for Building Your Business Faster (6:43)
Types of Stories You Will Share (4:14)
Building Experts & More Story Inspiration (2:20)
Over 10 Engaging Ways to Collaborate with Influencers
How to reach out to influencers to collaborate (2:58)
Introducing Yourself to Influencers & Unspoken Rules (2:35)
The Types of Collaborations That Really Work (6:57)
New Influencer Tools. Checking out Scrunch.com (0:41)
Budgeting for Collaboration & Measuring Success (2:17)
Building & Growing Your Targeted Media Lists
Turn Your Media Lists into Relationships (3:12)
An Interview with the Co-Founder of goPRIt.com (3:02)
Sharing Your Story. The Ins & Outs of Pitching the Media and Influencers
Best Advice from Editors & Reporters of Inc., TechCrunch and Digital Trends (4:16)
Pitching Home Runs & Thinking Like a Journalist (8:31)
Does Your Story Pass the "So What?" Test? (5:10)
Make it Easy to Interview You (2:49)
Media Events, Conferences & Media Tours
Do You Need to Host a Media Event? (5:47)
Best Practices for Media Meetings (5:04)
How to Score Press Coverage Using H.A.R.O. (Help a Reporter Out)
Help a Reporter Out (4:54)
Critical Interview Tips & Tricks
How to Ace an Interview Like a Pro (11:47)
Keeping Your Brand in the News
Media & Influencer Outreach as a Daily Ritual (2:11)
Working with a Digital PR Agency (4:43)
Cashing in From Press & Influencer Coverage
How to Make the Most of the Mentions You've Received (1:20)
Strategy, Planning & Making the Time to Market Your Business
Scheduling the Time to Reach Out (3:36)
New Social Media Courses Launching Soon (1:39)
Do You Need to Host a Media Event?


A MAYOR has slammed vandals in his town, calling them 'yobs who need to be sent to a boot camp to make them suffer for their crimes'.
Shefford mayor Paul Mackin has urged the tough line after a spate of vandalism in the town.
He writes in the winter edition of the Shefford Newsline magazine: "I know it has been reported in the press that it is unkind to call these people yobs as it upsets them. That's tough. Until a more descriptive name is allocated to them, they're yobs.
"Suggestions of how to deal with these yobs have varied between sitting them down and talking to them and explaining how much their behaviour costs the community in money and resources to running a zero tolerance scheme and introducing them to detention programmes at an early stage.
"There are problems with either of these extremes. But something has to be done."
This week Cllr Mackin, who served for over 20 years as commander at the local fire station, reinforced his hard-hitting remarks.
"I am not afraid of using the word 'yobs' when it comes to kids who vandalise property in Shefford," said Cllr Mackin, a fire chief at Luton Airport.
"Let's not sit back and be afraid of these kids who mess up our communities. We have a problem in Shefford with vandalism and we have got to get tough with vandals if we are to deter young people from smashing up public and personal property.
"ASBOs are seen by some yobs as a badge to boast about. But these kids should suffer some penalty that will stick in their mind.
"A tough boot camp would do a lot of them some good. A few months in a harshly controlled environment would give them a sharp jolt not being slung in jail with a TV and daily gym session to make them feel as though they are in a rest camp.
"It is a shame because we have got a lot of really goods kids in the town but a small minority of vandals are costing Shefford's citizens, the police and the council a lot of grief.
"It has been estimated that 50 per cent of yobbos break ASBOs and ignore punishments courts give them.
"These yobbos don't respect law and order. Tough discipline never hurt anyone and it is about time the Government listened to the people who suffer."
Shefford Police Community Support Officer Gill Richardson said: "Vandalism and criminal damage does happen and recently I have confiscated tobacco and alcohol from youths.
"Play equipment was damaged in the Kingfisher play area but we have not had a high level of complaints although there have been a number of incidents in the town.


This Black Friday, score some good deals on Sonos Speakers and a lot more at the best price. Sonos has been offering high-quality products since its foundation. Hardly on sale, you rarely find the Sonos products at the least price. This Black Friday, Sonos has arrived with an influx of Sonos Black Friday 2019 deals where you can shop your favorite picks at the most affordable price.
So, if you are considering to own Sonos Speakers, finding the best deals is quite possible. For that reason, we are here. From the hottest release to the new arrivals, you can discover everything at the best price during Sonos Black Friday Deals.
With its every new release, Sonos has set the benchmark for the best quality electronics products. Definitely, Sonos products can weigh heavy on your budget but that does not mean finding a good deal isn't possible. For that reason, Sonos Black Friday Deals have arrived. You can choose from the best collection of speakers across different series. Here, we will be providing you with the best Sonos Black Friday Offers so you don't have to search the entire internet finding out the deals.
Sonos One was available for $174.
Alexa Speaker also witnessed heavy crash during the Sonos Black Friday Deals and was available for $349.
Sonos Seam Bar was also available at huge discounts and the price was dropped to $599.
There will be no wonder if you expect such big deals from Sonos, This Black Friday.
Speakers- Choose the best collection of speakers at the best price. Unveil the set of speakers for 2 rooms or 3 rooms or 4 rooms and a lot more before the deals are gone.
Accessories– Apart from the speakers, you can discover a wide range of accessories that will be convenient for you. Discover the best of accessories across multiple categories at the best possible price.
If you are restless and can't keep your curiosity calm, wait till Sonos Black Friday Ad release. Inside the Sonos Black Friday Ad, you will find all the offers and deals offered by Sonos on their range of speakers. Last year, Sonos released Sonos Black Friday Ad in the second week of November. For this year, you can expect the same.
Check out our section of Sonos Black Friday Deals & Offers and grab your favorite Sonos Black Friday Deals. Before the deals are gone, make sure you have everything that you had set your eyes upon. The deals will not last long. Here, we will be tracking down all the Black Friday Deals & Offers, so subscribe to our website and receive all the major alerts and last minute deals by retailers.


text:
Science, Technology and Diplomacy
September 4, 2009 January 4, 2012 by daryl.copeland
In his typically excellent September 1 – 2 press and blog review of the burgeoning discourse on public diplomacy (PD), John Brown cites a quotation by Manuel Castells, author of the magisterial Information Age trilogy:
Public Diplomacy is the…projection in the international arena of the values and ideas of the public… The aim of the practice of public diplomacy is not to convince but to communicate, not to declare but to listen. Public diplomacy seeks to build a sphere in which diverse voices can be heard in spite of their various origins, distinct values, and often contradictory interests.
Among the almost infinite variety of subjects which might form the basis for that kind of conversation, science (because of its universality, inclusivity and relevance to almost everything) and technology (because of its power and ubiquity) represent one area which is is particularly well-suited to international ventilation.
For those reasons, among others, scientific exchanges, alongside similarly popular educational and cultural programs, were prolific during the Cold War. Although not necessarily considered an element of public diplomacy at the time, international S&T programming nonetheless played a prominent role in both the American and Soviet camps. In those days, wide-ranging ideological, strategic and geopolitical competition provided the framing and context, both directly and through third parties whose allegiance was being sought. One of the sources of continuing Russian influence in places such as India, Syria and Iran, for instance, stems from the scientific training received in the Soviet Union by at least a generation of students.
In the globalization era, however, world order has become more hetero– than bi- or even multi-polar, and the institutional memory of those Cold War activities is fading fast. Now, markets rule, and much of the scientific research and technological development has been either moved out of government and privatized, or has remained focussed on defence-related objectives.
None of that, of course, makes S&T writ large any less relevant. But it does make it harder to understand why so little is said about it outside of a few specialized, and somewhat isloated and obscure circles.
Although many of the most pressing issues facing humanity are based in science and propelled by technology, with critical downstream implications for development and security, most governments have not made significant efforts to ramp up the level of scientific and technological interchange globally. Were this to become a priority, foreign ministries, as the primary points of contact between the national and international interests of states, would almost certainly have to become involved.
All of which brings me to offer an account of a session I attended recently on "The Foreign Ministry of the Future". Senior officials spoke at some length about matters related to to the creation of an international platform for the efficient delivery of common services abroad to other federal government departments, about the need to transform various aspects of the bureaucratic process, and about a number of human resource initiatives.
S&T?
It never came up.
In fact, the entire episode was suffused with a somewhat surreal air, not least because of the complete absence of any references to either diplomacy or foreign policy, which one might otherwise think would have to be germane to such a discussion. Nor did the acute shortage of resources, which is at present wreaking havoc upon operations at home and abroad, attract any commentary. All of which is quite surprising.
One dimension of S&T which might have come up regards the issue of virtuality and foreign ministries, by which I mean the application of information and communications technology (ICTs) and the use of the new media. Especially in OECD countries, and particularly in the USA and UK, diplomatic methods and practices after a slow start have in fact have in fact adapted quite well to the possibilities inherent in the new media and ICTs. Ambassadors and foreign ministers are blogging, the web is being used interactively for the conduct of outreach and public diplomacy, foreign service officers in the field are being enabled through the issue of mobile communications devices such as Blackberries, and personnel departments are experimenting with telework and distance learning.
Among the many factors subversive of the lingering elements of hierarchy, secrecy, cultural conservativism and top-down control still prominent in contemporary diplomatic institutions, these sorts of developments, and the revolution in S&T more generally, are likely to figure centrally.
In my view, that can't happen too soon.
I began with a quotation from communications theorist Manuel Castells; let me conclude with a passage from Canada's own Marshall McLuhan:
The vested interests of acquired knowledge and conventional wisdom have always been bypassed and engulfed by new media.
Categories UncategorizedTags Diplomacy, international policy, resource scarcity, science and technology2 Comments
Science, Technology and International Policy – Part II
August 21, 2009 January 4, 2012 by daryl.copeland
Remember the 20th century?
At that time international relations revolved, variously, around geopolitical confrontation, ideological competition, territorial disputes, alliance politics, and multilateral organizations. Today, clearly delineated empires are no longer colliding, the spectre of world war and mutually assured destruction has receded, and the centre of gravity in global relations has shifted. States are still with us and remain important, but they are now only one actor among many.
In the globalization era, the most profound threats and challenges to human survival – public health, food security, alternative energy sources, to name a few – are rooted in science and driven by technology. The management of this sprawling suite of transnational issues cannot be left to governments alone; it requires not only relentless creativity and tireless collaboration, but the engagement of cross-cutting civil society networks – NGOs, business, universities, think tanks and the media.
All of this is germane to guerrilla diplomacy, which at the highest level of analysis is about advancing innovation in response to a world of complex and multiple insecurities, about charting the way from where we are to where we need to be. This means finding ways to get from looking to seeing, from hearing to listening, and from diktat to dialogue.
What better place to do that than at the intersection of science, technology and international policy?
What better means to spread the benefits of research and development, and in so doing to help bridge digital divides, than diplomacy, which privilages talking over fighting, is powered by continuous learning and can tap into the global political economy of knowledge in order to solve problems non-violently ?
It all sounds just great… except that it isn't happening. Diplomacy has been marginalized as a result of the militarization of international policy – probably the worst of our collective Cold War carry-overs. Foreign ministries are in large part without scientific expertise or technological savvy. Except for certain defense-related issues, S&T is almost completely absent from the mainstream international policy mix.
Yet a capacity to generate, absorb and use S&T plays a crucial role in international relations, not least by improving development prospects and addressing the needs of the poor. Poverty reduction contributes to development, and development is the flip side of security.
All of which leaves the world in a rather precarious and exposed position – precision munitions can't help much with increasing crop yeilds; legionaires are not very concerned with diminishing biodiversity or species extinction. Nor are international S&T issues much like the familiar suite of political, economic and ideational differences to which diplomacy, to the extent that it was engaged, had become accustomed. Those kinds of issues are by nature highly subjective and dependent upon perception – where you stand depends in large part upon where you sit.
Scientific and technological issues, on the other hand, are different in kind, and that may help to explain why the institutions of international policy have had such difficulty cooperating with S&T organizations or otherwise accommodating those sorts of considerations. Foreign ministries and international organizations are in the main just not culturally sensitive or attuned to S&T.
But the more intractable problems are even deeper:
Public and private sector interests in and perspectives on S&T are not necessarily complimentary
NGO representatives, academics and diplomats do not always agree on the role and place of S&T in the assessment of threats to international peace and security
S&T issues have not been accorded a central place in the non-specialist discourse on development/underdevelopment.
Each of these observations is troublng, and each requires some further unpacking.
Categories UncategorizedTags international policy, science and technologyLeave a comment
Science, Technology and International Policy – Part I
August 4, 2009 January 4, 2012 by daryl.copeland
Underdevelopment and insecurity, much like globalization itself, are intimately connected to science and technology (S&T). A capacity to absorb and use S&T can confer significant competitive advantage upon individuals, groups, cities, countries and regions , while the absence of that capacity can be costly. Together, science and technology present both a very complex challenge to, and a critical opportunity for all members of the international community.
In the best of all possible worlds, S&T can be prime movers in propelling the planet forward towards a more peaceful, prosperous future.
In a worse case scenario, they may be our undoing.
At present, S&T quite clearly is not delivering on its potential. Indeed, inadequate science and inappropriate technology seem much more closely associated with all kinds of global problems – pandemic disease, climate change, genomics, resource shortages, weapons of mass destruction, environmental collapse – than with their solution. And this catalogue, it must be emphasized, represents a fair summary of the most pressing threats facing political leaders everywhere.
In a world of the polio vaccine and digital imaging, stem cell research and the i-pod, why do we find such radical underperformance in the face of such inspiring possibilities?
When I began construction of the research base which underpins Guerrilla Diplomacy, I was surprised to learn that there was very litttle in the mainstream literature which explores the links between S&T, on one hand, and international policy and relations, on the other. Today, I have a clearer understanding of of that lacuna. With few exceptions, and especially at the level of macro policy and grand strategy, there simply are no significant connections. That state of dis-integration, moreover, has become a key issue facing both scholars and diplomatic practitioners, whether they know it, or (as is more likely) not.
In the day-to-day business of diplomacy and foreign ministries, S&T exists in a kind of floating world. It is there, but ensconced in a shiny bubble which few really understand or can easily penetrate.
These observations, and several closely related conceptual and theoretical issues, might be illustrated as follows. Imagine a town hall style meeting between employees and senior managers in the headquarters building of a foreign ministry most anywhere in the world. The purpose of the gathering is to identify and discuss the key issues likely to face policy makers and decision-takers over the medium to long term. A new recruit, for instance one of the candidates who has recently entered the State Department under the Jefferson Fellows Program, goes to a microphone and asks the panel of assembled Undersecretaries these three questions:
What is the relationship among and between science and technology, research and development, and innovation, and how does this impact on the formulation of international policy and the management of international relations?
How has the nature and role of S&T changed in the transition from the Cold War to the globalization age?
Do transnational S&T issues differ in kind from more traditional challenges faced by analysts and policymakers?
While I am not in a position to guarantee that such a trio of questions would necessarily generate mainly an assortment of nervous glances, punctuted only by an awkward silence on the podium, my experience would lead me to to predict exactly that sort of outcome.
Just why this might eventuate, and how those questions might have been broached, will be taken up in subsequent posts.
Categories UncategorizedTags international policy, public diplomacy, science and technologyLeave a comment
Underdevelopment, Insecurity and Suicide Bombings
July 18, 2009 May 12, 2019 by daryl.copeland
The news last week of suicide bombings at hotels in Indonesia was unsettling. The knowledge that places you have stayed, or had a meal or a meeting in have become the targets of suicide bombers gives rise to a strange, uncomfortable sensation. The scenes of death and destruction at the Marriots in Jakarta and Islamabad, and, not long before, the Taj in Mumbai, the Pearl Continental in Peshawar, even if recorded on the other side of the world, strike a chord disturbingly close to home.
One of those people leaving on a stretcher could easily have been me.
Or, perhaps, you.
These incidents were not the first, and are unlikely to be the last of their kind. And in the short term, it will remain difficult, if not impossible to secure or defend almost everything, almost anywhere against the type of attack in which the perpetrator is prepared to give his or her own life in order to carry out the mission. SixTech Systems info will help to detect such acts and to manage security.
Even if authorities could suppress such action, the option would hold little appeal. The economic and political costs – something akin to totalitarianism – would be horrendous, the cure worse than the disease.
A better response, at least in the immediate aftermath of such incidents, is to rely, patiently, on careful police and intelligence work to apprehend the criminals responsible, while maintaining the rights, liberties and freedoms which can make life, at least for some, rich and fulfilling.
This is not necessarily the most attractive option for decision-makers, and it is certainly less telegenic or newsworthy than the prospect of near-immediate retaliation through the despatch of Hellfire missile equipped predator drones to annhilate some distant compound or convoy. Modern drones are rather productive as you can read at review page of nasaponycars.com. That said, it will almost always produce better results, and without the risk of collateral damage or the possibility of inflicting suffering upon innocents, as has so regularly been the case with the global war on terror or any of its more recently fashionable derrivatives, such as overseas contingency operations or stabilization.
Over the longer term, the prognosis could brighten. But that will require major changes to the way in which the global political economy is organized and functions. It is poverty and inequality that drive those unable to benefit from globalization towards radical alternatives, and a small minority, bereft of reasonable, viable alternatives through which to express their convictions, turn to political violence or religious extremism.
Underdevelopment and insecurity, after all, are not two solitudes. They are opposite sides of the same coin.
There is now a large corpus of research which indicates that the vast majority of those recruited to become human bombs are not insane, but alienated, angry and resentful, often over the occupation of their land by foreign troops. That condition of bitterness and desperation, may turn street vendors or agricultural labourers into true believers, or even zealots, but very few are crazy. Most elect to do what they do on the basis of rational choice – compensation for the surviving family members, the promise of martyrdom, the belief that they will be rewarded with a better life in heaven. And more than a few are educated and relatively prosperous, their disaffection rooted less in the immediate experience of oppression than in the kind of global empathy made possible by the creation of virtual communities over the internet.
Political space has become deterritorialized.
The enduring reality of suicide bombing, then, is that it is more a symptom than a cause of deeply rooted insecurity and persistent underdevelopment. As such, it can be interpreted as one among many possible illustrations that aid alone – the quintessential, donor interest serving, bandaid solution – won't work in support of genuine development. When advanced countries use aid to generate employment for home country contractors, to dispose of surplus commodities, or to dump uncompetitive or dangerous industrial products, recipients end up with road graders rusting in jungles, sacks of wheat rotting in rat-infested wartehouses and skim milk powder used to whitewash mud walls in places where most of the population is lactose intolerant.
Whether or not these sorts of outcomes represent the exception or the rule, they serve to give international cooperation a bad name, and are the antithesis of sustainable, equitable development, which is human need centred and long term. Characterized by broad citizen access to representative political institutions, economic opportunities, and social services, this kind of development, elaborated in previous posts and elsewhere, implicates those involved in the design of their own destiny.
The literature on globalization is rife with references to "interdependence", but the reality resembles more a complex, multiple-layered pattern of dominance and dependence which is replicated in many places and among and between individuals and groups, cities, countries and regions. It is not something limited to the so-called economic south.
The persistance of that kind of world order makes human security elusive, aid inevitable and development difficult, if not impossible.
Categories UncategorizedTags insecurity, underdevelopmentLeave a comment
Whither Development?
July 3, 2009 March 22, 2019 by daryl.copeland
Or, should that be withered development…?
It was not that long ago that terms such as "international development", "development cooperation", "development assistance" and even "aid" were in heavy rotation in the discourse on international relations. This was true not only in places like the United Nations, but also in many capitals, great and small.
Today development, like diplomacy, has becom somewhat of an exotic.
And yet, and yet… It wasn't always that way. Remember the would-be New International Economic Order? The North-South Summit in Cancun? How about calls for a New International Information Order? The Rio Summit on Environment and Development, surely? That meeting produced, among other things, a sweeping manifesto intended to guide development into the next century: Agenda 21.
Its contents make interesting reading even now, almost two decades later.
Even without reference to the much more recent, but already forlorn Millennium Development Goals, I think it fair to say the the internatnational community, as it is so euphemistically known, has come up a bit short on its commitments. Indeed, the discussion of international development per se has has pretty much disappeared from the mainstream, especially in the wake of 9/11 and the launch of the Global War on Terror (GWOT).
The GWOT continues. Whether restyled as the Long War, or Stabilization, or Overseas Contingency Operations, the epicentre of international policy remains heavily militarized. This has imposed all kinds of costs, ranging from the emaciation of diplomatic alternatives, to the hijacking of the post- Cold War peace dividend, to the reallocation of scarce public resources at the expense of vital social programmes.
Among the less noticed impacts, however, has been the effective marginalization of development – and diplomacy – in the name of security. It is not so much that development itself has become "securitized", as occured during the Cold War with the competition for hearts, minds, and client states. Instead, it has simply been shunted aside, a victim of "compassion fatigue" and competing priorities in metropolitan centres where the development constituency is typically thin to non-existant.
Not so for defence, where the launching of the open-ended GWOT and its successors has put the military industrial complex back into business.
In previous posts I have set out the case that security is not entirely, or even mainly a martial art. You can't garrison against climate change, or call in an air strike on resource shortages, or pay Blackwater to protect you from pandemic disease. Among the many redeeming qualities of the human security doctrine is its insistance on the link betweeen development and security. Expressed in a few words, you won't achieve freedom from fear in the absence of respect for basic rights, the rule of law, good governance and, not least, freedom from want. Met needs are the well-spring of dignity, and basic needs must be fulfilled before much else becomes possible.
In important respects, as I argue at some length in Guerrilla Diplomacy, development has become the new security.
Development, though, is not just a matter of engineering the achievement of various qualitative measures, such as economic growth or increasing trade and investment flows. While each of these may well figure in the overall development mix, for instance, none will guarantee a decrease in poverty if the issue of distributive justice remains unaddressed.
Nor, popular opinion notwithstanding, is development much related to disaster relief or emergency humanitarian assistance. These may certainly be required, as was the case, for example, following the 2004 tsunami, or in the wake of various earthquakes or famines. But the beneficial effects of such interventions are often fleeting, and tend to give rise to lingering distortions, such as changes in diet or a debilitating reliance on charity.
At the end of the day, development is in my view all about improving the quality of life for the majority of the population, about finding ways to encourage the emergence of circumstances which will afford each citizen opportunities, such as access to education an health care, through which they might achieve their full potenial.
Genuine development, then, must be long term, equitable and sustainable. It must be grass-roots and participatory, whereby those affected are the subjects, not objects of their fate. And that implies the necessary existance of significant political and social components in any grand development strategy.
Most of all, and as implied by these sorts of measures, development, like security, must be human-centred. And, like globalization, it is best thought of as a process rather than a condition or an end state. It is that dynamic relationship – between development and underdevelopment, security and insecurity – which I have tried to capture in the ACTE world order model. The security measures are universal, being applied to each and every are of human life – from school security to the worldwide one.
In the midst of the most sever economic crisis since the Great Depression, official development assistance budgets are shrinking, overseas remittances are falling and corporate philanthropy is drying up. In a world in which so many have so little, and so few have so much, one might expect rather more by way of discussion and debate on all of this.
Clearly, we will have to delve more deeply.
Categories UncategorizedTags development, globalization, human securityLeave a comment
Putting the Human back into Security – Part II
June 20, 2009 January 4, 2012 by daryl.copeland
A decade and more ago, the human security doctrine was all the rage. Books, conferences, and even the foreign policy platforms of some governments were organized around it.
Today, while some embers still glow, the fire is out.
From the very beginning, some analysts, mainly, but not exclusively those subscribing to the realist school of international relations, were skeptical about an approach which seemed to them mushy and vacuous. Human security was seen as a thinly veiled excuse for reducing expenditures on international policy tools generally, and on traditional security instruments, such as the military and intelligence agencies, in particular.
Still, for much of the 1990s human security withstood the criticism, and indeed enjoyed significant prominence in the broader discourse.
A decade later, little remains.
An explanation of at least part of the mystery may lie in the relationship between domestic and international politics. In Canada, which had been one of the most enthusiastic cheerleaders for human security, the disappearence of official reference to the concept coincided with changes in political leadership that occurred around the turn of the century. Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy's successors, beginning with John Manley and Bill Graham, acting in a pattern which is both familiar and understandable, wanted to put some political space between themselves and their high-profile predecessor. As a result, official Canadian support for what had come to be known as the human security agenda, always controversial, gradually withered.
Public diplomacy, the technique which was relied upon to move that agenda, later took a similar hit.
That said, in international relations single factors rarely tell the full story, and in this case, too, forces much greater than changes in the Canadian political firmament were in play.
For starters, the definition of human security was always rather vague and contested. There was real tension between those seeking to limit the application of the doctrine to considerations related to the freedom from fear (ending war, building peace, furnishing emergency assistance) and those who preferred to include as well the more sweeping aspect of freedom from want (disasters, disease, and underdevelopment more generally).
That debate remains unresolved.
Secondly, the human security approach was never very evenly applied, and when it was attempted, the results often differed. Human security imperatives were ignored in the case of the international community's failure to stop the genocide in Rwanda, and they are still overlooked in Darfur. Humanitarian interventions in Somalia and Bosnia (Srebrenica), on the other hand, ended in disaster. The one case study which might be judged a success, East Timor, was small scale, expensive, and has not been replicated since.
So, the record is mixed. And the reputation of the term has not been helped by its appropriation – if not hijacking – from time to time by certain parties in support of military intercessions in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Among many contributing elements, however, it was the cathartic events of 9/11 and subsequent launching of the Global War on Terror which achieved most in terms of bringing concerns about the protection of the nation-state front and centre. Suddenly, hard security was back, and its primacy has been largely unchallenged since. Almost overnight international policy was re-militarized, and infused with aggressive new theories such as pre-emptive defense. Not only was the world deprived once and for all of the much-anticipated peace dividend, but 9/11 also restored defense departments, the arms industries, and the vast edifice which supports them to the pre-eminent position which all had enjoyed throughout the Cold War.
Threat conjuring and the politics of fear returned, big time, and human security has yet to recover.
In Guerrilla Diplomacy, I argue that in the age of globalization, development and security, like underdevelopment and insecurity, are fused. The challenge for policy-makers now is to find a way to insert diplomacy into the spaces between the two – spaces now occupied physically, intellectually, and in terms of resource allocation, by defense.
The human security doctrine, even if the time is not yet ripe for its rehabilitation, offers diplomats some useful insights towards that end. And it is that critical component of development to which we will presently turn.
Categories UncategorizedTags human securityLeave a comment
Putting the Human back into Security – Part I
June 6, 2009 January 4, 2012 by daryl.copeland
Security, not unlike globalization or development, is a very, very big idea.
To talk about about it in any meaningful way, you need to know where to begin, and what to focus on.
In terms of security, might that be:
National, or international?
Common, or cooperative?
Collective, or individual?
State?
Personal?
Homeland?
And what of any one of the welter of other, non-traditional security possibilities, ranging from environmental, to resource, to economic, to …?
I set out this catalogue to illustrate a recurrent point in the discussion of international relations and global issues: the effective confrontation of these sprawling topics requires precise descriptive language. Finding that language, however, can be almost as difficult as identifying possible remedies. Our vocabulary has not kept pace, and that may help to explain why the accurate diagnosis of the world's many afflictions remains so elusive.
This is particularly true in the case when speaking of security, where it is crucial to be specific. Nations resort to violence, and sometimes go to war over perceived threats to security. When security is thought to be in jepoardy, diplomacy quickly comes to be seen as appeasement , and is consigned to the margins. Generals and admirals come to the fore. Fighting trumps talking.
Whenever the the notion of security is invoked, therefore, it is absolutely essential to be concrete, to know what is seen to be at risk or under threat. Yet this is rarely the case. In fact, "security" is probably one of the most over-used, and abused terms in the lexicon of international relations.
I have written elsewhere of the acute need for new analytical tools, and have tried to come up with a few of my own, such as the ACTE world order model outlined in an earlier post. In the case of security, however, I believe that kind of enterprise is unnecessary. The concept of human security provides most of the elements needed to understand the pre-requisites of peace and preosperity in the globalization age. Moreover, it the widespread absence of human security – and the concommitant presence of fear, want and exploitation and suffering – which in my view lies at the root of much of the instablity and conflict around us.
Security is critical to diplomacy because most diplomats work for states, and the highest calling of the state – roughly speaking, the apparatus of national government – is to ensure the security of the citizenry.
That is, the population.
In other words, humans.
That would be – us.
Human security puts people first. As an objective, it involves the pursuit of demonstable rights and freedoms, subscription to the rule of law, and the existance of the kind of fundamental human dignity which is sustained and nurtured by met needs. This goal seems to me unassailable, both morally and practically, and commitment to attaining it carries significant implications across the board, not least in terms of our thinking about development.
Why, then, have we heard so little of the profoundly people-centric notion of human security in recent years? Never very popular with great powers, human security nonetheless once provided the foreign policy lens, if not grand strategy, favoured by a number of middle and smaller powers. In the second half of the nineties, the doctrine was championed by Canada, and became the core principle animating a string of initiatives – the land mine ban, International Criminal Court, blood diamonds, children in conflict, small arms control, and the Responsibility to Protect, which seeks to provide a political and legal framework for humanitarian intervention.
Since about the turn of the century, however, human security has been largely exiled from the mainstream discourse. With a few notable exceptions, it lives on mainly in academic circles, international organizations and in the NGO community. Yes, the Human Security Network still exists, although that institution appears to be on life support, there is still a Human Security Gateway on the Internet, and human security reporting and analysis continues. On balance, though, human security as an operative policy tool is now at most a faint shadow of its former self.
Therein lies a tale. In broaching those issues, I hope that readers will come to understand why I tried to avoid excessive reference to the term human security in my volume on guerrilla diplomacy, notwithstanding my belief that it remains the concept best suited to understanding the complex political dynamics which prevail in the world today.
A more detailed deconstruction of that paradox comes next.
Grappling with Globalization
May 24, 2009 January 4, 2012 by daryl.copeland
Working in a foreign ministry is as good a place as any, and better than most, to observe the world in transition. I did it for 28 years. From that vantage point, it was near impossible to avoid thinking about why diplomacy has been performing so dismally, especially in recent years when diplomats have been sidelined, and departments of defence favoured as the international policy instrument of choice.
In trying to assess the crisis of diplomacy, I was led repeatedly to the same observation. Simply put, many of diplomacy's failings can be attributed to its failure to adapt effectively or well to the challenges of the globalization age.
As a result of that early finding, readers will notice that many of the constructs which support the arguments presented in Guerrilla Diplomacy are based upon my understanding and analysis of the paramount features of the phenomenon popularly referred to as globalization. But, what, exactly, is that?
Globalization is both over-used and under-appreciated. It also a highly contested term, and has been ascribed a variety of different meanings. At the highest level of apprehension, globalization can be thought of as the successor era to that of the Cold War.
Yet that would be too easy. Globalization is clearly more than that. I would define it as a totalizing historical force which is conditioning, if not determining outcomes across a broad range of human enterprise. Among its effects and at a planetary level, globalization tends to integrate economically, fracture politically, polarize socially and homogenize culturally. It is multifaceted, vexing, and above all, enormous. Might I venture to say that from both practical and ideational perspectives, globalization is the dominant theme of our times.
But its essence cannot be captured in a single narrative.
Images of Nike, Mercedes, McDonalds and Clinique are only the tip of the iceberg. Globalization compresses space, accelerates time, and has unleashed a hornet's nest of threats and challenges, many rooted in science and driven by technology. A sampling would include:
pandemic disease
environmental collapse
This catalogue demonstrates that globalization has framed and populated the contemporary international policy agenda. These issues, moreover, differ in kind from the territorial disputes, ideological rivalry, military confrontation and competition for client states which were the hallmarks of the Cold War.
But even all of this is only a very small part of the story. Like a scythe, globalization cuts all ways, bringing comfort, choice, power and influence to a few, and hardship, constraints, anger and resentment to many.
For the beneficiaries, globalization contributes to prosperity and capital accumulation.
For those lost on the periphery or trapped on the underside – at any level and in any location – globalization can breed insecurity, exacerbate inequality and abet undervelopment.
Globalization has on balance been good for corporations and bad for governments. It jeopardizes fragile states and increases the liklihood of their failure. The backlash against globalization has contributed to violent extremism, often religiously affiliated, world-wide. It is percieved in many places as the latest incarnation of something more familiar, empire.
Absent the institutions of effective global governance, globalization will remain largely beyond the purview of either popular sovereignty or the public interest.
Like so much else in life, then, where you stand on the question of globalization depends in large part upon on where you sit.
In the midst of the worst international economic downturn since the Great Depression, it would be tempting to conclude that the age of globalization is over. Indeed, many have. Yet that kind of conclusion would be based upon a relatively narrow understanding of the term, one rooted mainly in observations about trade liberalization, investment flows, resource prices and other, for the most part macro-economic indicators.
Even by those criteria, I would hesitate to subscribe to the "end of globalization" thesis. These sorts of measures are highly variable, and in the overall scheme of things, these are early days still. Reports of globalization's passing are at best premature.
Staggeringly complicated and immensely consequent, globalization may be down, but it is far from out.
The implications for security, development and diplomacy, as we shall see, are far-reaching.
Categories UncategorizedTags globalizationLeave a comment
Rethinking World Order – Part III
Why think about world order?
Because diplomats, like everyone with a practical or intellectual interest in international political economy, need an analytical tool suitable for understanding the big picture. Today, the marketplace for world order models is littered with paradigms and prototypes. Some aren't labelled as such. Many have next to no predictive or explanatory capacity. Most take inadequate account of global issues.
That's a problem.
To recap…
Bipolarity is history.
The unipolar moment of US hegemony has passed, flaming out in a spectacularly violent starburst of shock and awe.
Multipolarity doesn't readily fit the circumstances inherent in the globalization age – the power of nations is no longer easily compared.
Heteropolarity, a term first applied to international relations by Brown University scholar James Der Derian in 2004, might be more apt, but it its analytical power is somewhat limited by its association with polarity per se, and as such it can take us only us so far conceptually.
The notion of worlds – First (advanced, capitalist); Second (defunct, communist) Third (less developed); and perhaps even Fourth (least developed) – comes closer to getting at what we see today. But this model, too, fails to take account of the emergence of worlds within worlds at all levels. It is too state-centric, too territorial, and it does not adequately reflect the dynamic flux which is globalization.
Though now almost forgotten, and to some extent discredited, in my view it was the dependency theorists, whose influence peaked in the 1970's, that contributed the elements of an analysis which comes closest to capturing the underlying patterns of development and underdevelopment. Readers may find it worthwhile, even revealing, to return to the work of Raul Prebish, Samir Amin, Andre Gunder Frank, Osvaldo Sunkel , Fernando Cardoso, Theotonio Dos Santos, Paul Baran, and others, with a view to comparing the applicability their diagnoses and prescriptions against current conditions in the world political economy.
To be sure, some of their prescriptions – self-sufficiency, or import substituting industrialization, for instance – did not stick. Yet there are many points of continuing relevance and insight – the critique of free market economics, the focus on transnationalized elites, the perils of reliance upon commodity exports and the associated difficulties with terms of trade, the idea of the poverty trap.
None, however, is more appropriate to the early 21st century than the notion of core-periphery relations at many levels between and within states, regions and social groups.
I have tried to draw on some of this prescient thinking in the construction of the arguments adduced in support of the ACTE world order model set out summarily in Part II above. I have also tried to abstract various insights offered by the dependency school in setting out the defining elements of both guerrilla diplomacy and the guerrilla diplomat, and will elaborate these at greater length in future.
Unlike traditional diplomacy, and even more so than public diplomacy, guerrilla diplomacy, and indeed guerrilla diplomats, are designed to perform effectively within and across the full spectrum of conditions encapsulated within the ACTE world order model. Part of that alternative predisposition is borne of a very different understanding of two key terms, development and security. So, too, with the diagnosis of globalization's darker side, underdevelopment and insecurity.
In the era of globalization, these two concepts are fused. Security is no longer the exclusive preserve of departments of defence, or a function of arms and force. Development has implications which extend well beyond the machinations of aid agencies, or notions of modernization and growth. To a great extent, development has become the new security, and guerrilla diplomacy, both as diplomatic method and as an alternative approach to understanding international relations, proceeds from that conviction.
Globalization. Security. Development. These sprawling topics are the touchstones of our times.
A closer examination of each is coming up next.
Categories UncategorizedTags world orderLeave a comment
Rethinking World Order – Part II
April 27, 2009 January 4, 2012 by daryl.copeland
Polarity is a static concept, and its expression is spatial. Various poles, be they considered of the hetero or multi-polar genus, can be named, mapped and fixed on a world atlas. In the dynamic, de-territorialized environment that characterizes the globalization age, each of these aspects is highly problematic.
To construct a model of international relations that puts people, rather than states or measures of GDP at the centre of notions of security and development, a more fluid and supple approach to modelling is required.
A quick survey reveals this point starkly. Today, parts of the USA, such as the abandoned neighbourhoods of Flint, Michigan or Akron, Ohio, or New Orleans, Louisiana, look as bad or worse worse than much of anything that might be found in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, or Santiago, Chile, or Accra, Ghana. The downtowns of Shanghai, Sao Paulo or Dubai outshine those found in many major centres in Europe or North America. For the homeless in Los Angeles, life is at least as tough, and likely moreso, than it is for those at the bottom of the social pyramid in Singapore.
All of which is to say that the old distinctions just don't work any more. First World conditions are enjoyed by many people, and found in many places in what used to be known as the Third World. The upscale opulence associated with the better districts of Capetown or Caracas attest to this emphatically. At the same time, nominally Third World lifestyles and environments are found among many individuals, such as the disposessed, and groups, such as aboriginals, as well in many places, such as inner cities and social housing estates, all over what we used to call the First and Second Worlds.
How might such diverse and shifting characteristics be incorporated in the construction of a new world order model? Not easily. But that is no excuse for not trying.
I would propose moving beyond both the now obsolete First, Second and Third World labels, as well as the centre-periphery model and its variants favoured by the dependency theorists and their successors, to adopt four broad categories of people and places affected by globalization:
• The A- or advancing, world, whose economic and political advantage is growing
• The C- or contingent world, whose prospects are uncertain and will be determined by future developments which could tip in either direction
• The T- or tertiary world, whose relative position is subservient or dependent; and
• The E- or excluded world, who find themselves for the most part outside of globalization's matrix.
Put the four categories together and there you have it – a user-friendly and adaptable world order model, the ACTE.
World order modelling is, of necessity, undertaken at a high level of abstraction, and hence exceptions will be inevitable. But these do not the rule make, and the rules, I think, hold up quite well. Each category could contain individuals, social or cultural groups, cities or parts thereof, states or parts thereof, regions, or multilateral combinations. The hybrid formulation, which is transnational and not ordered by geography, combines the utility of labelling with the dynamic quality of the dependency analysis. It avoids undue association with immobile national political space, while allowing for the constant movement upwards, downwards and sideways within and between the principal groups associated with globalization.
The point here is that it is no longer useful or even possible to attempt to classify entire countries, regions or groupings into this or that particular intellectual or geographic box. There is just too much complexity and swirl out there, and much less stratification and rigidity, for any of that. In the globalization age, the concept of de-territorialization – of power, agency, nationality, language, even of ethnicity – has become a defining attribute. While it is very difficult to avoid completely the use of spatial and geographic terms, economic and political relations in the globalization era are less and less between territorially based units and more and more between social agents – individuals, classes, and other groups of various description. It is these billions of people, almost one half are under twenty-five and live in cities, rather than entire countries, that experience development and underdevelopment.
The situation of the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China) is illustrative. In these resurging or aspiring great powers, there are very large elements of A-, C-, T- and E-worlds internally. There are also elements of each in Europe and North America, although in those cases the A- component would be larger, the E- component smaller, and the C- and T- components perhaps more mobile.
Unconvinced? More on all of this, and why it is germane to guerrilla diplomacy, in Part III.
Categories UncategorizedTags world order1 Comment
Rethinking World Order – Part I
It is Easter Monday in central Canada, and change is everywhere. You can smell it in the air and see it on the land.
Seasons change. The way we see the world, and understand its workings, apparently does not.
Modelling world order is a very high level analytical pursuit. It informs and conditions perception.
During the long decades of the Cold War freeze, it was easy enough to get a handle on the idea of world order. There were two competing superpowers, two clearly identified and associated blocs, and competition, to a greater of lesser extent, for the allegiance most everyone else. One bloc, capitalist and led by the USA, was the widely referred to as the First World; another, nominally communist and led by the USSR, the Second World, and the rest, some affiliated with one or the other bloc and some non-aligned, was known as the Third World. Later in the game the notion of a Fourth World emerged – not less, but least developed countries, the poorest of the poor.
In my Diplomatic Surge? post I mentioned the problems related to carrying over a binary, Cold War era world view into the globalization age. Our inability to imagine accurately the world in transition, however, has implications which extend beyond the persistence of a Manichean sensibility, a mis-diagnosis of the threats and challenges, and a tendency to militarize international policy and relations. At a very basic level, we don't know how to name, or describe, or come to terms with the powerful forces which are re-shaping the planet's political economy. About two decades after it began, the latest epochal shift remains, in large part, unassessed.
When the dust finally cleared in the wake of walls coming down and an empire imploding in 1991, it was clear that bipolarity did not work anymore. One of the poles had melted away. In the intervening years there have been several attempts – by Robert Cooper, Thomas Barnett, Immanuel Wallerstein and others – to reconstruct models which somehow capture the complexity and swirl which has characterized the intervening years. None have stuck, though, like the familiar First, Second and Third Worlds, and accordingly terms remain in widespread use. Unfortunately, given the sheer flux of contemporary geopolitics, not to mention the disappearence of what had been the Second World, they no longer make much sense.
In the mainstream media, the notion of unipolarity became initially very popoular – one remaining superpower, the USA, leading in just about any category worth measuring, and having its way pretty well whenever, and wherever it wished. With the 2003 invasion of Iraq – no WMDs, but plenty of Abu Ghraib, Fallujah, Guantanamo Bay, black detention sites, torture, and extraordinary rendition – that period of unparalleled quasi-imperial dominance quickly eroded away. Associated neoconservative preferences for ideas such as pre-emptive defense, the creation of a homeland security state, and the gutting of domestic governmental capacity revealed so starkly in the inability of government to respond effectively to either natural or man-made disasters, combined to become the Bush administration's brand. A trickle of defections from the Coalition turned into a stampede for the doors, the economic meltdown discredited the laissez faire economic doctrine embedded in the Washington Consensus, and the result was a near perfect storm over America's international image and reputation, its soft power and political influence.
All have tanked.
And all will probably recover, but when they do, the environment will be very different, and it is not quite clear just what will emerge. Many commentators are speaking of a return to some kind of multipolarity, based on the sorts of balance of power calculations and relationships which prevailed for a few hundred years following the Treaty of Westphalia and later, in a more deliberately codified form, the Congress of Vienna. I don't think that model fits, either. The kinds of power that the statesmen of the day were trying to balance were more or less similar and hence comparable, based on benchmarks such as the size of armies and navies, the nature of weapons and armaments, population numbers, resource bases and colonial connections.
But that was then. Today, extant types of power are not easily comparable. The US leads in military strength. The European Union will soon have the largest GDP and projects broadly attractive social and political values. China has become the world's manufacturer and is destined within a decade or so to become the single largest national economy. India is huge in back office operations, software design and call centres. Resurgent Russia is a resource giant and rearming fast. Brazil is leading Latin America. ASEAN is integrating Southeast Asia. The concept of multipolarity does not adequately capture the existance of so many different types of power.
A new term, heteopolarity, which suggests different sources of power and influence, just might. Yet even if it does, finding any kind of balance will be extremely difficult. And any model based on polarity will in any case be too territorially based and state-centric to embody the dynamism and blur which are hallmarks of the globalization age.
Perhaps the time has come to dispense with the very notion of polarity as an organizing principle of world order. More on that coming soon.
Lashings of Insight – Part II
April 1, 2009 January 4, 2012 by daryl.copeland
One reason for the ISA's enduring popularity is the sheer variety of presentations on offer. Anyone weary at the prospect of attending yet another panel on, say, constructivist critiques of neo-colonialism, or a reconsideration of the English School perspective on regional integration, can simply browse the telephone book-like ISA program and almost certainly find something of interest.
I am drawn typically to sessions offered by the Association's Diplomatic Studies and International Communications sections. But I am attracted as well to discussions organized by other sections – intelligence, or foreign policy analysis, for example. Those panels which touch on the core issues of issues of guerrilla diplomacy, namely security, development and globalization, are of particular interest.
Following is an eclectic and highly distilled dollop of all that, garnished with a side order of commentary acquired in conversation:
globalization is down, but not necessarily out as the defining historical process of our age; palatable alternative options are not on the horizon
public diplomacy in large part is the new diplomacy, but it will never completely displace traditional diplomacy, and could usefully be adapted for use by the representatives of developing countries in the cities of the metropolis
major international organizations (UN/IFIs) were designed by the USA in post-war years primarily in order to serve US interests; American dominance has waned, its interests have changed, and most institutions now require radical reform or complete re-invention
evidence of direct correlation between climate change and incidence of conflict is uncertain and possibly exaggerated (cf. Gwynne Dyer's Climate Wars)
growing popularity and influence of Al Jazeera English may be more significant over time than foreign policy decisions/ actions taken by many of world's governments
Russia is currently the wild card in the international system – armed, dangerous, re-assertive, but falling faster and harder than EU or US; a collapsing Russian economy will be more significant than religion or nationalism in conditioning outcomes in the Eurasian colossus
India's latent economic and military power has not yet translated into real international influence, it almost certainly will, but not anytime soon
al-Qaeda is now more of a brand than a centralized terrorist network, but the brand has been damaged by setbacks in Iraq, Jordan and Palestinian territories; response by brand managers is centred on internet marketing and heavily reliant upon new media
Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Shia militias in Iraq, all with deep roots in populations and territories, are likely to outlast al-Qaeda
number of fragile, failing and collapsed states is set again to increase, but the track record of donor countries in nation-building is mixed to poor
inability of NATO members to agree on grand strategy for Afghanistan may result in participating ISAF members joining the ranks of outsiders who have tried, but inevitably failed to have their way with this "graveyard of empires."
In all, quite a lot to chew on.
The theme for next year's event is Theory vs. Policy: Connecting Scholars and Practitioners. While compelling enough in itself, the venue is New Orleans, a city still struggling almost five years after the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina revealed so much to so many about the hollowing out of the American state.
Categories UncategorizedTags globalization1 Comment
Lashings of Insight: Tid-bits from the Brain Food Buffet (I)
March 18, 2009 January 4, 2012 by daryl.copeland
Last month I spent five days at the 50th annual conference of the International Studies Association (ISA) in New York City.
I make a point of participating in this sprawling brain food buffet most years, and although the intensity and pace of the program can be exhausting , with 40-50 simultaneous panels, five times per day over four days, it does provide a comprehensive snapshot of academic thinking about most things international at a given point in time.
In that respect, this year's event was perhaps especially interesting in the wake of the recent arrival of the Obama administration in the USA. The expectations that have been engendered by the heavy rotation of the "hope and change" agenda, both during the long campaign and after, are enormous. Will the new government be able to deliver as advertised? Or will expectations have to be managed and downsized?
With these, and many other issues in mind, I attended many sessions on global order and US foreign policy. Following are some of my summary observations. Processed, condensed, and unattributed, they are intended less as a record of the proceedings than as points for further discussion and debate:
US foreign policy will be both framed, and constrained by economic crisis, the depth and duration of which remain unclear, but menacing
Obama's powerful message of hope and change is very different in tone from that of his predecessor, but could lead to an "expectations gap" which will be tough to bridge
choice of advisors at upper and mid levels was characterized by one speaker as "neo-con lite"; main international policy directions are more likely to be representative of continuity than change (eg. despatch of 17,000 troops to Afghanistan, and message about international policy priorities which that conveys)
commitment to Global War on Terror is likely to persist, even if the taxonomy has changed; careers, budgets, institutions and industries now depend on it (GWOT is "sedimented" in Washington)
notwithstanding the temporary bump associated with "Obama effect", the continued relative decline of US power and influence is inevitable
unipolar moment has passed, but the world seems headed towards heteropolar rather than multipolar order – US will lead militarily, but EU and BRICSAM countries will be major economic forces, with other nations powerful culturally, demographically, and environmentally
emergent order will take time to work out; requirement for cross-balancing at various levels may result in lower levels of state-sponsored violence, but not necessarily more stabilty than during brief period of US hegemony
evangelical US model (deregulation/marketization/democratization) for the world political economy has been deeply discredited; authoritarian, regulated, statist capitalism seems ascendant
the good news? A smaller US place in the world and concomitant need for complex balancing will necessitate a larger role for diplomacy, and possibly a smaller role for the military in the overall international policy mix
influence of Ambassadors is set to increase and regional military commands/commanders likely to diminish
All in all, a pretty rich harvest, and I will be providing more by way of take-aways from the ISA meeting in future posts.
Categories UncategorizedTags heteropolarity1 Comment
Manoeuvring the Ship of State
March 6, 2009 January 4, 2012 by daryl.copeland
Most diplomats work in foreign ministries, and most foreign ministries have been struggling to adapt to the challenges posed by globalization. Those challenges, which include the emergence of rival international actors ranging from celebrities, to NGOs, to other government departments – are compounded during periods of weak leadership and uncertain political interest. At such times, absent international policy demands or the requirement to produce related real-world outcomes, the employees of foreign ministries tend to fall back on the transactional, on the perfection of bureaucratic process, on entrail gazing. Endless internal reviews, re-organizations and narrow careerist calculation often substitute for policy analysis, development and implementation.
The result strikes me as something like a metaphorical equivalent to the board game "Snakes and Ladders"… or perhaps, "Vipers and Chutes".
What to do? A few years ago, following the separation of the Canadian Departments of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, senior officials tried to turn adversity into opportunity by launching an initiative to create a "Foreign Ministry for the Twenty-first Century", or FAC 21. At the centre of this strategy was a significant re-definition and sharpening the of the foreign ministry's s mandate as an interpreter of globalization, articulator of foreign policy, integrator of the international agenda, advocate of values and interests, provider of services, and steward of public resources.
The plan?
To identify and address the imperatives for institutional change by:
strengthening policy capacity;
renewing core professional skills;
increasing agility, reducing rigidity;
maximizing assets in the field;
connecting with wider networks; and
focussing on public diplomacy.
All of this struck me as completely sensible, and indeed overdue, but an election intervened, the government changed, new resources were withheld, and the attempt to build a contemporary, stand-alone foreign ministry, but one that did not contain a trade component, was among the first casualties of the subsequent re-integration of the two departments.
When I think back on this initiative, or reflect on former Secretary of State Rice's efforts to transform the State Department, or consider the current initiative in the UK to produce an FCO which is more foreign, less office, a certain image keeps returning to my consciousness. I imagine a scene set on the bridge of a once-magnificent ocean liner, still in service but well past its prime. The boarding process is complete, and thousands of passengers are excited about their imminent departure. The captain is gazing ahead, taking note of possible navigation hazards and enjoying a majestic view from his command centre on the bridge.
The last few voyages, though, have been a bit rough and the captain is eager to get underway. He gives the order to cast off, does a final check of the instruments, nudges the wheel to port and slides the throttle forward to "all-ahead half." He waits to hear the rumble of the mighty engines… but nothing happens. He shoves the throttle to "full." Still nothing. "Reverse." Nothing. He tries to correct course – but the wheel now spins as if it were being used for roulette.
The captain looks down and to his horror discovers that none of his controls are connected. Either someone else is driving, or the ship is adrift.
Interpretation?
The success of any diplomatic surge will be dependent, a least in part, upon fixing the foreign ministry.
Categories UncategorizedTags foreign ministryLeave a comment

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A very elegant Georgian plain formed helmet shaped cream jug.
A very elegant Georgian plain formed helmet shaped cream jug with applied bead borders for decorative highlights. The foot is square pedestal formed and the handle is reeded loop design.
Henry Chawner, free of Goldsmiths Company by patrimony. 1st mark (2 sizes) entered as plateworker 1786. 2nd mark (2 sizes) 1787. Married the daughter and heiress of Edward Hore in 1791, Livery 1791. 3rd mark as partner with John Emes 1796. Elected to Court of Assistants 1801. Died 1851.


Having a professional car carrier service handle your auto shipping needs is a convenient and dependable way to get your car from point A to point B. A car carrier service is very helpful when relocating, vacationing or purchasing a vehicle from a distance. Here are a few tips for using a car carrier service and ensuring your vehicle is shipped quickly and safely.
Your car is very valuable, and safety is the most important factor when leaving your car in the hands of someone else. Make sure the car carrier service you choose is well reviewed and meets all your safety needs. You will also want to compare pricing to make sure the service fits your budget. You can start by getting a few different quotes and comparing the bids from several companies.
Protection is important for all vehicles, but especially if you are shipping a classic, vintage or luxury vehicle. You want to make sure you request enclosed transport and have your vehicle top loaded. This will make sure your vehicle has less contact with road debris.
Take a moment to inspect your car before you leave it in the hands of the carrier. You want to makes note of any outer damage or mechanical problems the car has to began with. It's helpful to take before photos of your vehicle from several angles.
Before your vehicle is shipped, you'll need to empty it entirely. There are several reasons you can't use your vehicle to haul your stuff while it's on a carrier. They all relate to safety— weighing down your vehicle increases its weight, and more often than not, your items can bounce around in transport.
If you are in need of a car carrier service start by getting a free quote from us today. Keep these tips in mind and safe travels!


text:
Constantin Bostan (n. 7 noiembrie 1944) este un scriitor român contemporan, membru al Uniunii Scriitorilor din România.

Biografie
Constantin Bostan (n. 7 noiembrie 1944, Bodești - județul Neamț; părinți: Ana și Mihai Bostan). Jurnalist, bibliotecar, publicist, editor și istoric literar. Membru în Uniunea Scriitorilor din România - Filiala Iași.

Sudii primare și gimnaziale: Moinești, Bacău, Piatra-Neamț. Studii medii: Colegiul Național "Petru Rareș" Piatra Neamț (1958-1962). Stagiu militar obligatoriu (1962-1964). Studii superioare: Facultatea de limbă și literatură română - Universitatea București (1964-1969).

Activitate jurnalistică: redactor la ziarul "Ceahlăul" Piatra-Neamț (aprilie 1969 - mai 1974); publicist, secretar de redacție și director (part-time): săptâmânalul "Acțiunea" Piatra-Neamț (febr. 1990 - mai 2001). A publicat și caricaturi în: Informația Bucureștiului (1968-1969), Amfiteatru (1968-1969), Ceahlăul, Acțiunea.

Activitate biblioteconomică: bibliotecar (mai 1974 - martie 1990) și director (aprilie 1990 - sept. 2013) al Bibliotecii Județene "G.T. Kirileanu". Membru (1992 - ) și prim-vicepreședinte (1998-2008) al Asociației Naționale a Bibliotecarilor și Bibliotecilor Publice din România (ANBPR). A inițiat elaborarea și a lucrat (alături de Ioan Onisei, Traian Brad, Dimitrie Poptămaș, Gheorghe Buluță) la redactarea Regulamentului de organizare și fucționare a bibliotecilor publice din România (adoptat: 1998). Reprezentant al ANBPR (alături de Traian Brad, Nicolae Busuioc) în colectivul de redactare a Legii Bibliotecilor din România (promulgată: 2002). A coordonat "Programul național de formare și perfecționare profesională a personalului din bibliotecile publice" (1998-2008).

Activitate publicistică literară: în principal, colaborări la revistele: Ateneu, Antiteze, Convorbiri literare, Nord Literar.

Fondator și director executiv al Fundației Culturale "G.T. Kirileanu" Piatra-Neamț (1993 - ).

Scrieri
- G.T. Kirileanu. Contribuții documentare [în colaborare cu Valentin Ciucă]. Piatra-Neamț, s.n., 1970.

- Ștefan, Ștefan, Domn cel Mare [legende repovestite];  ilustrații: Romeo Voinescu. București, Ed. "Ion Creangă", 1990.

- Făcliile Unirii (1859); ilustrații: Romeo Voinescu. București, Ed. "Ion Creangă", 1990.

- Stephen, Stephen, Greates King. Legends retold; illustrations by Vasile Olac. Bucarest, The Romanian Cultural Institute Publishing House, 2004.

- Ștefan, Ștefan, Domn cel Mare. Legende populare și tradiții istorice repovestite; ed. a III-a, revăzută și întregită; ilustrații: Vasile Olac. Chișinău, Litera International, 2004.

- Cozla. Povestea muntelui cu ape minerale, parc, pârtie, schit și telegondolă. Piatra-Neamț, Acțiunea, 2008.

- Piatra-Neamț și împrejurimi. Parfumul amintirilor, aroma evocărilor. Piatra-Neamț, Acțiunea, 2009.

- G.T. Kirileanu. Un destin, sub semnul lui Creangă și Eminescu, la Palatul Regal. Piatra-Neamț, Acțiunea, 2010.

- Cuza Vodă și făcliile Unirii; ilustrații: Vasile Olac. Iași, Doxologia, 2015.

- Legende din Ceahlău; ilustrații: Sabina Popovici-Hanțu. Iași, Doxologia, 2015.

- De dragoste și de beton. Versuri; ilustrații: Ilinca Ruxandra Pipelea. Iași, Junimea, 2015.

- Trecute vieți de autori și cărți, ziare și reviste. De la romantism la proletcultism. Vol. I, Iași, Timpul, 2015.

- Spiridon Vangheli: destăinutiri din țara lui Guguță [convorbiri cu marele scriitor]. Chișinău, Ed. "Guguță", 2019.

Premii
-Premiul de Excelență în Cultură, pentru valorificarea și promovarea operei și memoriei lui G. T. Kirileanu - Gala Culturii nemțene - 2015.

-Premiul de Excelență al revistei "Convorbiri literare" - 2021.

Ediții
- G.T. Kirileanu sau viața ca o carte. Mărturii inedite. Ediție îngrijită și Cuvânt-înainte de Constantin Bostan. București, Ed. "Eminescu", 1985.

- G.T. Kirileanu. Scrieri. Vol. 1, Ediție îngrijită, studiu introductiv, note și indice de Constantin Bostan. București, Minerva, 1989.

- G.T. Kirileanu. Scrieri. Vol. 2, Ediție îngrijită, note, bibliografie și indice de Constantin Bostan. București, Minerva, 1997.

- Ștefan Vodă cel Mare și Sfânt. Istorisiri și cântece populare strânse la un loc de Simion T. Kirileanu, învățător. Ediție îngrijită, prefață, note și bibliografie de Constantin Bostan. Piatra-Neamț, Crigarux, 2004.

- G. T. Kirileanu, Sub trei regi și trei dictaturi. Amintiri, jurnal și epistolar.  Vol. 1: 1872-1916. Ediție îngrijită, cuvânt înainte, note și bibliografie de Constantin Bostan. Piatra-Neamț, Crigarux, 2004.

- Ghidul bibliotecilor publice din România. Redactor coordonator: Constantin Bostan. Piatra-Neamț, Fundația Culturală "G. T. Kirileanu", 2008.

- Sfântul Voievod Ștefan cel Mare. Cele mai frumoase legende și istorisiri populare din Moldova și Transilvania. Cuprinzând și Tomosul de canonizare a Sfântului Ștefan cel Mare. Ediție, note și indice geografic de Constantin Bostan. Piatra-Neamț, Acțiunea, 2010.

- Gheorghe Iacomi, Cărări în Ceahău. Trasee, legende și toponimie. Ediție îngrijită de Constantin Bostan. Piatra-Neamț, Acțiunea, 2011.

- Traian Cicoare. Oameni, locuri și comori spirituale din ținutul Neamț. Ediție, note și tabel cronologic de Constantin Bostan. Piatra-Neamț, Acțiunea, 2012.

- G.T. Kirileanu. Martor la istoria României, 1872-1960. Jurnal și epistolar. Vol. I-II: 1872-1918. București, RAO, 2013.

- G.T. Kirileanu. Martor la istoria României, 1872-1960. Jurnal și epistolar. Vol. III: 1919-1920. București, RAO, 2015.

- G.T. Kirileanu. Martor la istoria României, 1872-1960. Jurnal și epistolar. Vol. IV: 1921-1922. București, RAO, 2017.

- G.T. Kirileanu. Martor la istoria României, 1872-1960. Jurnal și epistolar. Vol. V: 1923-1927. București, Saeculum I.O. 2019.

Referințe critice (selectiv)
-G. Pătrar. Contribuții documentare G. T. Kirileanu; în: Ateneu, an VII, nr. 12, dec. 1970, p.7.

- Constantin Stoide. Constantin Bostan, Valentin Ciucă: Gh. Teodorescu-Kirileanu, Contribuții documentare, Piatra-Neamț, 1970, 209 p.; în: Studii și cercetări de bibliologie, serie nouă, an XIII, 1974, pp. 278-282.

- Șerban Cioculescu. Posteritatea lui "Moș Ghiță"; în: România literară, an XIX, nr. 8, 20 febr. 1986, p. 7.

- Alexandru Zub. "Mai mult înăuntru decât în afară"; în: Convorbiri literare, an XCIII, nr. 3, mart. 1987, pp. 4.

- Nicolae Georgescu. Eminesciana. Cărți la centenar: Un cărturar moldav [G. T. Kirileanu], în; Luceafărul, an XXXII, nr. 30, 29 iul. 1989, p. 2.

- Z. Ornea. Contribuții; în: România literară, an XXII, nr. 37, 14 sept. 1989, p. 2.- Nicolae Georgescu. Eminescologia sub asediu; în: Luceafărul, an XXXII, nr. 39, 30 sept. 1989, p. 2.

- Virgil Cuțitaru. Vocația documentului: în: Cronica, an XXIV, nr. 51, 22 dec. 1989, p. 4.

- Constantin Călin. Iorga, văzut de Kirileanu; în: Ziarul de Bacău, nr. 179 (623), 2004, 30 iulie, p. 4.

- Vasile Spiridon. Huhurezul de la Cotroceni; în: Ateneu, an XLII, nr. 3, martie, 2005, p. 16.

- Nicolae Busuioc. G. T. Kirileanu: Sub trei regi și trei dictaturi, în: Convorbiri literare, an CXXXIX, nr. 7, iulie 2005, p. 147.

- Constantin Tomșa. O carte despre muntele Cozla; în: Constantin Tomșa, Împătimit  de lectură. Piatra-Neamț, Ed. Conta, 2008, pp. 31-32.

- Florin Jbanca. Constantin Bostan, o viață pe urmele cărturarului Kirileanu; în: Adevărul de Seară, nr. 384, 9 nov.,     2009, p. 16.

- Cornel Galben. [G. T. Kirileanu.] Un destin aparte, în: Plumb, an VI, nr. 48, mart. 2011, p. 10.

- Adrian G. Romila. Despre G.T. Kirileanu; în: Dacia literară, an XXIV, 2013, nr. 5-6, pp. 117-118.

- Adrian G. Romila. Un veritabil martor al istoriei României; în: Convorbiri literare, an CXLVII, 2013, nr. 12, dec., pp. 103-105.

- Răzvan Voncu. G.T. Kirileanu par lui-même; în: România literară, an XLVI, 2014, nr. 5, 31 ian., p. 10.

- Vasile Spiridon. Mărturia lui G.T. Kirileanu (I); în: Convorbiri literare, an CXLVIII, 2014, nr. 8 (224), aug., pp. 89-91.

- Vasile Spiridon. Mărturia lui G.T. Kirileanu (II); în: Convorbiri literare, an CXLVIII, 2014, nr. 9 (225), sept., pp. 77-79.

- Vasile Spiridon. Ce se arată în afară; în: Ateneu, an 52, 2015, nr. 3, mart., p. 19.

- Adrian Dinu RACHIERU. Despre "tăcerile poeților"; în: Convorbiri literare, an CXLIX, 2015, nr. 7, iul., pp. 80-82.

- Tudor Nedelcea, Doi editori remarcabili – G.T. Kirileanu și C. Bostan; în: Flacăra lui Adrian Păunescu, an XV, 2015, nr. 35, p. 12.

- Nicolae BUSUIOC, Purtat  de "endemici fiori"; în: Cronica veche, an V, 2015, nr. 9 (56), sept., p. 8.

- Emilia Motoranu. Un poet solitar – Constantin Bostan; în: Sud, an XIX, 2015, nr. 9-10, sept.-oct., p. 5.

- Ioan Holban. Sindromul coliviei; în: Scriptor, an I, 2015, nr. 11-12, pp. 68-69.

- Adrian G. Romila.  Un puzzle de istorie literară; în: Convorbiri literare, an CL, 2016, nr. 3, mart., pp. 110-111.

- Adrian Rus. Trecute vieți de autori și cărți, ziare și reviste; în: Steaua, Cluj-Napoca, an 67, 2016, nr. 5, mai, p.54.

- Răzvan Ducan. Trecute vieți de autori și cărți, ziare și reviste. De la romantism la proletcultism de Constantin Bostan; în: Vatra veche, an VIII, 2016, nr. 8, aug., pp. 50-53.

- Răzvan Voncu. Ani tulburi; în: România literară, an XLVIII, 2016, nr. 45, 21 oct., p. 6.

- Ioan Holban. Un iubitor de anticării; în: Convorbiri literare, an. 150, 2016, nr. 11, nov., pp. 186-187.

- Dana Schipor. Istoria văzută prin ochii unui slujbaș regal. G.T. Kirileanu; în: Convorbiri literare, an CL, 2017, nr. 8, aug., pp. 115-117.

- Răzvan Voncu. Kirileanu în ani tulburi; în: România literară, an L, 2018, nr. 30-31, p. 6.

Note

Nașteri în 1944
Nașteri pe 7 noiembrie
Scriitori români contemporani

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
ProductDelight
Tecno Phones Specs and Price
Favour Ogbonna
Tecno Phones and Prices in Nigeria, specifications and where to buy the latest Tecno mobile devices.
The Tecno brand of smart phones is a typical example of growth and improvement. There was a time when Tecno phones where known to be just loud with not so good camera and video quality.
Well that is not the case anymore as the company has improved remarkably over the past few years and have released products that have wowed people with exciting and fascinating features.
Presently, they have a seat at the table of top phones in the country and are steadily showing that they do not wish to relinquish that position by keeping everyone on their toes with their creativity.
In addition to the strong quality and wonderful designs, Tecno phones are actually very affordable and not expensive, it therefore comes as no surprise that they enjoy so much patronage.
They provide high quality products that are long lasting and at cheap prices, talk about good value for your money.
Tecno Phones and Prices in Nigeria
Tecno Spark 4: 34,700 naira to 36,000 naira
Tecno Camon 15: 50,000 naira to 53,728 naira
Tecno Phantom 9: 75,000 naira to 77,500 naira
Tecno Camon 12 Pro: 50,000 naira to 60,000 naira
Tecno L9: 30,000 naira to 35,000 naira
Tecno k7 Spark: 40,000 naira to 45,000 naira
Tecno W3: 18,000 naira to 25,000 naira
Tecno CX: 48,000 naira to 53,000 naira
Tecno CX Air: 43,000 naira to 50,000 naira
We are going to discuss some of Tecno's newest and most sought after phones, their specifications, features and of course their prices.
The first Tecno phone we will be looking at is the Tecno Camon 11 Pro. The Tecno Camon 11 Pro was launched into the market the same as the Tecno Camon 11.
You could say the Tecno Camon 11 Pro is an upgraded version of the Tecno Camon 11, although the disparity is not that much as it is basically the same except in some areas which include the processor, camera quality and memory capacity.
While the memory capacity of the Tecno Camon 11 Pro is 6GB RAM & 64 GB in-built memory, the memory capacity of the Tecno Camon 11 is a 3/4GB RAM and 32GB/64GB in-built memory.
The in-built memory of the Tecno Camon 11 Pro doesn't just stop at that but it can be expanded by up to 256GB with a microSD. The smart phone has a 6.2 display and a camera quality of 16MP + 5MP back camera with a 24MP selfie camera. That is quite impressive.
The phone also features a fingerprint sensor, proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor and a G-Sensor. It is a really good smart phone that you will definitely enjoy.
Tecno Camon 11 Pro Price in Nigeria
Of course Tecno phones are known for being affordable, when you take all the features that the phone is packed with into consideration then you would have no doubt whatsoever as to how affordable it really is. That being said the Tecno Camon 11 Pro is sold for about 76,000 naira to 79,000 naira.
The next Tecno phone that we will be reviewing is the Tecno Camon 11. As usual this is a wonderful smart phone with a lot of features that will just leave you thrilled. The glossy body and the notch display will really have you hooked.
The smart phone features a 6.2-inch display with 19:9 screen aspect ratio which implies that you are in for a treat regarding the display of the screen as everything you do whether texting, watching videos, playing games and every other thing you'll need your phone screen for will be super clear and sharp.
An interesting feature enabled in the phone is the 3D AR emoji that has the ability to use the phone's face recognition feature and generate emojis to represent the facial expression that you have when you are looking at the phone.
The camera of the device is quite okay as the phone is equipped with a 13MP + 2MP Dual rear Camera and a 16MP selfie Camera. In terms of battery life it is fitted with a 3750 mAh, Li-Po non-removable battery that will really serve you well.
Tecno Phones and Prices for Camon 11
The Tecno Camon 11 comes in two models and these models have different price tags. The 3GB RAM/ 32GB model is sold for about 49,000 naira to 53,000 naira while the 4GB RAM/64GB model can be gotten for about 61,000 naira to 67,000 naira.
L9 Price
Moving on let us look at the Tecno L9. The Tecno L8 was a really great success and enjoyed a lot of patronage, Tecno really put the stakes high with this as any other one that they had to release after that had to be just great and when the Tecno L9 finally came along people were not disappointed at all.
Upon its launch the phone was a huge success and was accepted with open arms. The 4000 mAh non removable battery that the phone is equipped with is really great and enough to encourage someone to make the decision to go for it. It features a 8MP back camera and a 5MP front camera, a 1 GB RAM with a 16 GB internal memory, a 5.5 inches display and other amazing features.
Tecno L9 Price in Nigeria
Phone prices varies depending on some factors of which are the shop you are making the purchase from as well as your location. That being said the Tecno L9 can be gotten in SLOT for about 34,000 naira to 37,000 naira, at Jumia for 32,000 naira to 37,000 naira and at Konga for about 30,000 naira to 35,000 naira.
K7 Spark
The Tecno phone company really has a wide range of quality and interesting phones for you to choose from. There is a phone for every need and every pocket so all you need to do is select one that meets your needs and that you can afford and you are off for a wonderful smart phone experience.
When the Tecno K7 Spark was launched, a lot of people immediately went for it because it was cheap and the same time it offered high quality. In no time the phone became quite popular and has remained relevant in the smart phone market.
The Tecno K7 Spark comes with a 5.5-inch IPS touchscreen display,1GB/2GB RAM, a 3000 mAh non-removable battery with fast charging, a 13 MP back Camera and a 5 MP front camera, a 16GB internal memory as well as other features that will guarantee you won't regret purchasing the phone.
Tecno K7 Spark Price in Nigeria
The Tecno K7 Spark is readily available in all leading phone stores as well online stores. It can be purchased in Jumia for about 40, 000 naira to 45, 000 naira and in Konga for about the same price.
Tecno W5 is yet another one of Tecno's great successes. Despite the fact that the 5.5-inch phone has a small RAM which is just 1 GB, it makes up for it in other ways. It is quite easy to use, light weight and is fitted with a 3000 mAh non-removable battery with fast charging, has a 16GB internal memory that can be expanded up to 32GB with the help of a micro SD and runs with a 1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek 6753 CPU. The camera quality of the phone is also okay as the phone boasts of a 13 MP rear Camera and a 5 MP front camera for the selfie lovers.
Let's move on to the Tecno W3. The Tecno W3 was released into the market by Tecno when there was still a lot of noise about the Android 6.0 operating system and the fact that the phone features an Android 6.0 operating system was enough publicity and contributed a lot to the success of the launch.
The Tecno W3 was actually the third Tecno smart phone to feature an Android 6.0 operating system. Nevertheless, you should not have high expectations regarding the functionality of the phone as it's features cannot match the recent phones that have been released by Tecno over time.
Just consider it as a very good small phone and that can perform basic functions which include playing games, surfing the net, texting, messaging, calls etc. The device features a 5.0-inch display, 8 GB internal memory that can be expanded up to 32 GB with the help of a micro SD, a 5 MP main Camera with Dual Flash and a 2 MP selfie Camera with Flash and is equipped with a 2500 mAh non-removable battery.
Tecno Phones and Prices for W3
Tecno phones are already known to be very affordable and the Tecno W3 is not left out . It is priced in Jumia for about 18,000 naira to 25,000 naira and in Konga it is priced for about 20,000 naira to 23,000 naira.
When you think about simplicity and efficiency, think about the Tecno W4. The Tecno W4 was welcomed with open arms upon its release by Tecno. It is part of the W series and features an Android 6.0 operating system.
It is one of the Tecno phones that is still relevant in the smart phone market. The fact that the device comes with a 16GB internal memory capacity that can be expanded up to 32GB with the help of a micro SD is good to know.
The lovely phone boasts of a 8 MP back Camera and a 2 MP front camera, a 2500 mAh non-removable battery, 1GB RAM, and other amazing features that will make it worth your while.
Tecno Phones and Prices for W4 in Nigeria
The Tecno W4 can be purchased from Jumia for about 30, 000 naira to 35, 000 naira and from Konga for about 32, 000 naira to 39, 000 naira.
Let us talk about the Tecno Spark 2. It has a really beautiful design with good functionality and of course just like most of the Tecno phones that can be found in the market, is very affordable.
The Tecno Spark is among the spark series and although most Tecno phones are ahead of it in terms of features, it is still a reliable smart phone that will serve you well and give you a good smart phone experience.
The 5.0 device has a 1GB/2GB RAM and an internal memory capacity of 16 GB that can be increased by up to 32GB with a micro SD card as well as a 3500 mAh non-removable battery. The camera quality is okay, the phone features a 13 MP back camera and an 8 MP front camera.
Tecno Phones and Prices for Spark 2
The Tecno Spark is readily available in phone stores across the country as well as in different online stores. In SLOT the Tecno Spark 2 can be gotten for about 36,000 naira to 42, 000 naira, in Jumia for about 30,000 naira to 40, 000 naira and in Konga it is sold within the range of 32,000 naira and 40,000 naira.
After Tecno released the Tecno C9, people thought that Tecno was done with the C series as the C9 was so good that people thought it would be very difficult for the smart phone company to offer more.
Tecno on the other hand had more up their sleeves and wowed people when they announced that the launch of the Tecno CX.
True to their word the Tecno CX is a stunner and the Tecno fans were not disappointed at all. The Tecno CX definitely has a seat at the table of the best phones that Tecno has ever released.
The camera quality of the phone should be applauded as with the 16 MP main Camera with Dual Flash and the 16 MP selfie Camera with Flash there is no iota of doubt that your picture game will be taken to a whole new level and your pictures will be super clear and sharp.
The functionality of the phone is equally top notch. The device is really an all-rounder, it features a 3200 mAh non-removable battery, 2GB/3GB RAM and a 16GB internal memory that can be expanded up to 128GB with the aid of a micro SD card. The fact that if you purchase this phone you will definitely enjoy it is not an exaggeration in any way, Tecno really did well with this one.
Tecno Phones and Prices for CX
Tecno Cx is readily available and can be gotten in SLOT for about 48, 000 naira to 53, 000 naira, in Jumia it can be gotten for about 43,000 naira to 55,000 naira and in Konga it can be gotten for 43,000 naira to 55,000 naira.
CX Air
The Tecno CX Air is another wonderful phone from Tecno. It is quite similar to the Tecno C9 but the major distinction between the two devices is the processor. The Tecno CX Air runs on 1.25 GHz Quad-core MTK processor.
The phone equally boasts of a 13 MP main Camera with Dual LED Flash and a 13 MP selfie Camera with LED Flash, a 3200 mAh non-removable battery, 2GB RAM, 16GB internal memory capacity that can be expanded up to 128GB using a memory card and other amazing features that will guarantee a beautiful smart phone experience.
Tecno Phones and Prices for CX Air
The Tecno CX Air is affordable and is readily available in SLOT for about 44,000 naira to 45,000 naira, in JUMIA for about 43,000 naira to 50,000 naira, and in Konga it can be gotten for about 40,000 naira to 50,000 naira.
We cannot be done with our discussion about Tecno phones without mentioning the Tecno phantom 5. The device remains one of the Tecno phones that are in very high demand. It has a lot of amazing features which includes a 3000 mAh non-removable battery, a 13 MP main Camera with Dual Flash, an 8 MP selfie Camera with Flash, 3GB RAM and a 32 GB internal memory capacity that can be expanded up to 64 GB with the use of a memory card. You will definitely enjoy this lovely device, it is sleek and not difficult to use.
Do you hear people say things like my phone is a good phone but the only complain I have about it is the battery life ? Well that is not the case with the Tecno L5.
With the Tecno L5, you have no worries whatsoever regarding the battery life, the device is equipped with a 5000 mAh, non-removable battery so you are certain that your phone battery will serve you well.
This is yet another proof that Tecno remains one of the top brands that comes to mind whenever you talk about high functionality, durability and affordability. The lovely smart phone features a 1 GB RAM, 8 GB internal memory that can be expanded up to 32 GB with a microSD, 5 MP back camera with a 2 MP front camera amongst other amazing features.
OTHER PHONES IN NIGERIA
Wiko Phones
Tecno Phones and Prices is filed in Mobile Phones
Home » Mobile Phones » Tecno Phones Specs and Price
Apple iPhones Price and Specs
Ulefone Phones Price and Specifications
UmiDigi Phones Price and Specifications
Published : 4th December 2019 / Last Modified : 14th January 2021 by Favour Ogbonna
Major Content Writer and Co-editor for ProductDelight.com
Categories: Mobile Phones


Family Tapestry, the Children's Shelters newest division, has been named the lead agency of Texas welfare services by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (TXDFPS). The Family Tapestry contract will focus its approach on community-based care, rather than a state oriented foster care system, and will work as the Bexar County's single private contractor when finding placements for youth.
Family Tapestry wants to dramatically change how the foster care system is approached in Bexar County. Some of the goals the agency plans to achieve are addressing underlying trauma caused by neglect or abuse, and keeping those placed in the foster care system close to their communities, friends, and families. Rodriguez goes on to say "My goal and my hope is children will leave the foster care system under this new model feeling like we added value to their lives." Those working in the field are optimistic that this model will help more foster youth overcome challenges and stay on the road to success.
In a city where 15.9% of young people (approximately 1 in 6) are considered "disengaged" – meaning they are neither working nor going to school – Children's Shelter hopes Family Tapestry's shift in focus and localized support will give foster youth an opportunity to stay positively engaged in their communities – an effort that Healthy Futures of Texas can stand behind.
Is "Swiping Right" Affecting Mental Health?


ORLANDO, FL – January 24, 2019 – GrayRobinson attorneys William A. Boyles, John R. Kancilia, Heather M. Ramos and Paul S. Quinn, Jr. are featured in the Brevard Business News article, "Four GrayRobinson Attorneys Successfully Assist in Negotiating of Potential 75-year Ground Lease." The article spotlights the team's recent success in assisting the Indian River County Hospital District trustees in negotiating a potential 75–year amended and restated ground–lease agreement concerning the Indian River Medical Center (IRMC). The negotiation includes related agreements as part of a larger transaction resulting in IRMC becoming affiliated with The Cleveland Clinic Foundation, the No. 2–ranked health-care system in the United States. The transaction is expected to have far–reaching impacts to the Vero Beach and Indian River County communities for many years to come. To read the full article click here.