Journal articles on the topic 'Africa-Europe scientific cooperation'

The three volumes reviewed in this essay assemble over 40 case studies written by more than 50 contributors that trace the development of the social sciences and humanities in Europe (East and West) and a number of countries in Latin America, North Africa, and East Asia. Two of these volumes grew out of the European research project ‘International Cooperation in the Social Sciences and Humanities’ (INTERCO-SSH); the third volume extends the focus of this project to Eastern Europe. A particularly innovative aspect shared by all contributions is the application of a transnational research perspective.

The authors study the cooperation between China and the African Union during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic within the Forum on China-Africa cooperation, and consider the peculiarities of relations between China and the African continent. The article studies China’s regional interests before and during the pandemic. Using the analysis of China’s humanitarian work in Africa and its comparison with the assistance of the U.S., Europe, and Russia, the authors detect the obvious interest of Beijing in the cooperation with the countries of the continent, and its urge to press the U.S.’s hegemony in Africa and strengthen China’s positions in the region through cooperation within the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation bypassing other global actors. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the analysis of cooperation between Beijing and the African continent in the context of the Forum on China-Africa in the coronavirus period. In the pre-COVID epoch, China’s activities in Africa, its political, economic and imperial ambitions have been actively studied; the economic, political and military perversion of China through the Forum on China-Africa, ASEAN, the Asia-Pacific Region and China’s initiatives like “One belt and one road” have been studied thoroughly. However, the assessment of the COVID period has become possible only recently when the results of new cooperation concepts became visible. The authors formulate the following conclusions. The effectiveness of cooperation between China and Africa in the period of the COVID-19 pandemic is still high and is further deepening. The Forum on China-Africa, in which each country of the African Union is represented and has a voting right on the equal basis with other member-states, plays a significant role in cooperation strengthening. The authors believe that it is early days yet to speak about China’ supremacy over the U.S. and Europe in Africa, but Beijing is moving in this direction.   

Interest has grown in the role of diaspora in advancing higher education and scientific research as academic mobility continues to generate more transnational communities a with high educational profile. The academic literature is picking up on how diasporas and their organisations facilitate academic and research collaboration between institutions in their ‘host’ and ‘home’ countries. However, this discourse largely focuses on those residing in industrialised countries, particularly Europe and North America. There is limited research on the diasporic relationship between and within regions in the Global South, and even less on diaspora mediated academic collaboration between Africa, Asia and Latin America. Against this backdrop, this article explores the role of diaspora in academic and scientific collaboration within and between these regions. It highlights some historical and contemporary migratory relations between them, along with student mobility as a means of formation of academic diaspora. The article argues that, among other things, the limited academic collaboration between countries of the Global South can be attributed to structural issues such as inequality in the geopolitics of knowledge and the characteristics of migrant communities. It also suggests possible future scenarios including trends in migration and the potential to foster scientific collaboration.

Disaster reduction and prevention have become urgent issues worldwide. Disaster education is an effective way to deal with frequent global disaster risks, carry out disaster prevention and relief measures in a timely manner, and reduce disaster losses. Based on the Web of Science database, using bibliometrics and network analysis methods based on scientific knowledge graphs, we conducted a visual analysis of global disaster education research trends from the perspectives of national cooperation spatial distribution, research hotspot mining, hybrid network analysis, and institutional cooperation spatial distribution of disaster education. The following conclusions were drawn. (1) The spatial distribution of disaster education research is uneven: it is clustered in Europe, evenly distributed in Asia and Africa, and scattered in North America and Oceania. Moreover, the United States in North America, China and Japan in Asia, and Australia in Oceania have the largest number of articles. (2) The field of disaster education focuses mainly on the themes of education, disaster nursing, disaster risk and reduction, disaster awareness, and earthquakes. The general trend of research hotspots is disaster risk >> disaster preparedness >> disaster nurse >> disaster awareness >> disaster risk and reduction, realizing the great transformation from disaster rescue to disaster preparedness and then to disaster prevention awareness. (3) A hybrid network of keywords and countries revealed the research focus of various countries in the field of disaster education, and a hybrid network of keywords and categories showed that the research on disaster education primarily focuses on the disciplines of environment, nursing, geography, geology, atmosphere, ecology, and psychology. On this basis, the breadth and depth of the disaster education system should be further improved. (4) The spatial layout of disaster education research institutions showed a clustered distribution of research institutions in North America and Europe, even distribution in some regions in Asia, and sporadic distribution in Africa and Oceania. In-depth cooperation among institutions should be strengthened, the degree of attention paid to disaster education should be increased, and external cooperation should be actively carried out to improve the level of disaster education, particularly in Africa and Asia.

Introduction Schizophrenia affects people worldwide. In Europe, the advantages of second-generation and long-acting injectable antipsychotics (SG-LAIs) are known and used, supported by scientific evidence. However, somewhere there is limited evidence on this topic.ObjectivesHighlight the improvements in antipsychotic treatment and raise awareness of the scar between Europe and Africa, showing the results of the evidence with a case of cooperation with Cameroon.MethodsAbout a case of a 42-year-old Cameroonian woman with 25 years of schizophrenia, treated with first-generation antipsychotic polypharmacy (APP) oral and depot, with several psychotic relapses, disorganized behaviors, motor and cognitive impairment and isolation (telemedicine consultation received through a NGO platform).A search on PubMed was performed, selecting two systematic reviews including “antipsychotic” AND “Africa”, one systematic review for SGAs and four reviews for LAIs.ResultsSeven articles were reviewed, finding that APP use is highly prevalent in Africa with a lack of research on this, SGAs show an improved safety and tolerability profile and LAIs are among the most effective treatments in psychiatry improving adherence and overall patient outcomes.In our case, we recommend progressively adjusting treatment to SG-LAI monotherapy, visiting the patient six months later in Cameroon, observing sustained stability of positive symptoms with an improvement of negative symptoms and good adherence and tolerability to treatment without extrapyramidal effects.ConclusionsOur case is an example of the evidence that supports the improvement that SG-LAIs represent in psychiatric treatment and how international cooperation can help bridge the gap between Africa and Europe. Nevertheless, more research is needed to build bridges.Disclosure of InterestNone Declared

Purpose – The purpose of the present paper is to describe a web-based consensus-finding procedure, resulting in an agreement among the group of participants representing global stakeholders regarding the interdisciplinary topic in a university master's seminar on “Global Studies”. The result of the collectively elaborated solution pertains to the forward-looking and jointly agreed topic of migration policies. Design/methodology/approach – The core part of the web-based negotiation game “Surfing Global Change” utilised here is a controversial group discussion. A subsequent step creates an agreement among discussants. The group of participants, in this case co-authors of this paper, developed a final agreement on possible future political adaptations and guidelines to improve current standards in the global management of refugee and migration issues. Findings – The findings offer several political possibilities for European and African states including structural recommendations as well as cooperative development policies. Social implications – The result is a catalogue of tentative recommendations to improve international policies relating to current migration problems, here focused on migration between Africa and Europe. Originality/value – Considering the creativity of the entire procedural structure combined with an ordered scientific methodology, the outcome could promise an interdisciplinary result. Effects of group dynamics, cooperation, scientific research and diplomacy are integrated into consensus building.

There is an urgent need to study in Europe the plant exposure to mycotoxin risk due to the identification of new toxigenic species, the continuous evolution of species profile on the food crops and climate changes that influence the quality of level of toxigenic fungi colonization of plant hosts. In particular, Fusarium and Aspergillus problem in Europe has enormous importance; recent epidemics in wheat in some areas of Northern and Central Europe and in grape in southern Europe have brought this problem into focus again. This concern has driven many efforts at EU level aimed to harmonize strategies for mycotoxinreduction in food and feed chain. This is the target of a large collaborative project of four-year duration (MYCORED as acronym), that was approved within the European FP7- Food, Agriculture, and Biotechnologies Work Programmes (www.mycored.eu). MYCORED aims to develop strategic solutions for reducing mycotoxin contamination in major crops. Novel methodologies, efficient handling procedures and information/dissemination, and educational strategies are considered in a context of multidisciplinary integration of know-how and technology to reduce mycotoxin exposure worldwide. The direct involvement of ICPC countries (Argentina, Egypt, Russia, South Africa) and international organizations (CIMMYT, IITA) together with strong scientific alliances with international experts and national and international societies for mycotoxicology is a strong point of the project through sharing experiences and resources from several past/ongoing mycotoxin projects in a global context. Similarly, the International Society for Mycotoxicology (ISM) (http://www.mycotoxsociety. org) aims at increasing scientific knowledge concerning biology, chemistry and any sciences/disciplines related to mycotoxins and toxigenic fungi, through membership networking, scientific meetings, symposia, discussions, technical courses and publications. In this context, it would be extremely important that MYCORED and ISM develop a network of cooperation-interaction with the whole scientific community in order to contribute to the efforts for harmonizing both research and legislation on mycotoxins.

Russia’s full-scaled invasion to Ukraine on the 24th of February 2022, which is still on, has become a new challenge for a modern world and has caused more problems to regional and global development as well as provoked colossal forced migration flows of Ukrainian citizens. The migration that according to researchers has no analogues and significantly surpasses all the previous ones. A massive influx of refugees from Ukraine added significant problems to migrant’s crisis of Europe, that was which was caused by the previous colossal influx of migrants from the Middle East and Africa, complicating its humanitarian component. The relevance of the study of these processes is constantly growing and proves that migration is not only a social, political, but also a scientific problem, which requires a significant consolidation of the forces of the scientific community in order to solve the problems caused by these processes. The subject of analysis of this work is the forced migration of Ukrainian citizens and its consequences, provoked precisely by the Russian-Ukrainian war. The article analyzes the theoretical surveys of Ukrainian researchers in the study of Ukrainian emigration to Europe. Its features are determined in comparison with other types of migration. The problems of linguistic, value-cultural, psychological and social adaptation are outlined on the basis of the analysis of the results of sociological surveys and numerous examples of the return of migrants to Ukraine. An analysis of multilateral humanitarian assistance to refugees and the main directions of the EU policy regarding the regulation of migration flows from February 2022 to the summer of 2023 was carried out. A large number of documents that formed the normative and legal basis of the EU migration policy in relation to Ukrainian refugees, as well as cooperation with various institutions of Ukraine, were developed. Different aspects of the consequences of forced migration for Ukraine are defined.

The EDCTP community meets biennially to share research findings, plan new partnerships and collaborations, and discuss maximising impact from EDCTP-funded research. In 2018, the Ninth EDCTP Forum took place in Lisbon, Portugal, from 17–21 September 2018. The Lisbon meeting was the largest international conference focusing on clinical research on poverty-related infectious diseases in sub-Saharan Africa. It started with a strong commitment, from European and African EDCTP member countries, for a successor programme to EDCTP2 (2014–2024). It provided a platform for the presentation of project results and discussion of progress in clinical research and capacity strengthening in sub-Saharan Africa.The theme of the Ninth Forum was ‘Clinical research and sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa: the impact of North-South partnerships’. This reflected not only the broader scope of a larger EDCTP research programme but also the growing awareness of the need for global cooperation to prepare for public health emergencies and strengthen health systems. The theme highlighted the impact of Europe-Africa partnerships supporting clinical research and the clinical research environment, towards achieving the sustainable development goals in sub-Saharan Africa.A central topic of the Forum was the discussion of the character and scope of an EDCTP successor programme, which should start in 2021 under the next European Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon Europe. On 17 September, a high-level meeting on this topic took place immediately before the opening of the Forum1. On 19 September, the plenary session continued this discussion through a panel of representatives of strategic partners. There was consensus on the added value of the programme for Europe and the countries in sub-Saharan Africa and political commitment to a successor programme. Poverty-related infectious diseases and a partnership approach will remain central to the programme. There was also a general awareness that all participating countries would need to engage more strongly with a successor programme, both in its governance and in their financial contributions to its objectives.The Forum hosted 550 participants from more than 50’countries. The programme consisted of keynote addresses by policy makers, research leaders, and prominent speakers from Europe and Africa in 5 plenary presentations. There were 9 symposia, 45 oral presentations in parallel sessions, and 74 electronic poster presentations. Abstracts of the plenary, oral and poster presentations are published in this supplement to BMJ Global Health.EDCTP is proud of its contribution to strengthening clinical research capacity in Africa, with more than 400 postgraduate students and 56 EDCTP fellows supported under the first EDCTP programme. The second programme developed a comprehensive fellowship scheme. More than 100 EDCTP fellows (former and current) participated in a one-day pre-conference to discuss the further development of our Alumni Network launched in 2017. The Forum also offered scholarships to many early and mid-career researchers from sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. With the support of the European Union, EDCTP member countries and sponsors, they were able to present results of their studies and meet colleagues from Africa and Europe.The Forum also provided the appropriate platform for recognising individual and team achievements through the four EDCTP 2018 Prizes. With the support of the European Union, EDCTP recognised outstanding individuals and research teams from Africa and Europe. In addition to their scientific excellence, the awardees made major contributions to the EDCTP objectives of clinical research capacity development in Africa and establishing research networks between North and South as well as within sub-Saharan Africa.Dr Pascoal Mocumbi Prize Professor Souleyman Mboup (Professor of Microbiology, University of Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar; Head of the Bacteriology-Virology Laboratory of CHU Le Dantec, Dakar; and President of IRESSEF, Senegal) was recognised for his outstanding achievements in advancing health research and capacity development in Africa.Outstanding Research Team Prize The prize was awarded to the team of the CHAPAS (Children with HIV in Africa – Pharmacokinetics and acceptability of simple antiretroviral regimens) studies, led by Professor Diana Gibb (MRC Clinical Trials Unit, United Kingdom).Outstanding Female Scientist Prize The prize was awarded to Professor Gita Ramjee (Chief Specialist Scientist and Director of the HIV Prevention Research Unit of the South African Medical Research Council, Durban, South Africa) for her outstanding contributions to her field.Scientific Leadership Prize The prize was awarded to Professor Keertan Dheda (Head of the Centre for Lung Infection and Immunity and Head of the Division of Pulmonology at Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town, South Africa) for his research contributions and leadership.Partnership is at the core of the EDCTP mission. In the year before the Forum, Nigeria and Ethiopia were welcomed as the newest member countries of the EDCTP Association, while Angola became an aspirant member. Partnership was also demonstrated by the many stakeholders who enriched the programme by organising scientific symposia, collaborative sessions and workshops. We thank our sponsors Novartis, Merck, the European Union, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Germany), the Institute of Health Carlos III (Spain), the National Alliance for Life Sciences and Health (France), the Medical Research Council (United Kingdom), the Swedish International Development Agency (Sweden), ClinaPharm (African CRO), the Deutsche Stiftung Weltbevölkerung (Germany), The Global Health Network (United Kingdom), PATH, and ScreenTB. We gratefully acknowledge the support of our partners and hosts of the Forum, the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.The tenth EDCTP Forum will take place in sub-Saharan Africa in 2020.

In recent years, the situation with the Russian language presence in the CIS and foreign countries has changed. Statesmen of range of former Soviet republics in their plans to involve schoolchildren and students in further development of relations with Russia and encourage the use, the Russian language in their work, consider the possibility of the labor market expansion, closer cooperation in the sphere of education in Russian largest universities, and of science partnership with Russian scientific institutions. Europe, Asia and Africa face an increase in interest in the studying of the Russian language. Homever, its position declines in some countries, for example in Germany. Russian was a compulsory course in public schools of former socialist countries till 1990, but after the collapse of the socialist system, their governments abandoned this practice. But in recent years Russian language is gaining popularity among students, for example, in Poland and the Czech Republic. The Chinese, South Koreans and the Indian people also show interest in studying Russian language, literature and culture. En Africa Russian is spoken by the graduates of Russian universities and people who worked with Russian partners. Due to positive changes in the Russian economy, its business relations with foreign partners, and the need to communicate in Russian when working together, there is some increase in the number of foreigners who choose to study the Russian language. En addition, this is often associated with the desire to learn Russian language in order to embrace national Russian values.

The main purpose of the article is to review the most complete and holistic scientific works of Russian authors which are devoted to the study of Italian-Libyan relations. To carry out the research a broad historiographic base on the topic was involved, the author turned to both the “classic” works of Soviet scientists, and to the most modern scientific figures. One of the main tasks in the study of the topic is to identify the historiographic issues associated with the lack of modern Russian scientific literature on the referred theme. The article analyzes the specific features of the literature published from the end of the 20th to the beginning of the 21st century in Russia, highlighting the issue of interaction between two countries in different spheres of international relations. The methodological basis of the work is the issue-chronological and complex analysis of the used literature, the establishment of the cause-effect relationships and patterns in the Russian authors approaches to their research, as well as their interpretation for the current stage of development of relations between the two countries. During research it was revealed that most of the scientific works of our compatriots are devoted to a certain, rather narrow, range of issues: the Italian–Turkish war of 1911–1912, cooperation between Libya and Italy in the control of illegal migration from Africa to Europe, Italian military intervention in the civil war in Libya 2011. At the same time, not many Russian authors cover and analyze the Italian-Libyan cooperation in the politi- cal, cultural, social, and economic fields during the long-term period of Colonel Gaddafi’s rule in Libya. In this regard, the author of the article notes that there is a great amount of historical data: the diplomatic documents, resolutions, offi- cial letters of top public executives, treaties and agreements between the coun- tries, including documents of international organizations that are not studied at present sufficiently. The article identifies the most perspective areas for further research of Italian-Libyan relations, what emphasizes the importance and relevance of the chosen topic. The author comes to a conclusion that at the moment it seems quite difficult to find a well-founded, comprehensive scientific literature designed to determine the nature and options for the development of relations between Libya and Italy at the modern stage.

Significant economic and social differences in the living and working conditions of men and women, structural changes in society actualize the need to research the prerequisites and consequences of the existence of gender inequality in the country. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the causes and nature of gender inequality in the long term. The object of the research is the sphere of education and science of certain countries of Europe and America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. The main hypothesis of the study is the assumption of a relationship between gender inequality in the field of education and indicators of the country’s social development (Human Development Index and level of education). Methodological tools of the conducted research are methods of trend and structural analysis. The information base of the research is data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the World Economic Forum, and the United Nations, the research period is 1950-2021. The results of the analysis of the Gender Equality Index during 1950-2000 in terms of its four dimensions (health, socio-economic resources, gender disparity in households and gender disparity in politics) proved the presence of a significant gender gap in some countries of the world: the countries of Eastern and Western Europe are more developed compared to other regions of the world (South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and North Africa). According to the results of empirical calculations, the dependence between the level of human development and gender inequality has been proven: the higher the level of human development of the country, the lower the inequality in education. The study of gender inequality in the field of scientific research was carried out based on the analysis of publications in 50 international journals, book collections of Bengal Economic Association, Indian Economic Association and other professors of reputed institutions in India and abroad. Based on the results of the analysis, it was concluded that the publishing activity of women is lower than that of men: only 22.07% of publications in national and international journals, 23.65% of volumes of book collections and 27.90% of book chapters were published by women. The reasons for the low activity of women in the field of scientific research include: low opportunities for visiting the sites of scientific research institutions, field surveys or laboratory work; limited opportunities for training and advanced training at seminars and classes; lack of time to carry out research activities; discrimination based on personal interests and gender bias; much less interest in regular research due to social, psychological and physical reasons; excessive family load, etc.

Abstract. In 2022, under on behalf of the European Respiratory Society (ERS), after two years of experience in holding online events, the first official ERS hybrid Congress took place. Barcelona hosted the traditional format of face-to-face sessions and events, with a parallel high-quality online option for those unable to attend in person. In 2022, ERS expressed support for the Ukrainian people in connection with the aggression of russia and decided to suspend partnership with russian national societies. The aim: to analyze abstracts of scientific works on phthysiology and pulmonology that were presented by Ukrainian scientists at the ERS International Congress 2022. Materials and methods. The data regarding the abstracts of scientific reports were obtained from the Congress website and the online program of the personal account of an ERS member, doctor of medical sciences, professor Galyna Gumeniuk. Results. Ukranian scientists presented at the Congress 67 abstracts of scientific reports on various problems of pulmonology (63 papers) and phthisiology (4 papers). The largest number of Ukrainian works (24) dealt with the problems of COVID-19, 17 � chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, three were on bronchial asthma. A distinctive feature of this year was the close cooperation of Ukrainian pulmonologists with colleagues from Europe, North and South America and Africa. Conclusions. 1,9 % (67 of 3 453) of all scientific works presented at the Congress of the European Respiratory Society are owned by Ukrainian scientists. The main directions of scientific developments in respiratory medicine in Ukraine are issues of COVID-19 and broncho-obstructive pulmonary diseases. The most active participation in the event were taken by the scientists from the Dnipro State Medical University, National institute of phthisiology and pulmonology named after F.G. Yanovsky National Academy of medical sciences of Ukraine, Vinnytsya National Pirogov Memorial Medical University, and Kharkiv national medical university. Key words: ERS International Congress, Ukrainian scientists� research, russia�s war against Ukraine.

The article is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the south-eastern Ukraine – Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University. The achievements and contribution of LNU in the fields of pedagogy, history, geography, philology and linguistics, physics and mathematics, and Olympic sports are widely known in Ukraine and abroad. At the level of the best achievements there are also achievements of Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University in the field of economic science, which is shown by the example of the modern department of economics, marketing and entrepreneurship. The author makes an attempt to establish historical justice in the history of world economics: to prove the unsurpassed importance of the developments of the former head of the department Vasily Antonovich Bader. In the late 1960 s, in parallel with the world-famous Ota Šik, in the context of the theory of "market socialism" he substantiated the doom and disintegration of the socialist economic system and its transformation into a market economy (much later, under other economic and socio-political conditions, Deng Xiaoping, the father of the "Opening of China", came to similar views). At the beginning of the 2000s, for the first time in Ukraine and Central and Eastern Europe, the department introduced a process of organizational and economic combination of research and educational activities – the establishment of a branch of the Institute of Industrial Economics of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine at the Luhansk Taras Shevchenko National University. With the beginning of the war in Donbass, the department became the first and only in Ukraine, on the basis of which was established a communication and consulting support center for leading international charitable organizations in Luhansk and Donetsk regions. The department has developed one of the first in Ukraine concepts of "Marshall Plan" for the Revival of the Donbas". The academic mobility experience of the department gained via the Visiting Professor program in teaching professional disciplines in Poland to students from the European Union, Asia and Africa under the ERASMUS+ Program is unique. Innovative are the practices of participation in the most prestigious European scientific and practical research projects, encouragement on a regular basis to the domestic educational process of leading entrepreneurs, teaching disciplines of free choice in English and cooperation with public authorities.

With global warming, the continuous increase of carbon emissions has become a hot topic of global concern. This study took 95 countries around the world as the research object, using the Gini coefficient, spatial autocorrelation, spatial econometric model and other methods to explore temporal and spatial evolution, and spatial agglomeration characteristics from 2009 to 2018. The results are as follows: First, global carbon emission efficiency (CEE) showed an overall upward trend, and the average value fluctuated from 0.3051 in 2009 to 0.3528 in 2018, with an average annual growth rate of 1.63%. Spatially, the areas with higher CEE are mainly located in Western Europe, East Asia, and North America, and the areas with lower values are mainly located in the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa. Second, the Gini coefficient increased from 0.7941 to 0.8094, and regional differences showed a gradually expanding trend. The Moran’s I value decreased from 0.2389 to 0.1860, showing a positive fluctuation characteristic. Third, judging from the overall sample and the classified sample, the correlations between the influencing factors and CEE were different in different regions. Scientific and technological innovation, foreign direct investment and CEE in all continents are significantly positively correlated while industrial structure is significantly negatively correlated, and urbanization, economic development level, and informatization show obvious heterogeneity. The research is aimed at strengthening exchanges and cooperation between countries, adjusting industrial structure; implementing emission reduction policies according to local conditions; and providing guidance and reference for improving CEE and mitigating climate change.

This study aims to investigate the most successful educational systems worldwide and the Moroccan educational system to determine the causes constraining the socio-educational development in Morocco. This comparative study relies on a qualitative methodology based on an inductive approach called the empirical-inductive approach, which starts from facts and real and observable data. This scientific method allowed us to identify our subject in terms of the best-performing educational system. The sample includes one or two educational systems from five continents: Africa (Morocco), America (Canada and the United States), Asia (Japan), Europe (France and Finland), and Oceania (Australia) through the comparison of the most common criteria between each country mentioned: the school system (cycles), teacher training, the number of hours a teacher works, teacher salaries and the number of students per class. This study provides a clear picture of the most successful education system that has been able to manage the masses and reveals the secret of its successful educational management policies. It is the Canadian education system that is a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) according to the Program for International Student Assessment with an OECD average of 520 (score above the OECD average of 487), and Morocco is in 75th place about four steps from the last with an OECD average of 359 (score well below the OECD average 487). The above is more than a reason to be inspired by the education system of this leading country in the field, which would lead to better results in terms of structural transformation, inclusive development, and efficient management of Moroccan education networks in the coming days.

The People’s Republic of China is increasing its influence around the world every day. It’s hard not to notice the aggressive economic expansion being carried out by China in the Asian region. Chinese presence is felt in Africa, South America and even in Europe. By engaging in a trade war with the United States, China thereby challenged the most influential economy in the world, which is confirmed by its ambitions as a world leader. To meet these ambitions, a powerful transport and logistics support is necessary, which gave rise to the “Belts and Ways” initiative. The initiative “One Belt - One Road” combines two projects: “The Economic Belt of the Silk Road” and “The Sea Silk Road of the XXI Century”. This means that, in addition to the traditional land routes of the Silk Road, Beijing is exploring the sea routes along the African continent and in the Pacific Ocean. Since the initiative does not have a clear strategy, the northern routes that have recently become relevant are also considered by the Chinese authorities.The search for an alternative to the Suez Canal has repeatedly prompted researchers to use the Northern Sea Route as a trading artery linking Europe and Asia, but climatic conditions and technical capabilities did not allow this idea to be realized. The current situation in the Arctic region allows us to talk about new development prospects.China is actively interested in the Arctic: since 2013, it has an observer status in the Arctic Council, has been increasing its presence in the region by organizing scientific expeditions, building icebreakers, introducing its own brand “Northern Silk Road”, and also investing in projects like “Yamal LNG». China outlined its presence in the Arctic region in a white paper published in January 2018. One of the main goals that Beijing sets for itself is multilateral cooperation in the development of the Northern Sea Route.The author of the article analyzes the origins of such interest, as well as possible threats to Russia. The study also examines the position of European partners in the participation of the development of the SMP, bilateral relations with the Chinese side and the ratio of the strategy of the European Union, China and Russia in the High North. The author gives a geopolitical rationale for Chinese initiatives that are aimed at creating the conditions for intensive navigation in the northern areas.

This special issue contains selected papers presented at the Second International Conference on Numerical Analysis and Optimization: Theory, Methods, Applications and Technology Transfer (NAOII2011) held during the period January 3-6, 2011 at Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), Muscat, Oman. The conference was sponsored by SQU, The Research Council (TRC) of Oman, The International Center for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) of Italy, Microsoft (Middle East and Africa Division); and the local sponsors the British Council (Oman), Bank Muscat, the Al-Anan Press, and Al-Roya Newspaper.Following on from the success of the previous conference on Numerical Analysis and Optimization (NAO2008) also held at SQU during the period April 6-8, 2008, the second conference brought again together prominent mathematicians, worldwide experts and active researchers from Oman, USA, South America, UK, Europe, Asia and Arab countries to meet at SQU. It was a great opportunity for researchers to share knowledge and to stimulate the communication of new ideas, scientific exchange and to discuss possibilities of further cooperation, networking and mobility of senior and young researchers and research students. NAOII2011 was inaugurated by HE Dr. Hilal bin Ali Al-Hinai, the Secretary General of TRC and HE Dr. Ali bin Saud Bemani, the Vice Chancellor of SQU. Fourteen world leading researchers gave keynote lectures in fourteen Technical Sessions of the conference. In total, fourty international participants gave contributed talks. More information is available at: http://www.squ.edu.om/Portals/87/Conference/Conference2011/index.htm.Twenty of the conference papers were selected for two special issues 17(1) and 17(2) of the SQU Journal for Science highlighting the two themes of the conference Numerical Optimization and Numerical Analysis; eleven papers were selected for issue 17(1) on Numerical Optimization, and nine papers were selected for issue 17(2) on Numerical Analysis. We wish to express our gratitude to all contributors. We are also indebted to many anonymous referees for the care taken in reviewing the papers submitted for publication.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) aims to enhance connectivity and collaboration among 60 countries and beyond in Asia, Africa and Europe. Information and communications technology (ICT) is an indispensable component of the initiative, critical in providing fundamental communication channels for global financial transactions, trade exchanges and transport and energy connectivity, and socio cultural collaboration and scientific exchanges between people, organizations and countries along the BRI corridors. Previously constrained by infrastructure deficits in ICT, the Asia-Pacific region is accelerating its efforts to provide reliable and affordable broadband networks throughout the region, to contribute to successful implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).Within the BRI corridors, this study which has been undertaken as part of the research programme of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) on promoting regional economic cooperation and integration, focuses on the China-Central Asia Corridor (China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), giving attention to the sub-region’s specific challenges, namely limited international transit opportunities and an increase in bandwidth requirements that is expected to grow exponentially, as the fourth industrial evolution centered on automation and artificial intelligence gathers momentum. The sub-region is characterized as highly dependent on the ease and costs of connecting to neighboring countries for transit, as many countries in the sub-region are landlocked developing countries (LLDC). Because of the geographical features and other factors, the development potential of Central Asia and its integration into globalization, continues to be stymied by insufficient international bandwidth and high transit costs to access international links. Therefore, improved ICT connectivity in Central Asia through the BRI corridor could result in improved availability and affordability of broadband networks and services in the sub-region.For the purpose of this study, a gap analysis is the methodology that underpins the proposed topology for the China-Central Asia Corridor. The analysis included examining the current state of the optic infrastructure, such as existing and planned fiber-optic networks, existing Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) and international gateways. The study also identifies the key factors that determine the desired future state of infrastructure deployment for the BRI initiative. A topology that consists of connecting Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Urumqi (China), as core nodes, is proposed based on a partial mesh topology. Over and above this core finding, the study concludes that digital infrastructure connectivity has a tendency of lagging behind the rapid opportunities evolving, and the study therefore advocates for sub-regional and regional approaches, including the BRI and Asia-Pacific Information Superhighway (AP-IS) in further expanding regional broadband networks. A key recommendation of the study is co-deployment of broadband infrastructure along passive infrastructure, as an additional cost effective means of achieving fast and affordable broadband connectivity for all.

The purpose of the article is to present effective anti-crisis management measures to bring enterprises out of the crisis situation and improve their financial and economic security. The subject of this study is the financial and economic security of an enterprise during a crisis. Methodology. Using the historical and comparative methods, the author analyzes the events of recent years and analyzes the impact of external factors on the formation of the crisis state of an enterprise. The economic and statistical method made it possible to analyze the scale of damage caused by the Russian Federation to the state of Ukraine during almost nine years of active hostilities in violation of such principles of international law as the principle of non-use of force or threat of force; the principle of sovereign equality of states; the principle of equality and self-determination of peoples; the principle of peaceful settlement of international disputes; the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of states; the principle of peaceful cooperation; the principle of fulfilling international obligations in good faith; the principle of inviolability of borders; the principle of territorial integrity of states; the principle of universal respect and protection of human rights; and to see what level of crisis the terrorist state of the Russian Federation has spread in the largest country of the European Union, namely Ukraine. Using the philosophical dialectical method, the author analyzes the very phenomenon of crisis in the broad sense of the word and finds a way to respond to the challenges of the crisis. Results. This study assesses the benefits that have contributed to the development of economic relations with countries in Africa, Asia, and Europe. The losses suffered by the Ukrainian economic system due to the destructive processes of the crisis are analyzed. The author examines the peace formula approved by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which provides for the implementation of measures aimed at shaping peace in the European space and correcting the mistakes made by officials of the terrorist state of the Russian Federation, which led to terrible consequences; the author analyzes the achievements of this peace formula and determines how much benefit and lives it has already brought. The practical significance lies in the definition of reorganization as one of the best anti-crisis management measures that can bring an enterprise out of a crisis. In particular, attention is drawn to the effectiveness of rehabilitation measures that can restore the solvency of an enterprise. In turn, taking into account the established practice of attracting investment capital as a means of improving the economic activity of an enterprise, the author analyzes the risks of losing property and non-property assets in the event of adverse conditions and proposes to create a mechanism for investment guarantees, which consist in preserving assets by the investor in the event of adverse market fluctuations. The scientific novelty lies in the proposal to amend the current legislation to guarantee the safety of the rehabilitation procedure to the investor by mitigating the risk of loss of invested assets in restoring the enterprise's solvency.

Abstract. During many past decades, scientists from various countries have studied separately the atmospheric motions in the lower atmosphere, in the Earth's magnetic field, in the magnetospheric currents, etc. All of these separate studies lead today to the global study of the Sun and Earth connections, and as a consequence, new scientific programs (IHY- International Heliophysical Year, CAWSES- Climate and Weather in the Sun-Earth System) are defined, in order to assume this new challenge. In the past, many scientists did not have the possibility to collect data at the same time in the various latitude and longitude sectors. Now, with the progress of geophysical sciences in many developing countries, it is possible to have access to worldwide data sets. This paper presents the particularities of geophysical parameters measured by the Vietnamese instrument networks. It introduces a cooperative Vietnamese-IGRGEA (International Geophysical Research Group Europe Africa) project, and presents, for the first time, to the international community, the geophysical context of Vietnam. Concerning the ionosphere: since 1963, during four solar cycles, the ionosonde at Phu Thuy (North Vietnam) was operating. The Phu Thuy data exhibits the common features for the ionospheric parameters, previously observed in other longitude and latitude sectors. The critical frequencies of the E, F1 and F2 ionospheric layers follow the variation of the sunspot cycle. F2 and E critical frequencies also exhibit an annual variation. The first maps of TEC made with data from GPS receivers recently installed in Vietnam illustrate the regional equatorial pattern, i.e. two maxima of electronic density at 15° N and 15° S from the magnetic equator and a trough of density at the magnetic equator. These features illustrate the equatorial fountain effect. Concerning the Earth's magnetic field: a strong amplitude of the equatorial electrojet was first observed by the CHAMP satellite at the height of 400 km in the Vietnamese longitude sector. In this paper we compare the ground magnetic observations of the Indian and Vietnamese magnetometer networks. This comparison highlights the regional structure of the amplitude of the equatorial electrojet, which is stronger in Vietnam than in India. Concerning the monsoon: Vietnam exhibits a strong monsoon and has mainly one rainy season peaking in August, hence associated with the southwest monsoon flow. But some monsoon variability from one place to another is related to the orography. In the mountainous northern regions of Vietnam, there is an "early" monsoon peaking in July. In the coastal regions between 12° N and 19° N the monsoon season is centered on October. Concerning lightning: Vietnam is a country of strong atmospheric storms with some areas of very intense lightning in North Vietnam (22,5° N, 105° E) and in South Vietnam (11° N, 107° E). In North Vietnam strong lightning is associated with the most intense rainy region.

Wood durability around the world in a global climate change context. Wood has long been one of the world’s primary building materials, and it remains so today despite competition from alternative materials (e.g., PVC, fiberglass, concrete). Worldwide wood consumption is on the rise, and this trend is set to continue, given the growing importance of the bioeconomy (FAO 2022). This rising demand for wood to provide local construction materials with a low environmental impact is all the more pronounced in the southern countries, where demographic growth is high. In response to higher wood consumption, the area occupied by forest plantations is increasing in most developed countries, while deforestation in tropical parts of the world is still of serious concern (Fisher et al. 2020). In most tropical countries, with large forest areas and great diversity in terms of wood species, local timber production generally only focuses on a few abundant species (associated with a long renewal period) and only values the old large-sized trees (with a diameter greater than 50 cm). In the context of growing needs for timber, such a restrictive value chain may exacerbate pressure on tropical forest ecosystems. It is therefore essential to broaden our knowledge about the potential to use more species and lower-quality logs for timber production. Tropical rainforests currently cover 1,070 million hectares of the world’s surface (90% of them are located in Central Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia), with more than 50,000 timber species, but only a handful of these are used (figure 1). It is estimated that 400 million hectares of these forests are currently given over to timber production. However, research over many decades has shown that the regulations that govern timber harvesting in tropical forests – currently based on logging intensity and cutting cycle – do not allow for the long-term recovery of the timber volume being harvested from these ecosystems. It is therefore urgent that we seek out new sources of timber (Putz et al. 2012). Many types of wood are overlooked in the international market today, as the demand lies with the more well-known types of timber species. It is therefore important to consider alternative options and choose wood according to the qualities and characteristics required to meet targeted end-use applications. In numerous tropical forest species, wood properties are poorly described, and wood is undervalued. At the same time, to maximise yield, foresters often apply intensive silvicultural management to fast-growing tree species, resulting in wood with wide growth rings, lower wood density, a lower proportion of heartwood, and, in many cases, lower wood durability (Kojima 2009). Wood protection refers to measures that, in various ways, aim to improve the resistance of wood and wood-based materials to biodegradation and biodeterioration. Such organisms include wood-decaying fungi, termites, and other wood-destroying insects, marine borers, and discolouring microorganisms such as blue stain and mould (Jones and Brischke 2017). Wood-decaying fungi are the most common of the destructive organisms in temperate climates, while termites are a dominant vector in tropical regions. In this context, and although preservation or modification methods to improve the durability of wood have been developed, some of these processes or chemicals remain expensive, unavailable worldwide, or create potential environmental risks. While research on effective and sustainable preservation and modification methods are still needed, the study of traits related to the natural durability of wood is of great importance for increasing wooden products’ service life, choosing an appropriate wood species for an application, and increasing the service life of wooden products in general (Martín and López 2023). Furthermore, the current context of globalisation and climate change is influencing the biological agents that deteriorate wood materials and wood-based products. On the one hand, globalisation in the trade of wood and wood packaging increases the probability of the inadvertent introduction of forest pathogens and xylophagous microorganisms, which in some cases emerge as invasive species with the potential to attack indigenous forests and timber products. On the other hand, climate change is altering the worldwide distribution of some wood-destroying organisms. Global trade and climate change are inducing a shift in the distribution of invasive organisms (e.g., favouring spreading to higher altitudes) with the potential to cause damage to forest and wood elements, a trend that will probably be exacerbated in the next decades (Brischke and Rapp 2010). There are still important knowledge gaps regarding the mechanisms wood-deteriorating organisms use to attack wood, their ecology and mode of dispersion, and furthermore is some wood traits are affecting the natural durability of wood in service. To improve the social perception of wood as a raw material, further research is needed to develop or improve sustainable methods for preserving wood species of low natural durability against biological deterioration. Finally, it remains important to continue developing durability test methods, experimental studies, and monitoring approaches (figure 2) (Brischke et al. 2023). Focus on the scopes and activities of the International Research Group on Wood Protection (IRGWP) A brief history The International Research Group on Wood Protection (IRGWP) (known until 10 June 2004 as The International Research Group on Wood Preservation) was launched as an independent research group in 1969 to continue the work of a previous group of experts on wood protection that had been set up, following an Austrian proposal in 1965, by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in Paris, France. In 1979, the Group's administrative Secretariat moved to Sweden and was supported by the Swedish National Board for Technical Development (STU) until 1985. Since then, the IRGWP secretariat remains in Sweden and has been self-financing, relying entirely on the support of its personal and corporate members. Initially, the IRGWP was composed of 22 scientists from nine countries (Austria, Belgium, France, the German Federal Republic, Japan, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom). Today, IRGWP has more than 350 members from 51 countries around the world. Wood protection The science of wood protection is by nature multi-disciplinary, and can encompass elements of forestry, wood science, mycology, entomology, physics, chemistry, engineering, and technology. Progress in modern wood protection development usually includes two or more of these elements, making the field highly accepting of multi-institutional approaches to solving complex challenges. Moreover, to adequately describe the current state of wood protection, it requires an approach that involves viewpoints from various regions of the world and, within some of those regions, a country-by-country approach. In this regard, IRGWP has included the following regions of the world: Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Latin America, and Oceania. IRGWP’s activities The IRGWP provides the global forum for research and industrial developments in wood protection sciences, including method development, experimental studies, monitoring approaches, models, product development, environmental aspects, etc., in order to promote knowledge about wood durability science and strategies for the protection and preservation of woods, wood-based materials, structures and building components. Through worldwide cooperation, the IRGWP: Facilitates contacts between specialists working on the complex problems of wood protection and durability. Issues more than one hundred documents every year, providing members and sponsors with invaluable information. Arranges, with the help of local organising committees, annual conferences, and regional meetings with active workshops to discuss and disseminate significant research progress and develop the relationships between academics and industrial companies (figure 3). Provides help and encouragement for scientists in developing countries to enable contributions to their research activities and to attend conferences. Facilitates the participation of able young scientists in the collaborative research of its Working Parties using the Ron Cockcroft Award scheme[1]. Works continuously as a forum for discussion and dissemination of research results. Avoids duplication of research work and therefore saves time, effort, and money, through its unique around-the-world strategy. Shares a durability database aimed at the allocation of wood durability test results (in the field and laboratory conditions) for comparative studies and re-analyses. Stimulates progress and quality. IRGWP members and sponsors are proud of their status and strive continuously towards excellence. Provides cost-benefits: the annual conferences and the regional meetings provide powerful opportunities for making business contacts while keeping aware of the very latest information in this field. Supports financially a permanent Secretariat based in Stockholm, which aims to provide supportive services to members, sponsors, and new interested parties. A brief description of the papers published within this Special issue. This special issue of Bois et Forêts des Tropiques was prepared in the framework of the IRG54 Annual meeting, which was held in Queensland, Australia, from May 28 to June 1, 2023. During this international meeting, the IRGWP proposed a special session dealing with the natural and conferred durability of tropical wood species. Topics of interest included extractives defense mechanisms against fungi and termites, protection of tropic wood in service (including modification and design), and valorisation of tropical wood with low natural durability. From these presentations, several papers were selected and are hereby presented in this Special issue. The Scientific Program Committee feels these give a good indication of the current status of durability, preservation and valorisation of tropical wood species, and that you find them as interesting as they did during their presentation during the IRG54 conference. [1] https://www.irg-wp.com/RCAGuidelines.html

This updated issue of the professional publication Bulletin of the Slovenian Armed Forces is dedicated to the question of the Slovenian commitment to finding peaceful solutions to conflicts. As Commander­in­Chief of the Defence Forces of the Republic of Slovenia, I find this subject not only necessary but also entirely essential. There are many reasons for this. The historical experience of the Slovenian people has not always been pleasant regarding the preservation of national identity, manifested in the language as well as in the cultural and national tradition. Despite different repressive and denationalising measures taken by many foreign authorities, our ancestors managed to preserve the Slovenian nation through much wisdom, deep national awareness and political skill. The importance of consistent compliance with the provisions of international law in crisis situations, including wars, was seen in 1991. Slovenia won the war, not only in a military sense but also by complying with all legal norms, thus soon becoming recognised as a young European democratic country founded on high legal and moral principles. The lessons of war in 1991 increased the resolve of the Slovenian people for clear rejection of the use of force in finding solutions to any kind of conflict. For this reason, my pleasure at being invited to write about the topic of Slovenian people in the service of peace is that much greater, in part also due to the fact that I spent a large part of my professional life, from 1992 to 2005, working in the United Nations, first as the ambassador of the Republic of Slovenia, later as UN Assistant Secretary­General. In both functions I dealt with peacekeeping operations to a considerable extent. United Nations peacekeeping operations were in full swing at that time and underwent great development on the one hand, but also bitter disappointment and moments of deep doubt on the other. However, they continued to develop to the current extent. The topic of the Bulletin is presented in truly deep, scientific, theoretical and practical ways, from strategic and tactical levels, considering the evolutionary and transformational characteristics of peacekeeping operations, and deriving from historical experience. The most respected authors in the Slovenian professional field have thrown light upon important conceptual changes in the area of peacekeeping operations, which result from numerous factors, in particular from important geopolitical changes in the world. We must not disregard the increasing cooperation of regional organisations in the implementation of peacekeeping operations, which has indirectly brought about a different understanding of the term “peacekeeping operation” and opened technical discussions in the area of terminology as well as in the technical fulfilment of obligations, all the way to the question of the necessity of a preliminary UN mandate. These deficiencies can also be seen in Slovenia and point to the need for conducting a deep technical discussion as soon as possible and unifying the understanding of both the structure of the Slovenian Armed Forces and the broader defence and security system. The introductory and in particular the more theoretical parts of the Bulletin may be taken as important contributions in this regard. Some of the articles offer interesting historical insight into the cooperation of Slovenian men, and later women, in various endeavours for peace launched by individual great powers and international organisations. Although it is difficult to understand the military intervention of European forces on the island Crete in 1897 as a peacekeeping operation, the objective which is still in the forefront of contemporary efforts of the international community in this area was achieved for at least some time. This intervention ensured an armistice between the parties involved in the conflict and enabled a diplomatic solution on the island without unnecessary victims. The confidence that the highest political and military authorities in the Austro­Hungarian Empire had in the 2nd Battalion of the 87th Infantry Regiment from Celje was truly special. This was particularly the case because the military unit was mainly composed of Slovenes, and at the time of deployment in Crete its commander was a Slovene as well. However, we need to emphasise that such thinking is unconventional. By studying the literature on peacekeeping operations we see that such operations were first mentioned around 1919 in connection with peace conferences after the end of World War I and with managing various border issues in Europe, different plebiscites and other situations which, besides political and other diplomatic action, also required the protection of security and were followed by military operations intended for this particular purpose. History tells us much about peacekeeping operations intended to maintain truces. In these operations, coalition forces were deployed to an area in which a truce already existed and had to be maintained among well organised and disciplined armed forces. Today, the status of armed forces is quite different. We have to look at all of history and every aspect of international military engagement which is not armed combat by nature but a military presence with various aspects of employment of military force and the constant readiness and capability of peace forces to defend themselves effectively and be prepared to use weapons to fulfil their mandate. If today we see peacekeeping operations as valid in this respect, it is clear that we have to be familiar with history and evaluate what we can learn from past experience and how we are obliged to consider the present. Of course, we must consider the present. If we look at the status of peacekeeping operations today, we see how important this military activity is for the modern world. I will only dwell upon the United Nations, which from the standpoint of peacekeeping operations is the most important organisation operating today. Approximately 140,000 soldiers participate in peacekeeping operations under the auspices of the United Nations. No other military force has that number of uniformed personnel operating abroad. These people are assigned to eighteen currently active peacekeeping operations, each costing the organisation about seven billion dollars. This is the largest component of the budget of the United Nations. However, this expenditure is small in comparison to other kinds of military deployment outside the UN, to operations which are not peacekeeping operations by nature. Peacekeeping operations have become very multidimensional. The latest such operations, established in Africa (Darfur, Chad, Central African Republic), have been among the most demanding from the very beginning. We can thus conclude that peacekeeping operations are becoming increasingly more complex, which also results in a higher degree of risk. In 2007, 67 members of UN peacekeeping operations lost their lives. Looking at individual operations we see that six people died in Lebanon alone that year. Ever since peacekeeping operations have been in existence, Lebanon has been one of the most dangerous areas. Today, however, it is somewhat outside the sphere of interest. This may be due to the fact that there is a peacekeeping operation active in the area, on account of which a state of relative peace can be better maintained. Peacekeeping operations are both dangerous and multidimensional, multidimensional because they are no longer focused merely on keeping belligerent parties apart. Modern peacekeeping operations include both standard and supplemental functions. Providing a secure environment for political normalisation, humanitarian activity and development is a comprehensive task, requiring the engagement of peacekeeping forces in operations that are far from being common types of military deployment. This raises different questions about the training and competence of peacekeeping forces. We also have to ask ourselves how we can fully consider the lessons learned from previous peacekeeping operations and organise a system of command, particularly in organisations such as the United Nations, while at the same time making sure that national contingents do not lose their identity. There are thus two lines of communication, one through channels established by international organisations and the other through those established by national systems of armed forces. How to balance this and achieve efficient functioning? How to ensure the operation of different cultures, members and levels of competence in a way that facilitates the success of peacekeeping operations? These are always important questions to consider. In recent years the question of interest has pointed to the complexity of modern peacekeeping operations. Peacekeeping operations are frequently required to facilitate an environment in which elections can be conducted and assist in the establishment of a legal order and institutions to maintain that order. Both tasks are extremely demanding. The establishment of a safe environment for conducting elections in a country with poor communications, with no tradition of elections and with violence linked to every political event, is an extremely difficult task. The establishment of a legal order in areas with no such tradition or adequate infrastructure is even harder. There is often a need to include the civilian police, whose tasks in peacekeeping operations are very demanding. Civilian police have a number of other particularities besides problems connected to the aforementioned multidimensionality. It is necessary to adapt to the local environment in order to facilitate effective police performance. How to facilitate this in an environment such as Haiti, for example, with its difficult past? How to facilitate this in linguistically demanding environments such as East Timor until recently and in other difficult circumstances? These are all extremely demanding tasks. However, there is not much understanding with regard to all the details and problems arising from their implementation. The international political community is often satisfied merely by defining the mandate of a peacekeeping operation. For many people this signifies the solution to the problem, considering that the mandate is defined and that the deployment of forces will occur. However, this is where real problem solving only begins. Only then does it become obvious what little meaning general resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and other acts by which mandates are defined have in the context of actual situations. Therefore, I am of the opinion that we have to take a detailed look at experience from the distant past as well as the present. When speaking of the civilian police we also have to consider the fully human aspects that characterise every peacekeeping operation. Once I spoke to a very experienced leader of civilian police operations about the need to send additional police officers to the mission in Kosovo in the spring, when winter is over and people become more active, which also results in a higher crime rate. He explained that this is not only a problem in the area of this mission but elsewhere in Europe. In spring, the crime rate rises everywhere. Therefore it is difficult to find police officers during this time who are willing to leave their homeland, where they are most needed, and go to a mission area which is just then facing increased needs. I mention this to broaden understanding of the fact that the deployment of peacekeeping forces, both military and civilian police, is not only a matter of mandates and military organisation, but sometimes of the purely elementary questions that accompany social development. I have already mentioned that memory of the past is a very important component of considering present peacekeeping operations. I would like to conclude with another thought. I believe the manner of organising the knowledge of peacekeeping operations is of great importance to all countries, especially those that are new to cooperating in peacekeeping operations. This knowledge cannot be gained from books written at universities, but only from monitoring and carefully analysing the previous experiences of others. It is very important that this knowledge be carefully organised, that these experiences be carefully gathered and analysed, and that a doctrine be developed gradually. This doctrine is required for a country like Slovenia, which is new at conducting peacekeeping operations, to be able to manage well and define its role in international peacekeeping operations properly. To achieve this objective, a new country must cooperate with those countries which have been conducting peacekeeping operations for a long time and therefore have a richer experience. The neighbouring Austria is known to have one of the longest and most interesting systems of experience in peacekeeping operations within the United Nations. Ever since it joined the UN, Austria has been active in numerous activities linked to peacekeeping operations. Its soldiers and the civilian police have participated in a number of peacekeeping operations. Experience gained in this way is of great value, and using this experience is necessary for successful planning of and operating in future peacekeeping operations. The future will be complicated! At one time, when the members of peacekeeping operations numbered approximately 80,000, the United Nations thought that nothing more could be done, and a larger number of members was unthinkable. Today the number of members is significantly larger, development will most likely still continue and conditions will become even more demanding. I do not wish to forecast events which have not yet taken place. However, I would like to strongly emphasise that the history of peacekeeping operations is not over yet and that the future will be full of risks and challenges. I would also again like to stress the importance of this issue of the Bulletin of the Slovenian Armed Forces, which is entering a new decade, and express my pleasure at being able to note down a few thoughts. Let me particularly emphasise that as Commander­in­Chief of the Slovenian Defence Forces I will continue to devote special attention to achievements in the area of cooperation in peacekeeping operations in the future, having a special interest in these experiences. I thank the authors of the articles of this important issue of the Bulletin for their scientific and professional contributions – and I greatly respect those who have already done important work in the name of the Republic of Slovenia with the Slovenian flag on their shoulders, with the hope that they continue to fulfil their obligations in accordance with the rules.

It is our pleasure to present this special issue of scientific journal Scalable Computing: Practice and Experience. In this issue (Volume 19, No 2 – June 2018), we selected 14 papers which have gone through review and revision, and represent novel results in Life Sciences, Digital Cultural Heritage, Climatology using state-of-the-art e-infrastructures. E-Infrastructures are currently addressing the challenging needs of researchers for digital services in terms of networking, computing and data management. Virtual research environments (VRE) integrate resources across all layers of the e-infrastructure (networking, computing, data, software, user interfaces) to foster cross-disciplinary data interoperability. VRE are supporting innovation in research via an integrated access to potentially unlimited digital research resources, tools and services across disciplines and user communities. In the content of this special issue the papers are ordered in 4 groups: Climatology (5 papers), Life Sciences (3 papers), Digital Cultural Heritage (2 papers) and Tools and Services (4 papers). Inside the groups, the papers are ordered by alphabetical order (the family name of the first author). Climatology. The first paper presents an online interactive platform that aims to provide weather information about Armenia by integrating observations, model and satellite data. The topic is interesting from the practical point of view and might be very useful, especially for meteorologists. The second paper studies the effect of the dust on climate in the Caucasus region, with a specific focus on Georgia, using the Regional Climate Model RegCM interactively coupled to a dust model. The simulations cover the period 1985-2014 encompassing most of the Sahara, the Middle East, the Great Caucasus with adjacent regions. The third paper provides insight in the performances of wind simulations for high resolution models of the terrain. The presented results rationalize the possibility to run in reasonable time high resolution models, while showing that the impact of turbulence does not have significantly increases the computing requirement. The fourth paper presents adaptation and tuning of the RegCM model for the Balkan Peninsula and Bulgaria and development of a methodology able to predict possible changes of the regional climate for different global climate change scenarios and their impact on spatial/temporal distribution of precipitation, hence the global water budgets, to changes of the characteristics and spatial/temporal distribution of extreme, unfavorable and catastrophic events. The fifth paper presents comparison of two approaches (static and dynamical) used to compute the vibrational spectra of two conformers of the free formic acid molecule. The topic is interesting within the context of the atmospheric chemistry research field and it is of sufficient importance regarding the vibrational spectroscopic data and induced temperature effects of intramolecular motions. Life Sciences. The manuscript from Astsatryan et al. describes a platform, which consists of data repository and workflow management services for Molecular Dynamics simulations. The platform focuses on an interactive data visualization workflow service as a key to perform more in-depth analyzing of research data outputs. The manuscript from Bigovic et al. describes the organic synthesis of three enol carbonate derivatives and the analysis of their interactions with T4 lysozyme L99A/M102Q using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The results obtained by different software packages are discussed. The manuscript from Koteska et al. describes a semi-empirical Molecular Dynamics study of irinotecan, a colon cancer drug, using the atom-centered density matrix propagation approach. The described methodology was used to study the structure, dynamics, and rovibrational spectrum of irinotecan. DCH. The paper of Charalambous and Artopoulos presents the deployment of the Clowder CMS system and the development of extraction services to handle, manage and automatically process Digital Cultural Heritage data in order to enable virtual collaboration for research in the South East and Eastern Mediterranean region. Technical descriptions of the system are given and some results are provided. In the paper of Elfarargy and Rizq a software system called Virtual Museum Framework (VirMuF), which is a set of tools that can be used by non-developers to easily create and publish 3D virtual museums in a very short time is presented. VirMuF is an open-source and teams including software developers can further extend VirMuF to fit their needs. Software Tools and Services. Dimitrov and Stoyanov present the Data Discovery Service supporting the VI-SEEM project Virtual Research Environment - VRE. The solution is based on an open source platform with special customization regarding the data harvesting methods from diverse data sources and updating the available content so that the users will seamlessly access all the data from a single point. The paper of Golubev et al. addresses the problems of optimization of medical image storing and secure access, using the DICOM system. Based on the Moldova DICOM Network architecture, the system enables distributed search, and transportation of DICOM images. Additionally, several optimization problems are addressed by the authors, along with the integration challenges within the VI-SEEM VRE. In the paper of Mishev et al. the design, requirements and implementation of a federated virtual research environment, based on the service orientation paradigm, offering anything as a service solutions, have been considered. The challenges of the service management implementation focusing on interoperability by design and service management standards have been discussed. The manuscript of Vudragovic et al. gives an extensive insight of the development and implementation of the DREAM dust model (DREAMCLIMATE service). Additionally, a use-case study of the premature mortality due to the desert dust in the North Africa - Europe - Middle East region for the 2005 obtained by the application of this model is presented, justifying the model and the applicability of the service itself. We would like to thank all those who kindly contributed to this Special Issue: the authors who submitted their papers, reviewers for their kind help and cooperation, especially to Dr. Zoe Curnia, Dr. Theodoros Christoudias and Dr. George Artopoulos for their valuable remarks and suggestions. Our special gratitude is for the Editor-in-Chief, Professor Dana Petcu, for her constant support.

ISCPES stands for International Society for Comparative Physical Education and Sports and it is going to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2018. Since the beginning (Israel 1978) the main goals of the Society were established under a worldwide mind set considering five continents and no discrimination of any kind. The founders wanted to compare Physical Education and Sports across the world, searching for the best practices deserving consideration and applied on the purpose of improving citizen quality of life. The mission still stands for “Compare to learn and improve”.As all the organizations lasting for 39 years, ISCPES experienced several vicissitudes, usually correlated with world economic cycles, social and sports changes, which are in ISS journal articles - International Sport Studies.ISS journal is Scopus indexed, aiming to improve its quality (under evaluation) to reach more qualified students, experts, professionals and researchers; doing so it will raise its indexation, which we know it is nowadays a more difficult task. First, because there are more journals trying to compete on this academic fierce competitive market; secondly, because the basic requirements are getting more and more hard to gather in the publishing environment around Physical Education and Sports issues. However, we can promise this will be one of our main strategic goals.Another goal I would like to address on this Editorial is the language issue. We have this second strategic goal, which is to reach most of languages spoken in different continents; besides the English language, we will reach Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries. For that reason, we already defined that all the abstracts in English will be translated into Chinese, Spanish and Portuguese words so people can find them on any search browser. That will expand the demand for our journal and articles, increasing the number of potential readers. Of course this opportunity, given by Motricidade, can be considered as a good example to multiply our scope.In June 2017 we organized a joint Conference in Borovets, Bulgaria, with our colleagues from the BCES – Bulgarian Society for Comparative Educational Studies. During those days, there was an election to appoint a new (Portuguese) president. This constitutes an important step for the Portuguese speaker countries, which, for a 4th year term, will have the opportunity to expand the influence of ISCPES Society diffusing the research results we have been achieving into a vast extended new public and inviting new research experts to innovative debates. This new president will be working with a wide geographical diverse team: the Vice President coming from a South American country (Venezuela), and the other several Executive Board members are coming from Brazil, China, Africa and North America. This constitutes a very favorable situation once, adding to this, we kept the previous editorial team from Australia and Europe. We are definitely committed to improve our influence through new incentives to organize several regional (continental) workshops, seminars and Conferences in the next future.The international research is crossing troubled times with exponential number of new indexed journals trying to get new influence and visibility. In order to do that, readers face new challenges because several studies present contradictory conclusions and outcome comparisons still lacking robust methodologies. Uncovering these issues is the focus of our Society.In the past, ISCPES started its activity collecting answers to the same questions asked to several experts in different countries and continents across the world. The starting studies developed some important insights on several issues concerning the way Physical Education professionals approached their challenges. In the very starting documents ISCPES activity focused in identifying certain games and indigenous activities that were not understood by people in other parts of the world, improving this international understanding and communication. This first attempt considered six groups of countries roughly comprehending 26 countries from all the continents.ISCPES has on its archives several seminal works, PhD proposals and program proposals, which constitutes the main theoretical framework considered in some textbooks printed at the end of the sixties in the XXth century.The methods used mostly sources’ country comparisons, historic development of comparative education systems, list of factors affecting those systems and a systematic analysis of case studies; additionally, international organizations for sports and physical education were also required to identify basic problems and unique features considered for the implementation of each own system. At the time, Lynn C. Vendien & John E. Nixon book “The World Today in Health, Physical Education and Recreation”, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc. 1968, together with two monographies from William Johnson “Physical Education around the World”, 1966, 1968, Indianapolis, Phi Epsilon Kappa editions, were the main textbook references.The main landscapes of interest were to study sports compared or the sport role in Nationalisms, Political subsidization, Religion, Race and volunteering versus professionalism. The goal was to state the true place of sports in societies.In March 1970, Ben W. Miller from the University of California compiled an interesting Exhibit n.1 about the main conclusions of a breakfast meeting occurred during the American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation. There, they identified thirty-one individuals, which had separate courses in “Comparative and/or International Physical Education, Recreation and Sports”; one month later, they collected eighteen responses with the bibliographic references they used. On this same Exhibit n.1 there is detailed information on the title, catalogue description, date of initial course (1948, the first), credit units, eligibility, number of year offer, type of graduation (from major to doctorate and professional). Concluding, the end of the sixties can be the mark of a well-established body of literature in comparative education and sports studies published in several scientific journals.What about the XXIst century? Is it still important to compare sports and education throughout the world? Only with qualitative methods? Mixed methods?We think so. That is why, after a certain decline and fuzzy goal definition in research motivations within ISCPES we decided to innovate and reorganize people from physical education and sports around this important theme of comparative studies. Important because we observe an increasing concern on the contradictions across different results in publications under the same subject. How can we infer? What about good research questions which get no statistically significant results? New times are coming, and we want to be on that frontline of this move as said by Elsevier “With RMR (results masked review) articles, you don’t need to worry about what editors or reviewers might think about your results. As long as you have asked an important question and performed a rigorous study, your paper will be treated the same as any other. You do not need to have null results to submit an RMR article; there are many reasons why it can be helpful to have the results blinded at initial review”.https://www.elsevier.com/connect/reviewers-update/results-masked-review-peer-review-without-publication-bias.This is a very different and challenging time. Our future strategy will comprehend more cooperation between researchers, institutions and scientific societies as an instrument to leverage our understanding of physical activity and sports through different continents and countries and be useful for policy designs.Next 2018, on the occasion of the UE initiative Sofia – European Capital of Sport 2018 we - Bulgarian Comparative Education Society (BCES) & the International Society for Comparative Physical Education and Sport (ISCPES) - will jointly organize an International Conference on Sport Governance around the World.Sports and Physical Education are facing complex problems worldwide, which need to be solved. For health reasons, a vast number of organizations are popularizing the belief that physical education and sports are ‘a must’ in order to promote human activity and movement. However, several studies show that modern lifestyles are the main cause for people's inactivity and sedentary lifestyles.Extensive funded programs used to promote healthy lifestyles; sports media advertising several athletes, turning them into global heroes, influencers in a new emerging industry around sports organizations. Therefore, there is a rise in the number of unethical cases and corruption that influence the image of physical education and sports roles.We, the people emotional and physically involved with sports and physical activity must be aware of this, studying, discussing and comparing global facts and events around the world.This Conference aims to offer an incentive to colleagues from all continents to participate and present their latest results on four specific topics: 1. Sport Governance Systems; 2. Ethics and Corruption in Physical Education and Sports Policies; 3. Physical Education and Sport Development; 4. Training Physical Educators and Coaches. Please consider your selves invited to attend. Details in http://bcesconvention.com/

Field-based research programs offer students a singular opportunity to understand that today there are no simple scientific, economic or socio-political answers to the complex questions facing governments, communities, and local organizations. Through their research, students can gain a first-hand appreciation that decision making in the real world is a mix of all these disciplines, and that they have a vital role to play in participating in this process. According to the most recent Open Doors report (2006), issued by the Institute of International Education, about 206,000 US students studied abroad in 2004/5. While about 55% studied in Europe, an increasing number studied in other host countries around the world. Social science and physical science students comprised about 30% of all US study abroad students in this period. While study abroad programs encompassing a field research component are still in the minority, an increasing number of home institutions and field-based providers are supporting and conducting these types of programs. As the student papers in this Special Issue of Frontiers demonstrate, there is high quality work being produced by undergraduates in settings as diverse as France, Thailand, Kenya, South Africa and Mali. For these students this opportunity was likely a new experience, involving living and studying in international settings; dealing with language and culture differences; matriculating in programs operated by host country universities, independent program providers, or their home institution’s international program; and learning how to conduct research that meets professional standards. Much has been written and discussed regarding pre-departure orientation of US students studying abroad, along with studies and evaluations of the study abroad experience. Less discussion and research has focused on the experiences of the on-site faculty and staff who host students and incorporate field-based research into their courses and programs. These courses and programs involving student research include the following types: • International university-based research, in which the student conducts research on a topic as part of a course or term paper; • Independent field-based research, in which the student identifies a topic, organizes the project, and conducts the field work, analysis, write-up, etc. for an overall grade; • Collective field-based research, in which students, working under the guidance of a professor (either US or international), conduct a research project as part of a US-based course, or complementary to the professor’s research focus; • Client-focused, directed, field-based research in which the research conducted is in response to, or in collaboration with, a specific client ranging from an NGO, to a corporation, to an indigenous community, or a governmental agency. The purpose of this article is to describe some of the issues and challenges that on-site faculty and staff encounter in preparing and supporting US undergraduate students to conduct formal research projects in international settings in order to maximize their success and the quality of their research. The perspectives described below have been gathered through informal surveys with a range of international program faculty and staff; discussions with program managers and faculty; and through our own experience at The School for Field Studies (SFS), with its formal directed research model. The survey sought responses in the following areas, among others: preparing students to conduct successfully their field-based research in a different socio-cultural environment; the skill building needs of students; patterns of personal, cultural, and/or technical challenges that must be addressed to complete the process successfully; and, misconceptions that students have about field-based research. Student Preparation Students work either individually or in groups to conduct their research, depending on the program. In either case on-site faculty and staff focus immediately on training students on issues ranging from personal safety and risk management, to cultural understanding, language training, and appropriate behavior. In programs involving group work, faculty and staff have learned that good teamwork dynamics cannot be taken for granted. They work actively with students in helping them understand the ebb and flow of groups, the mutual respect which must be extended, and the active participation that each member must contribute. As one on-site director indicates, “Students make their experience what it is through their behavior. We talk a lot about respecting each other as individuals and working together to make the project a great experience.” Cultural and sensitivity training are a major part of these field-based programs. It is critical that students learn and appreciate the social and cultural context in which they will conduct their research. As another on-site director states, “It is most important that the students understand the context in which the research is happening. They need to know the values and basic cultural aspects around the project they will be working on. It is not simply doing ‘good science.’ It requires understanding the context so the science research reaches its goal.” On-site faculty and staff also stress the importance of not only understanding cultural dynamics, but also acting appropriately and sensitively relative to community norms and expectations. Language training is also a component of many of these programs. As a faculty member comments, “Students usually need help negotiating a different culture and a new language. We try to help the students understand that they need to identify appropriate solutions for the culture they are in, and that can be very difficult at times.” Skill Building Training students on the technical aspects of conducting field-based research is the largest challenge facing most on-site faculty and staff, who are often struck by the following: • A high percentage of students come to these programs with a lack of knowledge of statistics and methods. They’ve either had very little training in statistics, or they find that real world conditions complicate their data. According to one faculty member, “Statistics are a big struggle for most students. Some have done a class, but when they come to work with real data it is seldom as black and white as a text book example and that leads to interpretation issues and lack of confidence in their data. They learn that ecology (for example) is often not clear, but that is OK.” • Both physical and social science students need basic training in scientific methodology in order to undertake their projects. Even among science majors there is a significant lack of knowledge of how to design, manage and conduct a research project. As a program director states, “Many students begin by thinking that field research is comprised only of data collection. We intensively train students to understand that good research is a process that begins with conceptualization of issues, moves into review of relevant literature, structures a research hypothesis, determines indicators and measurements, creates the research design, collects data, undertakes analysis and inference. This is followed by write-up in standard scientific format for peer review and input. This leads to refining earlier hypotheses, raising new questions and initiating further research to address new questions.” Consistently, on-site faculty have indicated that helping students understand and appreciate this cycle is a major teaching challenge, but one that is critical to their education and the success of their various field research projects. • The uncertainty and ambiguity that are often present in field research creates challenges for many students who are used to seeking ‘the answer in the book.’ On-site faculty help students understand that science is a process in which field-based research is often non-linear and prone to interruption by natural and political events. It is a strong lesson for students when research subjects, be they animal or human, don’t cooperate by failing to appear on time, or at all, and when they do appear they may have their own agendas. Finally, when working with human communities, student researchers need to understand that their research results and recommendations are not likely to result in immediate action. Program faculty help them to understand that the real world includes politics, conflicting attitudes, regulatory issues, funding issues, and other community priorities. • Both physical and social science students demonstrate a consistent lack of skill in technical and evidence-based writing. For many this type of writing is completely new and is a definite learning experience. As a faculty member states, “Some students find the report writing process very challenging. We want them to do well, but we don’t want to effectively write their paper for them.” Challenges The preceding points address some of the technical work that on-site faculty conduct with students. Faculty also witness and experience the ‘emotional’ side of field-based research being conducted by their students. This includes what one faculty member calls “a research-oriented motivation” — the need for students to develop a strong, energized commitment to overcome all the challenges necessary to get the project done. As another professor indicates, “At the front end the students don’t realize how much effort they will have to expend because they usually have no experience with this sort of work before they do their project.” Related to this is the need for students to learn that flexibility in the research process does not justify a sloppy or casual approach. It does mean a recognition that human, political, and meteorological factors may intervene, requiring the ability to adapt to changed conditions. The goal is to get the research done. The exact mechanics for doing so will emerge as the project goes on. “Frustration tolerance” is critical in conducting this type of work. Students have the opportunity to learn that certain projects need to incorporate a substantial window of time while a lengthy ethics approval and permit review system is conducted by various governmental agencies. Students learn that bureaucracies move at their own pace, and for reasons that may not be obvious. Finally, personal challenges to students may include being uncomfortable in the field (wet, hot, covered in scrub itch) or feeling over-tired. As a faculty member states, “Many have difficulty adjusting to the early mornings my projects usually involve.” These issues represent a range of challenges that field-based research faculty and staff encounter in working with undergraduate students in designing and conducting their research projects around the world. In my own experience with SFS field-based staff, and in discussions with a wide variety of others who work and teach on-site, I am consistently impressed by the dedication, energy and commitment of these men and women to train, support and mentor students to succeed. As an on-site director summarizes, essentially speaking for all, “Fortunately, most of the students attending our program are very enthusiastic learners, take their limitations positively, and hence put tremendous effort into acquiring the required skills to conduct quality research.” Summary/Conclusions Those international program faculty and staff who have had years of experience in dealing with and teaching US undergraduates are surprised that the US educational system has not better prepared students on subjects including statistics, scientific report formatting and composition, and research methodologies. They find that they need to address these topics on an intensive basis in order for a substantial number of students to then conduct their research work successfully. Having said this, on-site faculty and staff are generally impressed by the energy and commitment that most students put into learning the technical requirements of a research project and carrying it out to the best of their abilities. Having students conduct real field-based research, and grading these efforts, is a very concrete method of determining the seriousness with which a student has participated in their study abroad program. Encouraging field-based research is good for students and good for study abroad because it has the potential of producing measurable products based on very tangible efforts. In a number of instances students have utilized their field research as the basis for developing their senior thesis or honors project back on their home campus. Successful field research has also formed the basis of Fulbright or Watson proposals, in addition to other fellowships and graduate study projects. An increasing number of students are also utilizing their field research, often in collaboration with their on-site program faculty, to create professional conference presentations and posters. Some of these field-based research models also produce benefits for incountry clients, including NGOs, corporations and community stakeholders. In addition to providing the data, analyses, technical information, and recommendations that these groups might not otherwise be able to afford, it is a concrete mechanism for the student and her/his study abroad program faculty and staff to ‘give back’ to local stakeholders and clients. It changes the dynamic from the student solely asking questions, interviewing respondents, observing communities, to more of a mutually beneficial relationship. This is very important to students who are sensitive to this dynamic. It is also important to their program faculty and staff, and in most cases, genuinely appreciated by the local stakeholders. In essence, community identified and responsive research is an excellent mechanism for giving to a community — not just taking from it. An increasing interest in conducting field-based research on the part of US universities and their students may have the effect of expanding the international destinations to which US students travel. A student’s sociological, anthropological, or environmental interest and their desire to conduct field research in that academic discipline, for example, may help stretch the parameters of the student’s comfort level to study in more exotic (non-traditional) locales. Skill building in preparing for and conducting field-based research is an invaluable experience for the student’s future academic and professional career. It is a fairly common experience for these students to indicate that with all the classroom learning they have done, their study abroad experience wherein they got their hands dirty, their comfort level stretched, their assumptions tested, and their work ethic challenged, provided them with an invaluable and life changing experience. Conducting field-based research in an international setting provides real world experience, as the student papers in this edition of Frontiers attest. It also brings what may have only been academic subjects, like statistics, and research design and methodology, to life in a real-conditions context. On a related note, conducting real field-based work includes the requirement to endure field conditions, remote locations, bad weather, personal discomforts, technological and mechanical breakdowns, and sometimes dangerous situations. Field research is hard work if it is done rigorously. In addition, field work often includes non-cooperating subjects that defy prediction, and may confound a neat research hypothesis. For a student considering a profession which requires a serious commitment to social or physical science field work this study abroad experience is invaluable. It clarifies for the student what is really involved, and it is helpful to the student in assessing their future career focus, as they ask the critical question — would I really want to do this as a fulltime career? US education needs to bridge better the gap between the physical and social sciences. Students are done a disservice with the silo-type education that has been so prevalent in US education. In the real world there are no strictly scientific, economic, or sociological solutions to complex, vexing problems facing the global community. Going forward there needs to be interdisciplinary approaches to these issues by decision makers at all levels. We need to train our students to comprehend that while they may not be an ecologist, or an economist, or a sociologist, they need to understand and appreciate that all these perspectives are important and must be considered in effective decision-making processes. In conclusion, education abroad programs involving serious field-based research are not a distraction or diversion from the prescribed course of study at US home institutions; rather, they are, if done well, capable of providing real, tangible skills and experience that students lack, in spite of their years of schooling. This is the reward that is most meaningful to the international program faculty and staff who teach, mentor and support US students in conducting their field-based research activities. As an Australian on-site program director stated, “there are relatively few students who are adequately skilled in these (field research) areas when they come to our program. Most need a lot of instruction and assistance to complete their research projects, but that of course is part of what we’re all about — helping students acquire or improve these critical skills.” This is the real service that these programs and on-site faculty and staff offer to US undergraduates. Paul Houlihan, President The School for Field Studies

African universities rely on teaching traditions and scientific theories based on Western epistemologies and ontologies. Interactions between European and African scholars too tend to focus on the deficits in African experiences, knowledge, research and teaching methodologies and the poor economic environments in which they operate that are characterized by inadequate infrastructure and budgets. This essay discusses an emerging opportunity in science diplomacy within African-European Union (EU) interactions in higher education and argues that a fundamental revision of the imbalances in African-European scholarly relationships is possible. The essay uses the case of the emerging Platform for African–European Studies, which involves 22 universities (including 14 in Africa and eight in Europe) and underscores the importance of science diplomacy, knowledge co-creation and co-production to correct hegemonic knowledge about Africa. It explores the origins of the programme, its attempt to follow a critical global and decolonized approach in addressing the revision of curricula both in Europe and in Africa and the co-design of research. It concludes by highlighting some of the obstacles to disrupting the status-quo.

Detection of new non-indigenous species is often delayed when taxonomically challenging taxa are involved, such as small-sized marine organisms. The present study highlights the relevance of scientific cooperation in the early detection of the invader amphipod Stenothoe georgiana. Originally described from North Carolina (USA), the species was recently found in Chile and the Western Mediterranean. Here, we provide the first record of the species in Macaronesia, Atlantic coasts of continental Europe, North Africa and Australia, and extend its known distribution along the Mediterranean coast. Just like other small crustaceans, shipping (including recreational boating) and aquaculture are probably the main vectors of introduction and secondary spread for this amphipod species. This case of S. georgiana sheds light on the importance of promoting taxonomical knowledge, and building multidisciplinary expertise networks that ensure an effective spread of alien species information. We also encourage the implementation of standardized monitoring methodologies to facilitate early detection of small mobile invaders.

Since 2008, the not-for-profit organization Plazi*1, based in Switzerland, has been supporting and promoting the development of persistent and openly accessible digital taxonomic literature. To achieve this goal, Plazi makes use of in-house software tools for data mining and extraction from taxonomic publications, along with other partner institutions' tools and platforms, to liberate data on animals, plants, fungi, and more. In its mission to make taxonomic data FAIRly (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable*2) available to the community, Plazi has developed sets of training material and courses, which enable taxonomists, collection curators, students, technicians and others to participate in the process of taxonomic data liberation. The participation of several different members of the community is critcally important as data requires deep curation, often very specific to a particular field. Most recently, Plazi led a virtual 2-day workshop as part of the COST MOBILISE ACTION*3 (European Cooperation in Science and Technology - Mobilising Data, Policies and Experts in Scientific Collections) in Europe, along with two 4-day in-person workshops in Brazil and South Africa. Participants are issued certificates that entitle them to extract data on their own, thus multiplying the output of FAIR data using Plazi’s workflow. Plazi is also planning a new series of in-person courses for the scientific community in different regions of Brazil as well as courses for specific audiences interested in data reuse. These courses aim not only at training new certificate data liberators and data search platform users, but also at disseminating knowledge about the relevance of FAIR data, increasing the number of authors and publishers rethinking the future of scientific publications.

Abstract Background HIV/AIDS has attracted considerable research attention since the 1980s. In the current context of globalization and the predominance of cooperative work, it is crucial to analyze the participation of the countries and regions where the infection is most prevalent. This study assesses the participation of African countries in publications on the topic, as well as the degree of equity or influence existing in North-South relations. Methods We identified all articles and reviews of HIV/AIDS indexed in the Web of Science Core Collection. We analyzed the scientific production, collaboration, and contributions from African and Middle Eastern countries to scientific activity in the region. The concept of leadership, measured through the participation as the first author of documents in collaboration was used to determine the equity in research produced through international collaboration. Results A total of 68,808 documents published from 2010 to 2017 were analyzed. Researchers from North America and Europe participated in 82.14% of the global scientific production on HIV/AIDS, compared to just 21.61% from Africa and the Middle East. Furthermore, the publications that did come out of these regions was concentrated in a small number of countries, led by South Africa (41% of the documents). Other features associated with HIV/AIDS publications from Africa include the importance of international collaboration from the USA, the UK, and other European countries (75–93% of the documents) and the limited participation as first authors that is evident (30 to 36% of the documents). Finally, the publications to which African countries contributed had a notably different disciplinary orientation, with a predominance of research on public health, epidemiology, and drug therapy. Conclusions It is essential to foster more balance in research output, avoid the concentration of resources that reproduces the global North-South model on the African continent, and focus the research agenda on local priorities. To accomplish this, the global North should strengthen the transfer of research skills and seek equity in cooperative ties, favoring the empowerment of African countries. These efforts should be concentrated in countries with low scientific activity and high incidence and prevalence of the disease. It is also essential to foster intraregional collaborations between African countries.

We are pleased to introduce to our esteemed readers this special issue on the conference proceedings on “Occidentalism in Contemporary Cognitive Deliberation: Toward Objective Scientific Vision for Exploring the Other”. For decades Occidentalism has been receiving growing academic interest for its substantial importance in several domains. Dialog among civilizations and strategic relations between East and West is perhaps the most salient example. This Conference is the outcome of tireless work and close cooperation between Kuwait University, represented by the Journal of Sharia and Islamic Studies, and Qatar University College of Sharia, represented by the ISESCO Chair in Alliance of Civilizations. Scholars and researchers specializing in this field were invited to participate in the Conference. The Conference was held on ZOOM on 28/2/2021. This issue features the fruit of twinning between two well-established journals in the Arabian Gulf: Journal of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Kuwait University and Journal of College of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Qatar University. We are grateful to all those who contributed to this achievement and appreciate the efforts of the journal’s former editorial board. We thank the Almighty God for selecting our Journal for inclusion in the Arabic Citation Index (ARCI) on the Web of Science, this year. The Conference culminated in serious, insightful and well-founded studies on occidentalism Conference papers covered different aspects in Occidentalism discourse, such as Dr. Zahia Smail Salhi's “The Arab World and the Occident: Toward the Construction of an Occidentalist Discourse” and Dr. Youssef Ban El Mahdi's “Contemporary Arab Discourse of Occidentalism: A Reading in the Paradigms, Introductions and Results”. Furthermore, the Conference touched on the criticism of the intellectual foundations and legitimacy, such as in “Foundational premises for objective research in Occidentalism,” by Dr. Azzeddine Mamiche. The presence of Occidentalism in Eastern, Far-Eastern, and Latin experiences was also discussed in Dr. Mabrouk Mansouri's “The Deliberation of Occidentalism in Contemporary Global Thought: A Comparative Study of Japanese and Western thoughts”. The theoretical underpinnings of the subject were also explored as in Dr. Hassan Azzouzi's “The Need of Methodological Rules composing the Occidentalist Thought”. Moreover, Indian Occidentalism was present in “In Retrospect: Indian Occidentalism, Reference-corpus and Questions of Specificity” by Dr. Mohammad Sanaullah AlNadawi. Finally, religious identities were also discussed in “The Jewish Community between Orientalism and Occidentialism” by Prof. Muhammad Khalifa Hasan. From the findings of the Conference, select papers of which will be featured in this exceptional issue of our journal, we can conclude that geographical diversity is an undisputed reality, and cultural diversity is inevitable (Had your Lord willed, He would have made mankind one nation, but they continue to have their differences) [Hud 11: 118]. East and West are different in nature, roots, motives and aims. The great principles and lofty values, as elaborated by the Islamic perspective, are the available and accessible means to build relations, including:  Human Succession: Human beings are the successors of Allah on Earth. The have a religious obligation to fulfill the duties of succession, promote growth and prosperity on earth, spread justice, and avoid injustice, aggression, and bloodletting.  Human Unity: Humanity has one origin, and all human beings descend from a single common ancestor. Hence, there should be no inequality between races or repugnant racism. The criteria for excellence and preference shall be righteousness, good deeds and working for the common good (The noblest of you before Allah is the most righteous of you) [al-Hujurat 49: 13]. The difference is one of the main objectives of creation. It shall entail coming to know and cooperate with one another, rather than rivalry, antagonism, and arrogance.  Dialog and Coming to Common Terms: Dialog with the other is a civil imperative to build a compassionate human model. This is the premise for cultural exchange and cross-fertilization, the exchange of useful experiences serving the humanity of humans, and coming together to promote growth and prosperity on earth. Humanity has much in common regarding what could serve upright conduct and promote human welfare and prosperity on earth.  Utilizing the Islamic experience in knowing and building fair normal relations with other this could be found in the writings of religious scholars, comparative religion scholars, Muslim geographists and travelers. These writings have yielded a wide network of ties with the East and West and these efforts have contributed to the establishment of the just and prosperous Islamic civilization, as Muslims depended on the overriding Qur'anic rule (God does not forbid you to deal kindly and justly with anyone who has not fought you for your faith or driven you out of your homes: God loves the just. However, God forbids you to take as allies those who have fought against you for your faith, driven you out of your homes, and helped others to drive you out: any of you who take them as allies will truly be wrongdoers) [Al-Mumtahinah 60: 8-9]. Let us not prejudice the reader, as the cited studies are through and sufficient. The published papers encourage researchers to make their contributions, criticisms, questioning and additions, which will benefit all. It is worth noting that while this JCSIS special issue on “Occidentalist Thought in Contemporary Intellectual Discourse” is being published, Qatar University Press is preparing to publish the first parts of the “Encyclopedia of Occidentalism”; which is the first of its kind largest intellectual encyclopedia in the Arab and Islamic world that studies and focuses on the West. These encyclopedia’s entries have been written by more than eighty researchers from four continents (Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America). It is being issued in collaboration between a number of entities, including; the Qatari Committee for the Alliance of Civilizations (QCAC) at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the ISESCO Chair in Alliance of Civilizations, and the College of Sharia and Islamic Studies at Qatar University.

Introduction Daffodil Day, usually held in spring, raises funds for cancer awareness and research using this symbol of hope. On that day, people who donate money to this good cause are usually given a yellow daffodil pin to wear. When I lived in Auckland, New Zealand, on the last Friday in August most people walking around the city centre proudly wore a cheerful yellow flower. So many people generously participated in this initiative that one almost felt obliged to join the cause in order to wear the ‘uniform’ – the daffodil pin – as everyone else did on that day. To donate and to wear a daffodil is the social expectation, and operating in social environment people often endeavour to meet the expectation by doing the ‘appropriate things’ defined by societies or communities. After all, who does not like to receive a beam of acceptance and appreciation from a fellow daffodil bearer in Auckland’s Queen Street? States in international society are no different. In some ways, states wear ‘uniforms’ while executing domestic and foreign affairs just as human beings do within their social groups. States develop the understandings of desirable behaviour from the international community with which they interact and identify. They are ‘socialised’ to act in line with the expectations of international community. These expectations are expressed in the form of international norms, a prescriptive set of ideas about the ‘appropriate behaviour for actors with a given identity’ (Finnemore and Sikkink 891). Motivated by this logic of appropriateness, states that comply with certain international norms in world politics justify and undertake actions that are considered appropriate for their identities. This essay starts with examining how international norms can be spread to different countries through the process of ‘state socialisation’ (how the countries are ‘talked into’ wearing the ‘uniform’). Second, the essay investigates the idea of ‘cultural match’: how domestic actors comply with an international norm by interpreting and manipulating it according to their local political and legal practices (how the countries wear the ‘uniform’ differently). Lastly, the essay probes the current international normative community and the liberal values embedded in major international norms (whether states would continue wearing the ‘uniform’). International Norms and State Socialisation: Why Do States Wear the ‘Uniforms’? Norm diffusion is related to the efforts of ‘norm entrepreneurs’ using various platforms to convince a critical mass of states to embrace new norms (Finnemore and Sikkink 895-896). Early studies of norm diffusion tend to emphasise nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) as norm entrepreneurs and advocates, such as Oxfam and its goal of reducing poverty and hunger worldwide (Capie 638). In other empirical research, intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) were shown to serve as ‘norm teachers,’ such as UNESCO educating developing countries the value of science policy organisations (Finnemore 581-586). Additionally, states and other international actors can also play important roles in norm diffusion. Powerful states with more communication resources sometimes enjoy advantages in creating and promoting new norms (Florini 375). For example, the United States and Western European countries have often been considered as the major proponents of free trade. Norm emergence and state socialisation in a normative community often occurs during critical historical periods, such as wars and major economic downturns, when international changes and domestic crises often coincide with each other (Ikenberry and Kupchan 292). For instance, the norm entrepreneurs of ‘responsible power/state’ can be traced back to the great powers (mainly the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union) and their management of international order at the end of WWII (see Bull). With their negotiations and series of international agreements at the Cairo, Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam Conference in the 1940s, these great powers established a post-World War international society based on the key liberal values of international peace and security, free trade, human rights, and democracy. Human beings are not born to know what appropriate behaviour is; we learn social norms from parents, schools, peers, and other community members. International norms are collective expectations and understanding of how state governments should approach their domestic and foreign affairs. States ‘learn’ international norms while socialising with a normative community. From a sociological perspective, socialisation summarises ‘how and to what extent diverse individuals are meshed with the requirement of collective life’ at the societal level (Long and Hadden 39). It mainly consists of the process of training and shaping newcomers by the group members and the social adjustment of novices to the normative framework and the logic of appropriateness (Long and Hadden 39). Similarly, social psychology defines socialisation as the process in which ‘social organisations influence the action and experience of individuals’ (Gold and Douvan 145). Inspired by sociology and psychology, political scientists consider socialisation to be the mechanism through which norm entrepreneurs persuade other actors (usually a norm novice) to adhere to a particular prescriptive standard (Johnston, “Social State” 16). Norm entrepreneurs can change novices’ behaviour by the methods of persuasion and social influence (Johnston, “Treating International Institutions” 496-506). Socialisation sometimes demands that individual actors should comply with organisational norms by changing their interests or preferences (persuasion). Norm entrepreneurs often attempt to construct an appealing cognitive frame in order to persuade the novices (either individuals or states) to change their normative preferences or adopt new norms. They tend to use language that can ‘name, interpret and dramatise’ the issues related to the emerging norm (Finnemore and Sikkink 987). As a main persuasive device, ‘framing’ can provide a singular interpretation and appropriate behavioural response for a particular situation (Payne 39). Cognitive consistency theory found in psychology has suggested the mechanism of ‘analogy’, which indicates that actors are more likely to accept new ideas that share some similarities to the extant belief or ideas that they have already accepted (see Hybel, ch. 2). Based on this understanding, norm entrepreneurs usually frame issues in a way that can associate and resonate with the shared value of the targeted novices (Payne 43). For example, Finnemore’s research shows that when it promoted the creation of state science bureaucracies in the 1960s, UNESCO associated professional science policy-making with the appropriate role of a modern state, which was well received by the post-war developing countries in Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia (Finnemore 565-597). Socialisation can also emanate actors’ pro-norm behaviour through a cost-benefit calculation made with social rewards and punishments (social influence). A normative community can use the mechanism of back-patting and opprobrium to distribute social reward and punishment. Back-patting – ‘recognition, praise and normative support’ – is offered for a novice’s or member’s cooperative and pro-norm behaviour (Johnston, “Treating International Institutions” 503). In contrast, opprobrium associated with status denial and identity rejection can create social and psychological costs (Johnston 504). Both the reward and punishment grow in intensity with the number of co-operators (Johnston 504). A larger community can often create more criticism towards rule-breakers, and thus greatly increase the cost of disobedience. For instance, the lack of full commitment from major powers, such as China, the United States, and some other OECD countries, has arguably made global collective action towards mitigating climate change more difficult, as the cost of non-compliance is relatively low. While being in a normative environment, novice or emerging states that have not yet been socialised into the international community can respond to persuasion and social influence through the processes of identification and mimicking. Social psychology indicates that when one actor accepts persuasion or social influence based on its desire to build or maintain a ‘satisfying self-defining relationship’ to another actor, the mechanism of identification starts to work (Kelman 53). Identification among a social group can generate ‘obligatory’ behaviour, where individual states make decisions by attempting to match their perceptions of ‘who they are’ (national identity) with the expectation of the normative community (Glodgeier and Tetlock 82). After identifying with the normative community, a novice state would then mimic peer states’ pro-norm behaviour in order to be considered as a qualified member of the social group. For example, when the Chinese government was deliberating over its ratification of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety in 2003, a Ministry of Environmental Protection brief noted that China should ratify the Protocol as soon as possible because China had always been a country ‘keeping its word’ in international society, and non-ratification would largely ‘undermine China’s international image and reputation’ (Ministry of Environmental Protection of PRC). Despite the domestic industry’s disagreement with entering into the Protocol, the Chinese government’s self-identification as a ‘responsible state’ that performs its international promises and duties played an important role in China’s adoption of the international norm of biosafety. Domestic Salience of International Norms: How Do States Wear the ‘Uniforms’ Differently? Individual states do not accept international norms passively; instead, state governments often negotiate and interact with domestic actors, such as major industries and interest groups, whose actions and understandings in turn impact on how the norm is understood and implemented. This in turn feeds back to the larger normative community and creates variations of those norms. There are three main factors that can contribute to the domestic salience of an international norm. First, as the norm-takers, domestic actors can decide whether and to what extent an international norm can enter the domestic agenda and how it will be implemented in policy-making. These actors tend to favour an international norm that can justify their political and social programs and promote their interests in domestic policy debates (Cortell and Davis, “How Do International Institutions Matter?” 453). By advocating the existence and adoption of an international norm, domestic actors attempt to enhance the legitimacy and authority of their current policy or institution (Acharya, “How Ideas Spread” 248). Political elites can strengthen state legitimacy by complying with an international norm in their policy-making, and consequently obtain international approval with reputation, trust, and credibility as social benefits in the international community (Finnemore and Sikkink 903). For example, when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), only four states – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United States – voted against the Declaration. They argued that their constitutional and national policies were sufficiently responsive to the type of Indigenous self-determination envisioned by UNDRIP. Nevertheless, given the opprobrium directed against these states by the international community, and their well-organised Indigenous populations, the four state leaders recognised the value of supporting UNDRIP. Subsequently all four states adopted the Declaration, but in each instance state leaders observed UNDRIP’s ‘aspirational’ rather than legal status; UNDRIP was a statement of values that these states’ policies should seek to incorporate into their domestic Indigenous law. Second, the various cultural, political, and institutional strategies of domestic actors can influence the effectiveness of norm empowerment. Political rhetoric and political institutions are usually created and used to promote a norm domestically. Both state and societal leaders can make the performative speech act of an international norm work and raise its importance in a national context by repeated declarations on the legitimacy and obligations brought by the norm (Cortell and Davis, “Understanding the Domestic Impact” 76). Moreover, domestic actors can also develop or modify political institutions to incorporate an international norm into the domestic bureaucratic or legal system (Cortell and Davis, “Understanding the Domestic Impact” 76). These institutions provide rules for domestic actors and articulate their rights and obligations, which transforms the international norm’s legitimacy and authority into local practices. For example, the New Zealand Government adopted a non-nuclear policy in the 1980s. This policy arose from the non-nuclear movement that was leading the development of the Raratonga Treaty (South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone) and peace and Green party movements across Europe who sought to de-nuclearise the European continent. The Lange Labour Government’s 1984 adoption of an NZ anti-nuclear policy gained impetus because of these larger norm movements, and these movements in turn recognised the normative importance of a smaller power in international relations. Third, the characteristics of the international norm can also impact on the likelihood that the norm will be accepted by domestic actors. A ‘cultural match’ between international norm and local values can facilitate norm diffusion to domestic level. Sociologists suggest that norm diffusion is more likely to be successful if the norm is congruent with the prior values and practices of the norm-taker (Acharya, “Asian Regional Institutions” 14). Norm diffusion tends to be more efficient when there is a high degree of cultural match such that the global norm resonates with the target country’s domestic values, beliefs or understandings, which in turn can be reflected in national discourse, as well as the legal and bureaucratic system (Checkel 87; Cortell and Davis, “Understanding the Domestic Impact” 73). With such cultural consistency, domestic actors are more likely to accept an international norm and treat it as a given or as ‘matter-of-fact’ (Cortell and Davis, “Understanding the Domestic Impact” 74). Cultural match in norm localisation explains why identical or similar international socialisation processes can lead to quite different local developments and variations of international norms. The debate between universal human rights and the ‘Asian values’ of human rights is an example where some Asian states, such as Singapore and China, prioritise citizen’s economic rights over social and political rights and embrace collective rights instead of individual rights. Cultural match can also explain why one country may easily accept a certain international norm, or some aspect of one particular norm, while rejecting others. For example, when Taiwanese and Japanese governments adapted the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples into their local political and legal practice, various cultural aspects of Indigenous rights have been more thoroughly implemented compared to indigenous economic and political rights (Gao et al. 60-65). In some extreme cases, the norm entrepreneurs even attempt to change the local culture of norm recipients to create a better cultural match for norm localisation. For example, when it tried to socialise India into its colonial system in the early nineteenth century, Britain successfully shaped the evolution of Indian political culture by adding British values and practices into India’s social, political, and judicial system (Ikenberry and Kupchan 307-309). The International Normative Community: Would States Continue Wearing ‘Uniforms’? International norms evolve. Not every international norm can survive and sustain. For example, while imperialism and colonial expansion, where various European states explored, conquered, settled, and exploited other parts of the world, was a widely accepted idea and practice in the nineteenth century, state sovereignty, equality, and individual rights have replaced imperialism and become the prevailing norms in international society today. The meanings of the same international norm can evolve as well. The Great Powers first established the post-war international norms of ‘state responsibility’ based on the idea of sovereign equality and non-intervention of domestic affairs. However, the 1980s saw the emergence of many international organisations, which built new standards and offered new meanings for a responsible state in international society: a responsible state must actively participate in international organisations and comply with international regimes. In the post-Cold War era, international society has paid more attention to states’ responsibility to offer global common goods and to promote the values of human rights and democracy. This shift of focus has changed the international expectation of state responsibility again to embrace collective goods and global values (Foot, “Chinese Power” 3-11). In addition to the nature and evolution of international norms, the unity and strength of the normative community can also affect states’ compliance with the norms. The growing size of the community group or the number of other cooperatives can amplify the effect of socialisation (Johnston, “Treating International Institutions” 503-506). In other words, individual states are often more concerned about their national image, reputation and identity regarding norm compliance when a critical mass of states have already subscribed into the international norm. How much could this critical mass be? Finnemore and Sikkink suggest that international norms reach the threshold global acceptance when the norm entrepreneurs have persuaded at least one third of all states to adopt the new norm (901). The veto record of the United Nation Security Council (UNSC) shows this impact. China, for example, has cast a UNSC veto vote 17 times as of 2022, but it has rarely excised its veto power alone (Security Council Report). For instance, though being sceptical of the notion of ‘Responsibility to Protect’, which prioritises human right over state sovereignty, China did not veto Resolution 1973 (2011) regarding the Libyan civil war. The Resolution allowed the international society to take ‘all necessary measure to protect civilians’ from a failed state government, and it received wide support among UNSC members (no negative votes from the other 14 members). Moreover, states are not entirely equal in terms of their ‘normative weight’. When Great Powers act as norm entrepreneurs, they can usually utilise their wealth and influence to better socialise other norm novice states. In the history of promoting biological diversity norms which are embedded in the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the OECD countries, especially France, UK, Germany, and Japan, have been regarded as normative leaders. French and Japanese political leaders employed normative language (such as ‘need’ and ‘must’) in various international forums to promote the norms and to highlight their normative commitment (see e.g. Chirac; Kan). Additionally, both governments provided financial assistance for developing countries to adopt the biodiversity norms. In the 2011 annual review of CBD, Japan reaffirmed its US$12 million contribution to assisting developing countries (Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity 9). France joined Japan’s commitment by announcing a financial contribution of €1 million along, with some additional funding from Norway and Switzerland (Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity 9). Today, biological diversity has been one of the most widely accepted international environmental norms, which 196 states/nations have ratified (United Nations). While Great Powers can make more substantial contributions to norm diffusion compared to many smaller powers with limited state capacity, Great Powers’ non-compliance with the normative ‘uniform’ can also significantly undermine the international norms’ validity and the normative community’s unity and reputation. The current normative community of climate change is hardly a unified one, as it is characterised by a low degree of consensus. Major industrial countries, such as the United States, Canada, and Australia, have not yet reached an agreement concerning their individual responsibilities for reducing greenhouse emissions. This lack of agreement, which includes the amount of cuts, the feasibility and usefulness of such cuts, and the relative sharing of cuts across various states, is complicated by the fact that large developing countries, such as China, Brazil, and India, also hold different opinions towards climate change regimes (see Vidal et al.). Experts heavily criticised the major global powers, such as the European Union and the United States, for their lack of ambition in phasing out fossil fuels during the 2022 climate summit in Egypt (COP27; Ehsan et al.). In international trade, both China and the United States are among the leading powers because of their large trade volume, capacity, and transnational network; however, both countries have recently undermined the world trade system and norms. China took punitive measures against Australian export products after Australia’s Covid-19 inquiry request at the World Health Organisation. The United States, particularly under the Trump Administration, invoked the WTO national security exception in Article XXI of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) to justify its tariffs on steel and aluminium. Lastly, norm diffusion and socialisation can be a ‘two-way path,’ especially when the norm novice state is a powerful and influential state in the international system. In this case, the novices are not merely assimilated into the group, but can also successfully exert some influence on other group members and affect intra-group relations (Moreland 1174). As such, the novices can be both targets of socialisation and active agents who can shape the content and outcome of socialisation processes (Pu 344). The influence from the novices can create normative contestation and thus influence the norm evolution (Thies 547). In other words, novice states can influence international society and shape the international norm during the socialisation process. For example, the ‘ASEAN Way’ is a set of norms that regulate member states’ relationships within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It establishes a diplomatic and security culture characterised by informality, consultation, and dialogue, and consensus-building in decision-making processes (Caballero-Anthony). From its interaction with ASEAN, China has been socialised into the ‘ASEAN Way’ (Ba 157-159). Nevertheless, China’s relations with the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) also suggest that there exists a ‘feedback’ process between China and ARF which resulted in institutional changes in ARF to accommodate China’s response (Johnston, “The Myth of the ASEAN Way?” 291). For another example, while the Western powers generally promote the norm of ‘shared responsibility’ in global environment regimes, the emerging economies, such as the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), have responded to the normative engagement and proposed a ‘Common but Differentiated Responsibilities’ regime where the developing countries shoulder less international obligations. Similarly, the Western-led norm of ‘Responsibility to Protect’, which justifies international humanitarian intervention, has received much resistance from the countries that only adhere to the conventional international rules regarding state sovereignty rights and non-intervention to domestic affairs. Conclusion International norms are shared expectations about what constitutes appropriate state behaviour. They are the ‘uniforms’ for individual states to wear when operating at the international level. States comply with international norms in order to affirm their preferred national identities as well as to gain social acceptance and reputation in the normative community. When the normative community is united and sizable, states tend to receive more social pressure to consistently wear these normative uniforms – be they the Geneva Conventions or nuclear non-proliferation. Nevertheless, in the post-pandemic world where liberal values, such as individual rights and rule of law, face significant challenges and democracies are in decline, the future success of the global normative community may be at risk. Great Powers are especially responsible for the survival and sustainability of international norms. The United States under President Trump adopted a nationalist ‘America First’ security agenda: alienating traditional allies, befriending authoritarian regimes previously shunned, and rejecting multilateralism as the foundation of the post-war global order. While the West has been criticised of failing to live up to its declared values, and has suffered its own loss of confidence in the liberal model, the rising powers have offered their alternative version of the world system. Instead of merely adapting to the Western-led global norms, China has created new institutions, such as the Belt and Road Initiatives, to promote its own preferred values, and has reshaped the global order where it deems the norms undesirable (Foot, “Chinese Power in a Changing World Order” 7). Great Power participation has reshaped the landscape of global normative community, and sadly not always in positive ways. Umberto Eco lamented the disappearance of the beauty of the past in his novel The Name of the Rose: ‘stat rosa pristina nomine, nomina nuda tenemus’ ('yesterday’s rose endures in its name, we hold empty names'; Eco 538). If the international community does not want to witness an era where global norms and universal values are reduced to nominalist symbols, it must renew and reinvigorate its commitment to global values, such as human rights and democracy. It must consider wearing these uniforms again, properly. 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