Journal articles on the topic 'Relational Buffer Zones'

AbstractAmidst calls for containing an assertive Russia, politicians and pundits have been debating whether Ukraine should serve as a ‘buffer zone’ between the Russian and Western spheres of influence. These debates provide an opportunity to revisit the long and varied history of major powers’ efforts to manage buffer zones. We draw on this history to learn the conditions under which buffer zones succeed or fail to stabilise regions, how buffers are most successfully managed, and when alternative arrangements for borderlands work better.

State security and survival are critical issues in the rough regional environment of the Horn of Africa. Ensuring security for a state and its population is a priority and a raison d'ětre for any government. The buffer zone has emerged as a key strategy for nations in the Horn of Africa to manage successfully the security challenges of the several failed states in their neighborhood. Buffer zones are established adjacent to the borders of stronger states that oversee the buffer zones' affairs directly or through proxies. This essay explores the practical aspects of power asymmetries between successful and failed states from the perspectives of two officials in successful states who deal directly with this security challenge within the constraints of current norms and practices of sovereignty. The situation in the Horn of Africa provides insights into the effects of failed states on the security of their neighbors and the challenges that failed states present to the wider international community.

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Chris Carpenter, contains highlights of paper SPE 208764, “A Better Set of Eyes: Computer Vision Technology To Monitor Safety Zones and Automate Drillpipe Tally,” by Douglas Watson, Helmerich and Payne; Kenneth Morton, CoVAR; and Sarah Kern, SPE, Helmerich and Payne, et al. The paper has not been peer reviewed. An indispensable item for every roughneck is the tally book, used to measure and count the drillpipe entering and exiting the wellbore. Traditional manual entry is prone to error, leading to potential mistakes in the calculated drilling depth and poorly sequenced lithologies. Computer vision technology has shown promise in other industries with its ability to automate similar recognition and counting tasks. A dual-use system has been developed in which the same cameras for pipe counting can be used for red-zone-entry detection, potentially enhance the safety of the drilling process. A Dual-Use System: Monitor Safety Zones and Automate Drillpipe Tally Drilling-depth measurement commonly is performed using the drillpipe itself, and it happens in two places. It is first measured using a tape measure or pipe strap as the pipe lies on the pipe delivery system (PDS) rack before it is loaded into the stands. Then, the pipe segments are counted above the rig floor as the pipes enter and exit the borehole. This count, combined with the pipe-tally measurements, is used to determine the depth of the hole. These two work locations—ground-level PDS and rig floor—also are areas where existing procedures are in place to reduce the likelihood of serious injury. In the case of the PDS area, where pipe lengths are measured, it is dangerous to enter any time the PDS is in operation. This dangerous red zone is defined as 45 ft on each side of the PDS. Numerous industry advances over the years have made the area safer. These methods, including buffer zones (creating an understood area not to be entered or to be avoided for personal safety) and barricades (a physical block or reminder to manage entry into a high-risk buffer zone), communicate visually the potential for hazardous situations. While proper inspection, planning, and buffer-zone and barricade procedure development does communicate the safety-critical nature of the PDS environment, the potential remains for dropped-object events and tubular-handling events that can cause significant injuries or fatalities.

Abstract It is widely believed that international law does not enable to protect effectively the wreck of the ms Estonia against looting. The protection regime established under the 1995 ms Estonia Treaty is binding and violations against it can be effectively sanctioned in respect of only the nationals of its few States Parties, resulting in numerous jurisdictional gaps. This study argues that the law of the sea and administrative law provide the means for safeguarding the ms Estonia wreck against pilferers. Estonia has repeatedly designated tiny buffer zones around relatively modern shipwrecks outside its territorial sea. Finland can follow this practice in relation to the ms Estonia wreck that lies less than 19 nm from its baselines. In effect, Finland would be entitled to regulate and authorize activities directed at the shipwreck with the right to exercise its enforcement jurisdiction against persons that disturb the peace of the mass grave.

Why do similarly sized peacekeeping missions vary in their effectiveness to protect civilians in conflicts? We argue that peace operations with a large share of troops from countries with high-quality militaries are better able to deter violence from state and non-state actors and create buffer zones within conflict areas, can better reach remote locations, and have superior capabilities – including diplomatic pressure by troop contributing countries – to monitor the implementation of peace agreements. These operational advantages enable them to better protect civilians. Combining data from military expenditures of troop contributing countries together with monthly data on the composition of peace operations, we create a proxy indicator for the average troop quality of UN PKOs. Statistical evidence from an extended sample of conflicts in Africa and Asia between 1991 and 2010 supports our argument.

The trend of increasing automation and integration of digital work flows continues in all disciplines within the industry. An obvious driver is the increasing digital nature of our world; today’s phones and tablets connected to the cloud perhaps have more computing capabilities than supercomputers from 5 or 10 years ago. Another key driver, arguably the reason why intelligent operations came on the radar of most companies, is being able to improve safety and efficiency in the complex operations that are routinely performed in the oil patch. The last couple of years, I have highlighted efforts around remote operations of fields, smart wells, and the acquisition and integration of real-time data. This year, I have focused on recent drilling-related papers that highlight how safety and performance can be improved with more intelligent operations. Paper SPE 208711 discusses a key requirement I see for successful intelligent operations, especially when the operations span disciplines and companies. Having a standard, consistent, and unambiguous lexicon is critical for automation and digital work flows. This paper highlights an effort to spur the standardization of codes across companies to describe drilling, completions, and other well activities. Anybody who has gone through old well files will recognize immediately the value and the need for such standardization of well activity codes. The other two papers (SPE 208764 and SPE 208784) highlight how automation can lead to increased safety on rigs during operations. Companies are using a combination of cameras, wearables, and other technology to monitor personnel in safety zones on rigs to ensure no one is unknowingly in the wrong spot at the wrong time. A familiar analog to this would be the safety improvements in driving because of collision-avoidance systems in cars (where a combination of technologies including cameras, radar, and lidar are used). Standardization of Well Activity Codes. - Paper SPE 208711 describes the efforts of one operator to standardize well activity reporting codes. A key highlighted improvement is a new coding system that captures both what was done (the typical focus of historical well activity codes) and the broader context on why the activity was performed. The new codes have enabled more granular tracking of performance metrics and a simplification of reporting. Significantly, the operator has recognized the need for a standardized set of codes across the industry and has donated the codes they have developed to an industrywide open-source environment. I hope this spurs wider adoption and refinement of reporting standards across the industry. Using Computer Vision To Monitor Safety Zones and Automate Drillpipe Tallies. - Paper SPE 208764 highlights how digitalization can result in safer operations and improved accuracy through the automation of manual tasks. The paper discusses a computer vision system coupled with a neural network model that detects if any personnel are within a restricted pipe-delivery red zone at an unsafe time and sets off an audible warning alarm. The paper also describes how the use of multiple cameras on different levels of the mast automates the measurement and tallying of the drillpipe being run into the hole. Both these aspects have enhanced existing processes (such as the use of buffer zones and barricades and the manual counting of drill pipe) to further improve safety and accuracy. This article in JPT might also be of interest. Automatic Kick Detection and Dynamic Well Monitoring. - Paper SPE 208784 discusses how to reduce the time gap between when drilling operators detect a kick and when they activate the blowout preventers (BOPs). The paper identifies accurate positioning of the drillstring before activating BOPs as a critical step that affects the time gap. The paper describes an architecture that allows automation of the space-out operation and achieves quick and accurate positioning of the tool joint with minimum movement of the drillstring. A critical enabler that the authors describe is being aware in real time of the depth of each tool joint in the wellbore.

Khrushchev’s foreign policy (1953–1964) that characterized by the strategy of “balancing on the edge” is usually recognized as erroneous. Immediately after Stalin’s death, his successors initially feared a nuclear attack from the United States, which their own Air Force and Air Defense were unable to repel or to retaliate. Therefore, in 1954–1955, the Soviet leader attempted to create a buffer zone of neutral states along the perimeter of the USSR’s borders: he stopped the Korean War, proposed the mutual withdrawal of troops from Europe, etc. After the 1955 Geneva Conference, Khrushchev began to act more courageously, because he saw that the U.S. were afraid of the USSR too and didn’t want to attack it first. Trying to use the opportunities of the European colonial empires’ disintegration, the USSR provided to the newly independent states in Asia and Africa a large-scale economic, military, technical, and political support, and first of all, to Egypt and Indonesia, which controlled the Suez Canal and the Strait of Malacca – key areas on the sea route from Europe to the Far East. The negotiations between Mao Tse Tung and Khrushchev in 1957–1958 reveals their intention to shake up the military blocs created by the Americans near the borders of the socialist camp (NATO, SEATO, the Baghdad Pact). The Soviet leader initiated a series of political crises as interconnected stages of geopolitical offensive against the US position: the Suez (1956), the Syrian (1957), the Middle East (1958), the 2nd Berlin (1958), the Caribbean (1962), etc., which brought the USSR to the brink of war.

This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Judy Feder, contains highlights of paper SPE 199429, “Road to the Blue Certificate for Production Activity in the Peruvian Amazon: Committed to Responsible Water Management,” by Carlos Ahumada Morales, Fernando Gutierrez Mesías, and Ruth Celina Zorrilla Salazar, Repsol, prepared for the 2020 SPE International Conference and Exhibition on Health, Safety, Environment, and Sustainability, originally scheduled to be held in Bogota, Colombia, 28-30 July. The paper has not been peer reviewed. The complete paper discusses the steps taken by Repsol in Peru in accordance with its environmental strategy to become certified for the Blue Certificate granted by the State National Water Authority (ANA) to companies that efficiently manage water in their operations and manage shared-value projects with their stakeholders. According to the authors, Repsol is the first company in Peru’s hydrocarbon sector to apply for this certification. The complete paper details the company’s methods of compliance with the three steps necessary to apply for the certificate, limitations of objectives and scope, results of the water-footprint assessment, and further steps toward certification. Background: Peru’s Blue Certificate Obtaining the certificate requires compliance with the three following steps: 1. Assessment of the water footprint for the area of operation 2. Reduction of water footprint in the area 3. Development of a shared-value project Benefits of holding the certificate include contribution to business sustainability and improved relationships with key stakeholders such as the State and the communities in the area of influence. As part of its candidacy for the certificate, the company stated that its main objective was to analyze the water footprint of the annual production of natural gas in Block 57 in the Urubamba River basin in the forests of the low jungle of southern Peru. Block 57 is located in the Department of Cusco. The company prepared a water-footprint report on the effect and amount of water consumption associated with the annual production of natural gas in the block. Block 57 is in an area of high biodiversity and overlaps the buffer zone of the Machiguenga Communal Reserve. It includes the following projects: Development project in the south area of the Kinteroni field Transport of multiphase gas/liquid flow from the production platform of the Kinteroni field through a 16-in., 14.5-km flow line to the facilities of the New World location Sagari field-development project Based on the results of the water-footprint assessment, Repsol intends to implement actions to reduce its water footprint and develop value-sharing projects to mitigate its effects.

Abstract The recent Russian invasion of Ukraine has led many commentators to remark that ‘geopolitics is back’. And with geopolitics, the interest in buffer zones is back as well. Yet, International Relations scholarship on buffer zones is confusing and outdated. Scholars disagree on the definition of buffer zones and whether such zones are a vestige of the great power politics of the past or a continuous phenomenon. In this article, we take three steps to reconceptualize buffer zones and their role in international relations. First, we clarify the conceptual confusion by advancing a new definition differentiating between nominal and active buffer zones. Second, we make the case that buffer states and internal buffer zones (i.e., geographic borderlands located within states in rivalry, adjacent to the international borders between the two rivals) share much in common and therefore should be analysed in tandem. Third, we offer a typology of buffer zones with short case-studies based on the dyadic relations of rival states vis-à-vis buffer zones between them. Our goal is to provide a new analytical framework that can serve as a base for a robust research agenda on the role of buffer zones in regional and international stability and security.

There is a shift in university-based social research towards interdisciplinary working and collaboration with non-academic partners, which requires a reconsideration of methodological concepts and research practices. In this article, we draw on intensive collaborative action research (CAR) into public service reform to demonstrate how this ‘collaborative shift’ both challenges and creates new considerations for mainstream research approaches. We contend that the contemporary emphasis on research collaborations creates challenges for both social science researchers and non-academic partners, which require greater conceptual consideration. Researchers need to engage in distinctive, significant and ongoing relational, pragmatic and political work in multi-agency contexts. We present the concept of a ‘buffer zone’: a dynamic, contextual space and set of practices necessary to undertake participatory research within complex and changeable settings. This has implications for research management, design, funding and training.

The ‘buffer zone’ frames the contested space that university researchers must persistently animate and mediate to successfully pursue participatory research with public and third sector partners. This article explores this conceptualisation through a consideration of political and ethical dilemmas in participatory research practice. We contend that participatory researchers must identify, respond to and reflect on everyday and momentous dilemmas by combining technical, relational and political skills. We illustrate this by drawing on extensive collaborative action research conducted with public service partners as part of the What Works Scotland programme (2014–2019). By critically reflecting on university research realities, this article shares insights into complex multi-agency participatory research dilemmas; offers methodological, conceptual, ethical and political evidence to help university researchers navigate such contexts, notably by engaging the buffer zone and finally, considers how universities and research funders should better support participatory research practices.

As it turns 60, the European Union appears engulfed in a crisis. In response to this, political actors have recently advocated a multi-speed Europe. A metaphor for the central idea is the integration highway: since member states are already moving with different speeds, countries need to be separated into different lanes to avoid a major accident. Although the idea of a multi-speed Europe has been criticised as an abatement of the initial dream of simultaneous European integration, this commentary views it as a realpolitik that will allow for greater flexibility in decision-making at times when a fast response to financial, humanitarian and security challenges is imperative. To illustrate this, a scenario is presented on how a multi-speed Europe policy can be applied within the Eurozone to shape two parallel common currency zones. A meticulous application of the multi-speed Europe principle to the Eurozone could address the shortcomings of the initial monetary integration plan and protect the long-term interests of the continent and beyond.

This paper provides a genealogy of the emergence of a common EU flood policy, including the scope and direction of this policy. Noticing how EU policy proposes green infrastructure (associated with using nature as a buffer zone in managing floods) as an alternative to grey infrastructure (implying fixed installations of concrete and cement), this paper adopts the theoretical lens of the so-called infrastructural turn, which advocates a relational investigation of infrastructure. By engaging this approach, the paper shows how flood infrastructure can contain very different compositions of (unruly) water and (settled) land. A narrative of a historically strong focus on guarding society from the powerful forces of nature through a fixed line of defense is increasingly giving way to more muddy states—quite literally—where society is expected to learn to live with flooding and show ecological consideration. To capture the EU’s, and especially the European Commission’s efforts to establish a pan-European flood infrastructure that accommodates this turn, the concepts of de- and re-infrastructuring are developed. These concepts act as heuristic devices to capture how policy performs some combinations between water and land as constituting an attractive and functional flood infrastructure, but constitutes other infrastructural relations of the aquatic and the terrestrial as undesirable and, hence, as malfunctioning. This performative act of distinguishing between what constitutes “good and proper” versus “bad and undesirable” infrastructure is referred to as a politics of infrastructure.

Abstract By approaching outsourcing through an ethnographic lens, this article focuses on the policies that enable public authorities to deal with the many uncertainties of refugee reception. It investigates how cantonal (subnational) governments in Switzerland remodel these uncertainties by implementing the policy of reception through private intermediaries, namely actors, instruments, and rationalities from the private sphere. The analysis shows that by thickening the interface between the decision-making and implementation spheres, these elements constitute a multilayer buffer zone that dilutes, absorbs, and also shifts the insecurities related to the governance of refugee reception. The article argues that the use of private intermediaries enables the state to ‘navigate within’ unpredictable temporalities and realities, but also to ‘govern through’ uncertainty as it is transferred and (re)produced in the implementation work carried out by the mandated organizations. This article thus apprehends uncertainty as a structural and organisational condition and a mechanism that together shape how different governmental actors engage with (the reception of) refugees.