Social Networking Addiction

The last decade witnessed an explosion of social networks such as Myspace and Facebook, which added a new social dimension to the web. While such networks have made people, communities and groups with shared interests stay more â€Å"connected,† Internet addiction and social network addiction in particular also started being recognized as psychological disorders all over the world. While several 90? studies focused on Internet addiction, the next decade saw the growth of a new addiction related to all manner of social networking sites, especially the current king of the jungle: Facebook. In a recent study from the University of Athens, Greek psychiatrists argued that a woman who had gone as far as losing her job on account of her compulsion to check and update her Facebook, could be identified as a â€Å"social network addict. † Of course, there are different levels of social network addiction. Another recent study carried out at a Czech University analyzed Facebook-related academic procrastination. Though based on a sample too small to draw any general conclusions, one interesting finding of the research was that people tended to be unaware of just how much time they really spent on Facebook, and the effect this might have on their academic performance. On the other hand, it has been noted that there may be a correlation between low self-esteem and a sense of social inadequacy and social network addiction. It seems that many types of social interaction which would present great challenges in the real world for certain types of individuals have been rendered much easier for them in the virtual world, thus putting them at a higher risk of becoming addicted to Facebook and the like. A Mexican study found that Facebook addicts (a category defined by reportedly spending over four hours everyday on Facebook) had a higher incidence of depression and lower physical and general self-esteem levels than less frequent Facebook users. There are many factors that determine the characteristics of Internet and social network addictions in different parts of the world. The nature and scope of these problems are not only affected by technological advancement and the number of computers connected to the Internet per capita and other such quantitative data, but cultural factors are also key in determining the local incidence of these addictions. While social network addiction is not included in the DSM IV, many researchers advocated its inclusion in DSM V, which is currently under way. For example, in a 2008 editorial for the American Journal of Psychiatry, IAD (Internet Addiction Disorder) inclusion advocate Dr. Jerald Block cited the case of South Korea, stating that: After a series of 10 cardiopulmonary-related deaths in Internet cafes  and a game-related murder, South Korea considers Internet addiction one of its most serious public health issues. Using data from 2006, the South Korean government estimates that approximately 210,000 South Korean children (2. %; ages 6–19) are afflicted and require treatment. About 80% of those needing treatment may need psychotropic medications, and perhaps 20% to 24% require hospitalization. Since the average South Korean high school student spends about 23 hours each week gaming, another 1. 2 million are believed to be at risk for addiction and to require basic counseling. In particular, therapists worry about the increasing number of individuals dropping out from school or work to spend time on computers. As of June 2007, South Korea has trained 1,043 counselors in the treatment of Internet addiction and enlistedover 190 hospitals and treatment centers. Nevertheless, the DSMV V draft released earlier this year revealed â€Å"work group members decided there was insufficient research data† to include Internet addiction in the newly created â€Å"behavioral addictions† category. It has been over 13 years since pioneer Kimberley S. Young adapted the DSM IV criteria for gambling addictions to define Internet addiction. While her proposed diagnosis criteria have virally spread (to use a familiar term related to social networking) all over the world, it seems that the scientific community is not yet ready to reach a consensus as to what this type of addiction entails. Social networks have changed the ways we interact with each other enormously. One thing that has changed dramatically is the concept of meeting people. This was brought to my attention a couple of weeks ago, when I met a musician for the first time, whom I had casually crossed online a couple of times. Oddly enough, none of us acted as if this were a â€Å"first meeting. † Another thing that called my attention was when another musician said from the stage â€Å"thank you for coming; because a lot of people say they are attending on Facebook but they never show up. † This also made me think about how much time we are devoting to talking about Facebook, even when we are offline, and how many times we log on to Facebook to show our friends something, even during actual person-to-person meetings or social gatherings. Every drug has a gratification component, and, if social networks are causing an addiction, they must have one too. A very interesting study from the University of Bath tried to identify these gratifications, concluding that: Users derive a variety of uses and gratifications from social networking sites, including traditional content gratification alongside building social capital, communication, surveillance and social networking surfing. The different uses and gratifications relate differentially to patterns of usage, with social connection gratifications tending to lead to increased frequency of use, and content gratifications to increased time spent on the site. While the incidence of social network addictions in other parts of the world may not be as dramatic as Internet gaming addictions, for example, seem to be in some Asian countries, the rapid growth of social networks both in reach and in the number of interaction possibilities, poses new problems everyday for the elaboration of solid diagnostic criteria. From academic procrastination to social impairment as far as real physical interactions are concerned, diminished productivity at work and physical problems associated with a sedentary lifestyle; there seem to be enough problems related to Internet and social network addictions to give researchers enough to work on for many years to come. References Karaiskos, D. , Tzavellas, E. , Balta, G. , & Paparrigopoulos, T. (2010). P02-232 – Social network addiction : a new clinical disorder? European Psychiatry, 25, 855-855 DOI:10. 1016/S0924-9338(10)70846-4 Holbova, P. Academic procrastination on Facebook. Masaryk University, Czech Republic. Herrera, M. , Pacheco, M. , Palomar, J. , Zavala, D. Facebook Addiction Related to Low Self-Esteem, Depression and Lack of  Social Skills. Psicologia Iberoamericana,  Vol. 18 No. 1 (2010). Block, J. (2008). Issues for DSM-V: Internet Addiction  American Journal of Psychiatry, 165(3), 306-307 DOI:  10. 1176/appi. ajp. 2007. 07101556 Report on the American Psychiatric Association’s revisions for DSM V. YOUNG, K. (1998). Internet Addiction: The Emergence of a New Clinical DisorderCyberPsychology & Behavior, 1  (3), 237-244 DOI:  10. 1089/cpb. 1998. 1. 237

Pivotal Talent Pools and Role Challenges Essay Essay Example

Pivotal Talent Pools and Role Challenges Essay Essay Example Pivotal Talent Pools and Role Challenges Essay Paper Pivotal Talent Pools and Role Challenges Essay Paper Pivotal Talent Pools and Role Challenges Davis Young provides a wide array of litigation support products and services. Its core business is tied to the insurance defense industry. The primary customer base includes regional and national insurance companies. The key strategic elements that the Firm uses for differentiation are superior customer service, high product quality, and a solid reputation (brand). I can only assume you have revamped your Deliverable 1 to support this part. I am a bit concerned that you have yet to get a handle on strategy ececution. They are owned by 13 practicing Senior Attorneys, all responsible for maintaining a full trial docket. Various subsets of this group provide strategic leadership, handle or lead large accounts, and act as management for the Firm. A large percentage of the daily work load falls to the eight Associate Attorneys. These Junior Attorneys cost less than the Senior Attorneys and are relied upon to provide a wide range of deliverables such as legal research, brief writing, and daily interaction with the clients (customers) with minimal supervision. Other administrative duties are handled by the support teams. This talent pool consists primarily of Legal Assistants, Paralegals, Office Administration and Accounting. From a value chain perspective, Let’s break this down to the components of the value chain primary and support activities. It is likely that with the size of the firm that each position will serve multiple roles. The Value Chain helps us to find the pivotal Talent pools. the Owners, Associate Attorneys, Office Manager, Paralegals, and Legal Assistants would primarily be classified as Operations. They are running the operation and creating the â€Å"product† on a daily basis. However, in small organizations such as this, parts of the team will multitask into other value chain components. For instance, the Owners will manage sales and marketing by continuous client maintenance, as well as searching out new clients and landing new accounts. The Office Administrator and Office Manager do an excellent job of handling the HR function. Technology is a support function that is wholly outsourced. Three talent pools are readily identified as critical to the strategy (service, quality, reputation); the Owners, the Associate Attorneys, and Support Staff. The question to be answered in identifying which of these three is most pivotal is as follows: â€Å"for a given investment in either training of or recruiting in the talent pool could be any component of the HCA but you are getting ahead of yourself. , which would yield the largest improvements in the strategic elements? † Figure 1 illustrates the findings. Figure [ 1 ] The Owners are all senior, experienced Attorneys. They have demonstrated the ability to be effective at building relationships with the clients, delivering quality product, and protecting the brand. As such, the performance versus strategic value curve is fairly flat (once you get to the acceptable threshold). The Associate Attorneys vary in experience. There are junior Attorneys here that can show significant improvement through hands-on training programs (internal), continuing legal education (outside training programs), and active mentoring. Also, consider that these Associate Attorneys are responsible for a significant percentage of the work and client interactions. This is where the product quality and service elements are visibly manifested. Consequently, an investment in this pool has a significant payback. This can be illustrated by the higher slope on the yield curve. The support function includes a wide range of specific positions but most of them have a much higher level of supervision, less interaction with the customer, and their final work is screened by one of the attorney groups. As such their yield curve is dampened. There is still significant potential, but it is much less than that of the Associate Attorneys. This analysis identifies the Associate Attorneys as the Pivotal Talent Pool. The positions within this pool are fairly standard so the pivotal position is that of â€Å"Associate Attorney. Would the performance of the firm as defined in the strategy execution and support of competitive advantage improve if a 20% increase in quant or qual? The Associate Attorneys are pivotal due to their significant amount of customer contact and their room for growth. To identify the pivotal role challenges, we must identify the strategic deliverables for the position. For superior ser vice, we have identified a number of elements including: responsiveness to client demands; developing personal relationships; positive attitude; and dependability (delivering on commitments). Are these critical outcomes to support strategy execution? Do you have these from Del #1? The Associate Attorneys work with the clients on a daily basis. This is a pivotal role challenge. How does this interaction go? Are the associates attentive and positive? Do they connect with the client on a personal basis such that they build durable relationships? Are they participating in social events designed to strengthen and build these relationships? Demonstrating these behaviors will be critical. The associate Attorneys can be developed and trained and certain metrics can be used for elements like responsiveness. Others such as relationship building and positive attitude will require work in recruiting the right people and assimilating the existing culture. Customer feedback mechanisms should also be developed and maintained. Some customers already provide individual and firm-wide â€Å"report cards. † In addition to the pivotal role challenge as it relates to customer interaction, another pivotal challenge exists with respect to Associate Attorney interaction within the legal community at large. It is the development of these relationships that ultimately serve as the underpinnings of the relationship between the Firm and its primary customers. This is also critical in maintaining the reputation of the Firm. Within this component, relationships with judges, court personnel, opposing attorneys, and competitors are critical. Metrics can be developed to monitor the Associate Attorneys’ development with respect to these other peer groups (by speaking with the judge, opposing counsel, other attorneys involved in a particular case during the course of or at the conclusion of a particular case. Most of these other peer groups are willing to share specific information concerning attorney development and this information can be analyzed to determine whether it conforms with existing reputation standards and Firm specific cultural norms. Table 1 provides a list of skills identified as critical to delivering product quality. Table 1: Attorney Skills critical to product quality| Reporting skills| | Interaction skills| | Specific skills| Writing| | Negotiating| | Mediation| Research| | Advocacy| | Trial| Analytical| | Persuasiveness| | Interrogation| | | Speaking| | | These really belong in Del #3 – performance drivers. All of these skills can be improved through targeted training. Many are best filled by good recruiting and hiring systems. The pivot role challenges occur when the product is delivered. Does it meet the Firm’s standards? These pivot role challenges can occur as the Associate Attorney is attending a pre-trial or in mediating, arbitrating or trying a case. It can happen when they are in front of a judge advocating a position on behalf of their customer. They can occur when a brief or report is being delivered to the customer. Product quality deliverables have some tangible elements that can be measured. Standards can be developed for brief writing and other report deliverables. Mediation, arbitration and trial protocols can be developed to set a standard. In summary, the Associate Attorney is identified as the pivotal position. Pivot Role Challenges center around; customer interactions in support of the Service and Reputation strategic elements, the interaction within the general legal community in support of the Reputation, and the state of the final product in support of the Product Quality strategic element.

Cats Cradle essays

Cat's Cradle essays The novel Cat's Cradle was published in 1963, the year of the Bay of Pigs invasion. It was the height of the Cold War, and most Americans lived in fear of a fiery nuclear apocalypse. However, the author presents an alternative apocalypse, one of the "great door of heaven being closed softly" (261). In this novel, Vonnegut presents a different but equally terrifying end - a world encased in frozen ice. One of the novel's themes is how human irresponsibility can contribute to this icy end. Though Vonnegut himself warned that much of the novel consists of strange plot twists and coincidences, the strength Cat's Cradle lies in its richly drawn characters. Throughout the novel, Vonnegut presented characters whose irresponsibility helped bring much of life on This novel examines how Vonnegut uses the main and minor characters in Cat's Cradle to reflect on the consequences of human irresponsibility. John, who calls himself "Jonah," acts as the novel's narrator. The reader is told of John's cynicism through other characters. His ex-wife, for example, paints him as "too pessimistic" (77). John is also content to believe in the concept of vin-dit. Because this Bokononist concept places God at the guiding helm of one's life, belief in vin-dit can also be read as a refusal to take responsibility for one's actions. Even when he recognizes the emptiness of Bokononism, John still decides to continue the religion's charade. By doing so, he indirectly contributes to the death of thousands of Bokononist followers towards the end of the novel, when many San Lorenzans commit suicide out of faith and despair. However, John is also effectively used as a foil to highlight the irresponsibility of the novel's other characters. For example, when Angela complains about her father being unfairly compensated for his work, John points out the selfishness of this statement in l...

Investment Decision Selection Hyundai Motors & Brazil Essay

Investment Decision Selection Hyundai Motors & Brazil - Essay Example In contrast, China, one of the fastest emerging economies in the world, tries to save its domestic industries from foreign competition by imposing operational restrictions to foreign businesses. However, today China is removing such operational regulations so as to attract more potential global investors. Balance of payments (BoP) is an accounting record that keeps all trade or monetary transactions between a nation and the rest of the world. Some economists opine that the concept of balance of payments would help to analyze the difference between a country’s total exports and total imports. It is considered that a country has positive balance if it maintains a surplus of exports over imports. According to the Brazil’s Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign trade, the country kept a positive balance in 2011 by maintaining exports of US$ 256 billion over its US$226 billion imports. Reports also indicate that this approximately 30 billion surplus achieved by the country is the highest since 2007 (EcoHouse). This positive balance of payments can be directly linked to international flow of goods, services, and capital. While analyzing the Brazilian offshoring sector, it seems that the country has a range of competitive advantages in the IT and software industries. He nce many foreign companies outsource their IT and software related projects to Brazil. In addition, the country has better human capital strengths. The Brazilian government provides industrialists with extensive subsidies for R&D activities because the government greatly enhances innovations. In short, it can be stated that the country’s domestic economic behavior is favorable for international trade, which in turn facilitates cross border flow of goods, services, and capital. As it is claimed, â€Å"international flow of goods and services and the international flow of capital constitute the sum total

The understanding financial data, and developing and making judgements Essay

The understanding financial data, and developing and making judgements on proposals against strategic objectives - Essay Example In this study the researcher observed the role played by the finance and accounting function in the operation of a business. The author of the study recognized the following main functions: †¢ The raise of funds or financial management †¢ The role of financial reporting and †¢ The budgeting and organisational objectives. Financial management is a division of the finance and accounting purpose i.e. concerned with the financing of an industry’s activities. Finance is usually raised through loan capital, share capital and state finance or through inside generated funds. This report is prepared for Roberta Kelly and providing good budgeting plan to her business. It is designed to give the learners a chance to investigate the principles that support the financial decision making procedure and how they are applied into business. International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is a group of accounting standards build up by a sovereign, not-for-profit business called the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB). â€Å"The goal of IFRS is to provide a global framework for how public companies prepare and disclose their financial statements. IFRS provides general guidance for the preparation of financial statements, rather than setting rules for industry-specific reporting†. Financial r eporting is the arrangement of financial data in a form that is helpful to interested parties. It includes the collection and presentation of data for utilize in management accounting and financial management. ... It includes the collection and presentation of data for utilize in management accounting and financial management. 3. Interpretation of Accounting Information – Public Limited Companies: For the comparison study and understanding of the Transportation sector we have chosen the two companies i.e. 1. MET Plc 2. KGL PTS. Both of the companies are well established in the transportation sector and they are diversifying their business worldwide. Marwyn European Transport Plc is newly established company in the transportation sector; it is formed by the leading Transport industry executives to exploit the opportunities in the European transport industry. They are now focusing on the German bus and coach industry and presently operating 250 buses in Germany. The MET is established as a wholly owned subsidiary company of the MMP (Marwyn Management Partner Plc.). The board of directors of the company has a belief on the attractive investment opportunities in the public transportation of the European countries and so they are willing to operate the business by keeping the favors of the stakeholders. Initially they are targeting the largest bus markets in the country. KGL Passenger Transport Services (KGL PTS) in Kuwait, a supplementary of KGL Holding, was recognized in 2005. Being the showpiece of KGL Holding’s Passenger Transport Management Company, the KGL PTS has developed themselves as one of the most important passenger travel service companies within Kuwait and Middle East. As they are offering different means of carrying to suit the necessities of customer both publicly and commercially, they are still leading the sector. The head quarter of KGL PTS is in Kuwait and they are operating in Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and in the United Arab

English Research Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

English Research Paper - Essay Example In each chapter of the book Gardner illustrates a different philosophical theory. In an interview John Gardner (1974) said that the purpose of writing this book was â€Å"to go through the main ideas of Western Civilization ... and go through them in the voice of the monster, with the story already taken care of, with the various philosophical attitudes (though with Sartre in particular), and see what I could do." Grendel is based on Beowulf, a Danish epic, which tells the story of King Hrothgar who is subjected to repeated attacks from the monster Grendel. For 12 years Grendel wages a guerilla-style war with Hrothgar. The king is unable to ward him off. Finally Beowulf, a stranger comes from the land of the Geats and kills Grendel, as well as Grendels mother and the dragon. Gardner begins his tale from the twelfth year of Grendels battle with the Danes. Grendel in the novel narrates the story of his life as he looks back and reflects on his life. He is drawn by the poetry and beauty of the world of humans, but is unable to escape the monstrousness in him. As Steven Wu says (2002), â€Å"he is both beast and human and despises both his bestiality and humanity with equal bitterness†. When Shaper, a poet whose evocative poetry and music shape the Dane’s views first joins Hrothgars men, Grendel is inspired by his heroic ode to hope. He is inspired to join the human race but he is m isunderstood and turned out by the humans. This makes Grendel revert to his belief in nihilism which to him means there is no purpose to existence. He becomes vengeful but continues to be haunted by the Shapers words of hope. Grendel then meets the dragon and his hopes are dashed further. Grendel again becomes the destroyer. In his journey of life he constantly confronts â€Å"meaning†. He sees Hrothgar age and as Grendel repeatedly attacks him, he sees him becoming humble and noble instead of being bitter. Wealtheow, the beautiful young queen withstands with grace her

Evolvement of the international regime of refugee protection Essay Example for Free

Evolvement of the international regime of refugee protection Essay Many people today are inclined to distinguish refugees as a relatively new phenomenon that mostly occurs in countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and in rapidly disintegrating countries in the Balkans and the ex Soviet Union. Certainly during the past few decades the majority refugees have fled violent conflicts or persecution in the developing countries; but mass refugee movements are neither new nor exceptional to the Third World (Gil Loescher, ed., 1992). They have been a political as well as a humanitarian issue for as long as mankind has lived in structured groups where intolerance and domination have existed. The difference is that, before this century, refugees were regarded as assets somewhat than liabilities; countries granted refuge to people of geo-political, religious, or ideological views similar to their own; and rulers viewed organize over large populations, along with natural resources and terrain itself, as an index of power and national greatness (Michael Marrus, 1985). As most refugees of earlier eras found it probable to gain safe haven outside their country of origin, this has not been the case for numerous refugees in the twentieth century. After both world wars, Europe practiced refugee flows similar to those taking place in the Third World today. Like most modern refugee movements, people left their homes for varied and multifarious reasons, including the severe economic distraction and starvation that accompanied the violence and interference of war and the upheaval of political and social revolution that followed the disintegration of multiethnic empires and the creation of new nation-states. The majority of these people were members of unwanted minority groups, political escapees, or the victims of warfare, communalism, and haphazard violence. Fundamentally, the refugee problems of the period from 1921 to 1951 were political ones, as they are today. The international reactions to mass expulsions, compulsory transfers of population, mass exits, and capricious denial of return were often weak and contradictory. In circumstances related to those that exist in parts of the Third World and Eastern Europe today, mass incursions threatened the security of European states, particularly when numerous refugee crises became protracted affairs that surpassed the competences of humanitarian agencies and individual states to resolve. Organized international efforts for refugees began in 1921, while the League of Nations appointed the first High Commissioner for Refugees. Over the next twenty years, the scope and functions of supporting programs gradually expanded, as efforts were made to regularize the status and control of stateless and denationalized people. Throughout World War II and after it, two expensive and politically contentious refugee organizations the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Agency and the International Refugee Organization, each with a fundamentally different mandate further developed the international organizational framework. Since 1951, an international refugee regime composed of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and a network of other international agencies, national governments, and voluntary or nongovernmental organizations has developed a reaction strategy that permits some refugees to remain in their countries of first asylum, facilitate others to be resettled in third countries, and arranges for still others to be send back to their countries of origin. Though unevenly applied, international laws that delegate refugees as a unique class of human rights victims who must be accorded special protection as well as benefits have been signed, ratified, and in force for numerous decades. yearly, billions of dollars are raised and spent on refugees. Historians have argued that refugees are a definitely contemporary problem and that international concern for refugees is a twentieth-century fact (Malcom Proudfoot, 1957). Though refugees have been a trait of international society for a long time, before this century there was no global protection for refugees as we know it at present; for the most part, they were left to fend for themselves without any official support. Citizens enjoyed the security of their sovereigns or national governments, but once they broke with their home countries and became refugees, they were completely bereft of protection except as other states or private institutions or individuals might choose to provide it. Asylum was a gift of the crown, the church, and municipalities; and renegade individuals and groups could be expecting no response to claims of asylum or protection premised on human or political right. Refugees have been present in all era. Refugees from religious maltreatment propagated throughout Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries (Aristide Zolberg, Astri Suhrke , and Sergio Aguayo, 1989). Protestants, Catholics, and Jews were expelled by several regimes and admitted by others according to their beliefs, ideologies, and economic inevitability. By the late seventeenth century, with the attainment of a high degree of religious homogeneity in most parts of Europe, the age of religious harassment gave way to an age of political disruption and revolution, during which individuals were persecuted for their political opinions and their opposition to new radical regimes. New waves of refugees were prompted by these revolutionary conflicts. The nineteenth century produced many comparatively small refugee flows, mostly from other revolutionary and nationalist movements in Poland, Germany, France, and Russia. Europeans who feared persecution could move to one of the numerous immigrant countries in the New World still eager for an improved labor force and for settlers to fill empty territories. There they could merge with other migrant groups and neither regards them nor is labeled as refugees. therefore, before the twentieth century, there were no groups of homeless Europeans cast adrift in a world that rejected them. The refugee is significant precisely because the refugee is an exception; the refugee is outside of some overarching framework. Whereas to celebrate the incomparable position of the refugee beyond violent state constraints, lawyers and practitioners seek to put the refugee inside several type of regime to avoid the violence of the inter. For the lawyers and practitioners, refugees are exceptions, it is decisive to repeat, in the sense that there is no observable entity to protect them. Whereas, the legal refugee regime seeks to protect citizens who have fallen outside the borders of customary state responsibility. As Goodwin-Gill notes: Refugee law †¦ remains an incomplete legal regime of protection; wrongly covering what ought to be a situation of exception. It goes some means to alleviate the plight of those affected by breaches of human rights standards or by the disintegrate of an existing social order in the wake of insurgency, civil strife, or aggression; but it is incomplete so far as refugees and asylum seekers might still be denied even temporary refuge or temporary protection, safe return to their homes, or compensation. They are denied, that is, by states which are not gratifying their obligations. Goodwin-Gill assumes that if all states were satisfying all their obligations there would be no exceptions and hence no refugees. International lawyers and practitioners presume that the internal basis of the state system is non-violent and that violent eruptions are exceptions and hence cause exceptions called refugees. In Dillons terms, international lawyers try to find resolutions to the problem of the inter within the nation-state. Citizens are protected first by their governments as the primary obligation of states is to protect their citizens. Further, governments are organized by various treaties and organisations managing those treaties to make sure that states fulfill their legal obligations to their citizens. These organizations themselves do not protect citizens; they try to guarantee that states do. Refugees are exceptions simply in so far as either their citizenship is in question that is why statelessness is so significant and the determination of citizenship crucial or the accountable government is no longer capable of, or unwilling to offer, proper protection. The role of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is not to create new state compulsions in the normal function of states, but rather to see that states function in such a way that citizens will be secluded. As Arthur Helton has clearly stated: UNHCRs protection responsibility, which is commended to it by the international community, makes it distinctive among traditional organizations †¦ In a fundamental sense, protection means to secure the satisfaction of basic human rights and to meet primary humanitarian needs. In this sense, the protection of refugees is an conservatory of human rights protection taken in very specific and incomparable situations. The protection function is normal: it is the situation in which the function should operate that is extraordinary. Basic human rights have not changed. The postulation is that if all states respected their compulsions to their citizens in terms of human rights there would be no refugees or refugee flows, which are caused by violations, by exceptions to the rules of appropriate state behavior. Thus, norms dealing with refugees are expansions of the normal obligations of states in unusual situations: they are not extraordinary rules. International politics today displays behavior patterns which imitate the operation of competing ordering principles, including governance by communal self-regulation. Regime analysis attempts to make the point that international relations cannot be reduced to a state of anarchy in the sense that the allowance of goods among states (and their societies) results from the junction of their competitive self-help strategies which they pursue as relative-gains seekers ( Grieco 1990). Certainly, there can be no doubt that for parts of the world the pragmatist assessment of international relations as being in a state of anarchism still seems valid. The Cold War strategies of the United States and the USSR until the eighties or the conflict processes in the Middle East, especially between Israel and its neighbors, but also among Arab states themselves as confirmed by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, are telling evidence of this observation. However, it would be an embellishment if it were suggested that international politics could be said to be nothing but the sum total of individual or communal self-help strategies by which states seek to attain relative gains (or to avoid or minimize relative losses). This realist evaluation turns a blind eye on a wide variety of interaction patterns which cannot be reduced to competitive self-help strategies. The image of competitive international politics formed by anarchy among sovereign states is most sturdily challenged by the observation of instances of hierarchically ordered supranational policy-making (including implementation). Take the following two examples. The Security Council of the United Nations consented collective sanctions against Iraq after its incursion of Kuwait and established monitoring and supervisory machinery; additionally, after Iraqs defeat the Security Council ordered the destruction of weapons, installations, etc. inside Iraq and had it carried out under its overall guidance. In this sense, the Security Council acted like a governmental body of an initial world minimal state. A less spectacular case is the European Community, where hierarchical, supranational policy-making is quite common in numerous policy sectors. In the field of agricultural policy, for example, policies are most often initiated in Brussels, while national governments are so strongly ensnared in the joint decision trap ( Scharpf 1985) that they have no choice but to seek to manipulate the Community policies there is no longer any way out option. However, neither anarchy-induced competitive global politics nor hierarchically ordered international policy-making fatigues the reality of politics among nations. An escalating part of international political interactions and processes has become the object of international collective self-regulation, i.e. the voluntary partaking by states and other international actors in collective action to accomplish joint gains or to avoid joint losses in conflictual or challenging social situations. Examples of this kind of cooperative self-regulation on the global level include the GATT based international trade regime, the nuclear non-proliferation regime, or the establishment for the protection of the stratospheric ozone layer. However, international regimes are simply one manifestation, perhaps the most prominent, of collective self-regulation by states (and other international actors): it also contains contractual arrangements short of a regime as well as formal international organizations which ease collaboration short of generating compelling obligations, e.g. by the production and diffusion of information. To put it in a different way: the growth of institutions governing international political life has been reasonably remarkable. Taking the best-documented separation of international institutions international governmental organizations (IGOs) the count stands at about 300. It goes almost without saying that this number involves a wide variety of this species of international institution. If one looks at another subset, international treaties formally registered with the United Nations, the number of cases is in the thousands. Even though research on international regimes has engendered a wealth of theoretical and empirical studies, it is as yet hard to assess the quantity and quality of international regime formation that has in fact taken place in the last few decades. There is no source for identifying existing international regimes comparable to the sources just cited for international organizations and international treaties. All kinds of organizations with the rationale of defending or promoting functionally defined interests in the international monarchy are in principle able to implement relatively established forms of co-operation in the pursuit of their interests. If international non-governmental organizations interacting in an issue area agree upon principles, norms, rules, and decision-making procedures in order to normalize their interactions, one can speak of global regimes. To be sure, this constituent of international order is still underdeveloped and under-researched. As one might, for instance, refer to the post-war arrangement of the seven big oil companies the first oil regime according to Frank (1985) , it remains uncertain whether cartels ought to be considered regimes. In short, while transnational regimes represent a subdivision of international order that may become more important in the near future, it is at present a minor component which nevertheless deserves more comprehensive st udy. Regime analysis acknowledges that its field of inquest does not cover the whole realm of todays international relations, even if we take into account both international and transnational regimes. It is restricted, on the one hand, by those competitive interaction patterns which are described by the pragmatist or neo-realist approaches in International Relations. On the other hand, regime analysis should give way to integration theory if, and to the extent that, supportive interaction patterns move into a transformational mode leading to the formation of a new layer of political authority beyond the nation state. Recognizing the practice of tolerant competition among states as well as the phenomenon of supranationalism, regime investigation seeks to avoid being tied down by the either/ or debate in International Relations between anarchists and govern mentalists. Complex international governance might be an proper label for this peculiarity of modern international relations, in which different kinds of partial orders, varying in local scope and function, coexist. As James Rosenau (1992: 13-14) has put it: Global order is conceived here to be a distinct set of arrangements even though these are not causally associated into a single coherent array of patterns. The organic whole that comprises the present or future global order is organic only in the sagacity that its diverse actors are all claimants upon the earthbound resources and all of them should cope with the same environmental conditions, noxious and polluted as these can be. It is very doubtful that one kind of social order will dominate international relations in the near future and thus will reintroduce a state of affairs which can be described as organic or harmonized. The coexistence of different partial orders each considered legitimate in its sphere might turn out to be a enduring feature of international politics. However, we suggest that the nonhierarchical normative institutions for dealing with conflicts or problematical social situations will gain in importance over time, whereas national governments as such will lose. The resulting institutional complexity will enhance the demand for cognitive capabilities of individuals and will put stress on democratic principles. Responses to this kind of pressure comprise an important field of inquiry for the social sciences in the future. Summing up non-hierarchical international institutions of the international and the international kind play, empirically as well as normatively, an significant role in international politics. They are required in order to meet the increasing demand for international governance and they normally govern issue areas. With the existence and the rise of those institutions international relations are ever more characterized by a complex blend of diverse kinds of social order. Moreover, the formula governance without government might stand for a more enviable vision for a shrinking world than its major alternative: hierarchical norm- and rule-setting (and enforcement) on the international level. Thus, it appears worth while ongoing research on the conditions and consequences of shared self-regulation and consolidating a research programme permitting for a cumulating of knowledge. 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