Saturday, August 31, 2019

Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Essay

Abstract This paper explores the concept of emotional intelligence and the effects on leadership. The articles discussed in the paper analyzed the different array of qualities in emotional intelligence towards leadership. Emotional intelligence is a way of behaving and acting towards situations and people. Leadership styles must adapt to the situations and exhibit empathy at times to support the perception of caring. Through empathy leadership will exhibit thoughtfulness and caring in the eyes of the employee. Empathy is an emotion that human’s exhibit and how they exhibit the emotion in group’s settings can and will affect a leader’s perception. Men and women make up leadership in all facets of industry, but which one is better? Does it matter when all the variables are equal? Emotional Intelligence in Leadership Emotional intelligence and the influence over effective leadership styles go hand-in-hand in successfully leading individuals. In today’s growing industry the cry for effective leaders is immense, so to become an effective leader emotional intelligence must be understood. Leadership is in everyone’s life whether personal or business and to be effective a person must be diverse in an I.Q. – Intelligence sense and E.Q. – Emotional sense. To understand emotional intelligence an understanding of the emotional intelligence theories development by Daniel Goleman will be analyzed. A person must understand what competencies make a great leader, so the relationship of a great leader versus a poor leader is analyzed. Facts are considered towards leadership styles and emotional intelligence from a male and female leadership stance. Which sex is better at emotional intelligence and will that make either more effective in leadership? What is Emotional Intelligence? Many psychologists have identified emotional intelligence or versions of emotional awareness over the years (Goleman, 2012). The research began with analyzing people and their intelligence levels based on cognitive attributes (Norwack, 2012). A Brief History. According to Goleman, the earliest research began with Robert Thorndike in 1937 (Goleman, 2012). Thorndike began exploring the emotion concept of psychology and how the affects the theory social intelligence (Goleman, 2012). From Thorndike to David Wechsler delivered additional theories on emotion and how it plays in professional progress (Goleman, 2012). Wechsler named three essential elements to his theory – affective, personal, and social factors contribute to a person’s ability to succeed in life (Goleman, 2012). The next significant progress in the theory of emotional intelligence came from Howard Gardner in 1983 (Warwick & Nettelbeck, 2004). Gardner proposed a model of â€Å"multiple intelligence† (Goleman, 2012). His â€Å"multiple intelligence† model depicts seven kinds of intelligence that incorporated two personal varieties; knowing one’s inner world and social adeptness (Warwick & Nettelbeck, 2004). Gardner developed the model and Peter Salovery and John Mayer defined emotional intelligence in terms of the ability to monitor and regulate one’s own and others feelings and to use feelings to guide thought and action (Warwick & Nettelbeck, 2004). The last piece to the history segment is Daniel Goleman’s addition to the emotional intelligence psychological realm. Goleman identifies five basic emotional and social competencies (Goleman, 2012): * Self -Awareness * Self -Regulation * Motivation * Empathy * Social Skills These five competencies are analyzed to rate successful leaders further in the paper. Goleman helped develop the application of this theory to leadership styles and principles (Warwick & Nettelbeck, 2004). Competence of Emotional Intelligence in Leadership There are two types of competence models identified in performing exceptionally as an effective leader. The two competencies must be understood to gain a more precise understanding of the contribution of emotional competence has in the leadership role (Walter, Humphrey & Cole, 2012). Threshold Competencies. The first competency is the threshold competencies; this model addresses those that people need to perform the job. These are the minimal skills needed to carry out the tasks associated with given position. Most organizational competence models fit into this category (Walter, Humphrey & Cole, 2012) Distinguishing competencies. The next competency focuses on the exceptional leader. Distinguishing competencies are those that allow the effective leader to stand out from the poor leaders (Goleman, 2012). This is usually the traits of an outstanding leader who uses vision as an example to bring a company out of a slump (Walter, Humphrey & Cole, 2012). The distinguishing competencies are qualities needed to perform superbly (Walter, Humphrey & Cole, 2012). Case Study: Effective Leadership. According to Goleman, a study of emotional competence in leadership was performed at Hay/McBer in Boston by Lyle Spencer Jr. with Wei Chen (Goleman, 2012). The analysis of more than three hundred executive level leaders from 15 global companies showed that six emotional competencies were distinguished from the average (Goleman, 2012). The competencies consist of influence, team leadership, organizational awareness, self confidence, the drive to achieve and leadership (Goleman, 2012). Why are these qualities important in leadership? From a leadership standpoint Emotional Intelligence will support or determine a leader’s success (Dainton and Zelley, 2011). The Study. Warwick & Nettelbeck discussed a study completed by David McClelland of exemplarity leaders and the competencies they possessed (2004). The strengths in a wide spectrum of emotional intelligence ranged from self-awareness and motivation to social awareness and social skill. The only emotional intelligence capability not represented was self regulation, but adaptability, from this cluster, was 57% more common in the effective leaders (Warwick & Nettelbeck, 2004). Would women make better leaders? The next portion covers the effectives of empathy in leadership. Goleman addresses empathy as one of his five points of emotional intelligence. Over the years many papers have been written about women and their ability to be natural nurtures (Anonymous, 2008). Perhaps in a person’s personal life women are more empathetic then men. Significant research performed on the concept of women possessing a natural ability to be empathetic. When empathy is observed in the workplace or by a leader who has the upper hand men or women? Sex Differences. According to Goleman, men and women are compared in many ways (2012). He also goes on to describe the similar traits men and women poses and those traits cause behavioral characteristics. The results from test data gives a bell curve pattern when graphed and allows psychologist to review the similarities and differences between the sexes (Goleman, 2012). The idea behind specific sex abilities to be better at leadership based on their individ ual design would be acceptable. The idea that a specific sex is better just because they were born with female or male ingenuity is difficult to prove (Norwack, 2012). Data around empathy. Many studies are conducted and have been conducted by psychologist around the world with mixed feelings around which sex is better at a specific subtopic (Greenberg, 2005). Leadership uses many concepts and one concept in particular is empathy. Women in western culture tend to develop this naturally due to the way western culture influences women (Greenberg, 2005). Greenberg, goes on to describe the western woman as one of empathy and describes tests and experiences women have over men (2005). Profile of nonverbal sensitivity. At Harvard two professors tackled a challenge to solve the age old question are women more empathetic than men (Goleman, 2012) Professor Rosenthal and Judith Hall performed a verity of psychological test to measure the level of feelings. Nonverbal sensitivity to emotional reaction is the name of the test (Greenberg, 2005). Dr. Rosenthal film clips are filtered so that the person watching the emotional body language is seen and the words cannot be heard (Greenberg, 2005). Rosenthal and Hall found women performed better on average than men at guessing the people in the clips emotion (Greenberg, 2005). Micro-emotions. Greenberg states people leak small emotions called micro-emotions (2005). The emotions allow people to express body language and tone of voice in small increments to the receiver of the signal (Greenberg, 2005). People who work in law enforcement or interrogation tend to illustrate this ability so that they may sense if a person is truthful or lying (Greenberg, 2005). Sex differences tend not to portray a strong advantage in this category. Practice is a definite must to hone and build the skill to better understand situations around emotional intelligence (Greenberg, 2005). Empathetic accuracy. The ability to sense and understand people’s thoughts through their feelings is defined by Goleman as empathetic accuracy (2012). Goleman experimental methods assess empathic accuracy and illustrate emotional response by asking people to depict an emotion of someone they see (Goleman, 2012). Goleman conducted a range of test involving test subjects. The test subjects watched conversation and evaluated people and attempted to figure out their feelings (Goleman, 2012). Psychologist than compared the result against the emotional person’s own narrative. Goleman went on to describe women did not perform better than men in a series experiments (2012). There was no evidence of a female intuition advantage and Goleman goes on to associate that women have a distinct willingness to be empathetic. Greenberg describes women as wanting to be empathetic and men not so much (2005). Which sex is better with Emotional Intelligence? Based on the data above the so called sex difference toward empathy would argue that men are latent in their ability for empathy, but less motivated to be empathic (Greenberg, 2005). So much that men tend to see themselves in terms of a tough guy. Men have less motivation to seem sensitive in most cultures because that seen as a sign of weakness (Goleman, 2012). Why is Emotional Intelligence Important? When reading different articles about Emotional Intelligence the question purposed by people is â€Å"why is Emotional Intelligence important?† (Norwack, 2012). Emotional Intelligence is important element to build strong leadership (Norwack, 2012). The best way to explain Emotional Intelligence in general is through three premises (Norwack, 2012): 1.Emotions are important in both work and non-work interactions (Norwack, 2012). 2.There are individual differences in the capacity to perceive, understand, use, and manage emotions (Norwack, 2012). 3.Differences in Emotional Intelligence are important in some contexts and less important in others (Norwack, 2012). Norwack described Emotional Intelligence best as â€Å"the ability to perceive and express emotions, understand and reason with emotion, and regulate emotion in self and others† (Norwack, 2012). As an effective leader knowing about employees will be the key to success towards employees respecting his or her leader. Conclusion Why is Emotional Intelligence so important? From a leadership standpoint Emotional Intelligence will support or determine a leader’s success (Dainton and Zelley, 2011). Emotional Intelligence in today’s business world demand leaders to be transformational to be successful in leading people (Norwack, 2012). Dainton and Zelley describe two types of leadership used in today’s business Transactional and Transformational (Dainton and Zelley, 2011). Transactional removes the care for people factor out of the equation and causes leaders only concern for results which, develops a lack of flexibility for employees (Dainton and Zelley, 2011). Transformational leadership allows leaders to use the tools to understand their emotions and how they affect the ability to lead effectively (Dainton and Zelley, 2011). Norwack points out three factors of emotion that must be understood and utilized with transformational leadership styles (Norwack, 2012). 1.Emotion Perception relates to awareness of others and their emotions (Norwack, 2012). 2.Emotion Understanding relates to the ability logically to label or empathize with others (Norwack, 2012). 3.Emotion Management controlling the emotional stress of a leader and others effectively (Norwack, 2012). Daniel Goleman describes all these factors in his book and teaches these concepts as a consultant. Large companies like Bowing, Raytheon, and IBM use these concepts to develop current and future leaders for their companies. Effective leadership is a must in today’s business world to thrive and succeed (Norwack, 2012). References Anonymous. (2008, February 04). Woman’s instinct is to nurture. Times – Picayune . Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/docview/416185791?accountid=27203 Antonakis, J., Ashkanasy, N. M., & Dasborough, M. T. (2009). Does leadership need emotional intelligence?. The Leadership Quarterly, 247-261. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/science/article/pii/S1048984309000174 cognitive. (2002). In A Dictionary of Philosophy, Macmillan. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/login?url=http://www.credoreference.com.ezproxy.libproxy.db.erau.edu/entry/macdphil/cognitive Dainton, M., & Zelley, E. D. (2011). Applying communication theory for professional life: A

Friday, August 30, 2019

Ethnic Intolerance Essay

The Yugoslavia collapse was a homemade tragedy. In sharp contrast to most of Balkan history, outside powers did not play a major role in stimulating Yugoslav division. Societies in which human development needs are threatened are ripe for conflict. In Yugoslavia ethnic groups misunderstood each others needs and desires. Political elites deliberately perpetuated and exploited conflicts between the general populace. The hypothesis of the essay is that the main propellant behind war in Yugoslavia was not ancient history and ancient hatreds but recent hatreds manipulated by elites. As it the case in all ethnic crises, it is possible to identify a wide rage of questions that have arisen during the course of Yugoslavia crises. In my opinion, there are some points of particular importance, where my paper will be based on. These are: (1) why has the ethnic hatred exploded now, after half a century of peaceful intermingling? (2) Are the roots and causes of the ethnic war ancient or recent? (3) Do politicians create nationalism, or does existing nationalism shape the political power struggle? I will handle the subject in four parts- `Socialist development and Yugoslavism`, ‘Post- Tito debate`, ‘New elites, old leaders’ policy (post-federalism)’, and ‘The slide toward disintegration’. Socialist development and Yugoslavism The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (the SFRY) was born â€Å"Phoenix-like, †¦ rising from the ashes† (Judah 2000, p. 136) of the World War II to live under the iron presidency of a Communist Josip Broz Tito (1892-1980). Whatever controversial Tito’s political reputation is, researchers acknowledged that he was the only leader whose â€Å"wartime record, †¦ undeniable charisma and †¦ ability to stand up to the Soviets in 1948 to assert Yugoslav independence allowed †¦ for several decades to maintain at least an illusion of the country’s unity† (Kozhemiakin 1998, p. 73). Williams (1998, p. 48) insisted that the head of the re-born country, Josip Tito, â€Å"deliberately aimed to create an entirely different sort of state† in 1945, and one of the most significant differences was â€Å"the equal treatment of the various groups in the population and a down-playing of the nationalities issue† (Williams 1998, p. 48). According to Judah (2000), the chronology of an ethnic question in the Yugoslavia under Tito consists of three phases: 1945-66, 1966-74, and 1974-80. During the first period, the Communist leaders were rather successful in keeping the lid on the boiling pot of nationalism. The new Yugoslav federalism was created after the USSR model with its autonomous unites within the single state framework. Under the 1946 Constitution the SFRY consisted of six republics (Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia–Hercegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Slovenia) and two autonomous regions (the multi-national Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and the predominantly Shipetar, or Albanian Autonomous District of Kosovo-Metohija [KOSMET] within Serbia). Conversely, the Yugoslavia national identity consisted of six ‘nations,’ or â€Å"officially recognized groups with national homes in one of the federal republics† (Hudson 2003, p. 50): Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Montenegrins, Macedonians and Muslims (those slavs who converted to Islam under Ottoman rule); eight ‘nationalities,’ or â€Å"officially recognized groups† who â€Å"had an internationally recognized national homeland outside Yugoslavia† (Hudson 2003, p. 50): Albanians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Czechs, Italians, Romanians, Slovaks and Turks; two ‘nationalities’ – Roma and Ruthenians – who â€Å"did not have a national homeland outside Yugoslavia† (Hudson 2003, p. 50); and others (Austrians, Greeks, Jews, Germans, Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, Vlachs, etc.). It seems that the republican and district borders were established holding ethnic, historic and economic factors in view. Tito himself underlined that the aim of republican and district borders was not †¦ drawing a boundary line between this federal unit and the other, and now you on the other side shall do as you please, and I shall do as I please on my side of the boundary. No! These boundaries, figuratively speaking, should resemble the white lines on a marble column. The boundaries of the federated units within the federal state of Yugoslavia do not denote separatism but unity. (as cited in Judah 2000, p. 140) As Judah (2000, p. 137) noted, â€Å"Bosnia was restored, with its historic 1878 frontiers, in recognition of its mixed population and to prevent it becoming the renewed object of dispute between Serbs and Croats.† The Slavs of the Macedonian region were acknowledged to be neither Serbs nor Bulgarians, but a distinctive group, therefore the Macedonian republic was created to eliminate the possible â€Å"bone of contention† (Frankel 1955, p. 416) between Serbia and Bulgaria. Montenegro acquired a republican status â€Å"in recognition of its historic status and so partly to satisfy that portion of the population which resented being relegated to the position of a far-flung province of Serbia† (Judah 2000, p. 138). The large groups of the Albanians in Kosovo and the Hungarians in Vojvodina received ‘nationalities’ status because they had homelands outside Yugoslavia. The re-born Yugoslavia has never ceased to be a shelf stuffed with ‘skeletons’ of reciprocal convictions between different ethnic populations. However, until the mid-1960s people’s minds were occupied rather with the agrarian reform, Tito’s split with Stalin, and the economic innovation of self-management. A two-chamber legislature, the Federal People’s Assembly, consisted of a directly-elected Federal Council and a Council of Nationalities, comprising delegates from the assemblies of the republics (25 representatives of each Republic, 15 of the Autonomous Province, and 10 of the Autonomous District). The Federal People’s Assembly elected the Praesidium and the Executive Council. Tito has been occupying the seat of the Executive Council’s chairman for thirty-five years, and simultaneously he was the head of the Communist party. The 1946 SFRY Constitution granted equal power to both cameras of Federal People’s Assembly, and was said to rely on â€Å"the principles of equality and voluntariness† (Frankel 1955, p. 422): The Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia is a federal people’s State of republican form, a community of peoples equal in rights who, basing themselves on the right to self-determination, which includes the right to separation, have expressed a will to live together in a federal State. At the initial stage of the Yugoslav consolidation under the Communist dictatorship, the group in power was likely to understand that the state â€Å"should not rest on coercion, brute force, or realpolitik†: [The Communists] sought [legitimacy] in an explanatory creation myth: the new Yugoslav state had come into being as a result of â€Å"two kinds of solidarity, that of the Yugoslav nations who had united to fight the enemy, and that of the Partisan veterans, the stari borci, who had done the actual fighting.† (Bokovoy 1998, p. 36) The new Yugoslav leaders relied heavily on the concept of ‘bratsvo i jedinstvo’ (â€Å"brotherhood and unity†). It declared â€Å"that Yugoslavia would be strong, not because its peoples were one, but because they were many, and that strength was born of unity† (Judah 2000, p. 136). However, the concept of unity was treated in a rather original way. Lake and Rothchild (p. 105) paraphrased Djilas (1995) who stated that â€Å"the communist party served as the primary safeguard [to the treat of nationalism] in Yugoslavia, largely through coercion and repression.† A critical eye should not be blinded by the phrase about possible separation of any federal units. Elazar (1991, p. 176) stated that â€Å"the constitutional process in Yugoslavia is very centralized indeed.† As Burg (1982, p. 131) observed: The federal system was originally adopted by [the Yugoslav] leadership in order to accommodate the frustrated national aspirations of the Yugoslav peoples and thereby to mobilize national sentiment in support of the establishment of a socialist order. But commitment to a Stalinist model of development, and ideological conviction that that development would reduce and eventually eliminate the political salience of nationality, led the postwar Communist leadership to subordinate the constituent republics to a powerful federal center and to resist meaningful concessions to their national distinctiveness. (Burg 1982, p. 131) Tito and the Communists re-arranged the ethnic map of the country according to their ideological concerns. Soon after the end of WWII the Yugoslav government began to organize peasantry into cooperatives. The region of Vojvodina became the first experimental ground for collectivization. The leadership moved almost 300,000 Serbs from Croatia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Hercegovina to Vojvodina to prove the effectiveness of a socialist agrarian experiment â€Å"with the hope of cultivating a Yugoslav identity† (Bokovoy 1998, p. 49). However, in the 1960s, the Yugoslav leadership was split by arguments about â€Å"the question of decentralisation, the introduction of certain market mechanisms and the related issue of increasing republican autonomy† (Judah 2000, p. 144). Hot arguments between elites triggered a tide of reciprocal convictions between the Croats and the Serbs. The Serbs were accused of the attempts to â€Å"Serbianize Croatia,† as Petar Segedin, the president of the Croatian Literary Society, has put it (Judah 2000, p. 146). Bosnia was covertly inflamed by statistics produced by Matica Hrvatska, a Croatian intellectual organisation, to prove the jeopardy of pan-Serbianism. Serbian intellectuals reacted accordingly. The Bosnians and the Serbian Kosovars wanted to get rid of the Albanians, who in turn went into streets demanding a republican status for the province and the establishment of an Albanian-language university in 1968. Despite the evident shift towards liberalism and decentralisation provided by the 1967 and 1971 amendments, there was an â€Å"upsurge of nationalism† that â€Å"met a harsh response† (Hudson 2003, p. 52) from the Yugoslav President. Tito was a proponent of ‘ethnic contracts’: â€Å"nationality or ethnic representatives met with the president in cabinet sessions, where strong differences were sometimes aired by group spokespersons behind closed doors† (Lake & Rothchild 1997, p. 115). The constitution of 1974 seemed to break a fragile balance between the ethnic groups inspired by nationalism (the discussion will continue in the sections above). Cottam (2004, p. 201) called the constitution â€Å"an example of †¦ reduction of power†: In that constitution, Tito gave Kosovo and Vojvodina more power and autonomy (their own assembly, representation in the Serbian assembly, and a turn in the rotating presidency), Serbian power was reduced, and the other republics were reassured that Serbia would not be able to control the federal government. (Cottam 2004, p. 201) It seems that constitutional amendments were introduced partly in response to â€Å"nationalists who favoured the concentration of power with the republican elites† (Hudson 2003, p. 53). Tito warned about the menace caused by those emerging local elites in 1972. By 1980, when he died leaving no political heir to delegate powers to, the Yugoslav power-sharing system – â€Å"a form of coordination in which a somewhat autonomous state and a number of less autonomous ethnic-based and other interests engage in a process of mutual accommodation in accordance with commonly accepted procedural norms, rules, or understandings† (Lake & Rothchild 1997, p. 115) – collapsed. As Chary (2000, p. 735) stated: Tito could not solve all of Yugoslavia’s problems. He was never able truly to unite the country, and hostility among the nationalities remained, although he was able to keep them under control while he lived. When he died, however, these burst forward with a new fury. Post- Tito debate Cottam (2004, p. 201) described the situation in Yugoslavia immediately after Tito’s death in 1980: †¦ the economy was on a downward spiral, and no political leader had emerged who could fill Tito’s role as national unifier. †¦ He did not promote a successor, but instead developed the peculiar idea of a rotating federal presidency, which would rotate among the republics annually. This made it virtually impossible for any single political figure to emerge as a national leader, and it fueled the rise of nationalism among the separate nationalities in Yugoslavia. Despite the economic and political turmoils, as Popov (2000, p. 96) stated, â€Å"[e]ven after his death, Tito’s authority was untouchable.† Dimitrijević (2000, p. 424) also acknowledged that new political leaders (e.g., MiloÃ… ¡ević) were â€Å"actively protecting the cult of Tito’s personality primarily to please the army.† The concept of â€Å"collective leadership† introduced by Tito was aired by the 1980-leadership as â€Å"After Tito – Tito!† (Judah 2000, p. 156). Doder (1993, p. 3) once has remarked that â€Å"Tito’s strong hand was replaced by a council of bland ethnic chieftains.† It has been already noted that Yugoslavia represented an ethnical mosaic with people of different national backgrounds living under the same federal roof. Of course, by the 1980s the SFRY has stopped being an ideal federation where the units equally and eagerly complied with the economic and political dictatorship of the federal center. Since 1963, the Yugoslav leadership attempted at least formulaic retreats towards the ideas of republican individuality and decentralisation . The 1974 SFRY Constitution has granted the status of a â€Å"‘socialist, self-managing, democratic community’ of working people and citizens, and of the particular set of nations and nationalities comprised by it†Ã¢â‚¬  (Burg 1982, p. 141) to each of the republics and autonomous lands. They received a greater portion of authority in regard to decision-making at the local and federal levels. The paradox was that â€Å"Yugoslavia [appeared to be] a country without Yugoslavs† (Lendvai & Parcell 1991, p. 253). In other words, artificially drawn borders failed to coincide with cultural demarcation lines inherited by national memories. In regard to national self-identification, Sekulić, Massey and Hodson (1994) found out that the census category of ‘Yugoslav’ was introduced only in 1961, thus fifteen years upon the creation of the SFRY. However, the term denoted not all citizens of the federation, but â€Å"‘nationally noncommitted persons,’ and was treated as a residual category for those who offered no particular national identity† (Sekulić, Massey & Hodson 1994, p. 84). The identifier ‘Yugoslav’ was eagerly utilized by the Bosnians and the Kosovars of Muslim confession who protested against registering themselves as ‘Serbs’ or ‘Croats’ in the 1961 national census. By 1981, however, more and more people started identifying themselves as ‘Yugoslav’ in Croatia, Vojvodina and even Bosnia. Apart from the trend, the Kosovars preferred to register themselves as either ‘Albans’ or ‘Serbs.’ The trend points at the rise of national self-identification that climaxed after Tito’s death. In the early 1980s, as Burg (1982, p. 133) observed, â€Å"Despite the evolution of consensual decision-making practices, †¦ neither the central party leadership nor the federal government could resolve the conflicts that divided their members, and each fell victim to paralyzing deadlock.† The most vivid example of the post-Tito political imbalance was Kosovo. Hudson (2003, p. 64) called it â€Å"a powerful symbol in Serbian history.† However, the majority (85 percent) of the people who inhabited that autonomous province in the 1980s were ethnical Albanians. The constitution of 1974 granted Kosovo that was dominated by the Albanians enough voting power to take part in presidential and other elections, but many Albanian radical nationalists treated it as minor â€Å"step on the way to a Greater Albania† (Hudson 2003, p. 64). The Kosovan Albanians marched to the streets in 1981 to demand a republican status for their province and, in some ultimate cases, for the unification of Kosovo with Albania. The Yugoslav army entered Kosovo in the late 1983 to face terrorism in response to mass arrests (Hudson says that almost 7,000 people were arrested throughout the 1980s for nationalist activity in Kosovo). The minor group of Kosovars who were Serbs by origin fled the province. Stories began to circulate about the ‘persecution’ of Kosovo Serbs, the destruction of their churches and graveyards and frequent acts of violence. For every real incident, though, the rumour mill could fabricate a thousand more. (Judah 2000, p. 156) The poisonous smog of mythmaking and resurrection of past nationalist sorrows and grievances could not be dispelled by â€Å"the party [that] was governed by conservative nonentities who had been recalled by Tito from retirement, in conjunction with the obedient apparatchiks who had replaced the liberals and technocrats ten years earlier and who had been promoted on the basis of the criteria of obedience and faithful repetition of current slogans† (Dimitrijević 2000, p. 421). As Van Evera (1997, p. 54) has stated, such leadership’s bankruptcy in face of ideological distortion was logical in case of the post-Tito Yugoslavia: Democratic regimes are less prone to mythmaking, because such regimes are usually more legitimate and are free-speech tolerant; hence they can develop evaluative institutions to weed out nationalist myth. Absolutist dictatorships that possess a massive military superiority over their citizens are also less prone to mythmaking, because they can survive without it. The most dangerous regimes are those that depend on some measure of popular consent, but are narrowly governed by unrepresentative elites. Things are still worse if these governments are poorly institutionalized, are incompetent or corrupt for other reasons, or face overwhelming problems that exceed their governing capacities. The case of Kosovo contributed to the wave of Serbian nationalism. As Kozhemiakin (1998, p. 73) observed, â€Å"The most active revisionists were Serbs who were discontented with the structure of the federal system created by Tito †¦ and its alleged discrimination against Serbia.† Once Lendvai & Parcell (1991, p. 253) named four reasons for the nationality problem of Yugoslavia: â€Å"a fundamental conflict between federalism and centralization, a situation in which the largest nation’s overriding claims to power come up against the defence of the interests of the smaller nations and minorities,† â€Å"the bankruptcy of so-called ‘self-management socialism’,† â€Å"economic crisis† and â€Å"the North-South divide within the state.† The access of revisionism on the part of Serbs fitted their national leadership’s call for liberal democracy, that is â€Å"reformists were seeking to mobilize broader popular sentiment against conservative positions among party rank-and-file as well as the wider population, at a time when the economic crisis had discredited the conservatives’ ideological stance† (Gagnon 1997, p. 148). Although any remote possibility of liberalism sent shivers down the spine of Slobodan MiloÃ… ¡ević, a new Chairman of the Serbian League of Communists since 1986, it was he who unified Serbs under the slogan â€Å"No one should be allowed to beat you!† (as cited in Hudson 2003, p. 70) announced on the Kosovo battlefield, another cultural icon for the Serbs, in April 1987. By 1989, the autonomy of Vojvodina and Kosovo within the Serbian republic was abolished. Kosovo was stirred up by Albanian miners who protested against the Serbian expansion. The protestants were publicly justified by the Slovene president Milan Kućan that caused Serbs a great pain. Hudson (2003, pp. 70-71) stated on the point: Milosević’s championing of the Serbian cause against the autonomous provinces was in a sense ‘saying what had for long been unsayable under the prohibitions of the Titoist state. The political inconsistencies of the constitution served as an easily identifiable â€Å"cause† for the multiplicity of ills afflicting post-Tito Serbia. Thus, the terrible impact of the IMF [International Monetary Fund] reforms, which had exacerbated and compounded the tendencies towards secessionism in Slovenia and Croatia, also contributed to the rise of Serbian nationalism. (Hudson 2003,) In other words, it seems that not only MiloÃ… ¡ević was to be blamed for the disintegration of the Yugoslav state and the mass hysteria of nationalism torturing the South Slavs throughout the 1990s. To conclude the section about the post-Tito debates about the future of Yugoslavia without its charismatic proponent of Non-Alignment Communism and the artificially centralized federation, it makes sense to return to Sekulić, Massey and Hodson’s research (1994). The scholars observed a significant shift in public opinion from the consolidated Yugoslav national identity to the nation- and ethnic-specific formulations. The shift was made especially vivid from 1985 to 1989 across Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. The American scholars stated that the Yugoslav national identity was significantly affected by four factors: modernization, political participation, demographic factors, and majority/minority status. They emphasized that the concept of ‘Yugoslavism’ became a defensive strategy for the communities portrayed as minority nationalities (the cases of Croat-born individuals in Bosnia and Serbia, and of Serbs in Croatia). Sekulić, Massey and Hodson (1994, p. 95) finally stated: While this failure to establish a shared identity among the people of this region cannot be said to explain the disintegration of Yugoslavia, it is apparent that a shared identity was not much in evidence as a mediating mechanism sustaining Yugoslavia through difficult transitions or slowing its disintegration into warring national camps. Without any restrictive mechanisms to stop the SFRY disintegration, the country sloped down into the chaos of national conflicts. New Elites, Old Leaders’ Policy:   Post-Federalism Judah (2000) was evidently right saying that â€Å"history is accelerating† (p. 295), meaning that, â€Å"While the great empires of the past †¦ lasted for centuries, ‘modern’ empires are increasingly short-lived affairs.† The researcher also demonstrated that history repeated itself when he restored â€Å"all the old arguments which had so sapped the Yugoslavia born in 1918† (Judah 2000, p. 104). In 1918, Stjepan Radić, the leader of the Croatian Peasant Party, declared to the deputies of a National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs: †¦ you think it is enough to say we Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes are one people because we speak one language and that on account of this we must also have a unitary centralist state †¦ and that only such a linguistic and state unity can make us happy. . . . our peasant in general, and especially our Croat peasant, does not wish to hear one more thing about †¦ a state which you are imposing on him by force. . . . You think that you can frighten the people and that in this way you will win the people to your politics. Maybe you will win the Slovenes, I do not know. Maybe you will also win the Serbs. But I am certain that you will never win the Croats . . . because the whole Croat peasant people are equally against your centralism as against militarism, equally for a republic as for a popular agreement with the Serbs. And should you want to impose your centralism by force, this will happen. We Croats shall say openly and clearly: If the Serbs really want to have such a centralist state and government, may God bless them with it, but we Croats do not want any state organization except a confederated federal republic. (as cited in Judah 2000, pp. 105-6) Radić was excluded from the party for his words, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was declared on 1 December 1918. From this date onwards people of Yugoslavia could at least hope for, if not live in, the state where every nation would enjoy equality and solidarity. The Yugoslav constitution of 1974 put an end to those idealistic aspirations. Dimitrijević (2000, p. 399) named it to be â€Å"one of the reasons for the civil war in that country, or at least as one of the contributing factors leading to Yugoslavia’s disorderly and bloody dissolution.† The document’s aim was to smooth †¦ a general pattern of inter-regional and inter-ethnic fragmentation which had occurred in the late 1960s but which Tito had sharply quashed through the ‘surgical’ use of military police power and political purges of the regional party machines. (Cohen 1992, p. 304) Pursuing such goal, the constitution of 1974 allowed a few liberal amendments conducted in 1971 in favor of republics and autonomous regions. As Burg (1982) observed, the Montenegro region was able to extend the conceptual framework of ‘the republic’ by introducing categorization by ethnicity. A functionary of the Montenegrin regional parliament notes that â€Å"public discussions of the Draft Constitution showed that the constitutional definition of the republic has politico-psychological significance. . . .† Added to the draft definition was a section that â€Å"emphasizes that Montenegro is the state of the Montenegrin people and members of other nations and nationalities. . . .† (Burg 1982, p. 141) Serbia was defined as â€Å"†the state of the Serbian people and parts of other nations and nationalities who live and realize their sovereign rights in it† (Burg 1982, p. 141). Despite those â€Å"concessions to the linguistic, cultural and corporate political rights of the nations and nationalities,† as Burg (1982, p. 142) observed, the constitution of 1974 â€Å"continues to hold the line against changes that might threaten the cohesiveness of Yugoslav society.† However, in 1992 it became apparent that those few ‘concessions’ became a ‘magic stick’ for â€Å"ethno-regional political and bureaucratic elites† that allowed them â€Å"to substantially advance their autonomy and power during the 1980s† (Cohen 1992, p. 304). Dimitrijević (2000) argued that the constitution of 1974 contained at least some grains of confederate structure that would be possible for Yugoslavia on due time. Article 3 defined the republics as state structures organized according to the principles of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘equal rights.’ Dimitrijević stressed that the term ‘sovereignty’ was used only in regard to the republics but not the federation itself. Part I of Basic Principles became â€Å"an ominous statement† (Dimitrijević 2000, p. 406) in this context so far as it talked about â€Å"the right to secession, on the basis of their will freely expressed in the common struggle of all nations and nationalities in the National Liberation War and Socialist Revolution, and in conformity with their historic aspirations† (as cited in Dimitrijević 2000, p. 406). A reference to ‘historic aspirations’ was really dangerous. As Van Evera (1997, p. 46) has noted, when â€Å"the groups with the greatest historic grievances [are] also the groups with the greatest power,† such â€Å"combination brings together both the motive and the capacity to make trouble† and becomes really explosive. This happened when MiloÃ… ¡ević initiated the â€Å"wave of nationalist euphoria† (Judah 2000, p. 163), and †¦ the Serbs were going through an exercise of mass catharsis. All the old fears and the old banned nationalist songs bubbled back up to the surface. (Judah 2000, p. 163) The Serbs always used to victimize themselves and, to be sincere, they had enough reasons to do so. However, that aggrievement, as Van Evera, was far from being passive. General Veljko Kadijević, Yugoslavia’s defence minister, played a significant role in arming the Serbs’ national grievance. By 1990 the Yugoslav military adopted the system of the Territorial Defence (TO) and Total National Defence. This meant that, apart from the regular army, each republic had reserve forces to call upon in the event of war. These were to be local forces which, in the event of a breakdown in communications, would be able to continue functioning on their own. For political guidance they would work closely with the leadership of the local Communist Party. By substituting the Communist Party with the SDS [Serbian Democratic Party], the Serbian leadership was able to make use of the TO system for mass mobilisations of Serbs in what was to become Krajina and then in Bosnia. (Judah 2000, p. 170) When Slovenia declared independence on 25 June, 1991, within the following forty-eight hours the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) attempted to retake the Slovene border that had turned from the inter-republican into the international one. The Slovene TO forces blocked the JNA soldiers who were predominantly conscripts. As Judah (2000, pp. 178-9) observed, The fact that the army had got involved in fighting in Slovenia was at the time seen by some as proof that nostalgic communist generals were desperate to preserve the old country. In fact it was nothing of the kind. Many people were of course deeply confused and loyalties were divided, but in the end men like Kadijević had already made the decision that as Yugoslavia was dying they had little choice but to seize as much of it as they could for the Serbs. Judging from the researchers’ accounts (Judah 2000; Hudson 2000; Dimitrijević 2000), there could be no bloodshed if there was a chance of a proper confederalizing process. Dimitrijević (2000, p. 421) blamed †¦ constitutional experts, political scientists and jurists who do not seem to have made any effort to provide constitutional solutions for real political difficulties, to secure alternative decision making in the case of the failure of the party system and thus not to save Yugoslavia if it was not wanted, but to increase the chances for a reasonable transition into explicitly confederate arrangements and the peaceful dissolution or separation of the constituent units. Another group of researchers (Gagnon 1997; Snyder & Ballentine 1996) accused Yugoslav political and military elites of playing with the dangerous fire of nationalism. Snyder and Ballentine (1996) argued that nationalism could be an incident product of the old and new elites re-arranging the informational marketplace in democratizing states. Snyder and Ballentine (1996, p. 10) introduced the concept of ‘the marketplace of ideas† as the situation â€Å"in which contending discourses and evidence confront each other directly on an even playing field.† The scholars argued that the Yugoslav marketplace of ideas was highly segmented in the 1980s that caused an informational imbalance: Tito’s decentralizing reforms of the 1960s, which were intended in part to assuage and defuse ethno-nationalism, put Yugoslavia’s media in the hands of regional leaderships, which in the 1980s fell into the hands of nationalists like MiloÃ… ¡ević. This federalization of power left pan-Yugoslav reformers like Ante Marković with no instrument for transcending the Serb and Croat nationalists’ media monopoly over their respective ethnic niche markets. (Snyder & Ballentine 1996, p. 21) It seems that the post-Tito Yugoslavia was a place where a severe intra-elite competition took place. Cohen (1992, p. 302) spoke about â€Å"the impressive pluralization of the Yugoslav political landscape† after Tito, accompanied by the lamentably â€Å"rapid erosion of federal authority.† Prime Minister Ante Marković, who had skillfully reoriented federal government policy along post-socialist reformist lines, made an admirable effort to implement country-wide economic and political changes during 1990, but his ability to fully accomplish such measures was stymied by the autarkic policies of contending ethno-regional elites. Marković’s formation of a federally-oriented party in mid-1990 – the Alliance of Reform Forces – to garner support for the unity of the country looked initially promising, but the Alliance did poorly against ethnically and regionally-oriented parties in the republican elections. (Cohen 1992, p. 302) Snyder & Ballentine (1996, p. 16) explained the shifts of political regime on the scale from autocratic to pluralistic in economic terms: As a democratizing political system opens up, old elites and rising counter-elites must compete for the support of new entrants into the marketplace through popular appeals, including appeals to the purported common interests of elites and mass groups in pursuing nationalistic aims against out-groups. In many instances, including the case of Serbian President Slobodan MiloÃ… ¡ević, these elites evince little interest in nationalism until rising pressure for mass political participation gives them an incentive to do so. It is interesting that Gagnon (1997, p. 134) also talked about elites manipulating public opinion and remaking a political scene to suit their needs: †¦ violent conflict along ethnic cleavages is provoked by elites in order to create a domestic political context where ethnicity is the only politically relevant identity. It thereby constructs the individual interest of the broader population in terms of the threat to the community defined in ethnic terms. Such a strategy is a response by ruling elites to shifts in the structure of domestic political and economic power: by constructing individual interest in terms of the threat to the group, endangered elites can fend off domestic challengers who seek to mobilize the population against the status quo, and can better position themselves to deal with future challenges. Gagnon pointed an indicative finger solely at Serbian elite for all the internal wars that shook Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Conversely, Hudson (2003) referred to Croatian and Bosnian Muslim nationalists as warmongers. But the researcher saved even bitterer accusations for international elites: Without the prospect – and eventual achievement – of international recognition, and the acceptance by a number of foreign states of the arguments of the nationalists, it is possible that a negotiated settlement could have been arrived at which would either have maintained some form of Yugoslavia, or achieved a peaceful dissolution. (Hudson 2003, p. 89) To provide an account of Yugoslavia sliding towards disintegration, it makes sense to summarize the viewpoints of that time Yugoslav political leaders in regard to the federation/confederation dichotomy. Serbs, Croats and Muslims were the groups most susceptible to nationalism so far as they were scattered across the republics and districts. Two of those groups identified themselves as ‘nations’ by language, history, and culture, whereas Muslims distinguished themselves from the other Yugoslavs on the principle of confession. Both Serbs and Croats had their own republics of Serbia and Croatia, respectively, but each republic (as well as other regions) had the so-called ‘pockets,’ like Krajina between Serbia and Croatia or Kosovo, where various nations, nationalities and ethnic groups were closely intermingled. Montenegrins historically and culturally associated themselves with Serbs although did not want to lose their independence. Slovenia was rather ethnically homogenous, whereas Bosnia hosted people of not only various ethnicities but also of various confessions. As it has been mentioned above, a Bosnian Croat Marković who was the last Yugoslavia’s Prime Minister (March 1989 – December 1991) was the proponent of pan-Yugoslavism so that the country of South Slavs despite its motley ethnic composition would be a solid economic and political body. The Serbs insisted on centralization of the state that resembled a person who carried fire in one hand and water in the other. The Serb leadership called for preserving the federal structure because in case of confederalizing many Serbs would stay outside the Serbian Republic borders. The Bosnians initially supported the idea of a centralized state, whereas the Croats and Slovenes violently opposed it, demanding either to weaken federative bonds or let them secede. In such a hot atmosphere, the Yugoslavs stepped into â€Å"the idiotic chaos in which the state died† (Judah 2000, p. 109). The Slide toward Disintegration Slovenia declared independence on 25 June, 1991, and issued its declaration of sovereignty in July 1991. Croatia seceded from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) the same day as Slovenia although it declared independence only on October 8, 1991. Thus, these two former SFRY-republics were the first to flee the burning house of Yugoslavia despite loud protests of Serbs, both the Belgrade leadership and the common people from northern Dalmatia, Lika, the Kordun, and Banija that were situated in the then sovereign Croatia. By that time, those Serbs who lived on the territory of then sovereign Croatia have already tasted all bitterness of Tudjman’s regime. Croats elected Franjo Tudjman, the leader of Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), as president in May, 1990, †¦ in an anti-semitic, anti-Serb campaign under slogans such as ‘a thousand years of uninterrupted Croatian statehood’. †¦ Slogans like ‘Croatia for the Croats only’, led to excesses against the Serbs, who were not only pushed out of their positions in the police force – a move authorized by the Croatian government, but also from posts in administration and enterprises. (Hudson 2003, p. 79) Once could say that a catastrophe started in January 1990, when Slovenian deputies aired their vision of the Yugoslav Communist League as â€Å"an alliance of republican communist parties† (Hudson 2003, p. 78) at the YCL’s Extraordinary 14th Congress session. They aimed at diminishing the authority of the old partocracy and to pave the road for secession. In April 1990, Milan Kućan, once a communist and then the leader of a centre-right coalition, has easily won the republican elections in Slovenia. In May 1990, the Yugoslav Communist League was dissolved by the Yugoslav Congress, and multi-party elections were held in all republics. By that time the Serbs of the Serbian Republic have been applauding to the three-component strategy of the conservatives and their leader MiloÃ… ¡ević who formally assumed presidency on 8 May 1989. MiloÃ… ¡ević and his allies have already indisposed the Yugoslav army against internal and external enemies, more or less successfully repressed the reported cases of ethnic â€Å"genocide† against Serbs from Kosovan Albanians, and have made multiple attempts â€Å"to portray Serbia as the victim of Yugoslavia, setting the stage for attacks on the other republics’ autonomy free multi-party elections† (Gagnon 1997, p. 150). The Serbian new elite were obsessed with the idea of ‘Pan-Serbianism.’ By the fall of 1990 the Serbian conservative government had dissolved the Kosovo Assembly whose Albanian delegates drafted a 140-article Constitution of the â€Å"sovereign Republic of Kosovo† demanding a status of independent Yugoslavia’s unit for their autonomous district. As Cohen (1992, p. 310) have noted, â€Å"The Serbian government labelled the ‘so-called’ Constitution as an illegitimate action on the part of ‘a movement directly and exclusively targeted at the breaking up the territorial integrity of Serbia and Yugoslavia’.† In 1990, as Judah (2000, p. 165) observed, only Bosnians â€Å"were still talking about keeping Yugoslavia together,† whereas â€Å"MiloÃ… ¡ević ‘s Serbian nationalism was the greatest boost to Tudjman’s Croatian nationalism, [so] that the Pandora’s box had been opened [and] there was no shuttin g it.† On 12 May 1991 referendum in Krajina was held for the local Serbs to choose either to join the Republic of Serbia, â€Å"and thus remain in Yugoslavia with Serbia, Montenegro and others that want to preserve Yugoslavia† (Judah 2000, p. 180), or be labelled as predators. It was one of many Serbian referendums that were to punctuate the political landscape over the next few years. It was a farce dressed up as democracy, by which people who had been bombarded by a single media message were herded to the polls to turn in the requisite popular mandate for the authorities. There was never any public debate on the question and it could be assumed that if you were not going to vote as the authorities wanted then you were not a Serb and hence had no right still to be living where you were. (Judah 2000, p. 180) On June 30, 1991, the Council for the Defense of the Constitution held a secret meeting, when the Serbian representative, Borislav Jović, officially stated that the Serbian leadership would not object to Slovene secession. The Federal Defense Secretary at the time, General Veljko Kadijević, warned that once Slovenia was let go, the JNA would defend the borders of a new Yugoslavia. Judah (2000, p. 178) called that meeting â€Å"simply the last nail in Yugoslavia’s coffin.† To utilize the concept proposed by Snyder and Ballentine (1996), the Yugoslavian ‘marketplace of ideas’ was not only segmented but multi-layered. That was a time of secret alliances and councils’ closed sessions. In public the presidents of the six republics were still arguing about whether some form of Yugoslavia could be preserved. MiloÃ… ¡ević wanted a ‘modern federation’, which was code for Serbian domination. Kućan and Tudjman wanted ‘an asymmetric federation’, which was code for independence while still enjoying the benefits of Yugoslavia without paying for them. Alija Izetbegović of Bosnia and Kiro Gligorov of Macedonia argued for a compromise, but having little political clout they were ignored. (Judah 2000, p. 180) Gagnon (1997, p. 157) directly called the elite’s policy of shaping public opinion Machiavellian: The Serbian conservatives’ response was to continue to demonize other ethnic nationalities, and also to begin provoking confrontations and violent conflicts along ethnic lines and to discredit the very idea of a federal Yugoslavia, calling it the creation of a Vatican-Comintern conspiracy. While the public had to listen to those hypocritical debates in media, the so-called RAM plan was secretly adopted in 1991-1992. It was said to allow the Serb occupation of territory in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and the invasion of the JNA troops into a Muslim area. Croatia and Serbia armed at full speed and started mutual firebombing. On 27 April 1992, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) was founded as comprising Serbia and Montenegro. It was supposed to enlarge the FRY at the expense of Krajina and some territories carved from Bosnia-Herzegovina to form the Republika Srpska. The FRY constitution proclaimed the newly born state to be the successor state of the old Yugoslavia that caused active protests from other former republics. And only a decade later people could read the sincere opinion of one of the key figures of that period on the issue of preserving Yugoslavia.   Judah (2000, p. 201) reported that on 23 January 1992 Nikola Koljević, once a teacher from Sarajevo and then one of the most radical pro-Serbian nationalists from the SDS (Serbian Democratic Party), said: It’s time to stop this absurd idea of a mini-Yugoslavia this is just a game. If only Serbs and Montenegrins want it, what’s the point of trying to force others to stay? We should start thinking in terms of a new federation of Serb lands. When the SDS leader was pronouncing those words, the Serbs (still federals) and Croats (already non-Yugoslavs) have just agreed to cease fire under the pressure of international community. The Bosnian Serbs have gone through a referendum held in November 1991, in which they voted down the possibility of Bosnia secession from Yugoslavia. A month later upon Koljević’s confession on the issue of federalism, Bosnia-Hercegovina declared its independence. That resulted in the Republika Srpska (created by Serbs leaving in Bosnia-Hercegovina) declaring its own independence under the leadership of Radovan Karadzić. The civil war in Bosnia between Serbs, Croats, and Muslims continued for three and a half years ending on 1 November 1995 due to the armed interference of the United States, United Nations and NATO military forces. In 1997, MiloÃ… ¡ević was elected President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavi. The third wave of terror and aggression poured down onto Yugoslavia at night between March 24 and 25 1999 when the United States bombed Belgrade in response to the reports of Kosovan Albanians about Serbs treating them inappropriately. On 9 June the same year Yugoslav military leaderships agreed to remove their forces from Kosovo in exchange to the withdrawal of the NATO army and the entry of an international security force. The bombardment was stopped on 10 June with the adoption of UN Resolution 1244. In September 2000, MiloÃ… ¡ević lost in the Yugoslav presidential election. As Hudson (2003, p. 138) observed: The US and the EU used these elections finally to achieve what they had been trying to do for over a decade, and had failed to do through bombing – to satisfy their own economic and strategic goals in the post-Soviet period. These included the integration of all of the component republics of the former Yugoslavia into the free-market economic system, and the removal of a government in Belgrade which had not only a socialist economic orientation, but also a strategic orientation away from NATO and towards Russia. That was the end of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Conclusion One would say that it was Serb nationalism that provoked counternationalism in other Yugoslav republics. However, it would be better to state without bias that Serbs are to be blamed as much as Croats or Albanians in the dissolution of Yugoslavia and mass killings. On the level of the state or quasi-state, new elites used national claims over pieces of Yugoslavia’s territory (that was an ethnic mosaic) to pursue their own economic and political goals. The struggle for power was not only for Serbian or Albanian control over Kosovo but for power per se. In their ambitious attempts, new political elites exploited the disturbances that already existed in the general populace and, when desirable and feasible, they created new turmoils. Disturbances stemmed from the national identities of each group and from the ways in which those identities played out in everyday life. So Judah was right (2000, p. 313) stating that there was â€Å"the cancer of discontent, which ended up killing Yugoslavia.† Bibliography Bokovoy, M. K. 1998, Peasants and Communists: Politics and Ideology in the Yugoslav Countryside, 1941-1953, University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, Pa. Burg, S. L. 1982, ‘Republican and Provincial Constitution-Making in Yugoslavia Politics’, Publius, vol. 12, no. 1, 131–55. Chary, F. B. 2000, ‘Tito’ in World Leaders of the Twentieth Century, Salem Press, Pasadena, Calif. Cohen, L. J. 1992, ‘Post-Federalism and Judicial Change in Yugoslavia: The Rise of Ethno-Political Justice’, International Political Science Review, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 301-319. Cottam, M. L. 2004, Introduction to Political Psychology, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Mahwah, N.J. Dimitrijević, V. 2000, ‘The 1974 Constitution as a Factor in the Collapse of Yugoslavia, or as a Sign of Decaying Totalitarianism’ in The Road to War in Serbia: Trauma and Catharsis, ed. N. Popov & D. Gojković, New York Central European University Press, Budapest. Doder, D. 1993, ‘Yugoslavia: New War, Old Hatreds’, Foreign Policy, no. 91, pp. 3-23. Elazar, D. J. 1991, Exploring Federalism, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, AL. Frankel, J. 1955, ‘Federalism in Yugoslavia’, The American Political Science Review, vol. 49, no. 2, pp. 416-430. Gagnon, V.P. 1997, ‘Ethnic Nationalism and International Conflict: The Case of Serbia’ in Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict, ed. Michael E. Brown, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. Hudson, K. 2003, Breaking the South Slav Dream: The Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia, VA Pluto Press, Sterling. Judah, T. 2000, The Serbs History, Myth, and the Destruction of Yugoslavia, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn. Kozhemiakin, A. V. 1998, Expanding the Zone of Peace?: Democratization and International Security, Palgrave Macmillan, New York. Lake, D. & Rothchild, D. 1997, ‘Containing Fear: The Origins and Management of Ethnic Conflict’ in Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict, ed. Michael E. Brown, MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass. Lendvai, P. & L. Parcell. 1991, ‘Yugoslavia without Yugoslavs: The Roots of the Crisis’, International Affairs, vol. 67, no. 2, pp. 251-261. Popov, N. 2000, ‘Traumatology of the Party State’ in The Road to War in Serbia: Trauma and Catharsis, ed. N. Popov & D. Gojković, New York Central European University Press, Budapest. Sekulić, D., G. Massey & R. Hodson. 1994, ‘Who Were the Yugoslavs? Failed Sources of a Common Identity in the Former Yugoslavia’, American Sociological Review, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 83-97. Snyder, J. & K. Ballentine. 1996, ‘Nationalism and the Marketplace of Ideas’, International Security, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 5-40. Van Evera, S. 1997, ‘Hypotheses on Nationalism and War’ in Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict, ed. M. Brown, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Williams, J. 1998, Legitimacy in International Relations and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia, Palgrave Macmillan, New York.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

District Sales Manager Essay

The principle error Maureen made was underestimating how significant company culture could impact decision-making at every responsibility level. Even though Quaker had strict functional reporting lines, the organization supported an informal culture based on friendliness and openness. Most importantly, Quaker’s ethos required a high degree of influence by persuasion and charisma—not formal authority. Secondly, the communication vehicle that Maureen chose to carry and deliver her proposed plan was ill suited for interconnecting the plan and expectations. Instead of going with the organization’s pattern of utilizing personal relationships, teamwork, and the openness to express opinions and feedback, Maureen sent a memo directly to the titanium extrusion sales representatives. In the memo, she simply gave a rationale for making the change. In response, a District Sales Manager (DSM) called Maureen to ask for a more detailed explanation for the change due to its arbitrary nature. Therefore, Maureen presented her findings to the DSMs in a yearly sales meeting in the presence of the VP of Marketing. †¢Lack of empowerment from authority: Although Maureen’s plan obtained approval from her boss, Hugh Salk, there was never a statement from the VP of Sales to his subordinates (district sales managers and sales representatives) supporting the proposal. As seen in Exhibit 2, Lawrence Israel, the VP of Sales has direct power over DSMs. †¢Company’s hiring practices: Maureen was hired at a managerial position because she had a very attractive professional background that made her a highly desirable candidate for her role. However, this was not in line with the company culture that encouraged internal promotions rather than external hiring at a managerial level (‘Typically, managers who joined Quaker from other steel or metal producers found the company a confusing and frustrating place in which to work. For this and this other reasons, most of Quaker’s managerial positions were filled from within’, p2). †¢Ã¢â‚¬Å"Responsibility lines† structure: Due to the company’s growth, many managers and at times whole divisions were responsible to other departments even though there was not a preset hierarchy that linked them. This situation complicated to a certain extent the relationship between the product management groups and the sales force as can be inferred from the fact that the titanium DSM in Chicago had to report to two bosses (p5). †¢Sales force’s lack of adaptation: Sales representatives were assigned to accounts based on experience and usually had tough time cracking big accounts. This was in part due to lack of backing from the technical support services and sometimes from the R&D labs as the larger accounts were more technically complex. It was also because there were no additional economical benefits to work on bigger accounts, thus harder work was not compensated in any manner (‘The Chicago DSM explained that a modest cash bonus existed, but that he did not use it, believing it had little effect’, p6). Hence, the only motivation for the sales people was closing a successful deal and working directly with customers which was frequent with small accounts. †¢Lack of relationship and communication: Maureen spent so much time analyzing the sales time simulations; therefore, she did not spend enough time getting to know other team members on the field. These circumstances did not favor building â€Å"trust† with the sales personnel and this lack of participation within the decision-making process hindered effective results (‘In response to the memo, one of the titanium DSMs called her to say that he had received several complaints from his salespeople about its arbitrary nature’, p8).

Pearson's hard soft acid base theory in bioinorganic Term Paper

Pearson's hard soft acid base theory in bioinorganic - Term Paper Example The theory implies that soft acids tend to bind to soft bases and hard acids to hard bases. An increase in the electronegativity of an element or ligand causes an increase in the polarizability; this in turn increases hardness. The theory is useful in predicting the pathways of chemical reactions. The chemical conditions in which a hard or soft base or acid in put in can cause the hardness (or softness) characteristics of the acid or base to change. Therefore, borderline elements and ligands might increase or decrease in hardness or softness depending on the chemical conditions. Because of this reason, the metals in various metalloenzymes may be subjected to chemical conditions that might alter their hardness or softness properties. Enzymes with metals that exhibit Pearson’s hard and soft acids and bases theory include: 1) Urease This is an enzyme with nickel at its active site found in many species of bacteria, algae, plants (such as Jack Bean) and invertebrates. It plays a k ey role in the catalytic hydrolysis of urea to form ammonia and carbon dioxide as pre the equation below: Urease in Jack Bean has a single catalytic unit made up of an ?-subunit that has the active site with a dimeric nickel center. One of the two Ni atoms (Ni-1) coordinates to histidine via the nitrogen atoms and a water molecule. The second Ni atom (Ni-2) is similarly coordinated to histidine via the N atoms, two water molecules and to aspartic acid via the O atom. Mechanism: There are several mechanisms that explain how urease works. These include: a) Zerner mechanism In this, a carbonyl oxygen in urea attacks one of the water ligands attached to Ni-1. A nitrogen atom in the urea molecule donates its lone pair electrons to a carbon atom forming an N=C bond (Dixon, Riddles and Blakeley). This then reacts with a carboxylate ion. A base-catalyzed deprotonation of one –OH ligand on Ni then occurs. The resultant electronegative O attacks the carbonyl carbon. The N=C bond initia lly formed donates two electrons to the nitrogen, cancelling out the charge on it. The intermediate carbon formed with a coordination of 4 is then broken down by a sulfhydryl group. Ammonia is released when the C-N bond is broken after an H atom bonds to the N. This occurs alongside the breaking of the bond between the octahedral nickel and oxygen. A carbamate ion coordinated to the Ni is then formed. Water displaces the carbamate. The resultant carbamate then degenerates to yield carbonic acid and urea. b) Mangani mechanism This mechanism stipulates that both Ni-1 and Ni-2 take part in the reaction. The first atom, Ni-1, binds to urea, causing its activation. The second, Ni-2 binds to a water molecule, causing its activation (Benini, Rypniewski and Wilson). Ni-1 is in a five-coordinate formation, bound to urea via a carbonyl O atom. The distance between the two Ni atoms is reduced by the movement of the urea molecule towards Ni-2. The relatively low Lewis base property of NH2 in ur ea makes it a poor chelating ligand. Its high basicity however, enables the binding to Ni to occur. 2) Carbon monoxide dehydrogenase This is a nickel-based enzyme found in various bacteria. The enzyme plays a role in the catalytic oxidation of carbon monoxide to form carbon dioxide as per the equation below: There are two classes of carbon monoxide hydrogenase enzymes: one has a Mo-[Fe2-S2] active site and the other a Ni-[Fe3-S4]

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Global studies-The thought about Malala Yousafzai Essay

Global studies-The thought about Malala Yousafzai - Essay Example Thus, she definitely has a right to call for peace. At the same time, she is a woman who’s getting an education and thus, has a right to speak on behalf of her sisters on women rights on education. That’s why when Malala makes a connection between education (including education for women) and peacemaking, it seems most reasonable. Malala herself is a bright example of how educated woman could argue for peace. Then, it’s not a radical feministic claim to argue for a greater number of educated persons in the world. It’s reasonable, because women are less likely to fight in the battlefields, but more likely to become doctors, nurses and educators. Malala also fairly points that war and terrorism bring poverty, ruin schools and therefore, more young talented children, including girls, are deprived of a better life (â€Å"Malala Yousafzai Nobel Peace Prize Speech†). In this way, Malala makes it a vicious circle: more wars and terrorism with fewer rights for women bring less education. And vice versa: with more education and wider rights for women, including right on education, there will be less wars and less terror in the

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Economic Inequalities in The United States Research Paper

Economic Inequalities in The United States - Research Paper Example The wish of most Americans is to bring the economic equality to an end. The society has been involved in the search of the possible social solutions to the increased inequality. The possible solutions include reducing taxes on the income of the low class group, increased taxes on the wealth and income of the high class group and adjusting the social security tax. Social nature of the problem Economic inequality exists in the United States due individuals having varied amount of money, power or even prestige. This problem creates different social classes among the people. Individuals in higher classes enjoy higher income and have continued to accumulate their wealth, while the lower class individuals in the society incur higher rates of taxes on their low income. As inequality in terms of resources widens, individuals with more wealth have become powerful and are be able to attain their goals. They will be able to accomplish their vested interests at the expense of the lower social cl ass individuals. They are also influential in the society and are powerfully in making different decisions. Inequality in income results from several causes, some of these causes are relatively clear, others unknown and others are still under dispute. The basic cause of household income inequality at a structural level is variations in the yearly hours worked per household. It can be broken down into the product of the total number of workers, the yearly weeks worked and the weekly hours worked. This is a very significant factor among individuals in the lower class level. However, it remains minor among individuals who belong to the higher class. Beyond the total hours individuals have worked, income inequality arises out of; the variation of the income rates per hour and the income which has not been earned, these differences is mainly due to differences in the education level. Income inequality is common in the United States due to the variation of an individual position in terms of responsibility, its importance and the complexity. Income remains to be a common form of compensation. In most cases the market value is reduced by abundant supply hence, income is increased significantly by the possession of scarce skills. The most common source of income among the lower class individuals in America is not occupation but the government welfare. Causes of the problem There are several causes of economic inequality in the United States. These include; difference in the individual’s wealth and income, most individuals depends on the income they get from their jobs. Others however, benefits from both their job’s income and their wealth. The big problem is that those with higher sources of income get larger percentage of increase than those with little income. The wealthy are able to accumulate their wealth and income for several years unlike those with little income and no wealth. This creates a wide gap between the two groups of individuals. Those who are wealthy are in a position to vie for political offices and invest more money in order to win. They will also be able to interact with other individuals of the same class and who also have similar power and interests. Another cause of inequality in the capitalistic society is that there is an existing belief that the government influence has to be maintained at a minimal level (Sen and Foster1997). When the

Monday, August 26, 2019

Americas Film and Video Culture Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Americas Film and Video Culture - Assignment Example Most people in the greatest generation were born during the time of the American silent feature film that lasted until 1929. During the period, the filmmakers in the country established the language of motion pictures as well as cinema that arrived at the height of artistic sophistication. Many full films were developed during the period. The 1930s, for example, was a period of economic problems and political turmoil. The events affected the films in one way or the other. The 1929 to 1946 period was referred to as the golden age of Hollywood even most of the film produced was black and white. The period was also the decade of color and sound revolution, the advance of the talkies as well as the further creation of film genres (Etkind, 94). Some of the films developed include the gangster films, newspaper reporting films, musicals, the historical biopic, social realism films, western and horror films and lighthearted screwball comedies. The silent period ended during this era with many film stars failing to make a transition to sound. In 1933, for example, the impact of depression was being felt strongly especially and resulted in a decreased attendance in Movie Theater. Some of the films of the time included the Hell’s Angel, Anna Christie and the stagecoach of that was released in 1931. A high number of the early talkies were active at the box office though most of them were of poor quality. The films were dialog dominated, with stilted acting and an unmoving microphone and unmoving camera. Screenwriters in most of the films were required to place emphasis on the script characters and the writers of the title cards became unemployed. Nonetheless, videos and films of this period were produced with style, wit, el egance, and skills that have never been equaled (Etkind, 95). Film production continued to improve between the years 1929 to 1946.

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Impact of Computer Technology Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Impact of Computer Technology - Research Paper Example From the essay it is clear that the cost effective and instant communication over these networks has left other technologies far too behind and facilitated humans to communicate and process information in a remarkable and innovative way. Social networks enables people to create effective communication channels for exchanging ideas and thoughts with class mates, old friends, lost friends, relatives, and new friends. Computerized social networks have advantages as well as disadvantages later to be discussed. The factors impacting on the population are interrelated to each other. The severity of the impact of these technologies may differ from low to high risks. According to the report findings the computerized social networks also contributed to support the educational correspondence regarding student assignments, career counseling and college planning. Students are able to co ordinate with each other regarding multiple educational topics and suggestions. Students improve their visual, writing, reading and conflict resolution skills by discussing about issues on various matters with all level of students available around the globe. These features can be achieved by connecting to the Internet and registering to the free social networks. Students with low income can also utilize these services due to free of charge. Studies have shown that computerized social networks have also increased quality of life. Social media can contribute via computerized social networks which will be an alternative to a traditional way of communication.

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Jesus Image of Himself as the True Vine. John 15; 1-11 Essay

Jesus Image of Himself as the True Vine. John 15; 1-11 - Essay Example The sap in the vine gives power to the branch so that it may bring forth fruit and thus, detaching the branch would mean the end of the fruit bearing ability of the branch. He explains further that every fruit bearing branch is pruned so as to enhance its fruit bearing potential. The Gospel of John according to John Donahue’s commentary does not narrate the stories of Jesus in parable form like the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke for the reader to decipher meaning, which makes it different from them in this respect. Though the Gospel is symbolic, yet it is simple and in many instances, Jesus explains the spiritual lesson like in this instance. Jesus wanted to bring the Spiritual message across to the disciples about the importance of abiding, stressing the same in 5 where He says, â€Å"for without me you can do nothing†, and it would also be worthy to note that the word abide is repeated seven times between verses 1 to 12. Just as a detached vine cannot bring forth f ruit and is not worthy for any purpose pertaining to fruit bearing other than to be thrown into the fire, thus also was Jesus teaching His disciples that their fruit bearing potential depended on their abiding in Him at all times (Michaels, 1998). The parable also is a continuation of His last words and instruction which He had started in John 14, before he was crucified, rose up again and was taken up to heaven and thus has very great significance in the continuation of the ministry He had started and which was to continue without Him being physically present with His disciples (Nissen& Pedersen, 1999). Just as the fruit bearing ability exists in the vine and not the branches, Jesus wanted to drive the point home in verses 5 to 7 that their victory pertaining to the bringing forth of fruit lay by the disciples’ abiding or remaining in Him. In other words, it implies that He was going to produce His fruit in them, since they were now the body of Christ. Jesus talks about His abiding in the love of the Father in verse 10, and challenges His disciples also to abide in His love. He desires to establish a relationship with His disciples, which is based on abiding, just as is the case of His relationship with the Father (Moloney& Sacra, 1998). Jesus has done this by obeying the commandments of the Father and would like the same repeated in His relationship with His disciples, in other word, fruit bearing was to be enhanced as the disciples maintained their relationship with Jesus. The Father would be glorified as Jesus said in verse 8 when the disciples bore much fruit, and this would signify that they were Jesus’ disciples. Since there was poor to bring forth fruit in Jesus, it meant that just as a branch automatically brings forth fruit as long as it is on the right tree, multiplication was going to be automatic and also was the production of other fruit was required of the disciples. Concerning the notion of cutting of branches that did not bear fr uit as narrated in verse 2, this is more of a warning to the disciples that their failure to abide in Christ would make them unfruitful and thus make them liable to be removed by God. Jesus was speaking these words to eleven of His closest disciples because at this time, Judas had already left the group to prepare to betray Jesus. Jesus reminds the disciples that they are to abide in Him at all times and not only when it was convenient for them (Michaels, 1998). The verse also speaks another type of cutting that would enhance

Friday, August 23, 2019

Review la confidential Movie Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

La confidential - Movie Review Example The character of Dudley Smith played by James Cromwell is tough and disciplined. Being the head of the LAPD he plays a protagonist role against the ‘bad boys’ in the city and is also loyal to his collogues and the department. Bud white (Russell Crowe), a police detective who is often hard and violent to enforce justice and law. Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) a cop cum detective works strictly for the policing policies while being totally aware of the politics within the department. Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) is the sparkling Hollywood detective serving as a technical adviser for a television series. Mickey Cohen took over the running crime scene of Los Angeles bringing down the reputation of LA police department and turning the department against him. But soon this guy is arrested while the legacy of crime scenes continues. The story revolves around three detectives; Exley, Jack and Bud white. Bud white watches a man abusing her wife. He is bought to death by Bud White. On the other hand Jack Vincennes serves as a narcotics detective and arrest two men engaged with marijuana. Exley moves to the murder investigation and Vincennes joined the Vice Squad. Bud White’s suspension is also over taken when they set out for the mission. The three now set out to stop criminals entering the LA and trying to take over Mickey Cohen’s business. The suspected criminals are taken to a remote location, beaten hard by Bud White and then forced to leave the city. The detectives now plan to find Cohen’s subordinates to trace and catch his network; this working strategy helped them while Cohen remains in the prison. There is a twist in the story with the murders at Nite Owl. Every police detective now starts to investigate about this crime scene while leaving all the other aims aside. If the killers are caught, Exley will lead the interrogations. Bud White left this

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Les Misérables Essay Example for Free

Les Misà ©rables Essay Victor Hugo – Les Miserables BACKGROUND : Victor Marie Hugo was the son of a general in Napoleon’s army, and much of his childhood was therefore spent amid the backdrop of Napoleon’s campaigns in Spain and in Italy. The first three years of his life were spent in Elba, where he learnt to speak the Italian dialect spoken in the island in addition to his mother tongue. Victor got a little education in a small school. At the age of eleven, Hugo returned to live with his mother in Paris, where he got a little education in a small and where he also became infatuated with books and literature. By the time he was fifteen, he had already submitted one poem to a contest sponsored by the prestigious French Academy. There he learnt much from an old soldier, General Lahorie, who, obnoxious to Napoleon for the share he had taken in Moreaus plot, lived secretly in the house, and from an old priest named Lariviere, who came every day to teach Victor and his two brothers. In 1815, at the age of thirteen, he was sent to a boarding school to prepare for the Ecole Polytechnique. But he devoted himself, even at school, to verse-writing with greater ardour than to study. He wrote in early youth more than one poem for a prize competition, composed a romance which some years later he elaborated into the story Bug Jargal, and in 1820, when only eighteen, joined his two brothers, Abel and Eugene, in publishing a literary journal called Le Conservateur Litteraire. Hugo published his first novel the year following his marriage (Han dIslande, 1823) and his second three years later (Bug-Jargal, 1826). By the end of 1822 Victor Hugo was fully launched on a literary career, and for twenty years or more the story of his life is mainly the story of his literary output. Because of his successful drama Cormwell, the preface to which, with its note of defiance to literary convention, caused him to be definitely accepted as the head of the Romantic School of poetry. The revolution of 1830 disturbed for a moment his literary activity, but as soon as things were quiet again he shut himself in his study with a bottle of ink, a pen, and an immense pile of paper. For six weeks he was never seen, except at dinner-time, and the result was : The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831). During the next ten years four volumes of poetry and four dramas were published in 1841 came his election to the Academy, and in 1843 he published Les Burgraves, a drama which was less successful than his former plays, and which marks the close of his career as a dramatist. In the same year there came to him the greatest sorrow of his life. His most famous poem was ‘Demain, des l’aube’ in which he describes the crucial moment where he visits his daughters grave. As Hugo grew older, his politics became increasingly leftist, and he was forced to flee France in 1851 because of his opposition to the monarch Louis Napoleon. Hugo remained in exile until 1870, when he returned to his home country as a national hero. He continued to write until his death in 1885. He was buried with every conceivable honor in one of the grandest funerals in modern French history. The Book – Les Miserable : Hugo began writing Les Miserables twenty years before its eventual publication in 1862. His goals in writing the novel were as lofty as the reputation it has subsequently acquired; Les Miserables is primarily a great humanitarian work that encourages compassion and hope in the face of adversity and injustice. It is also, however, a historical novel of great scope and analysis, and it provides a detailed vision of nineteenth-century French politics and society. By coupling his story of redemption with a meticulous documentation of the injustices of France’s recent past, Hugo hoped Les Miserables would encourage a more progressive and democratic future. Driven by his commitment to reform and progress, Hugo wrote Les Miserables with nothing less than a literary and political revolution in mind. Les Miserables employs Hugo’s style of imaginative realism and is set in an artificially created human hell that emphasizes the three major predicaments of the nineteenth century. Each of the three major characters in the novel symbolizes one of these predicaments: Jean Valjean represents the degradation of man in the proletariat, Fantine represents the subjection of women through hunger, and Cosette represents the atrophy of the child by darkness. In part, the novel’s fame has endured because Hugo successfully created characters that serve as symbols of larger problems without being flat devices.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Environmental Analysis and Long-term objectives Essay Example for Free

Environmental Analysis and Long-term objectives Essay The organization selected for this paper to discuss the environmental analysis and long-term objectives is Dunkin Donuts. The main focus will be on the forces and trends operating in the environment which have a considerable effect on the running of the organization. The paper will first discuss these forces and trends in detail and then provide an insight to how these forces effect the organization and align themselves with the vision and values of the organization. The trends selected are: 1. Social responsibility 2. Environment 3. Fuel Social Responsibility One of the environmental trends is social responsibility which adds to the credibility of an organization. Social responsibility basically refers to the responsibility or the duties of an organization, government or even an individual towards the society in which it functions. Every organization has a responsibility to keep their actions and practices in the best interests of the people living in the society so that it does not endanger them in any way. Instead organizations should work to provide comfort and help to the society as a whole. This is a part of their corporate social responsibility. The company can also be involved in eradication of unethical practices and behavior taking place in the society so that the lives of the people could be made easier. For example, some companies take initiative in planting trees or constructing gardens in an area which serve a place for community people to come together and meet each other (Kotler and Lee, 2004). Social responsibility at Dunkin Donuts has actually helped the organization in a considerable manner. The restaurant holds a respectable position in the society due to its charity and community involvement programs. The company as well as their employees contributes for the community service organization in order to make the lives of the people better. Moreover, they are extremely committed to the environmental responsibility. The restaurant follows the environment regulations and promotes cleanliness. The restaurant itself is very clean and tidy with a proper system to discard the garbage. The company supports charitable programs and takes initiatives for supporting and participating in the welfare of the community people. They even sponsor educational programs in local community schools and provide funds for different events like Special Olympics, AYSO soccer teams etc. Recently Dunkin’ Donuts has entered into a relationship with a non-profit organization ‘Coffee Kids’ for supporting families in the coffee-producing regions of Mexico and Central America. On 22 May, 2008, the company went ‘green’ by initiating its first LEED (Leadership in energy and environmental design) restaurant which is a part of their corporate social responsibility commitment. This way the company hopes to improve the quality of life of the community people by making the area clean and green (Kotler and Lee, 2004). The trend operating in the environment must be aligned with the mission, vision and values of the organization for it to work in the best possible way. At Dunkin’ Donuts, there are seven core values and one of them is responsibility towards the environment and the community in which they are functioning. They are committed for improving the people’s quality of live. The first LEED being built up by the company is an effort towards promoting a healthy life for the people and improving their quality of life. The social responsibility practices of the company reinforce their mission, vision and values which are focused on making the ‘world a better place live and work’ (David, 2006). Environment The second force the paper talks about is the physical environment in which the organization is functioning. The trends in the environment have a much larger impact on the organization; here we are discussing the physical environment. Changes happen in the physical environment without any notice which might result in shock or disaster or even opportunities. Organizations need to have a contingency plan to deal with such contingencies resulting from the physical environment (Shaffer, 2000). In the physical environment outside the Dunkin’ Donuts Company and restaurant, variable changes can take place which can sometimes help the organization or hinder its processes at some other instances. The environment can provide opportunities as well as threats to the company. Since Dunkin’ Donuts has now essentially become a beverages company so it can specialize in different kinds of beverages and become a market leader. Moreover, the increasing number of suppliers in the industry can also result in new opportunities. Threat comes mainly from the substitutes and the new entrants. The company faces tough competition from Starbucks and their success becomes a threat for the company plus the industry doesn’t offers high barriers for the new entrants so more beverages company can be set up thus giving rise to the competition. Apart from this, the physical environment also includes the threat from natural disasters which can cause huge losses to the company so the company needs to have contingency plans for dealing with them. Thus, the physical environment can both help and hinder Dunkin’ Donuts depending on the situation (Reeve, 2002). The organization strives to accommodate any changes emerging in the physical environment in its strategy. The company was essentially based on donuts first but now it has developed into a beverages company. This was because it saw greater opportunities for itself in serving the beverages market. It saw the changing taste of people towards coffee and decided to establish a strategy based on a coffee company. Today Dunkin’ Donuts is known as the no. 1 retailer in hot and ice regular coffee. Thus, this shows the organization’s strategic adaptability towards the changing forces resulting in the environment (David, 2006). Rising Fuel Costs The burning issue facing the organizations today in their environment is the rising fuel prices. Companies have to face rising costs due to this shooting up in fuel prices which have almost doubled this year. As the costs are increasing so the companies have to raise the prices of their products and services which decreases their sales. This way many companies are facing problems due rising fuel costs which in turn decreases their average sales. Therefore, the third issue is of fuel which this paper will examine (Reeve, 2002). The rising cost of fuel is a trend in the environment which hinders the company by raising the costs of doing business and thus, decreasing the sales and profits. Since electricity is produced through fuel so increase in fuel costs also increases the electricity cost. At Dunkin’ Donuts restaurants, the food including the donuts and beverages is prepared to sophisticated machines which run on electricity. They have to pay higher for electricity which increases the cost of inputs and simultaneously, the cost of doing business. The company has raised the prices of its products worldwide recently but that has caused the sales to decrease and thus, it earns lower profits. This way fuel is actually a hindrance towards high profits for the company and simultaneously, its long-term objectives. Since rising fuel costs are hindering the company’s sales and profits, Dunkin’ Donuts is trying to find out ways of producing the products efficiently so that they involve low costs and the profits of the company could be increased. The company tries to specialize in certain beverages which can be produced with hands so that machine use could be limited thus, saving up the electricity. The company tried to adjust for these rising costs so that it can acquire an increasing number of customers to boost up its sales as well as profits (Shaffer, 2000). Conclusion The paper has discussed in detail the environmental analysis pertaining to social responsibility, environment and fuel. It first discussed what these forces actually mean and then identified their relevance with the organization and how organization adapts to these forces operating in the environment. Social responsibility at Dunkin’ Donuts is aimed at winning the hearts of the masses through charity and community involvement activities. The mission of the company is to improve the quality of life and this is effectively done through their social involvement programs. The company also takes immediate action to the changing environment which may involve rising incomes or changing tastes of the people and tries to accommodate the change in its strategy as it did from shifting to beverages industry from donuts industry. Finally, the company is also trying to cope up with the rising costs of fuel through cost efficient methods and increasing the prices since the income of a common man has also increased. All these forces or trends help or hinder the organization and its strategy in their own way. Thus, it can be said the Dunkin’ Donuts is a very capable organization who has effectively dealt with difficult times and has become the no. 1 retailer in coffee throughout United States (David, 2006). References David, F. R. (2006). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases. Prentice Hall. Kotler, P. , Lee, N. (2004). Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing the Most Good for Your Company and Your Cause . Wiley. Reeve, R. N. (2002). Introduction to Environmental Analysis. Wiley. Shaffer, J. (2000). The Leadership Solution. New York: McGraw-Hill