Social Studies: The Invasion of Kuwait

Social studies notes Chapter 1 The Invasion of Kuwait, also known as the Iraq-Kuwait War, was a major conflict between the Republic of Iraq and the State of Kuwait, which resulted in the seven-month long Iraqi occupation of Kuwait, which subsequently led to direct military intervention by United States-led forces in the Gulf War. [edit] Dispute over the financial debt Kuwait had heavily funded the 8 year long Iraqi war against Iran. By the time the war ended, Iraq was not in a financial position to repay the $14 billion it borrowed from Kuwait to finance its war. 6] Iraq argued that the war had prevented the rise of Iranian influence in the Arab World. However, Kuwait's reluctance to pardon the debt created strains in the relationship between the two Arab countries. During late 1989, several official meetings were held between the Kuwaiti and Iraqi leaders but they were unable to break the deadlock between the two. [edit] Economic warfare and slant drilling According to George Piro, the FBI interrogator who questioned Saddam Hussein after his capture (in 2003), Iraq tried repaying its debts by raising the prices of oil through OPEC's oil production cuts. However, Kuwait, a member of the OPEC, prevented a global increase in petroleum prices by increasing its own petroleum production, thus lowering the price and preventing recovery of the war-crippled Iraqi economy. [7] This was seen by many in Iraq as an act of aggression, further distancing the countries. The collapse in oil prices had a catastrophic impact on the Iraqi economy. According to former Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, â€Å"every US$1 drop in the price of a barrel of oil caused a US$1 billion drop in Iraq's annual revenues triggering an acute financial crisis in Baghdad. [5] It was estimated that Iraq lost US$14 billion a year due to Kuwait's oil price strategy. [8] The Iraqi Government described it as a form of ‘economic warfare,' which it claimed was aggravated by Kuwait's alleged slant-drilling across the border into Iraq's Rumaila field. The dispute over Rumaila field started in 1960 when an Arab League declaration marked the Iraq-Kuwait border 2 miles north of the southern-most tip of the Rumaila field. [9] During the Iran–Iraq War, Iraqi oil drilling operations in Rumaila declined while Kuwait's operations increased. In 1989, Iraq accused Kuwait of using â€Å"advanced drilling techniques† to exploit oil from its share of the Rumaila field. Iraq estimated that US$2. 4 billion worth of Iraqi oil was stolen by Kuwait and demanded compensation. [10][11] Kuwait dismissed the accusations as a false Iraqi ploy to justify military action against it. Several American firms working in the Rumaila field also dismissed Iraq's slant-drilling claims as a â€Å"smokescreen to disguise Iraq's more ambitious intentions†. [9] [edit] Kuwait's lucrative economy After the Iran–Iraq War, the Iraqi economy was struggling to recover. Iraq's civil and military debt was higher than its state budget. Most of its ports were destroyed, oil fields mined, and traditional oil customers lost. Despite having a total land area 1/25th of Iraq, Kuwait's coastline was twice as long as Iraq's and its ports were some of the busiest in the Persian Gulf region. The Iraqi government clearly realized that by seizing Kuwait, it would be able to solve most of its financial problems and consolidate its regional authority. Due to its relatively small size, Kuwait was seen by Baghdad as an easy target as well as a historically integral part of Iraq separated by British imperialism. The Persian Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991), commonly referred to as the Gulf War, and also known as the First Gulf War[12][13], the Second Gulf War,[14][15] by Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein as The Mother of all Battles,[16] and commonly as Desert Storm for the military response, was the final conflict, which was initiated with United Nations authorization, by a coalition force from 34 nations against Iraq, with the expressed purpose of expelling Iraqi forces from Kuwait after its invasion and annexation on 2 August 1990. The invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi troops that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. U. S. President George H. W. Bush deployed American forces to Saudi Arabia and urged other countries to send their own forces to the scene. An array of nations joined the Coalition of the Gulf War. The great majority of the military forces in the coalition were from the United States, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Egypt as leading contributors, in that order. Around US$40 billion of the US$60 billion cost was paid by Saudi Arabia. [17] The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial bombardment on 17 January 1991. This was followed by a ground assault on 23 February. This was a decisive victory for the coalition forces, who liberated Kuwait and advanced into Iraqi territory. The coalition ceased their advance, and declared a cease-fire 100 hours after the ground campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, and areas on the border of Saudi Arabia. However, Iraq launched missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia. Further information: Iraq-United States relations Throughout much of the Cold War, Iraq had been an ally of the Soviet Union, and there was a history of friction between it and the United States. The U. S. was concerned with Iraq's position on Israeli–Palestinian politics, and its disapproval of the nature of the peace between Israel and Egypt. The U. S. also disliked Iraqi support for various Arab and Palestinian militant groups such as Abu Nidal, which led to its inclusion on the developing U. S. list of state sponsors of international terrorism on 29 December 1979. The U. S. remained officially neutral after the invasion of Iran, which became the Iran–Iraq War, although it assisted Iraq covertly. In March 1982, however, Iran began a successful counteroffensive – Operation Undeniable Victory, and the United States increased its support for Iraq to prevent Iran from forcing a surrender. In a U. S. bid to open full diplomatic relations with Iraq, the country was removed from the U. S. ist of state sponsors of terrorism. Ostensibly this was because of improvement in the regime’s record, although former United States Assistant Secretary of Defense Noel Koch later stated, â€Å"No one had any doubts about [the Iraqis'] continued involvement in terrorism†¦ The real reason was to help them succeed in the war against Iran. â€Å"[18] With Iraq's new found success in the war, and its rebuff of a peace offer in July, arms sales to Iraq reached a record sp ike in 1982. An obstacle, however, remained to any potential U. S. -Iraqi relationship – Abu Nidal continued to operate with official support in Baghdad. When Iraqi President Saddam Hussein expelled the group to Syria at the United States' request in November 1983, the Reagan administration sent Donald Rumsfeld to meet President Hussein as a special envoy and to cultivate ties. Main article: Invasion of Kuwait By the time the ceasefire with Iran was signed in August 1988, Iraq was virtually bankrupt, with most of its debt owed to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Iraq pressured both nations to forgive the debts, but they refused. Kuwait was also accused by Iraq of exceeding its OPEC quotas and driving down the price of oil, thus further hurting the Iraqi economy. The collapse in oil prices had a catastrophic impact on the Iraqi economy. The Iraqi Government described it as a form of economic warfare, which it claimed was aggravated by Kuwait slant-drilling across the border into Iraq's Rumaila oil field. [19] Iraq claimed Kuwait had been a part of the Ottoman Empire's province of Basra. Its ruling dynasty, the al-Sabah family, had concluded a protectorate agreement in 1899 that assigned responsibility for its foreign affairs to Britain. Britain drew the border between the two countries, and deliberately tried to limit Iraq's access to the ocean so that any future Iraqi government would be in no position to threaten Britain's domination of the Persian Gulf. Iraq refused to accept the border, and did not recognize the Kuwaiti government until 1963. [20] In early July, Iraq complained about Kuwait's behavior, such as not respecting their quota, and openly threatened to take military action. On the 23rd, the CIA reported that Iraq had moved 30,000 troops to the Iraq-Kuwait border, and the U. S. naval fleet in the Persian Gulf was placed on alert. On the 25th, Saddam Hussein met with April Glaspie, an American ambassador, in Baghdad. At that meeting, Glaspie told the Iraqi delegation, â€Å"We have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts. † On the 31st, negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait in Jeddah failed violently. [21] On 2 August 1990 Iraq launched an invasion with its warplanes, bombing Kuwait City, the Kuwaiti capital. The main thrust was conducted by commandos deployed by helicopters and boats to attack the city, while other divisions seized the airports and two airbases. In spite of Iraqi sabre-rattling, Kuwait did not have its forces on alert, and was caught unaware. After two days of intense combat, most of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces were either overrun by the Iraqi Republican Guard, or had escaped to neighboring Saudi Arabia. After the decisive Iraqi victory, Saddam Hussein installed his cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid as the governor of Kuwait. [22] Saddam Hussein detained several Westerners, with video footage shown on state television On 23 August 1990 President Saddam appeared on state television with Western hostages to whom he had refused exit visas. In the video, he patted a small British boy named Stuart Lockwood on the back. Saddam then asks, through his interpreter, Sadoun al-Zubaydi, whether Stuart is getting his milk. Saddam went on to say, â€Å"We hope your presence as guests here will not be for too long. Your presence here, and in other places, is meant to prevent the scourge of war. [23] Within hours of the invasion, Kuwaiti and U. S. delegations requested a meeting of the UN Security Council, which passed Resolution 660, condemning the invasion and demanding a withdrawal of Iraqi troops. On 3 August the Arab League passed its own resolution, which called for a solution to the conflict from within the League, and warned against outside intervention. On 6 August UN Resolution 661 placed economic sanctions on Iraq . United Nations Security Council Resolution 665 followed soon after, which authorized a naval blockade to enforce the economic sanctions against Iraq. It said the â€Å"use of measures commensurate to the specific circumstances as may be necessary †¦ to halt all inward and outward maritime shipping in order to inspect and verify their cargoes and destinations and to ensure strict implementation of resolution 661. †[24] One of the main concerns of the west was the significant threat Iraq posed to Saudi Arabia. Following the conquest of Kuwait, the Iraqi army was within easy striking distance of Saudi oil fields. Control of these fields, along with Kuwaiti and Iraqi reserves, would have given Hussein control over the majority of the world's oil reserves. Iraq also had a number of grievances with Saudi Arabia. The Saudis had lent Iraq some 26 billion dollars during its war with Iran. The Saudis backed Iraq, as they feared the influence of Shia Iran's Islamic revolution on its own Shia minority (most of the Saudi oil fields are in territory populated by Shias). After the war, Saddam felt he should not have to repay the loans due to the help he had given the Saudis by stopping Iran. Soon after his conquest of Kuwait, Hussein began verbally attacking the Saudi kingdom. He argued that the U. S. supported Saudi state was an illegitimate and unworthy guardian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. He combined the language of the Islamist groups that had recently fought in Afghanistan with the rhetoric Iran had long used to attack the Saudis. [25] Acting on the policy of the Carter Doctrine, and out of fear the Iraqi army could launch an invasion of Saudi Arabia, U. S. President George H. W. Bush quickly announced that the U. S. would launc h a â€Å"wholly defensive† mission to prevent Iraq from invading Saudi Arabia under the codename Operation Desert Shield. â€Å"Operation Desert Shield† began on 7 August 1990 when U. S. troops were sent to Saudi Arabia due also to the request of its monarch, King Fahd who had earlier called for U. S. military assistance. [26] This â€Å"wholly defensive† doctrine was quickly abandoned, as on 8 August, Iraq declared Kuwait to be the 19th province of Iraq and Saddam Hussein named his cousin, Ali Hassan Al-Majid as its military-governor. [27] Liberation of Kuwait Main article: Liberation of Kuwait campaign American decoy attacks by air attacks and naval gunfire the night before the liberation of Kuwait were designed to make the Iraqis believe the main coalition ground attack would focus on Central Kuwait. On 23 February 1991, the 1st Marine Division, 2nd Marine Division, and the 1st Light Armored Infantry crossed into Kuwait and headed toward Kuwait City. They overran the well designed, but poorly defended, Iraqi trenches in the first few hours. The Marines crossed Iraqi barbed wire obstacles and mines, then engaged Iraqi tanks, which surrendered shortly thereafter. Kuwaiti forces soon attacked Kuwait City, to which the Iraqis offered light resistance. The Kuwaitis lost one soldier and one aircraft, and quickly liberated the city. Most Iraqi soldiers in Kuwait opted to surrender rather than fight. [edit] Initial moves into Iraq [edit] Coalition forces enter Iraq General Colin Powell briefs then U. S. President George H. W. Bush and his advisors on the progress of the ground war Shortly afterwards, the U. S. VII Corps assembled in full strength and, spearheaded by the 3rd Squadron of the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (3/2 ACR), launched an armored attack into Iraq early on 24 February, just to the west of Kuwait, taking Iraqi forces by surprise. Simultaneously, the U. S. XVIII Airborne Corps launched a sweeping â€Å"left-hook† attack across the largely undefended desert of southern Iraq, led by the 3rd Armoured Cavalry Regiment (3rd ACR) and the 24th Infantry Division (Mechanized)). The left flank of this movement was protected by the French 6th Light Armoured Division Daguet). The French force quickly overcame the Iraqi 45th Infantry Division, suffering only a small number of casualties and taking a large number of prisoners, and took up blocking positions to prevent an Iraqi counter-attack on the Coalition flank. The right flank of the movement was protected by the British 1st Armoured Division. Once the allies had penetrated deep into Iraqi territory, they turned eastward, launching a flank attack against the elite Republican Guard before it could escape. The battle lasted only a few hours. 50 Iraqi armored vehicles were destroyed, with few coalition losses. On 25 February 1991 however, Iraq launched a scud missile attack on Coalition barracks in Dharan, Saudi Arabia. The missile attack killed 28 American military personnel. [44] The mixture of civilian and military vehicles on the Highway of Death The Coalition advance was much swifter than U. S. generals had expected. On 26 February, Iraqi troops began retreating from Kuwait, after they had set its oil fields on fire (737 oil wells were set on fire). A long convoy of retreating Iraqi troops formed along the main Iraq-Kuwait highway. Although they were retreating, this convoy was bombed so extensively by Coalition air forces that it came to be known as the Highway of Death. Hundreds of Iraqi troops were killed. Forces from the United States, the United Kingdom, and France continued to pursue retreating Iraqi forces over the border and back into Iraq, fighting frequent battles which resulted in massive losses for the Iraqi side and light losses on the coalition side, eventually moving to within 150 miles (240 km) of Baghdad before withdrawing from the Iraqi border. One hundred hours after the ground campaign started, on 28 February, President Bush declared a cease-fire, and he also declared that Kuwait had been liberated. CAUSES OF CONFLICT: There are three basic causes to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. First, Iraq had long considered Kuwait to be a part of Iraq. This claim led to several confrontations over the years (see below), and continued hostility. Also, it can be argued that with Saddam Hussein's attempted invasion of Iran defeated, he sought easier conquests against his weak southern neighbors. Second, rich deposits of oil straddled the ill-defined border and Iraq constantly claimed that Kuwaiti oil rigs were illegally tapping into Iraqi oil fields. Middle Eastern deserts make border delineation difficult and this has caused many conflicts in the region. Finally, the fallout from the First Persian Gulf War between Iraq and Iran strained relations between Baghdad and Kuwait. This war began with an Iraqi invasion of Iran and degenerated into a bloody form of trench warfare as the Iranians slowly drove Saddam Hussein's armies back into Iraq. Kuwait and many other Arab nations supported Iraq against the Islamic Revolutionary government of Iran, fearful that Saddam's defeat could herald a wave of Iranian-inspired revolution throughout the Arab world. Following the end of the war, relations between Iraq and Kuwait deteriorated; with a lack of gratitude from the Baghdad government for help in the war and the reawakening of old issues regarding the border and Kuwaiti sovereignty. 1973, March- Iraq occupies as-Samitah, a border post on Kuwait-Iraq border. Dispute began when Iraq demanded the right to occupy the Kuwaiti islands of Bubiyan and Warbah. Saudi Arabia and the Arab League convinced Iraq to withdraw. 1980-1988- Kuwait supports Iraq in the First Persian Gulf War with Iran. DESCRIPTION OF CONFLICT: Amid growing tension between the two Persian Gulf neighbors, Saddam Hussein concluded that the United States and the rest of the outside world would not interfere to defend Kuwait. On August 2, 1990, Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait and quickly seized control of the small nation. Within days, the United States, along with the United Nations, demanded Iraq's immediate withdrawal. U. S. and other UN member nations began deploying troops in Saudi Arabia within the week, and the world-wide coalition began to form under UN authority. By January of 1991, over half a million allied troops were deployed in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Gulf region. Intense diplomacy between U. S. and Iraqi officials failed to bring an Iraqi withdrawal, so, on January 16, 1991, Allied forces began the devastating bombing of Iraq and her forces in Kuwait. The Allied bombing sought to damage Iraq's infrastructure so as to hinder her ability to make war while also hurting both civilian and military morale. To counter the air attack, Saddam ordered the launching of his feared SCUD missiles at both Israel and Saudi Arabia. He hoped to provoke the Israelis into striking back at Iraq, which he theorized would split the Arab nations from the anti-Iraq coalition due to the ongoing hostility between Israel and the Arab world. Israel came very close to retaliating, but held back due to President George Bush's pledge to protect Israeli cities from the SCUDs. As a result of this promise, U. S. Patriot missile batteries found themselves deployed in Israel to shoot down the SCUDs. Another result of the SCUD launches was to divert Allied air power from hitting the Iraqi army to hunting for the elusive mobile missile launchers. Even so, the Allied air strikes and cruise missile attacks against Iraq proved more devastating than expected. When the Allied armies launched the ground war on February 23, the Iraqi occupation forces in Kuwait were already beaten. Cut off from their supply bases and headquarters by the intense air campaign, thousands of Iraqi soldiers simply gave up rather than fight, as the Allies pushed through Iraq's defenses with relative ease. In the few cases where the more elite Iraqi forces, such as the Republican Guard, stood and fought, superior American, British and French equipment and training proved the undoing of the Soviet-equipped Iraqis. By February 26, U. S. and Allied Arab forces, along with the underground Kuwaiti Resistance, controlled Kuwait City and Allied air forces pounded the retreating Iraqi occupation army. In southern Iraq, Allied armored forces stood at the Euphrates River near Basra, and internal rebellions began to break out against Saddam's regime. On February 27, President Bush ordered a cease-fire and the surviving Iraqi troops were allowed to escape back into southern Iraq. On March 3, 1991, Iraq accepted the terms of the cease-fire and the fighting ended. CONSEQUENCES OF CONFLICT: Saddam's second war of foreign conquest ended even worse than the first one. Iraq again stood defeated with the liberation of Kuwait. Despite the crushing defeat and subsequent Shiite and Kurdish rebellions, Saddam's government retained a strong grip on power in Iraq. As a result of the cease-fire terms, Iraq had to accept the imposition of â€Å"no-fly zones† over her territory and United Nations weapons inspection teams sifting through her nuclear and other weapons programs. The economic and trade sanctions begun during the war continue to the present day, ontributing to severe economic hardship in Iraq. Some reports say hundreds of thousands of children have died due to the sanctions. There are no indications that the government or military suffer undo hardships. While the world (and the United States and Europe), concentrated on Iraq, Syria moved to crush the last resistance to her de facto control of Lebanon, thus ending that country's long civil war. It is believed that Syria's President Assad was given a free hand to deal with Lebanon in return for joining the war in Kuwait. It's also believed there was a cash for annuity payment agreed upon When Yemen declared sympathy for Iraq, Saudi Arabia expelled upwards of a million Yemeni guest workers, causing economic hardship in Yemen and increased tension between the two neighbors. See Saudi-Yemen Border Conflict page. CASUALTY FIGURES: Update as of August 2, 2009 Iraq: Original figures listed 100,000 Iraqi military dead, but more recent estimates place Iraqi dead at 20,000 military and 2,300 civilian. United States: 148 killed in action, 458 wounded, and one Missing In Action (MIA). Also, 121 Americans died through non-combat incidents. The one MIA (compared to 1,740 MIA in the Vietnam War), was Navy pilot, Captain Michael â€Å"Scott† Speicher was shot down and was neither rescured, nor was a body found until, on August 2, 2009, the Pentagon announced that U. S. Marines stationed in Iraq had found Speicher's remains. See also: U. S. identifies remains of pilot missing in Persian Gulf War–LA Times, Aug. 2, 2009 Ironically, or perhaps intentionally, the Pentagon announced the recovery of Speicher's on the 19th anniversary of Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, which occurred on August 2, 1990, and sparked the following 19 years of war between the U. S. and Iraq. Gulf war (1990-1), a limited war in which a US-led coalition enjoying overwhelming technological superiority defeated the armed forces of Iraq in a six-week air campaign crowned with a 100-hour land campaign, with minimal coalition casualties. However, the coalition forces failed to destroy the Republican Guard, mainstay of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, who remained a threat primarily because of his continued development of nuclear and chemical and biological weapons, leading to repeated aftershocks in the form of US and Allied air strikes throughout the 1990s. The proximate cause was the Rumaila oilfield straddling the Iraq-Kuwait border. In mid-July 1990 Saddam claimed that Kuwait had stolen oil from this field by diagonal drilling and refused to pay back loans received from Kuwait to fund the recent Iran-Iraq war, saying that he had been doing the Gulf monarchies' dirty work for them. Neither argument was completely without merit. He massed armour on the frontier and after being told by the US ambassador that the USA did not wish to become involved in the dispute, at 01. 0 local time on 2 August the Iraqi columns invaded. Minds were concentrated and Pres Bush denounced the invasion, alarmed that the Iraqis would carry on into Saudi Arabia and thus control half the world's oil reserves. The UN condemned the invasion in Resolution 660, demanding immediate and unconditional withdrawal and on 7 August the USA announced it was sending forces in a joint operation with Egypt and Saudi Arabia: DESERT SHIELD. The following day the UK announced it would send forces too, in GRANBY. On 29 November 1990 the Security Council adopted Resolution 678, authorizing the USA-led coalition to use ‘all necessary means’ against Iraq to liberate Kuwait if it did not withdraw by 15 January 1991. Instead, the Iraqis reinforced their positions along the southern Kuwaiti border and by 8 January had an estimated 36 to 38 divisions, each nominally 15, 000 strong but actually considerably less. The coalition eventually had about 700, 000 troops in the theatre, with the main ground contributions coming from the USA and important contingents from the UK, France, Egypt, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, under the operational command of US Gen Schwarzkopf. The maintenance of the coalition, in which Arab states were arrayed with infidels against another Arab state, was pivotal. It was therefore imperative to ensure that Israel—a target for Iraqi missile attacks—should stay out of the war. The Iraqis were known to have the means to deliver their chemical and biological weapons (CBW) with their al-Hussein missiles, which had a range of 373 miles (600 km), double that of the original Soviet Scud missiles on which they were based. At 02. 38 local time on 17 January DESERT STORM began when US Apache helicopters began attacking Iraqi air defence sites near the border to clear a corridor through which a massive air armada then passed, beginning a 43-day air campaign involving 100, 000 sorties. The F-117A Stealth light bomber was very successful in striking key targets in heavily defended Baghdad, as were sea-launched cruise missiles. Early targets were the Iraqi air defences, electrical power, and command and control facilities, also suspected nuclear and chemical and biological warfare facilities. Although precision-guided munitions got all the publicity thanks to the excellent TV pictures they sent back, the bulk of the ordnance delivered were conventional bombs. As the campaign continued, the Allies switched to Iraqi ground forces although the elite Republican Guard was less badly damaged than the poorer quality infantry in the forward positions. Schwarzkopf later explained that this was because of his strong concern to avoid his ground troops being held up and rained with CBW. {draw:frame} _The Gulf war, 1991: the land campaign, 24-8 February. Top: positions of forces 24 February. Bottom: Allied envelopment of Iraqi forces (Click to enlarge)_ Early on 18 January Iraq responded to the air onslaught by attacking Israel, the coalition's most vulnerable point. A missile landed in Tel Aviv, initially reported to have a chemical warhead. The coalition later denied this but the relevant log, released after the war, recorded it carried cyclo-sarin, a particularly deadly nerve gas. Israel prepared to counter-attack, but was dissuaded when the USA promised to destroy the Scuds. As a result, a great deal of effort was diverted into the ‘Scud hunt’, although the mobile Iraqi missiles proved difficult to find. British and US special forces were also sent in to find and destroy Scuds, with mixed results. The US also used the Patriot, originally an anti-aircraft system, to shoot down incoming missiles, the first time anti-missiles were used in the history of war. Very few incoming missiles were actually hit and those that were broke up, possibly doing even more damage than they would have otherwise. On 20 January, Iraq also began firing missiles at Riyadh, one of which hit a temporary US barracks and inflicted the worst Allied casualties of the war. Schwarzkopf formulated a classic military plan of encirclement. While the Iraqis were to have their attention fixed to the south and on the coast by the US Marines, his main effort would be to the west of the main Iraqi forward defences, swinging round behind them and straight for the Republican Guard. The aim was ‘to conduct a swift, continuous and violent air-land campaign to destroy the Republican Guard Force Corps while minimising friendly force casualties. Aim is to make Iraqi forces move so that they can be attacked throughout the depth of their formations’. After several days of probing and artillery raids, the main ground attack began on 24 February with direct attacks into Kuwait from the south by the US Marines and two Saudi task forces. The next day, the outflanking forces swung into action, the main force being the US VII Corps including the 1st British Armoured Division, while the XVIII Airborne Corps including the French 6th Light ‘Daguet’ Division swung even wider to protect the left flank. The VII Corps hit its breach area with 60 batteries of artillery and Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, delivering more explosive power than the Hiroshima atomic bomb. Although Iraq was expected to use CBW, Saddam showed a little belated discretion and refrained, as there were a number of extremely unpleasant options the coalition held in reserve, including retaliation in kind or the destruction of Iraq's extremely vulnerable water-supply system. Late on 25 February he gave the order to withdraw from Kuwait, but the bulk of Iraqi armour was trapped between the Allies closing in from the south and west, and the Gulf and the Euphrates marshes to the east and north. TV pictures of the comprehensively incinerated Iraqi column that had been attempting to flee Kuwait City raised fears of public revulsion and Pres Bush called a halt after only 100 hours of land campaign. There were also geopolitical considerations. Until the invasion, the West had been concerned to maintain a balance of power between Iraq and Iran in the region, and the Arab members of the coalition might have bolted if the land war had been extended into Iraqi territory. At 08. 00 local time the guns fell silent, and Saddam was to be left with most of the Republican Guard and the freedom to use attack helicopters to crush the rebellions among the Sunni in the south and the Kurds in the north that the coalition had encouraged. Post-war, the extent and sophistication of his weapons development programmes came as a shock, and despite UN inspections and economic sanctions that affect mainly the civilian population, there is very little doubt that he has retained some CBW and possibly also some nuclear weapons. Nonetheless, Kuwait's territorial integrity was restored and most of Saddam's larger fangs were pulled. The war could only be considered unsuccessful if the hyperbole about human rights that accompanied it had ever been taken seriously by anyone involved. The first phase was Operation Desert Shield—a largely defensive operation in which the United States and Saudi Arabia rushed to build up the defensive forces necessary to protect Saudi Arabia and the rest of the gulf, and the United Nations attempted to force Iraq to leave Kuwait through the use of economic sanctions. The United States then led the UN effort to create a broad international coalition with the military forces necessary to liberate Kuwait, and persuaded the United Nations to set a deadline of 15 January 1991 for Iraq to leave Kuwait or face the use of force. The second phase, known as â€Å"Desert Storm,† was the battle to liberate Kuwait when Iraq refused to respond to the UN deadline. The fighting began on 17 January 1991 and ended on 1 March 1991. The UN Coalition liberated Kuwait in a little over six weeks, and involved the intensive use of airpower and armored operations, and the use of new military technologies. The Gulf War left Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in power, but it destroyed nearly all of Iraq's conventional forces and allowed the United Nations to destroy most of Iraq's long? range missiles and chemical weapons and capabilities to develop nuclear weapons. Saddam Hussein almost certainly saw the seizure and annexation of Kuwait as a means of solving Iraq's economic problems, of greatly increasing Iraq's share of world oil reserves, and as a means of demonstrating that Iraq had become the dominant power in the region. Kuwait was capable of adding at least 2 million barrels a day of oil to Iraq's exports of roughly 3. million, and offered the opportunity to double Iraq's total oil reserves, from 100 billion to 198 billion barrels (representing nearly 20% of the world's total reserves). Although he continued to negotiate his demands on oil revenues and debt relief from the Persian Gulf Arab nations, Saddam Hussein ordered his troops to the Kuwait border in July 1990, built up all of th e support capabilities necessary to sustain an invasion, and then ordered his forces to invade on 2 August 1990. Kuwait had not kept its forces on alert, and Iraq met little resistance. It seized the entire country within less than two days; within a week, Iraq stated that it would annex Kuwait as its nineteenth province. Iraqi forces also deployed along Kuwait's border with Saudi Arabia, with more than five Iraqi divisions in position to seize Saudi Arabia's oil? rich Eastern Province. Saudi Arabia had only two brigades and limited amounts of airpower to oppose them. Saddam Hussein may have felt that the world would accept his invasion of Kuwait or would fail to mount any effective opposition. However, Saudi Arabia and the other gulf states immediately supported the Kuwaiti government? n? exile. The Council of the Arab League voted to condemn Iraq on 3 August and demanded its withdrawal from Kuwait. Key Arab states like Algeria, Egypt, and Syria supported Kuwait—although Jordan, Libya, Mauritania, the Sudan, and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) supported Iraq. Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and most other European nations as well as the United States, Canada, and Japan condemned the invasion. U. S. President George Bush announced on 7 August that the United States would send land, air, and naval forces to the gulf. Equally important, the end of the Cold War allowed the United Nations to take firm action under U. S. initiative. On the day of the invasion, the Security Council voted 14–0 (Resolution 660) to demand Iraq's immediate and unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait. The United States, Britain, and Saudi Arabia led the United Nations in forming a broad military coalition under the leadership of U. S. Army Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf that deployed the military forces necessary to enforce the United Nations' sanctions and to defend Saudi Arabia. This was the defensive military operation code? named â€Å"Desert Shield. † On 29 November 1990, the United States obtained a Security Council authorization for the nations allied with Kuwait â€Å"to use all necessary means† if Iraq did not withdraw by 15 January 1991. Key nations like the United States, Britain, France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and several others began to deploy the additional forces necessary to drive Iraq out of Kuwait. In 1990–91, the United States deployed a total of 527,000 personnel, over 110 naval vessels, 2,000 tanks, 1,800 fixed? ing aircraft, and 1,700 helicopters. Britain deployed 43,000 troops, 176 tanks, 84 combat aircraft, and a naval task force. France deployed 16,000 troops, 40 tanks, attack helicopters, a light armored division, and combat aircraft. Saudi Arabia deployed 50,000 troops, 280 tanks, and 245 aircraft. Egypt contributed 30,200 troops, 2 armored divisions, and 350 tanks. Syria contributed 14,000 troops and 2 divi sions. Other allied nations, including Canada, Italy, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates deployed a significant portion of their small forces. Iraq responded by building up its military forces in the Kuwait theater of operations to a total of 336,000 troops and a total of 43 divisions, 3,475 battle tanks, 3,080 other armored vehicles, and 2,475 major artillery weapons. This buildup on both sides made full? scale war steadily more likely and triggered a number of political debates within the West and the Arab world over the need for war. The most important of these debates took place within the United States; largely because of President Bush's political leadership, the Congress, after Bush gained UN endorsement, requested such authorization on 8 January 1991. On 12 January the House of Representatives by 250 to 183 and the Senate by 52 to 47 voted to authorize the use of force. Though a number of new efforts were made to persuade Iraq to leave Kuwait in late December and early January, Saddam Hussein refused to withdraw under any practical conditions. Baghdad also continued to expand its military capabilities in Kuwait and along the Iraqi border with Saudi Arabia, and continued its efforts to convert Kuwait into an Iraqi province. As a result, the UN Security Council voted to ignore yet another effort to negotiate with Iraq. On that date, 15 January 1991, President Bush ordered the military offensive to begin. Desert Storm: The Air War The Gulf War began early in the morning on 17 January when the United States exploited its intelligence and targeting assets, cruise missiles, and offensive airpower to launch a devastating series of air attacks on Iraqi command and control facilities, communications systems, air bases, and land? based air defenses. During the first hour of the war, U. S. sea? launched cruise missiles and F? 117 stealth aircraft demonstrated they could attack even heavily defended targets like Baghdad. Within three days, a mix of U. S. , British, and Saudi fighter aircraft had established near air superiority. In spite of Iraq's air strength, UN air units shot down a total of thirty? five Iraqi aircraft without a single loss in air? to? air combat. Although Iraq had a land? based air defense system with some 3,000 surface? to? air missiles, the combined U. S. and British air units were able to use electronic warfare systems, antiradiation missiles, and precision air? to? surface weapons to suppress Iraq's longer? range surface? to? air missiles. As a result, Coalition air forces were able rapidly to broaden their targets from attacks on Iraq's air forces and air defenses to assaults on key headquarters, civil and army communications, electronic power plants, and Iraq's facilities for the production of weapons of mass destruction. Victory in the air was achieved by 24 January, when Iraq ceased to attempt active air combat. A total of 112 Iraqi aircraft fled to Iran, and Iraq virtually ceased to use its ground? based radar to target UN aircraft. This created a safe zone at medium and high altitudes that allowed U. S. nd British air units to launch long? range air? to? surface weapons with impunity. The UN air forces were also able to shift most of their assets to attacks on Iraqi ground forces. For the following thirty days, UN Coalition aircraft attacked Iraqi armor and artillery in the Kuwaiti theater of operations, as well as flying into Iraq itself to bomb Iraq's forward defenses, elite Republican Guard units, air bases an d sheltered aircraft, and Iraq's biological, chemical, and nuclear warfare facilities. Iraq's only ability to retaliate consisted of launching modified surface? to? urface Scud missiles against targets in Saudi Arabia and Israel, which had remained outside the war: forty Scud variants against Israel and forty? six against Saudi Arabia. U. S.? made Patriot missiles in Israel shot down some Scuds, but although the United Nations carried out massive â€Å"Scud hunts† that involved thousands of sorties, it never found and destroyed any Scud missiles on the ground, which demonstrated the risks posed by the proliferation of mobile, long? range missiles. Iraq's Scud strikes could not, however, alter the course of the war. Iraqi ground forces were struck by more than 40,000 air attack sorties; U. S. authorities estimated that airpower helped bring about the desertion or capture of 84,000 Iraqi soldiers and destroyed 1,385 Iraqi tanks, 930 other armored vehicles, and 1,155 artillery pieces before the United Nations launched its land offensive. They also estimated that air attacks severely reduced the flow of supplies to Iraqi ground forces in Kuwait and damaged 60 percent of Iraq's major command centers, 70 percent of its military communications, 125 ammunition storage revetments, 48 Iraqi naval vessels, and 75 percent of Iraq's electric power–generating capability. Desert Storm: The Land War The Aftermath of the War

Rough Draft

One of the points that the article talked a out was having a strong personal characteristic such as integrity and to be motivated. The defied notion for integrity is to be honest and fair and to be complete or whole. Integrity is one of the m ajar keys while on this journey. It's notes making sure you avoid plagiarism or cheating, but eke ping your nose the grindstone and keeping yourself motivated when you want to quit Everett inning. Another strong characteristic that a student will need to have is being able to be an in dependent learner.There are going to be many hours to devote to homework and studying. The more classes a dent takes the more hours they will have to carve out of their already busy schedule, so long distance learners need to possess clearances to develop the independent lea ran inning characteristic (Termini, 201 0, pig 58). The article talks about a couple of factors that come into play with long distance students as well. The first factor of being an online succ essful s dent is environmental, where family can help and support the online learners.Family can help with multiple things, like fixing dinner, doing laundry and doing errands riff there AR e any other licensed drivers in the home. This will give the online student a chance to use time management a must have to keep the student on track. If the student does not manage the IR time they will not be able to turn in their work in on time to get the adequate help from the insist rector if it is needed. The second and equally important factor is the technical aspect. To be success useful in the online structure, it will help if the student is somewhat tech saws.Everything from c immunization with the instructor, taking tests, turning in homework and watching any discs session is done with the connection of the internet. It is imperative to have the right kind of soft re to protect your computer. Also making sure the learner has the correct word processor, became use of all the research pa pers that will be written. Ill. Reflection After reading the article was surprised to find out that Titration stated † t here are certain kinds of students that can learn online†. (As cited in Boyd, 2004, pig 3139).SST dents, much like myself, getting ready to take online courses may think it is going to be far more easier then in a classroom setting, but that is not necessarily true. If the online learner do sees not have the right learning characteristic, like being self reliant and highly motivated, they ay find out that they are not able to be successful and be among the many that have dropped out. That is what challenges me. I don't want to be another drop out statistics, yet again. The SST rarities in the article are similar to the course that I'm taking.They talk about the important e of time management, setting goals, and learning to be a motivated, independent long distant student. A scripture that have for this as a reminder for me to stay strong and determine Ned is; Sec 8:6 For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though I person may be weighed down by misery. (NIB) IV. Application The most important thing that I have taken from this topic is that there are many factors that can help or hinder me. I have already begun the steps of good time manage meet, which in the most important key to online learning. Eve filled out a calendar with all my lessons and all my daily activities and printed it. I keep it by my laptop at all times, so I'm able to see what the day brings. Sometimes I have had to adjust a few personal activities around, so the at can make more time to study and keep ahead with my homework The calendar has also help my in my daily life. Its had kept me motivated to make time for the gym. For years have off get with myself to stay motivated in that area, but now can see it,in writing, and have to do that first thing in the morning.Another motivating factor for me will be to stay in connected with t he advisor s at my University. They can help guide me to which courses are the most important t o take first. I plan to keep connected to the university community website. Living across the coo net makes it hard to feel any kind of connection with the campus, but chatting with classmates online or watching events on the web will bring the connection closer. V. Conclusion In conclusion, have found out that it is very important to not lose hope as an online learner. Rough Draft One of the points that the article talked a out was having a strong personal characteristic such as integrity and to be motivated. The defied notion for integrity is to be honest and fair and to be complete or whole. Integrity is one of the m ajar keys while on this journey. It's notes making sure you avoid plagiarism or cheating, but eke ping your nose the grindstone and keeping yourself motivated when you want to quit Everett inning. Another strong characteristic that a student will need to have is being able to be an in dependent learner.There are going to be many hours to devote to homework and studying. The more classes a dent takes the more hours they will have to carve out of their already busy schedule, so long distance learners need to possess clearances to develop the independent lea ran inning characteristic (Termini, 201 0, pig 58). The article talks about a couple of factors that come into play with long distance students as well. The first factor of being an online succ essful s dent is environmental, where family can help and support the online learners.Family can help with multiple things, like fixing dinner, doing laundry and doing errands riff there AR e any other licensed drivers in the home. This will give the online student a chance to use time management a must have to keep the student on track. If the student does not manage the IR time they will not be able to turn in their work in on time to get the adequate help from the insist rector if it is needed. The second and equally important factor is the technical aspect. To be success useful in the online structure, it will help if the student is somewhat tech saws.Everything from c immunization with the instructor, taking tests, turning in homework and watching any discs session is done with the connection of the internet. It is imperative to have the right kind of soft re to protect your computer. Also making sure the learner has the correct word processor, became use of all the research pa pers that will be written. Ill. Reflection After reading the article was surprised to find out that Titration stated † t here are certain kinds of students that can learn online†. (As cited in Boyd, 2004, pig 3139).SST dents, much like myself, getting ready to take online courses may think it is going to be far more easier then in a classroom setting, but that is not necessarily true. If the online learner do sees not have the right learning characteristic, like being self reliant and highly motivated, they ay find out that they are not able to be successful and be among the many that have dropped out. That is what challenges me. I don't want to be another drop out statistics, yet again. The SST rarities in the article are similar to the course that I'm taking.They talk about the important e of time management, setting goals, and learning to be a motivated, independent long distant student. A scripture that have for this as a reminder for me to stay strong and determine Ned is; Sec 8:6 For there is a proper time and procedure for every matter, though I person may be weighed down by misery. (NIB) IV. Application The most important thing that I have taken from this topic is that there are many factors that can help or hinder me. I have already begun the steps of good time manage meet, which in the most important key to online learning. Eve filled out a calendar with all my lessons and all my daily activities and printed it. I keep it by my laptop at all times, so I'm able to see what the day brings. Sometimes I have had to adjust a few personal activities around, so the at can make more time to study and keep ahead with my homework The calendar has also help my in my daily life. Its had kept me motivated to make time for the gym. For years have off get with myself to stay motivated in that area, but now can see it,in writing, and have to do that first thing in the morning.Another motivating factor for me will be to stay in connected with t he advisor s at my University. They can help guide me to which courses are the most important t o take first. I plan to keep connected to the university community website. Living across the coo net makes it hard to feel any kind of connection with the campus, but chatting with classmates online or watching events on the web will bring the connection closer. V. Conclusion In conclusion, have found out that it is very important to not lose hope as an online learner. Rough Draft Identity is what defines us as a person. Everyone one on earth has their own unique identity. To showcase my identity, I created a collage of images and descriptive words, called an identi-kit. This identi-kit shows what I feel like is my identity to myself and the others. My identi-kit identifies me as a mixed martial artist. The identi-kit has images of a deadly shark with mixed martial arts gloves on that say mixed martial arts on the front and fight shorts with the words competitor and warrior on them.It also has descriptive words like â€Å"killer instinct† and â€Å"fight† which describe my spirit. There are three assumptions that come to question when asking about one’s identity. The first is if you were born with this identity? The second is if this identity was shaped because of culturally influences? The third is if the identity was created because of personal choices in your life? My identity was formed by all three assumptions of identity. orn with. M e joining and training in mixed martial arts were both culturally influenced and a personal choice.My brother and brother-in-law influenced me in mixed martial arts and then it was my personal choice to train and experience mixed martial arts. My never give up and go for the kill attitude was what I was born with. My identi-kit shows that my identity is a mixed martial artists that is disciplined and has a killer instinct when it comes to competition. The images and words on the identi-kit were carefully chosen to fully project my identity. One image that was chosen is an image of a shark that looks ferocious and ready to go one more round.This image displays that I am the same way. When it comes to training and competing I am mean and will go one more round to win. Quitting is not an option in my life. There is a phrase on my identi-kit and it says â€Å"Killer Instinct†. This phrase was chosen because it is very descriptive and shows that I have the killer instinct to fight through the pain and suffering. There are many images of fight shorts that have words on then that are very important in my life. The two that are my favorite have the words â€Å"Warrior† and â€Å"Competitor† on them.These words were chosen to reflect my identity as a competitor and a warrior when it comes to mixed martial arts and life in general. One image on the identi-kit shows the word â€Å"Hayabusa† which is the fastest falcon in the world. To me hayabusa means to be fast and quick but do not hurry. The Hayabusa is the fastest bird in the world that is fast and quick but does not screw up. My life revolves around working fast and quick but not to mess up at the same time. The images and phrases put together on the identi-kit help others to identify me because they are all very descriptive and imaginative.The identi-kit forms my identity to other people because to train and compete in mixed martial arts you have to be much disciplined, self-motivated, a nd have the killer instinct to go and fight with another human being. I was born with my identity and at the same time influenced and made the choice to do what I do. My identity was created by all three assumptions of identity while with others it could be just one or two assumptions that made who they are. I was born with me living my life in the fast lane. I have to keep on moving and trucking without ever stopping.I was born with my killer instinct and passion for competition. My involvement in mixed martial arts was influenced and a choice. Everyone has their niche in life. Some people are good at football, others in academics, while I was good at mixed martial arts. I was not interested until my family started to getting me involved by watching live mixed martial arts events on television. As I watched more events the more I became interested and encouraged to get involved. Then came my personal choice to start training in mixed martial arts and I never regret making that deci sion.To some extent identity is a performance. For some people it’s to satisfy the likes of others. For some it’s trying to join a certain community. For most identity is not a performance. Identity is not something you can â€Å"put on† or â€Å"take off†. Sadly for others identity is exactly what was just stated. In order for some people to be happy and impress others they put on an identity in order to fit in. For some it’s a personal choice and for others they are influenced by the culture that surrounds them. What is cool to some may be uncool to others.To some smoking dope is cool and if you do it you are cool but to others like myself I do not think smoking dope is cool. I do not think it is cool but I do not hate anyone that does smoke it because that is their identity and a personal choice. My identity is not to impress anybody or to fit in with a certain crowd, my identity is what makes me happy and what labels me to other people. People want to be cool and be liked, so they commit to an identity that is not who they really are. The thing that makes us is us. For me my identity is what it is and others may not think it is cool or not right but it is who I am and what makes me.My identi-kit showcases who I am and what I am like. It displays my label to me and others. It shows that I love the aspect of competing and having the killer instinct to do so. This is important because it shows my identity is not something you can just put on and then later take off. Every image and phrase on my identi-kit is a little piece of who I am and what I offer to others. My images and phrases were the perfect strategies to display my identity and in doing so helped me to identify myself. What makes us who we are?

Why the consumer should buy BMW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Why the consumer should buy BMW - Essay Example Furthermore, the essay will also argue as to why consumers will prefer buying BMW over other luxury cars. BMW’s innovations and performances in the segment of luxury car have acquired the repute of ‘the Ultimate Driving Machine’ from its numerous loyal customers. Automobiles are subjected to make regular and proper maintenance in order to ensure long life of the vehicle. However, maintenance costs of the vehicle are not for free and generally appear with a considerable price. Annually, it may cost approximately US $500 in maintenance for most of the luxury cars in the initial stages. However, at the later stages, a consumer may require to incur huge expenses due to massive changes in the machinery parts of the vehicle (BMW of North America, LLC, â€Å"Owners†). In relation to the operational performances, it has been viewed that BMW offers free maintenance of its vehicles to its customers for a period of four years. In fact, more than US $2,000 can be saved relating to the maintenance costs in contrast with other luxury cars. Furthermore, the company provides much assistance to its customers by offering roadside support without any additional costs for the initial 4 years.

Asses the ministry to the poor of a historical evangelical leader of Essay

Asses the ministry to the poor of a historical evangelical leader of your choice (Martin Luther King jr) - Essay Example The triple evils of materialism, poverty and racism made up the philosophy of martin Luther in most of his speeches and sermons during his times. King was quoted saying that these three martliaism, poverty, and racism were all were all forms of violence that existed in merry round cycle. He always described them as the barriers to the existence of a unified credible society. To fight the triple evils king called for a nonviolent way he always encouraged the African Americans to have in mind the six principles of nonviolence . He further illustrates his call for peaceful resistance through the Kingian model of social actions stipulated in â€Å"six steps for nonviolent social change†. Martin Luther king had a very strong stance when it came to the famous triple evils taking on each at a time his publications and sermons. king was categorical about poverty describing issues like illiteracy, unemployment, hopelessness, mal-nutrition infant mortality as major effects of poverty ki ng is quoted in one of his sermons saying â€Å"nothing is strange about poverty but what is new is that we now have resources to get rid of it† king goes ahead to declare absolute war on poverty.... rs, king would later attend Boston University for his doctoral program in Boston where he met his future wife and they married in 1953.king moved to Montgomery Alabama where he started his preaching ministry at the Dexter Baptist church. Kings ministry involved the fight for the less privileged in the society a high percentage of kings congregation were poor Negroes. This would culminate to a political and civil process of fight against discrimination and racism. King would later remain true to his calling and head the biggest ever Negro association of the times pressing for better living standards for the black citizens. Martin Luther king’s philosophy The triple evils of materialism, poverty and racism made up the philosophy of martin Luther in most of his speeches and sermons during his times. King was quoted saying that these three martliaism, poverty, and racism were all were all forms of violence that existed in merry round cycle. He always described them as the barriers to the existence of a unified credible society. To fight the triple evils king called for a non violent way he always encouraged the African Americans to have in mind the six principles of non violence4. He further illustrates his call for peaceful resistance through the Kingian model of social actions stipulated in â€Å"six steps for non violent social change†. Martin Luther king had a very strong stance when it came to the in famous triple evils taking on each at a time his publications and sermons. king was categorical about poverty describing issues like illiteracy, unemployment, hopelessness, mal-nutrition infant mortality as major effects of poverty king is quoted in one of his sermons saying â€Å"nothing is strange about poverty but what is new is that we now have resources to get rid of

The Impact of Advertisement on Children Research Paper

The Impact of Advertisement on Children - Research Paper Example This essay "The Impact of Advertisement on Children" describes the negative effects of TV advertisement on children health and behavioral patterns as well as the family economy. According to the recent research children are most influenced by food promotion. Moreover, food companies have the most powerful advertising campaigns. One of the major negative impacts of advertising on children is eating habits change due to numerous junk food commercials (Quereshi et al., 2). Most companies advertise food with increased amount of fats, calories, and salt. Numerous sugared drinks, unhealthy snacks, chips, and sweets are promoted products on TV and the Internet. Even cereals which are advertised as useful have increased amount of sugar (Quereshi et al., 2). Kids who are influenced by TV commercials have wrong perception of healthy portion sizes because people on the screen often eat enormous portions. That is why children who watch TV advertisements regularly have distorted eating habits. Te enagers are also affected by TV commercials, although they know the difference between healthy and unhealthy food they usually choose products that are more desirable. It is problematic that eating habits formed in early childhood most likely to remain for the rest of life. Nevertheless, family eating patterns and dietary preferences are estimated to have more influence on children that TV commercials (Quereshi et al., 4). TV is proved to be connected to increase of obesity and overweight in children.

Staples.com Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Staples.com - Essay Example Would you pursue wallet share or market share as the first priority? Or would you pursue both? Staples.com strategy is very timely as the only online competitor they had was Office Depot and as per the Forrester Research online sales of office supplies were expected to reach $65 billion by 2003. Their cohesive marketing campaign aimed at offering multiple channels so they could reach more customers. They were realistic in their approach as far as advertising budgets were concerned despite having ample capital. They did not want to follow what others were doing and wanted to use the traditional, cost-effective direct marketing strategies. They were not following a ‘get big strategy’ because they differed in their marketing approach. They had a balanced approach. Lewis’ strategy to first capture the market share holds more importance. To expand and achieve the target growth, competing with mass discounters and mass merchants would not commensurate with the image that they were trying to build. Once the market share is captured, wallet share would happen auto matically. Staples.com should expand into the SOHO services market because for small businesses it is time and cost effective to find all services from one source. To offer services like intranet, telecommunications, take care of payroll and other accounting services, it would be better for Staples.com to tie up with external service providers. Creating services would require more manpower and there is the possibility that their focus might shift from their primary goal. They can oversee the services to ensure quality and professionalism is maintained. Staples.com should not compete with mass discounters and merchants. This adversely affects the image of the company. They should aim at capturing the market share which would help them to meet their growth targets. If they start offering discounts to match competition, they might have to compromise on services. Besides, the

Media and Gender Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Media and Gender - Research Paper Example With the advent of media and information technology, sweeping changes has manifested itself on women. Today, women spend all their time and resources on media, and are willing to anything in order to be beautiful or change their natural outlooks. This clearly shows that women use media as a tool of educating themselves as a way of seeking freedom from the yoke of women folk, which has enslaved them for long (Joo, 2012). It is evidently clear that most of the media houses take considerable airtime to advertise what appropriate appearance a woman should have in the modern world. This includes the likes of â€Å"figure eight†, tall and slender and less body weight women. Some of these ideal desirable body structures are may not be attainable practically by some of the women. This creates a negative mindset of dissatisfaction from such women should they fail to attain such desirable qualities (In Carter et al, 2014). Therefore, they start a voyage of events that will see them modify their natural bodies in order to pose those deemed desirable by the society. The main problem associated to most of these processes and operations women have to go through may bring adverse lifelong damages in health of victims. The worst outcomes arise where the desired body appearance fails to happen, or the desired characteristics become abnormal, the likes of the various cases that have been documented. Several w omen are on record to have for instance, applied breast enlargement cream only for one of the breasts to be extremely larger than normal and fail to match with the other pair. The main problem is that, some of these outcomes remain unchanged forever and hence a permanent scar of psychological dissatisfaction rules the entire life of a woman in question. Scholars have cautioned on negative results of female objections in the media. It is not, therefore, miracles to find women in the society who are bed-ridden after suffering the negative images that are

The Women's Social Movement Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

The Women's Social Movement - Research Paper Example For decades, women are relegated to a subordinate position to that of men especially in our patriarchal societies dominated by masculinity. In America national laws, traditions and religious doctrines only acted to sustain the women’s subordinate status and codified women’s lack of legal and political rights. Though the constitution states that men and women are equal since they have inalienable rights of life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness women are often denied the opportunity to enjoy these rights due to their feminine status. This begins with families where men are viewed as the heads of the households and women as helpers or assistants to other institutions of society especially in politics. Even today, women are far from gaining equality with men as they rarely occupy important positions. In the 113th Congress of U.S there are only 20 women in the senate out of 100 senators and in the House of Representatives there are only 79 women out of 435 members (Center for American Women and Politics). It is in light of this oppression that women’s movements became an important of life. This essay will focus on the women’s suffrage movement formed in 1848 and continued up to 1920; how it was formed, its goals, problems and challenges and major achievements over the period as well as the key figures in the movement. The women’s suffrage movement was formed in the late nineteenth century and continued up to early twentieth century. It was founded in 1848 during the Seneca Falls Convention by women who were fed up with being treated as inferior members of society although some men who sympathized with the women’ s plight were also present. Just like it is stipulated by Staggenborg that social movements undergo a natural cycle of maintenance, growth, and decline, the suffragist movement was no exception (10). The period before the American Civil War was that of growth. However,

Leadership and Financial Goal Setting of Top SMEs Dissertation

Leadership and Financial Goal Setting of Top SMEs - Dissertation Example ExplanationIt is good to study on this subject because there will be additional knowledge on how SMEs try to adapt some changes in the leadership process as their way to integrate financial stability with their daily business operation. Research aim:The overall purpose of this dissertation is to find out the link between leadership and financial goal setting of top SMEs in the UK. This has to be found out from ten of the best 100 SMEs in the UK. Thus, at the end of this study, the proponent will achieve concrete information about the role of leadership activities and its form in the financial goal setting of top SMEs in the UK. The business world is always looking forward to increase revenue and minimise expenses in order to ensure either profit or good business performance (Liu and Wang, 2008; Abi and Shimizutani, 2007; Ingene and Parry, 1995). The very activity of achieving this is focused on maximising financial concerns in order to achieve the bottom line.Trying to come up with s omething new in the business is focused on many aspects but financial activities and business performance seem to be at the top priority (Hallin et al., 2011; Liao and Rice, 2010). Therefore, it is important to bear in mind that there has to be other considerations when it comes to other significant activities on how to maximise business performance.Considering that business is dependent on human resource as one of its best assets, it is important to consider that people have to be redirected to perform the vision.

How I will lead groups to become great teams Essay

How I will lead groups to become great teams - Essay Example As a member of the Large Learning Group, I noticed various issues that emerged in the process of our interaction and learning. To begin with there were various psychodynamic characteristics that emerged among the group members which are pertinent to any person with the ambition to lead and make decisions on large groups or team. The first lesson I learnt from the Large Learning Group is that it is pertinent for any group to define roles among the members. I will apply this strategy in my leadership program. I will begin by allocating roles to each member of the group; a process which will begin by identifying my roles and ultimately the roles of others. Allocation of roles is pertinent due to the fact that it allows the group members to focus on their specific duties and have a sense of direction. This process will be guided through proper communication and motivations as well as supervision in order to ensure that members follow direction and are enthusiastic in performing their duties. Proper communication also encompasses taking feedbacks from the group members in order to determine the challenges faced as they perform their duties and the development of solutions. Secondly, I also learned a common feature that existed between the Large Learning Group and the Peer Learning Group; the confirmation of authority. It is very crucial for any person aspiring to be a successful leader to be in a position to confirm his/her authority that is, it is imperative to determine and confirm your duties and responsibilities as well as the duties and the responsibilities of others. This step is arrived at by making agreements among the group members on each person’s responsibility as it will ensure that there are proper intra-group relationships and a harmonious flow of actions. As a leader, I am going to apply this strategy to ensure that the possibility of occurrence of conflicts is reduced and that

Online dating services Essay Example for Free

Online dating services Essay Online Dating Services, once a haven for the desperate and lonely are starting to attract a significant user and revenue base and are growing at an increasing rate. These services now attract over 30 million users a year in the U. S. and soon will be the highest revenue subscription content service on the Internet. The growth of online personals and many of the industrys characteristics are similar to those of products such as fax machines, DVD players, and the Internet itself. The main similarity is that the value of these services for each user increases with each additional user. However, many other characteristics hold true as well. It has significant economies of scale, requires highly complimentary products, and displays some semblance of standards and compatibility between its competitors. Since online dating services have proven to be so similar to other networked goods, much of the knowledge gained by examining these other services can be applied. This means that one can expect these services to continue to grow rapidly, gain mainstream acceptance and that subscription prices will remain low as long as the major services remain incompatible. Further, they likely will remain incompatible for a variety of technical and strategic reasons. Online dating services have been around since 19951. Computer dating services date (no pun intended) back as far as the 1960s2. However over the last three years these services have seen explosive growth. While other dotcoms reached their peak in 2000 and have since crashed, dating sites have seen explosive growth since 1999 both in users and revenue. The industry generated over $50 million in revenue in the first quarter of 2002, 550% year over year growth3. This growth has been so fast and successful that many of the Internet companies that survived the crash have turned to dating services for additional revenue and profitability4. This explosive growth and several of the industrys other characteristics are reminiscent of other technologies or innovations. The fax machine, VCR, and the Internet itself have all followed similar growth curves5. What online dating has in common with these sites is that they are all examples of networked products or services where each additional user increases the overall value of the good to all the other users. The following report provides an overview of the online dating industry and its recent growth. It then examines the characteristics of networks and whether these apply to the online dating. Based on these characteristics, it models an explanation for its recent growth and attempts to explain any potential shift in attitudes towards online dating. Finally, this report looks at the competition between services and the likely affect this will have on consumers utility, prices, the services themselves and societal welfare as a whole. The following section provides an overview of what online dating sites are, the major players, industry size and business models to establish a basis for comparing this industry to the characteristics of networked industries. Online dating services are simply websites that carry a database of singles for other singles to search. Typically users can visit the site and search based on sex, age and often certain characteristics of their profile, for example: I am a male seeking a female aged 18 to 24 in Toronto, ON. Only show ads with pictures. [insert screen shots here] From here visitors view a list of matching profiles and can click through on any of these to view the full profile. The full profile can contain one or multiple pictures, various stats on the user (age, sex, body type, sexual or religious orientation) as well as an opening headline, description and clever answers to profile questions. Registered users can then make contact with the user, usually through a messaging or chat system within the site and if the match is successful the relationship moves off of the site into the real world. Online dating services are big business. The online personals industry generated $53. 1 million in revenue in the first quarter of this year. That number is over 5 1/2 times the $8. 1 million total for that period in 2001. That number will likely continue to grow substantially this year once industry wide figures are available. Revenue at the leading service Match. com more than doubled in the third quarter of 2002 to $33. 4 million and this is a company with less than one third of the market. Nearly 34 million people visit personals sites each year6. The industry is dominated by two major players. Match. com is the biggest site with nearly 6 million visitors per month while Yahoo, at 3. 4 million, is the second most popular site, leveraging its large population of web directory and email users7. Following well behind these two are a dozen or so fairly evenly trafficked sites (see chart: Major Players in Online Dating). The business models for most of these sites are some combination of free and paid access. For all the sites browsing the ads is free. However users have to register and pay between $20 and $25 in order to post ads or respond to ads or both. Over 93% of online dating subscription prices are in the $5-50 range8. Both Match. com and Yahoo charge to post an ad and respond to ads. Lavalife (the 10th most trafficked site) is free to post ads but requires users buy credits in order to contact other users. Overall 98% of purchases at online dating sites are subscriptions. 54% of those subscriptions are monthly, 22% annual. The user population of online dating sites is about 60% male, 40% female9. The ages of users range from 18 to 80 with the largest percentage (32%) between 35 and 44 years of age. Followed by 24% for 25-35 year olds, 22% for 45-54 year olds and 11% each amongst 18 to 24 year olds and those 55 and over (see graph: age distribution)10. The fastest growing segment appears to be the 18-30 space. In the first quarter of 2002, fully half of the new users of Match. com have been under 3011. This suggests that dating sites are no longer just for the desperate, those over 35 and still single, but have become another source for those with time and looks on their side to accelerate their dating or improve their dating efficiency. 5 Online Dating Growth While spending on online content as a whole has increased, no category has increased more than online dating (see graph: Quarterly Growth of Consumer Spending by Category of Online Content). While the other categories such as business content and research have experienced steady linear growth, the growth curve for online dating is an exponential curve. Not only is it growing but the rate of growth quarter over quarter is also increasing. At its current rate by the time numbers are available for the rest of 2002 it will exceed business spending as the largest category of online spending. It is also the only category of online content that has significant consumption externalities. When purchasing any of business content, research, single player games, news, credit help, sports or online greeting cards, the number of other users of the product does not play more than a minor role in the purchasing decision. There is also plenty of room for the industry to grow in both revenue and users. Soon these services will have video chat capabilities12. People will overcome a lot of their negative perceptions of the practice as the number of users increase and many of these primarily US-based services will begin to expand internationally. Many products are not useful without a complementary product. Portable CD players are useless without headphones, and DVD players require DVDs to play. This is one of the factors that separate network goods from goods such as an apple which can be consumed by itself. Arguably online dating services could be the required complementary product to the Internet. With an Internet connection one needs content to look at, and certainly users of online dating services are required to have an Internet connection, so there is some complementarity here but this connection is somewhat weak. While CDs are needed for a CD player to be useful at all, dating services are not a requirement for the Internet to be useful. Further, even with the rapid growth in online personals, it still lags Internet growth and coverage so significantly that for at least the next little while the overall growth of the Internet will have a negligible effect on online dating when compared to the growth it will experience from existing Internet users. With the requirement many networked goods have for complementary products comes the need for compatibility and standards. The benefits of making goods compatible with others are clear. Consumers can benefit by being able to choose from a number of headphone choices knowing that for the most part (except on airplanes) these headphones will plug into their CD player, stereo, and computer. From a headphone manufacturers perspective it is far cheaper to build for a standard jack than specifically for every device. While there is not a single standard that all online dating services are based on to the point where a profile or other stored information from one service can be seamlessly transferred to any other, several competing platforms are starting to emerge. Nerve. com, after the rapid growth of the personals section of its website, spun the service off into a separate company, Springstreet Networks, which provides a standardized shared match making service for other content providers such as salon. com, bust, boston. com and others14. Match. coms database is shared with licensees including msn. com, nytimes. com and villagevoice. com to name a few. Relationship Exchange is another network that powers the personals services behind. cupidjunction. com, and personals. canada. com amongst others. Even some of the smaller dating sites like people2people. com are licensing their databases to online newspaper sites like sfgate. com. The competition is not necessarily amongst the dating sites themselves but the networks they supply and pull from. However, Yahoo Personals is independent and not licensed to other parties. It is banking on its existing position as the top website on the Internet15 and its large pool of users of its other tools to provide a large enough pool of users. Lavalife also has its own proprietary system and is banking on its unique features and credit based rather than subscription based system. While Yahoo and Lavalife are staunchly independent, the advantages to smaller sites are obvious. A personals site is only as valuable as its pool of profiles that match the user. If the user is unable to find people with the same interests, geography and whatever other characteristics determine a match, the user will not subscribe to the site for very long, nor be enticed to subscribe in order to contact a matching user. The larger the pool of people, the better the selection of people that may match, the more likely the user is to subscribe or purchase credits. 6. 3 Consumption Externalities The increase in value with an increase in users is the fourth characteristic of networked industries: consumption externalities. If there is one heterosexual person of each gender on one of these sites the possible number of connections is only one. However with five people of each gender the number of possible connections is 25. With 100 males and 100 females the number of possible connections is 10,000. Thus the total value of the network, as measured by the number of possible connections, increases by Vn = nm x nf where n is the number of users and m and f indicate male and female respectively.

Experiments made in Transfer of Training or Learning Essay Example for Free

Experiments made in Transfer of Training or Learning Essay The question of transfer has been definitely put to a test in order to show far training in one line influences other lines. Many experiments and studies in transfer of training have been performed by psychologists. Starch considered the problem of transfer in two fields: 1. Transfer in Specific Psychological Activities—The experiments performed in this field were the following: Experiments in memory, by James—William James was the first to attack the problem of memory-training experimentally. He investigated the effort of memorizing one kind of material on ability to memorize other kinds of materials. James himself memorized 158 lines from Victor Hugo’s Satyr and kept record of the time spent. He then devoted thirty-eight days (20 minutes per day) to the mastery of Milton’s Paradise Lost. After his Training in memorization, he selected another 158 lines from the Satyr and memorized them. He discovered that he needed more time to learn this selection than he had spent in memorizing the first selection from the Satyr. His result showed negative transfer. From their studies James was led to believe that formal discipline is not an efficacious means of improving the memory (National Society for the Study of Education, 2000). Experiment in perception, by Thorndike and Woodworth, in 1901— Thorndike and Woodworth studied the influence of special training on the estimation of magnitudes upon the ability to estimate magnitudes of the same general type, and the influence of training in observing words containing certain other letters. Thorndike and Woodworth concluded from the first part of the experiment that there was more improvement in the ability to estimate areas similar to the practice material than in the ability to estimate dissimilar areas. The result of the second experiment showed that practice in cancelling words with certain letters had an indirect effect on the cancelling words of words with other letters (National Society for the Study of Education, 2000). Experiments in judging weights of various sizes transferred to estimation of other weights, by Coover, in 1916—these experiments showed positive transfer. Experiments in maze-learning for both rats and human, by Webb in 1971—It was concluded from the results of these experiments that there were carry over effects from practice in one sensory-motor activity to another but the amount of transfer varied with the individual subject (Morgan, 1999). From these studies of transfer two conclusions may be drawn: (a) both negative and positive transfers occur between specific learning activities: (b) the more similar the specific activities, the greater the positive transfer. In other words, whatever transfer occurred could be expanded in terms of identical elements of procedure, habits, and methods. Transfer in School Subjects—Most of the experimental studies made of transfer in high school subjects were the following: From Latin to English by Thorndike and Rugger in 1923—Thorndike and Rugger found out that their studies that high school freshmen who studied Latin made slightly higher scores in an English vocabulary test than did students who had not studied Latin, the gain made on all words derived from Latin roots. So far as pedagogical practice is concerned, Thorndike’s and Rugger’s investigation established the fact of transfer of training (Skinner, 2000). From Latin to English vocabulary, by Hamblen in 1924—Hamblen concluded that transfer from Latin to English vocabulary was great when word derivations were stressed in the teaching of Latin (Skinner, 2000). In conclusion, experiments in the effect of cross-education, in observing and judging sensory and perceptual data, and in forming sensory motor association habits have been conducted in considerable number by other psychologists. A few experiments in special school functions have also been carried out. The results obtained from the experiments in those different lines, although confusing and sometimes contradictory, seem to warrant the belief that the old idea of a vast transfer, in some subtle and unexplained way, of special improvements to a general faculty, is false. It may be summed up by saying that the weight of evidence is all against formal discipline. The experimental evidence is against the idea that the faculties or powers of the mind can be trained like muscles so that the strengthening of these powers will automatically insure a high degree of efficiency in new and unrelated material or activities.

The nation states affected by globalisation

The nation states affected by globalisation INTRODUCTION In Viewing Globalisation and the ways it has affected nation states; it is safe to study it from two different schools of thoughts: The globalists and the sceptics. It is almost impossible to talk about Globalisation without relating it to a Nation States economy or politics. The two go together. A Nation State is affected by Globalisation in so many ways, and vice versa. The hyper globalists argue that the nation states have lost their power completely in this era of globalisation. The fact that the world is globalised means the end of the nation states especially through what is termed the â€Å"Borderless World† (Ohmae, 1990:172). For the complex globalists, although the international organisations are powerful, the nation states havent completely lost their powers. (Held et al, 1999: p27). The Sceptics, on the other hand disagree with the theories of the globalists that see the â€Å"end of nation states†. For Hirst and Thompson, The nation states are still very much in control, in fact, they have the most power and there is no such thing as the word â€Å"globalisation†, therefore, the notion that there is an effect of globalisation on nation states does not make sense (Hirst and Thompson, 1999: p256-280) In this essay, the hyper globalists and the complex globalists are classified as the liberalists or the globalists as they accept the concept of globalisation, believe in the reduction of the nation states powers, view the world as â€Å"being governed globally and conceptualise globalisation as a reordering of the frame work of human action† (Held et al, 1999: p10). They believe that globalisation is being spread through the technologies arising everyday. The Sceptics are classified as the realists who believe that the word should not be â€Å"globalisation, rather it is internationalisation and regionalisation† (Held et al, 1999: p10) and this â€Å"internationalisation depends on states acquiescence and support† (Held et al, 1999: p10) Firstly, the term â€Å"Globalisation† would be defined for clarification and the definition would serve as a reference to my points. Secondly, this essay would point out the relationship between globalisation and nation states, the institutions that arose with globalisation and how they affect nation states politically, economically and culturally, with examples. Thirdly, I would raise arguments from the globalists and sceptics points of view; my argument would show that nation states have lost their power due to the spread of globalisation and I would buttress my argument with citations and relative examples. I would also examine concerns (if any). Lastly, I would draw a conclusion which would portray my personal thoughts on globalisation and how it has affected nation states as a whole. â€Å"A globalised world is one in which political, economic, cultural, and social events become more interconnected.by Globalisation, we mean the increase of connectedness between societies† (Baylis, J. et al, 2008:8) Globalization, affects states, not only political but culturally as well as economically. The connectivity of these states and their dependence on one another for political stability, economic growth and cultural modification or awareness is also a factor of Globalisation. Nation states are naturally dependent on themselves for different resources, it could be as a result of competition, power in the international arena, or simply, for sustenance to their own economy (which may not be as rich). One major effect Globalisation has had on nation states was obviously the spread of the Global Crisis earlier this year. The crisis which was believed to have started in the United States seeped its way through other nation states and affected a large number of countries economically. The idea of globalisation which relates to interconnectedness of states, broken barriers and â€Å"borderless world† seems to have played a huge role in spreading the Financial Crisis witnessed by nation states. Banks were shut down as a result of illiquidity, not just in the United States but some countries in the EU, Brazil, and Japan etc. Unemployment rates sky rocketed in countries like Nigeria. People were getting sacked from their jobs all over the world. Even though this economic crisis started in the United States, the fact that it has the biggest economy in the world and lots of other nation states were connected to its economy meant the downfall of these nation states too. It is safe to say that international organisations or institutions have become the defining factor for most nation states in their global relations. The United Nations (for example) is the only international organization that has the authority over a states security and economic developments, â€Å"encompasses the protection of human rights and..the environment† (Taylor Curtis in J. Baylis et al, 2008: p.314). This further explains the effect of globalisation on nation states. Due to the tribal and religious wars in Africa and Asia, for example, The UN stepped in to examine these conflicts. Nation States now have to rely on these international organisations in times of conflicts especially when they cannot solve their problems on their own. The United Nations was created in 1945 and hosts different positions such as UNICEF which assists children; WHO which works on global public health and the UNHCR which provides aids to refugees. (Weiss, Forsyth Coates in OBrien Williams, 2007: p125). In this organisation, Weiss et al also state that the peace keeping/building of nation states are treated and looked into as well as some elections. (2007: p125). The United Nations is a very powerful organisation because it makes its laws and compels nation states to abide by them, and not the other way round. Nation states have more benefits when they work with these international organisations in terms of the security they are being offered (most times). The World Trade Organisation (WTO) was created in 1995 and is usually affiliated with trade and economic activities. The organisation has support from some of the wealthiest economies in the world such as the nation states in the EU, the United States and Japan. Developing countries would argue that some of these international organisations do not favour them because they are real powerful and tend to support the already developed countries in terms of these economic activities. The Rise of the Bretton Woods Institutions and its effect on Nation States. The Bretton Woods Conference in 1944 had a prominent effect on the world today. Out of this conference, two very important institutions: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and The World Bank emerged (OBrien Williams: 2007, pp. 209-210). The IMF was the regulatory body that nation states had to apply to, to be part of the â€Å"gold standard† policy. This policy meant that the dollar would be the worlds currency and would be exchange for gold to determine its worth. The policy did not hold but the IMF is still the body in charge of global exchange and interest rates (OBrien Williams: 2007, pp. 86-89). More nation states were trading with each other; therefore, it became necessary, with time, to have exchange rates. The decision on what a dollar is to a pound is based on the outcome of what the IMF has concluded; not the nation states. The World Bank on the other hand is known as â€Å"the lender of the last resort†. Although, it claims to benefit nation states in crisis by bailing them out, there are also strict rules governing this procedure. The World Bank has the final say on which countries are benefitting from whatever money it would lend. The Nation States are entirely under their control here, they play no significant role; their only â€Å"role† is to fulfil all the rules the World Bank has set, and they just might be eligible for these monies. Ngaire Woods describes the IMF and World Bank as â€Å"The Globalizers†. She says that they have inculcated a good number of nation states into world economy by advising the governments of these states to be more open to investments and capital, and to allow for global trade (2006, p 3). She also states that â€Å"they have presented globalisation as a solution to challenges they have faced in the world economy† (2006, p3) Another major effect globalisation has had in nation states; (especially in recent years) is in the area of Migration. In the EU states, the schengen visa makes it possible to visit as many states as there are in the EU. Years ago, one would have needed 12 different visas to visit 12 different countries in the European Union, but today, with the spread of globalisation, one visa gets you to those 12 nation states. The sceptics like Hirst and Thompson might argue that although, we are seeing the emergence of these international organisations (in this case, the EU), which might have a say in national policies, â€Å"people are less mobile than moneythey remain ‘nationalized, dependent on passports, visas, residence and labour qualifications† (Hirst and Thompson,1999: p257). Thereby arguing that in fact, we do not live in a borderless world; rules in terms of migration are still made by the nation states. Globalists can defend their theories here that although individuals may need visas to move around countries, it is still the organisations that determine the nature of these visas especially in the EU where a visa to Italy equates a visa to France. Currencies are no longer national, that is, peculiar to their nation states. The Euro, for example is being used by nation states in the European Union. The use of this single currency by countries in the European Union has made it possible to break barriers (if any) of economic trade across EU nation states. This was implemented, not by the nation states but by the European Monetary System. Globalisation has affected the states in the sense that they had no option than to give into the use of this common currency or face the threat of having a depreciating currency that would eventually lead to a depreciated economy. Therefore the benefit of being in a unit saves exposure in the case of Recession etc. It is no shock that the nation states with the most powerful economies have the most amounts of Multi National Corporations. A survey done in 2006 by Data from Fortune shows that the top 25 (twenty five) MNCs in the world consist of nine in the United States, thirteen in the EU countries and two in Japan. Twenty four out of the twenty five largest corporations (by revenues) are for the wealthiest states (OBrien Williams, 2007: p175). This shows how relevant these MNCs are to their nations economy. MNCs now find their ways into different nation states with thriving economies to make profit from them. Borders are broken when a US based MNC decides to have an operating base in China, for example. The above citation goes to prove that MNCs are no longer ‘nation-owned but actually control the nations in the sense that they move to whichever state they want to be situated. THE CONCERN Speaking as an individual from a third world country, it is easy to say that there is a major concern and it is rightly justified in the sense that these governing international bodies which have been springing up due to the spread of globalisation, has still been one-sided. Politically, in 2007, Nigeria witnessed the election of President Umaru Yaradua. Usually, during elections, the US organises an electoral committee to oversee the process, making sure it is free and fair. During the elections, the national television authority in Nigeria (NTA) announced that some of the ballot boxes had gone missing during the course of the elections. Of course, that meant that something was not right. The individuals sent by the Electoral Commission went on international television (CNN) and announced that they had, in fact, over seen the elections and it was free and fair so whatever the result, the election was a success. Now, to whos benefit? Is it to the Nigerian public? The Nigerian Politicians? Or the United States electoral body sent to conduct these elections? Culturally, norms and values are deteriorating speedily. In todays society, globalisation of the media and internet has made it easy to have access to Hollywood and the Western fashion. It is very easy to get lost in the world of pornography (easy access through the internet where restrictions are not followed), under aged drinking is more prominent with the youth today because they see their favourite stars on television and they believe its the norm. Nation States cannot stop these infringements into their societies because as they have embraced globalisation, they have welcomed its positive and negative results. We are aware of the show down that took place in sports recently. The World cup qualifiers between France and Ireland, to be more specific. A controversial goal was scored by William Gallass of France after Thierry Henry (France captain) was said to have handled the ball and passed it. The goal was allowed by the referee and France qualified on that note. After much contest and ‘a million highlights of that moment, The Irish football association (as a nation state) challenges FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) which is in charge of regulating laws concerning football internationally, to replay the match for a fair result. FIFA ruled against it and France was named as one of the countries participating in the world cup next year. The questions here are direct: Does France deserve to be in the world cup? More importantly, is France in the world Cup because Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president is close friends with French man Michel Platini, the UEFA (Union of Eu ropean Football associations) president? It is notable that FIFA and UEFA, the football governing bodies have the final decision on whatever happens on the pitch, sometimes, it could be a wrong call and nation states that are reportedly treated unfairly have no say in these matters. In my opinion, drawing concerns from globalisation is very crucial to nation states. Globalisations effect on nation states, as important as it may be, calls for a lot of attention and scrutiny. The systems that have come up as a result of our globalising world have not been entirely fair, because in the end, who are those governing in these international organisations and MNCs? Who are those in power making all these decisions? They are the people with hegemony, with power and wealth who are able to control nation states and make them puppets. They are the capitalists whose ultimate goal is to make profit, so we should definitely be concerned since it affects us globally. Globalisation is not successful until concerns are next to irrelevant. Every nation state should be able to benefit from the spread of globalisation, but at the moment, the powerful states are only getting more powerful, sapping resources form the developing countries by situating MNCs strategically. Nation states now go out of their way to create a more suitable business environment because these MNCs chose the best possible location involving cheap labour to situate their business. Therefore, states now compete with each other to be more and more favourable to the MNCs, most times, at the risk of their citizens. Generally, it would be of less concern if it benefitted the whole world equally. Concerns have risen because some nation states are being treated with more advantages than others. In concluding, the nation states played a huge role in policy making which affected individuals but with the spread of globalisation, states roles became very limited and less conspicuous in these political arenas. Territorial boundaries were becoming less important because they became more connected to one another (the states), flows of technology such as the internet and satellite made views and news more global; there by restricting in determining what its individuals are exposed to, movements became globalised such as the NGOs, INGOs; flows of capital ran through borders; and the media made everything recognisable especially through the consistent rise of Hollywood (the US film industry). Ohmae conceptualizes my idea on globalisation and how it affects nation states when he describes the states as â€Å"a dysfunctional unitrepresents no shared community of economic interest† (1990, p.24). It is clear that nation states are now being governed by external forces, whether it is the MNCs, the International Organisations, the NGOs or INGOs and it is important to note that most organisations are in business for profit making so the best possible state with the least possible labour would be a recipient of their businesses. However, many arguments may arise over the concerns of globalisation and how it affects nation states. Some may argue that it has enriched their nations economy; others may argue that it has given their nation states more exposure on the international scene, but a nation state that cannot make its own decisions because of a â€Å"governing body† is almost powerless. Decision making, governing its people, security for its citizens and most importantly, culture of a nations people should be overseen by its government. BIBLIOGRAPHY Baylis, J., Smith, S., Owens, P. (2008) The Globalisation of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, 4th edition (New York: Oxford University Press) Held, D. Mc Grew, A., Goldblatt, D. Perraton, J. (1999) The Global Transformations: Politics, Economics Culture (Cambridge: Polity Press) Hirst, P. Thompson, G. (1999) Globalisation in Question, 2nd edition (Cambridge: Polity Press) OBrien, R. and Williams, M. (2007) Global Political Economy: Evolution Dynamics, 2nd edition (New York: Palgrave Macmillan) Ohmae, K. (1990) The Borderless World: Power and Strategy in the Inter linked Economy (London: Fontana) Stone, D. Wright, C. (2007) The World Bank and Governance: A Decade of Reform and Reaction (New York: Routledge) Taylor, P. Curtis, D. (2008) â€Å"The United Nations† in Baylis, J. et al, The Globalization of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, 4th edition (New York: Oxford University Press) pp. 314-315 Weiss, Forsyth Coates (2001) â€Å"International Organisation and Governance† in OBrien, R. Williams, M., Global Political Economy: Evolution Dynamics, 2nd edition (New York: Palgrave Maxmillian) Pg 125 Woods, N. (2006) The Globalizers: the IMF, the World Bank their borrowers (New York: Cornell University Press) Woods, N. (2008) â€Å"International Political Economy in an age of Globalization† John Baylis, J. et al, The Globalisation of World Politics: An Introduction to International Relations, 4th edition (New York: Oxford University Press) pp. 244-258