UNIT 6 - GLOBAL RISKS & RESILIENCE

Threats to individuals and businesses

Hacking

Hacking is a process whereby individuals with knowledge of computer coding use software to help break into computer security systems.

Security hackers can access vast amounts of information about individuals and governments, as no system is completely safe from hacking.

There has been a massive increase in cybercrime in recent years. It has been estimated that cybercrime will cost 2 trillion dollars by 2019.

→ Examples: During the 2016 US presidential election Russian hackers managed to get access to Hillary Clintons private email account.

In 2017 there was an attack by a cyber worm called “WannaCry” on people using Microsoft Windows. Users needed to pay a ransom to access their material again. A total of 100 countries were affected by this and it seemed like the attack originated from North Korea (Black hat).

Although hackers are often associated with exploiting vulnerabilities to gain unauthorised access to computers, systems, or networks, not all hacking is malicious or illegal. So-called White Hat Hackers use their hacking skills to identify security vulnerabilities in hardware, software or networks. However, unlike Black and Grey Hat Hackers, they respect the rule of law as it applies to hacking.

Identity theft

Identity theft occurs when a hacker steals another person's

identity, generally online, to use for their own profit. It may

involve the theft of bank and/or credit card details. Criminals

have gained information about individuals from stolen or

mislaid cards or they are able to hack the information from a

person's email account.

Over 300,000 identities are being sold daily on the Dark Web.
Nearly half of all US citizens became a victim of some form of identity theft in 2020.
Fraud is the most common type of identity theft.
The most common motif for pursuing identity theft is money. Individuals often another person's financial identity information for financial gain.

Surveillance

Surveillance involves the monitoring of the behaviour of individuals and groups. Different groups and national governments see this as a way of defining risks to national security and also of detecting criminal behaviour. CCTV is used to record the activities of citizens throughout the day and night. Especially police forces use these cameras as a means of checking the security of locations and businesses.

Also, whenever you have your mobile phone turned on, the authorities know exactly where you are at any given time because your phone transmits your location information to satellites.

Government surveillance: Many governments collect illegal information about other countries and important organisations.

→ For example: The NSA (USA's National Security Agency) collected illegal information about the UK and Germany, by tapping phones and

bugging UN agencies and ordinary citizens. This was revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013.

click here to read real-life examples of identity theft

6.1 - Geopolitical and economic risks

How technological and globalising processes create new geopolitical and economic risks for individuals and societies

Political, economic and physical threats to global supply chain flows

A supply chain is the link between the producers of a good and the consumer that purchases it. There are several factors which can affect and risk the flow of a supply chain.

Political and geopolitical threats to supply chains

Protectionism, trade restrictions, terrorism, conflict, piracy and resource nationalism are (geo)political factors which can potentially impact a supply chain.

PIRACY along the Somalian coastline: International shipping polluted the waters adjacent to the Somalian coastline and foreign ships competed with the local fishermen. Fishing communities responded by forming armed groups to deter the invaders by hijacking commercial vessels.

→ This led to a decrease of revenue for Egypt as fewer ships use the Suez Canal (estimated loss of about $642 million).

→ Loss of trading partners and tourism.

2. BREXIT (Britain exiting the EU): Britain saw the EU as a dysfunctional economic entity.

→ The Honda Car manufacturing company has a plant in the UK. However, as a result of the uncertainties associated with the UK’s exit from the EU, the company has moved its production functions.

3. POLITICAL DEMONSTRATIONS: The Foxconn iPhone components production in Vietnam was suspended following political

demonstrations

4. GOVERNMENT SANCTIONS. The US and EU oil companies in Russia halted operations in Russia following sanctions against annexation of Crimea in 2014

5. TERRORIST ATTACKS: Terror attacks which have targeted tourists in Tunisia have led to TNC supply shocks and a decreased tourist

revenue.

Economic threats to supply chains

Currency fluctuations, price volatility, organisations such as OPEC operating as a cartel and energy shortages are able to impact supply chains.

TRADE RESTRICTIONS and wars between the US and China.
DEBT CRISIS among the PIIGS countries (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain).
EMBARGO policies established by OPEC on supplying countries with oil.
EXCHANGE RATE FLUCTUATIONS: Create a lot of risks for businesses, especially in developing countries, where the local currencies frequently depreciate against the dollar.

Physical and environmental threats to supply chains

Natural disasters, extreme weather, tectonic plate movements and pandemics/epidemics were able to disrupt supply chains.

EBOLA OUTBREAK in West Africa has affected the supply chains of most companies depending on raw materials such as diamond, cocoa, gold and other agriculture produce.
TSUNAMI in Japan (2011) impacted on the supply of electronic parts as well as car engines such as Toyota, Honda etc, as these are mostly originating from the affected prefecture in Japan.
FLOODING in Bangladesh, resulted in the disruption of cotton for clothing manufacturing companies in many parts of the world.

Technological threats to supply chains

ICT disruptions, infrastructure failures and threats to surveillance may disrupt supply chains.

HUAWEI threatened the economic dominance of telecommunications, as US intelligence agencies believe that the Chinese government could use Huawei to spy. Huawei’s 5G infrastructure could contain backdoors giving the Chinese government access to its inner workings and allowing Beijing to attack communications networks and public utilities. Therefore many centres, including the US wanted to ban any products from Huawei from entering.

New and emerging threats to the political and economic sovereignty of countries (= loss of sovereignty)

Increased globalisation is often associated with the loss of political and economic sovereignty of most globalized nations. The rising threats posed by increasing international migration and the economic challenges resulting from the relocation of manufacturing industries to emerging markets such as China, among many other factors have contributed to the loss of sovereignty of some globalized countries. This is partly responsible for the growth of nationalism in most advanced countries such as the USA, UK, Germany and France. There are several types of sovereignty:

Political sovereignty is the complete and absolute freedom of any country to govern itself or manage its own affairs, without interference from another country.
Economic sovereignty is the economic independence a country enjoys without any interference from another country.

Factors and examples that contribute to the loss of sovereignty, which is also know as the "erosion of sovereignty":

Tax avoidance and profit repatriation to countries with lower income taxes, establishing a financial dependency.
Offshoring and outsourcing to forgein countries to lower the production and labour costs.
Many countries have lost their sovereignty through invasions, military interference or through war.
High level technological innovations such as 3D printing, GPS systems, autonomous vehicles, robots and drones.
Two major airports in the UK (Heathrow and Gatwick airport) are owned by foreigners despite their strategic importance to the UK. Similarly, most ports in the UK, in places like Liverpool, are foreign-owned.

Profit repatriation and tax avoidance by transnational corporations and individuals

Profit repatriation involves the transfer of profits or capital from a foreign country to the home country of the foreign investor. This is a form of threat that affects the sovereignty of states and undermines their capacity to effectively control TNCs, due to fear of losing them to other countries.

Tax avoidance is practiced by TNCs, by repatriating profits made in overseas countries to other countries with lower corporate tax rates (offshoring of money), thereby threatening the economic sovereignty of their parent states.

→ A tax haven is a foreign country or corporation used to avoid or reduce income taxes, especially by investors from another For example, the Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton lives in Switzerland, where there is a reduced tax rate.

The Corporate Tax Haven Index (CTHI) is a ranking of jurisdictions

most complicit in helping multinational corporations underpay

corporate income tax.

The CTHI score is calculated by combining a jurisdiction’s Haven

Score and Global Scale Weight. A jurisdiction’s Haven Score is a

measure of how much scope for corporate tax abuse the

jurisdiction’s tax and financial systems allow and is assessed against

20 indicators. A jurisdiction’s Global Scale Weight is a measure of

how much financial activity from multinational corporations the

jurisdiction hosts.

The British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands and Bermuda are the countries with the highest CTHI scores.

Apple

Apple is the most valuable public company of all time with a market value of more than $800 billion. Last year, it cleared $46 billion in profits after taxes, making it the most profitable company.

The major strategy Apple uses to reduce its US tax bill is to artificially shift large amounts of its domestic profits into tax havens.
A tax haven is generally an offshore country that offers foreign individuals and businesses little or no tax liability in a politically and economically static environment.

→ Such tax havens are located in Panama, Cayman Islands, Switzerland and Monaco.

Nando’s

Nando’s has a complex offshore network of money that involves the Isle of Man, Guernsey, the Netherlands, Ireland, Luxembourg and the British Virgin Islands.

Offshore accounting, helps the food chain to reduce its UK corporation tax bill (legally), by up to a third.
Practice tax avoidance by repatriating profits made in overseas countries to other countries with lower corporate tax rates, thereby threatening the economic sovereignty of their parent states.
This may lead to a fall in the country’s GDP or reduce the country’s internal revenue needed for development.

BMW, Mercedes and Volvo

Car manufacturing companies in Europe (BMW, Mercedes and Volvo) and the USA (Ford, Tesla) have opened branches in China to take advantage of low corporate taxes, the large market size and the cheap labour. This is known as corporate migration.

click here to view interactive map

Disruptive technological innovations

A disruptive technology is any technology that displaces an existing one, resulting in a complete restructuring of the industry. Usually a disruptive technology sweeps away the systems or habits it replaces because it has attributes that are recognisably superior.

Drones

A drone is an unmanned aerial device (UAD) which is controlled by a person on the ground or remotely by a computer.

Drones are becoming increasing popular. This is mainly due to the price of drones falling and no licence being needed in the UK to fly them. They are readily available in toy shops and can be purchased by anyone online.

→ Commercial drones cannot be distinguished from a drone operated with the intention of hijacking the government.

How this can be controlled:

Drone manufacturers can build in a function called “geo-fencing”, which stops drones flying near airports. They can also use signal jammers to stop the remote control communicating with the drone and counter drones to avoid drones causing any disruption. Drone registers are also used to keep track of the drones within a country or region.
Stricter security measures must be put into place. Drones are at risk of being hacked by cybercriminals, meaning software programming needs to be considered more seriously in the development phase.

3D printing

3D printing involves the process of making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. The creation of a 3D printed object is achieved using additive processes that enables you to produce complex (functional) shapes using less material than traditional manufacturing methods.

3D-printing is increasing in popularity, since the 3D printing process eliminates many steps used in traditional manufacturing and facilitates the manufacture of complex structural components. These features have led to significant success in the areas of rapid prototyping and tool development

CASE STUDY: TRIBALISATION AND NATIONALISM IN VENEZUELA AND NORTHERN NIGERIA
TWO DETAILED EXAMPLES TO ILLUSTRATE GEOPOLITICAL TENSION AND CONFLICT

In many countries there has been a strong reaction to globalisation, the increased interconnectivity and interdependence. There has been an increase in nationalism and tribalisation. These countries hope for the process of "Islandisation" to occur, whereby nationalism gains ground in key economies around the world, leading to protectionist measures and reduced global economic flows.

Tribalisation describes the increasing desire of regional groups and entities to have political power and split up from the state or groups of states they belong to.

→ People are wishing to go back to the past and oppose globalisation (= anti-globalisation movement).

Nationalism refers to the expression of loyalty and devotion to a nation, especially a sense of national consciousness, and exalting one nation above all others.

TRIBALISATION AND NATIONALISM IN VENEZUELA

Venezuela criticises globalisation by opposing large TNCs, which have unregulated political power and the deregulation of financial markets. Chavez accuses TNCs of seeking to maximise profit at the expense of sabotaging work safety conditions and labour hiring standards. President Hugo Chavez has made it clear that globalisation is a western idea that needs to be avoided.

After Chavez death a new president was elected: Nicolás Maduro. Shortly after his election Venezuela faced hyperinflation and Venezuela's GDP was falling. The collapse of the oil prices in 2014 worsened Venezuela’s situation, as their economy is oil-dependent (oil accounts for 95% of the export revenue). By being resource nationalistic they now have an over-abundance of oil and thus Venezuelans pay $30 for one barrel of oil. The general public blamed Maduro for this, whereas Maduro blamed Chavez's anti-globalization movement.

→ Juan Guaido, declared himself interim president in front of a crowd. He promised to create a transitional government and have free

elections. He attempted to get large trucks with aid into Venezuela, and thus has a large following now. He also wanted to bring the “Old Venezuela” back.

TRIBALISATION AND NATIONLAISM IN NORTHERN NIGERIA (BOKO HARAM)

Boko Haram is an Islamist terrorist organisation based in northeastern Nigeria. Their criticism towards globalisation involves, that with increasing globalisation more western influence has reached African countries such as Nigeria. Thus, this group focusses on opposing Western education and the process of Westernisation. They are firm believers that “western education should end”.

They believe that Muslims should not participate in any social or political activity that is linked to Western society. As a result of this belief the following happened:

Over 30 000 people with alternate beliefs have been killed.
They killed and kidnapped hundreds of children and women. In 2014 a ‘bring back our girls’ campaign was set up, backed by Michelle Obama and numerous celebrities.
In 2014 Boko Haram was named as the deadliest terrorist group and also pledged allegiance to ISIS.
According to Amnesty International more than 2000 children remain in captivity, many having been forced to marry members of Boko Haram, whereas others are used as child soldiers.

Geopolitical conflict CS (Venezuela & Nigeria)

6.2 - Environmental risks

How global interactions create environmental risks for particular places and people

CASE STUDY: TRANSBOUNDARY POLLUTION AND THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH
ONE CASDE STUDY OF TRANSBOUNDARY POLLUTION INCLUDING THE CONSEQUENCES AND POSSIBLE RESPONSES

Transboundary pollution occurs when air, water or land is polluted in one country but the pollution also affects other countries nearby. It is pollution that originates in one country but, by crossing the border through pathways of water or air, is able to cause damage to the environment in another country.

→ Examples of transboundary pollution include: Contamination of groundwater/oceans, radioactive and nuclear leaks, acid rain, smoke haze and forest fires.

THE GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest accumulation of ocean

plastic in the world and is located between Hawaii and California.

It covers an estimated surface area of 1.6 million square kilometres, an area three times the size of France.
There are more than 1.8 trillion pieces of plastic in the patch, which weigh an estimated 80,000 tonnes. More than half of this plastic is less dense than the water, meaning that it will not sink once it encounters the sea.

The formation of garbage patches and the accumulation of microplastics:

Between 8 and 12 million tons of plastic are dumped into our oceans every year. Waste enters the ocean through a variety of mechanisms/sources:

Washed from beaches, rivers or ships into the ocean.
Manufacturing industries release waste into the ocean during manufacturing.
Fishing vessels release waste into the ocean.

2. Rotating currents (= gyres), wind and the motion of the ocean let the garbage accumulate and garbage patches are formed.

There are a total of 5 major garbage patches, of which the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the largest

3. The majority of the garbage in the patches are microplastics, which have been broken down by the sun, the salt of the sea and the wave motion (abrasion and hydraulic action).

Consequences of transboundary pollution in the pacific:

Formation of garbage patches and the presence of microplastics.
Plankton grows on the microplastics, which are indigested by fish and birds. Consequently the toxic plastics enter the marine food chain.
Marine animals may get entangled in the waste and so-called ghost nets and consequently die.
In March 2019, it was reported that a large whale was washed ashore and a postmortem showed that it had about 40kg of plastic in its belly.
90% of all dead found sea birds had ingested amounts of plastic which are equal or exceed 5% of their body mass.

Possible difficulties when attempting to tackle transboundary pollution in the pacific:

Microplastics are hard to extract from the ocean, as they are hardly visible and are very small in size.
Many countries ignore ocean pollution, since it this kind of pollution is located in international waters. Lack of responsibility and ownership.
Plastics are located at different levels in the ocean and thus are hard to collect, using a single collection method.

Responses to transboundary pollution in the pacific:

The organisation “Ocean Clean-up” invented a U-shaped (funnel) floater system which catches plastic (via winds, waves and currents) and concentrates it. It is fuelled by solar power and support vessels come by and collect the concentrated plastics in regular intervals. It is predicted to remove 50% of the garbage in the great pacific garbage within 5 years.
Organisations such as “4Ocean” promote ocean clean-ups and campaign against large TNCs who pollute the ocean.
WWF works with stakeholders along the plastic value chain in South Africa to ensure that plastic is sustainably produced and used to ensure both environmental and human health. WWF works to accelerate the transition from the inefficient and wasteful linear economy to a circular economy for plastic in South Africa.
Plastic ACTion (PACT) is a business initiative by WWF Singapore, which aims to eliminate plastic pollution in nature and ultimately move towards a circular economy for plastic.

click here to learn more about the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Transboundary pollution CS (Great Pacific Garbage Patch)

Environmental impacts of global flows

Localised pollution and its impacts along shipping lanes

Localised pollutions are smaller scale environmental incidents that cause pollution, which can have long-term impacts and are devastating to the environment and its inhabitants. Shipping is the most energy-efficient way to move large volumes of cargo. Yet ships emit large amounts of nitrogen oxides, sulphur oxides, carbon dioxide and particulate matter (PM) into the atmosphere.

The emissions of the 15 of the largest ships are equivalent to all the emissions of all the cars worldwide.
Ships burn bunker/bulk fuel in international waters. Bunker fuel is cheap and one of the dirtiest fuels there is.
When entering the docks they commonly switch to a cleaner fuel, to meet emission requirements and guidelines.

Ships can cause pollution in a number of ways:

Oil leaks resulting from oil tanker accidents, result in marine life dying due to the oil being carcinogenic and sticking to their feathers and gills. An example of this is the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.
Chemical pollution due to deliberate discharge of chemical waste into the seas. Deposition of toxic chemicals may cause the formation of algal blooms (eutrophication), which deprive marine areas of oxygen, and make it impossible for life to continue.
Noise pollution, which is especially harmful to dolphins and wales which communicate by echolocation.
The release of carbon monoxide and other chemicals into the atmosphere.
Ocean-going ships are responsible for releasing ballast water from their hulls, which may contain harmful microbes and other organisms.
Cruise liners also release grey water into the ocean from on board laundry and cleaning facilities.
Black water or sewage pollution from human waste may contain pathogens that can affect ocean life.

Carbon footprints for global flows of food, goods and people

The carbon footprint is simply the total amount of greenhouse gases produced by an individual, organisation or a country. The flow of goods, people and food around the world has implications on the global carbon footprint.

The carbon footprint of FOOD: This refers to the greenhouse gases (in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent) released during the production, transport and consumption of food. It has been suggested that agriculture globally produces 30% of the greenhouse gases

around the world.

Beef has the greatest greenhouse gas emissions.

click here to learn more about pollution along shipping lanes

2. The carbon footprint of GOODS: This refers to the greenhouse gases (in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent) released during the

production and transportation of goods.

The packaging of goods can greatly affect an individual’s carbon footprint. Paper is the most sustainable option when it comes to packaging, as it does not rely on the extraction of oil, can be widely recycled and is biodegradable. However, it requires four times the amount of energy to manufacture a paper shopping bag as it does to manufacture a plastic bag. Also, paper weights more and thus increases transportation costs.
The transportation requirements of the good also play a role in the amount of greenhouse gases released. Certain produce has to be transported in cooled conditions, which uses more energy and therefore more greenhouse gases are released.
The type of transportation also determines the amount of carbon released. Shipping causes the greatest carbon influx, with over 2000kg of carbon dioxide per 400km.

3. The carbon footprint of PEOPLE: This refers to the greenhouse

gases (in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent) released by

the movement and transportation of people.

Globalisation has resulted in the free movement of people, either as economic migrants or tourists. This mostly takes place through movement of people using vehicles, trains, and airplanes. These modes of transportation and the flow of people contribute greatly to the global carbon footprint. Air transport has about a 8% greater climate impact than cars (per hour).
Individuals living and originating from HICs have a greater carbon footprint, than individuals from LICs. Wealth is a key factor when determining the carbon footprint of a person.

→ The carbon footprint of INFORMATION flows: Every Google search

produces 7g of carbon dioxide and Google emits as much as a

high-income country.

click here to learn more about the carbon footprint of transportation

Environmental issues linked with the global shift of industry

Polluting manufacturing industries

Since the 1970s there has been a global shift of heavy and light industry away from Northern Europe and the Eastern USA to locations in Asia (China, India, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia). China now ranks first in industrial output and 44% of its gross domestic product (GDP) comes from secondary industry. This shift and relocation of polluting industries from HICs to LICs is mainly due to LICs having the desire to benefit from global interactions - their desire to participate on a global scale is greater than their environmental concern.

Further reasons why TNCs relocate and offshore to Asia and other LICs:

Cheaper labour resulting a lower production cost.
Asian countries are very willing to host joint ventures, as it supports their local economy and provides them with international expertise.
Cheap and plentiful power supply (fossil fuels).
Fewer restrictions on companies to obey safety and emissions regulations.
The liberalisation of capital markets, making money more available to entrepreneurs to undertake new projects.
High taxes on polluting industries in HICs.
Strict environmental laws in HICs on pollution.
People in developing countries desire some of the waste products in order to extract valuable minerals, such as gold and aluminum in order to make a living.

Environmental impacts of polluting manufacturing industries:

AIR AND WATER POLLUTION: In China, the location of several western companies in the Shenzhen province and in Beijing are causing severe damage to the health of the people in the surrounding areas. Beijing is the city with the worst air pollution and in 2015 there were 200 days in the year when Beijing’s air quality was over 100ppm. 85% of Shanghai’s water present in the Huangpu river is polluted and overall 60% of China’s underground water is polluted.
INDUSTRIAL WASTE AND LAND POLLUTION: Western TNCs export their e-waste to African countries, such as Agbogbloshie in Ghana. Samples taken from around Agbogbloshie indicate lead levels as high as 18,125 parts per million - as much as 45 times higher than the US standards.

Food production systems for global agribusiness

Agribusiness refers to the production of food for profit and involves farm machinery, seeds, fertilisers and pesticides, processing as well as the sale and retail of food. Agribusinesses in the USA involve the growing of genetically modified crops such as corn, which utilise fertilisers and pesticides to help them grow quickly to maturity.

Agribusinesses are engaging in land grabs to practice monoculture farming to produce food crops for export and/or own use.
Examples of agribusinesses include BASF and Monsanto. Some of the food-processing TNCs are Nestle, Unilever, Kraft foods and Cargill.

6.3 - Local and global resilience

New and emerging possibilities for managing global risks

CASE STUDY: GREENPEACE AND AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
DETAILED EXAMPLES OF ONE ENVIRONMENTAL AND ONE SOCIAL CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANISATION ACTION

A civil society is comprised of groups or organisations working in the interest of the citizens but operating outside of the governmental and for non-profit sectors. It is a voluntary, independent and non-profit distributing organisation that is based on self-governance, voluntarism and public benefit.

GREENPEACE (managing an environmental issue)

Greenpeace is an independent campaigning organisation, which uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environmental problems, and to force the solutions which are essential to a green and peaceful future.

One of Greenpeace's biggest projects is to ban tuna fishing and tackle overfishing in the Pacific, aiming to make it more sustainable: Since 2006 Greenpeace has been campaigning against tuna fishing in international waters of the Pacific Ocean by factory boats. Many fishing vessels pursue illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. These vessels have fish aggregating devices which are satellite-tagged floating rafts around which tuna and other marine life gather, enabling vessels to take huge catches. The fish that are caught may also include sharks and other species (known as bycatch). All the fish are taken onboard and processed and then sold as tuna no matter what their origin.

→ Indonesia, Japan and Taiwan are the drivers of the tuna industry globally. Indonesia catches more than 600,000 tones of tuna yearly.

→ There is a huge market for tuna in the USA, Asia and in Europe.

Actions undertaken by Greenpeace to eliminate large-scale tuna fishing:

They confiscated buoys in the ocean belonging to the factory boats, hindering them to catch fish.
Greenpeace has been targeting big companies such as the Thai Union Group over several years by having publicly available tuna rankings, to discourage individuals from purchasing any tuna.
Greenpeace delivered a petition of nearly 700,000 signatures from around the world to the Thai Union asking it to produce more sustainable tuna. As a result of this petition the company agreed in 2017 to a vessel code of conduct:
- Thai Union agreed to begin the process of reducing the number of FADs (fish aggregating devices) used by 50%.
- Move to full digital traceability, allowing people to track their tuna back to the vessel it was caught on and identify the fishing method used.
- Reduce significant portions of longline caught tuna to help reduce bycatch. Longline vessels present a risk for catching non-target species like seabirds, turtles and sharks (also know as bycatch).
- Having independent observers onboard fishing boats to ensure there is no abuse of marine life and labour.
- Reducing the time spent on sea by a ship.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL (managing a social issue)

Amnesty International is a global movement of more than 10 million people in over 150 countries and territories who campaign to end abuses of human rights. In 2018 Amnesty International took action against the death penalty. When Amnesty began its campaign, 16 countries had abolished the death penalty in law or in practice.

→ China, Iran, Egypt, Iraq and Saudi Arabia have the highest numbers of known executions. This excludes North Korea and Vietnam, since

their execution numbers remain unknown.

Actions undertaken by Amnesty International to eliminate the death penalty:

They publish annual reports on the number of death sentences and executions.
They do advocacy and campaign based projects in countries with especially high rates.
Support the implementation of a new law enabling individuals with a death sentence to postpone their execution by up to 50 days (moratorium of the execution).
Amnesty International has also criticised many countries for executing juveniles and has organised demonstrations.

As a result, today over 100 countries have abolished the death penalty and there has been a 36% decrease in executions between 2019 and 2020.

click here to learn more about executing countries

Environmental and social civil society CS (Greenpeace and Amnesty International)

The "Wicked Problem"

A wicked problem is a challenge that cannot be solved easily with a single solution, because it is complex, with multiple stakeholders and must be examined from many different perspectives. These kind of problems are potentially never solved and remain forever debatable.

→ Examples of wicked problems in today's society include things like education design, financial crises, health care, hunger, income disparity,

obesity, poverty, terrorism, climate change and sustainability.

Strategies to build resilience

Nowadays 'resiliency' is a key concept to become sustainable and globally recognised. Resilience the ability of individuals, organisations or governments to recover quickly (bounce back) from challenges resulting from natural hazards or other forms of shocks.

Re-shoring of economic activity by TNCs

Reshoring is the opposite of offshoring and occurs when transnational corporations (TNCs) bring their production back to the country where it was originally based. Reshoring is an attempt to make countries more self-sufficient, increasing the GDP and wealth of a country and also to bring jobs back to the home country, thereby reducing high levels of unemployment.

Donald Trump made great efforts to re-shore TNCs back to the USA. His efforts included cutting the corporate tax from 40% to 15%. This resulted in the following:

Apple moving manufacturing back to the USA:

The technology giant Apple has been reshoring some of its operations back to the USA. This involved an investment of $100 million.

The main reasons for re-shoring were increasing wage costs overseas and also lower energy costs in the USA.
This initiative will bring 20,000 jobs to the USA.
In addition to this, two key assemblers of iPhones based in Taiwan (Foxconn and Pegatron) were asked by Apple to relocate their businesses to the USA.

Caterpillar moving manufacturing back to the USA:

At present Caterpillar, which produces heavy machinery used in civil engineering such as road building and construction and has a global market, is located in Japan. It has decided to relocate back to the USA.

The reasons for doing this have been rising labour costs in Japan and cheaper energy costs in the USA.
This will create over 1000 new job opportunities in Georgia and Illinois.

→ Near-shoring is an alternative solution to re-shoring. Near-shoring is the relocation of a TNC in close proximity to the country where it

was originally based.

The use of crowd-sourcing technologies to build resilience by government and civil society

Crowdsourcing involves the use of the internet and social media platforms to obtain support from users in the form of goods, finance, ideas, services. Governments and individuals have used it to gauge, satisfy and influence public opinion. Crowdsourcing is possible through Facebook, Twitter and a range of other applications.

Crowdsourcing is done by a range of institutions and examples of these include:

Businesses: Lego used crowdsourcing to invite the public to design Lego sets as well as provide feedback on entries submitted. Lego received over 10,000 entries and gave birth to the brands ‘Big Bang Theory’ and ‘Yellow Submarine’. In response to declining sales, PepsiCo solicited the views of its customers on new potato chips flavours. The name 'Cheesy Garlic Bread’ was chosen among over 14 millions submissions. This led to an increase in sales by about 8%.
Governments: The former President Barrack Obama used SAVE, a crowdsourcing website, to ask the public for their views on how the government can save money.
Individuals: During periods of natural disaster, individuals use crowdsourcing (crowdfunding) to appeal for funds to assist needy victims. People also use Twitter and Facebook to share videos of crimes committed by people which later resulted in their arrest. For example, after the murder of George Floyd, videos of his unrightful death were shared on social media. As a result the "Black lives matter" movement went global and the police officer who shot Floyd was sentenced to 22 years of prison.
Civil societies: NGOs such as Greenpeace, WWF and PETA heavily rely on donations and crowdfunding to complete their projects and further promote their values and beliefs. For example, WWF received donations of over 50,000€ in Germany last year, by actively promoting their work through surveys, articles and sponsorships.

New technologies for the management of global flows of data and people

CYBERSECURITY is the practice of protecting computers, servers, mobile devices and all aspects of technology/internet-related systems from digital theft or malicious attacks. Cyberattacks and crimes have become an increasing problem, due to the increasing number of internet users and the increased flows of information.

China has the greatest network of hackers, by being accountable for 41% of the world's hacking traffic.
The most common forms of cyberattacks include: Malware and phishing. Malware attacks involve the sending viruses, whereas phishing is the practice of sending false emails to people in order to be given personal data and information.

There has been a number incidents involving cyberattacks and cybercrime:

The WannaCry ransomware attack was a worldwide cyberattack in May 2017, which attacked encrypted Windows computers around the world and demanded a ransom of $300 worth of Bitcoin.
The Melissa virus in 1999 was a simple virus which disguised itself as a Microsoft Word attachment to an email. It’s estimated that 20% of the world’s computers at the time were infected. No sensitive information was stolen, but many businesses were disrupted for days while IT personnel tried to wipe the pesky virus from their systems.
In 1999, a 15 year old teenager, Jonathan James penetrated the computers of a US Department of Defense and installed a ‘backdoor’ on its servers which allowed him to intercept thousands of internal emails from different government organisations.

However, new technologies have been introduced to reduce the risk of being affected by cybercrime:

The US has created an early warning system called Einstein, which outlines the threats to US government systems from cyberattacks.
The instalment of an anti-virus software to tackle malware.
The USA agreed to a joint research venture with the Netherlands to research on projects about how to improve cybersecurity internationally.

2. E-PASSPORTS are passports that contains a facial image as well as biometric data (such as fingerprints) about the individual. The data is stored on an electronic chip embedded in the passport.

E-passports have reduced the risk of being affected by skimming or forging:

The E-passport contains biometric data, including fingerprint and iris information, making them much more difficult to forge and making it much more difficult to extract the data by skimming.
Requires the reader to authenticate itself with the chip inside the passport.
The chip also has data on the parental background, criminal records, drug usage and whether the individual has been involved with terrorist organisations. In addition, it includes information about the person's possible refugee status.