The Republic of Moldova: The very existence of this country is not widely known around the world, especially in the United States. When mentioning the country in an international context, journalists and political leaders refer to Moldova’s status as Europe’s poorest country, its two-year struggle to elect a president, or its breakaway region of Transnistria. In a reemerging Russia, however, the Republic of Moldova is of considerable strategic importance. Because of Moldova’s geographic location and ethnic make-up, Russia has a genuine interest in ensuring that Moldova maintains the status quo and continues to be a poor, divided, and weak state. Based on the lack of a national identity, an absent economy, and a struggling government; it is questionable whether or not Moldova should be an independent state in the first place. This report will argue that despite attractive prospects for Moldova to unite with Romania or integrate into the European Union, Russia will ensure that it remains an independent, yet divided country. / text

¡@After 2000, China started to research and to develop the ARJ21 Regional Jet and civil aviation industry, China put the civil aviation industry as the Emerging Industries of Strategic Importance and wished to drive the Chinese industrial structure upgrading. In addition, Chinese government is working on the constructions of regional aviation networks as well. Moreover Chinese government provides the subsidy policy to accelerate regional development and supply the basic aviation services. The regional aviation is the intersection of aviation industry and transport industry. It has great significance for China¡¦s political, economic and social development. ¡@This thesis is trying to explore the main significance to the regional aviation industry of China¡¦s politics, economy and society. Observing China¡¦s current difficulties, China faced by the development of the regional aviation industry. And this thesis will use the industrial policy as the main theory to analysis that when China facing those difficulties, the industrial policy can really help the government to solve those problems and reach the goals that Chinese government has expected. ¡@After research, China¡¦s domestic regional aviation market exists a market failure situation. Also, the civil aviation industry has to face the competition of the technical deficiencies and foreign manufacturers, both of them need the government¡¦s assistances. Actually, the government¡¦s role is much weaker, and can¡¦t really help airline industries to reduce deficit in a difficult environment, so the government needs to invest much more resources. ¡@However, Chinese regional aviation industrial policies are not really failed. Nowadays, the aviation industry has been totally changed, it reached not only the technical skills which China¡¦s government pursued, but also reached the goal that v upgraded the industrial structure. Therefore we can¡¦t arbitrary thinks that Chinese regional aviation industrial policies are failure, but it really shows the limitation of the policies. How to overcome the limitations of the industrial policies is the greatest challenge that Chinese government has to face for.

While the Arab Spring has resulted in numerous different political outcomes across the Arab world, conventional theories of democratization are lacking in explaining these divergent outcomes. Developing a theory of democratization, strategic importance and external intervention, I examine the relationship between national strategic importance and democratization. I argue that strategically important states will be targeted by external actors in attempts to stifle or thwart democracy because democracy may upset the status quo that foreign actors benefit from. I do not find support for the hypothesis that strategic importance and democratization share a general negative relationship, however, I find moderate support that strategic importance is related to the timing of regime breakdown, democratic breakdown and democratic transition. Furthermore, in examining the cases of Bahrain, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya, I highlight key moments of external intervention and influence that impacted the democratization attempts of each case.

<p>Although many scholars assert that portfolio approach can facilitate purchasing to live up to its strategic importance and contribute to company performance; and practitioners have applied portfolio approach in various purchasing activities, there are still limited empirical researches to confirm that portfolio can actually create the benefits. The purpose of the study is to explore the usefulness of portfolio approach as well as why companies decide to apply portfolio approach in purchasing and supply management.</p><p>Based on an international survey carried on a large number of European and North American manufacturing companies, the findings of the study provide strong evidence on the significant impact that the purchasing portfolio approach has on the business results, and also shed lights on the strategic importance of purchasing as a direct explanation to the application of the approach by companies. The empirical study confirms that the competency of the purchasing professionals plays a prominent role on the path of transforming the strategic importance of purchasing, with the help of portfolio approach, to the success of improved purchasing performance. A cross-discipline theoretical study reveals that different models share a common theoretical foundation and consist of similar basic elements in their construct.</p><p>The results of this study fill the research gap in analyzing the causes of the application of portfolio approach; provide quantitative empirical proof on the usefulness of portfolio approach in the industrial companies and thus give support to the existing theories. The study contributes to a growing research stream on how to improve purchasing business performance, reflecting the increasing strategic role that purchasing is given. The results send useful messages to company managements and provide valuable insights on an important tool for improving purchasing business performance.</p>

Although many scholars assert that portfolio approach can facilitate purchasing to live up to its strategic importance and contribute to company performance; and practitioners have applied portfolio approach in various purchasing activities, there are still limited empirical researches to confirm that portfolio can actually create the benefits. The purpose of the study is to explore the usefulness of portfolio approach as well as why companies decide to apply portfolio approach in purchasing and supply management. Based on an international survey carried on a large number of European and North American manufacturing companies, the findings of the study provide strong evidence on the significant impact that the purchasing portfolio approach has on the business results, and also shed lights on the strategic importance of purchasing as a direct explanation to the application of the approach by companies. The empirical study confirms that the competency of the purchasing professionals plays a prominent role on the path of transforming the strategic importance of purchasing, with the help of portfolio approach, to the success of improved purchasing performance. A cross-discipline theoretical study reveals that different models share a common theoretical foundation and consist of similar basic elements in their construct. The results of this study fill the research gap in analyzing the causes of the application of portfolio approach; provide quantitative empirical proof on the usefulness of portfolio approach in the industrial companies and thus give support to the existing theories. The study contributes to a growing research stream on how to improve purchasing business performance, reflecting the increasing strategic role that purchasing is given. The results send useful messages to company managements and provide valuable insights on an important tool for improving purchasing business performance.

Doctoral dissertation presents an analysis of the Serbian economy in the mutual relations between the European Union (EU) and the Western Balkans. The assumption that the EU and Serbia, as an integral part of the Balkan region, have interests in the partnership and cooperation is the baseline of the research. The following aspects have been singled out, by method of ranking, which is based on achieving the highest turnover in the last six years: trade, foreign direct investment and energy. Gravity model was used to analyze routes of trade and energy. A models of trade import and export between Serbia and the EU 28 member countries and the countries of the Western Balkans, as well as models of imports and exports of energy between Serbia and the EU 28 member countries and the countries of the Western Balkans, were used in order to assess the potential of trade and energy trade. Method of trend line and trend extrapolation of foreign direct investment (FDI) was used in order to determine the degree of the presence of FDI in Serbia and their predictions, which could be an indicator of investment climate in Serbia. The conclusion is that Serbia has strategic importance as a candidate for membership in the EU because of its regional importance. Entering the Western Balkan countries in the EU should not happen without Serbia, because Serbia has a regional importance, which arise from the economic, historical, cultural, infrastructural and geopolitical links with countries in the region, of which some are already members of the EU.