Risk and Resolution


Book Description

America repeatedly finds itself mired in military interventions long after public buy-in to the national interest has waned. Why is the timely disengagement of military forces so difficult to achieve? Traditional international relations theories diminish the role of the individual leader in favor of the state or international institutions. Behavioral science theories have in recent years experienced a resurgence. However, the dominant behavioral explanation of foreign policy decision-making, prospect theory, while it focuses on how people tend to make decisions under risk, still minimizes the influence of the individual president. Decisions to disengage military forces are presidential decisions, just like the decisions to commit forces to foreign interventions. If we accept this, then it is important to understand if, and if so why, some presidents inherently are more or less acceptant of the risks disengagement presents. This book operationalizes a competing personality-based model of decision-making under risk. Referred to here as the trait-based model, it is assessed using disengagement opportunities in three varied levels of military intervention across four presidencies: humanitarian relief turned nation-building under George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton in Somalia, compellent air campaigns turned peace-making/keeping in Bosnia and Kosovo under Clinton, and major combat operations turned irregular warfare in Iraq under George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Data for the model predominantly comes from existing presidential personality profiles based on the dominant model of personality theory, the five-factor model, augmented by Myers-Briggs Type Inventory data from public sources. This study aims to explain the roughly 30 percent of cases which defy prospect theory's predictions and to better explain those cases where prospect theory might heretofore have sufficed. The results suggest specific personality traits do in fact point to presidents' predispositions toward risk, which in turn help explain their disengagement decisions. This work may be only the second to apply the five-factor model to presidential foreign policy decision-making and is the first to do so in the context of disengagement decisions. Hopefully it will foster further work in both areas.




The Builders Risk Book


Book Description




The Security Risk Assessment Handbook


Book Description

Conducted properly, information security risk assessments provide managers with the feedback needed to manage risk through the understanding of threats to corporate assets, determination of current control vulnerabilities, and appropriate safeguards selection. Performed incorrectly, they can provide the false sense of security that allows potential threats to develop into disastrous losses of proprietary information, capital, and corporate value. Picking up where its bestselling predecessors left off, The Security Risk Assessment Handbook: A Complete Guide for Performing Security Risk Assessments, Third Edition gives you detailed instruction on how to conduct a security risk assessment effectively and efficiently, supplying wide-ranging coverage that includes security risk analysis, mitigation, and risk assessment reporting. The third edition has expanded coverage of essential topics, such as threat analysis, data gathering, risk analysis, and risk assessment methods, and added coverage of new topics essential for current assessment projects (e.g., cloud security, supply chain management, and security risk assessment methods). This handbook walks you through the process of conducting an effective security assessment, and it provides the tools, methods, and up-to-date understanding you need to select the security measures best suited to your organization. Trusted to assess security for small companies, leading organizations, and government agencies, including the CIA, NSA, and NATO, Douglas J. Landoll unveils the little-known tips, tricks, and techniques used by savvy security professionals in the field. It includes features on how to Better negotiate the scope and rigor of security assessments Effectively interface with security assessment teams Gain an improved understanding of final report recommendations Deliver insightful comments on draft reports This edition includes detailed guidance on gathering data and analyzes over 200 administrative, technical, and physical controls using the RIIOT data gathering method; introduces the RIIOT FRAME (risk assessment method), including hundreds of tables, over 70 new diagrams and figures, and over 80 exercises; and provides a detailed analysis of many of the popular security risk assessment methods in use today. The companion website (infosecurityrisk.com) provides downloads for checklists, spreadsheets, figures, and tools.




International Investment, Political Risk, and Dispute Resolution


Book Description

A vital text for practitioners and academics this book integrates the international law of political risk with the domestic, political, and economic considerations central to assessing risk. It offers a detailed analysis of pre-investment decisions that can reduce political risk, treaties protecting investment, and international dispute resolution.










Experts' Perspectives on Systemic Risk and Resolution Issues


Book Description

Experts' perspectives on systemic risk and resolution issues : hearing before the Committee on Financial Services, U.S. House of Representatives, One Hundred Eleventh Congress, first session, September 24, 2009.




The Owner's Role in Project Risk Management


Book Description

Effective risk management is essential for the success of large projects built and operated by the Department of Energy (DOE), particularly for the one-of-a-kind projects that characterize much of its mission. To enhance DOE's risk management efforts, the department asked the NRC to prepare a summary of the most effective practices used by leading owner organizations. The study's primary objective was to provide DOE project managers with a basic understanding of both the project owner's risk management role and effective oversight of those risk management activities delegated to contractors.




Science and Judgment in Risk Assessment


Book Description

The public depends on competent risk assessment from the federal government and the scientific community to grapple with the threat of pollution. When risk reports turn out to be overblownâ€"or when risks are overlookedâ€"public skepticism abounds. This comprehensive and readable book explores how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can improve its risk assessment practices, with a focus on implementation of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. With a wealth of detailed information, pertinent examples, and revealing analysis, the volume explores the "default option" and other basic concepts. It offers two views of EPA operations: The first examines how EPA currently assesses exposure to hazardous air pollutants, evaluates the toxicity of a substance, and characterizes the risk to the public. The second, more holistic, view explores how EPA can improve in several critical areas of risk assessment by focusing on cross-cutting themes and incorporating more scientific judgment. This comprehensive volume will be important to the EPA and other agencies, risk managers, environmental advocates, scientists, faculty, students, and concerned individuals.