The Final Frontier


Book Description

The energy industry's accelerated evolution requires visionary change The Final Frontier parses the evolution of the oil and gas sector to map out a plan for going forward. The global energy industry is huge, and it is in disarray; between low oil and gas prices, climate change, rising development costs, and ever-mounting regulations, the need for change has been made crystal clear—but planning is much easier than implementation, and stasis is not progress. This book shows how redesigning internal operating models can bring about the necessary change in the implementation of upstream capabilities-driven strategies. From integrated, national, major, and independent oil companies, to the service companies in the upstream supply chain, there isn't an enterprise in the sector that cannot benefit from reduced costs and increased efficiency. Knowing that change is necessary is not enough—this book shows you what to change, and how to change it to get off the treadmill and start moving forward. With expert guidance through each redesign element, this insightful guide provides more than simply ideas: it provides real, practical guidance on transforming operations to keep pace with the changes and create lasting advantage. Identify the most relevant organizational capabilities for your resource portfolio, as well as the changes that can translate into savings and efficiency Build a workable plan for real-world implementation Redesign the operating model most suited to the needs of your business on an organization-wide basis Learn what to do differently and how to do it differently The energy industry has made great strides: our understanding of the global resource base, the nature of ownership and principal stakeholders, new technologies for resource development, and our economics and business models have all undergone a tremendous revolution, but now the more difficult—and more valuable—task begins. The Final Frontier helps you navigate the future and implement the changes necessary to avoid getting left behind.




Space Policy in Developing Countries


Book Description

This book analyses the rationale and history of space programs in countries of the developing world. Space was at one time the sole domain of the wealthiest developed countries. However, the last couple of decades of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century have witnessed the number of countries with state-supported space programs blossom. Today, no less than twenty-five developing states, including the rapidly emerging economic powers of Brazil (seventh-largest), China (second-largest), and India (fourth-largest), possess active national space programs with already proven independent launch capability or concrete plans to achieve it soon. This work places these programs within the context of international relations theory and foreign policy analysis. The author categorizes each space program into tiers of development based not only on the level of technology utilised, but on how each fits within the country's overall national security and/or development policies. The text also places these programs into an historical context, which enables the author to demonstrate the logical thread of continuity in the political rationale for space capabilities generally. This book will be of much interest to students of space power and politics, development studies, strategic studies and international relations in general.




Big Data


Book Description




Crowded Orbits


Book Description

Space has become increasingly crowded since the end of the Cold War, with new countries, companies, and even private citizens operating satellites and becoming spacefarers. This book offers general readers a valuable primer on space policy from an international perspective. It examines the competing themes of space competition and cooperation while providing readers with an understanding of the basics of space technology, diplomacy, commerce, science, and military applications. The recent expansion of human space activity poses new challenges to existing treaties and other governance tools for space, increasing the likelihood of conflict over a diminishing pool of beneficial locations and resources close to Earth. Drawing on more than twenty years of experience in international space policy debates, James Clay Moltz examines possible avenues for cooperation among the growing pool of space actors, considering their shared interests in space traffic management, orbital debris control, division of the radio frequency spectrum, and the prevention of military conflict. Moltz concludes with policy recommendations for enhanced international collaboration in space situational awareness, scientific exploration, and restraining harmful military activities.




Fight for the Final Frontier


Book Description

Fight for the Final Frontier uses the concepts associated with irregular warfare to offer new insights for understanding the nature of strategic competition in space. Today’s most pressing security concerns are best considered using an irregular warfare lens because incidents and points of potential conflict fall outside the definition of armed conflict. While some universal rules of combat apply across all domains, conflict in space up-ends and flips those assumed standards of understanding. John Klein provides a solution to reckoning with the many malicious, nefarious, and irresponsible behaviors in the space domain by using the irregular warfare framework. This offers a new paradigm through which one can view and study conflict, outside traditional combat, involving state and non-state actors. A “war” in space will be utterly unlike any that have happened on Earth, though scholars can provide lessons from past conflict to understand the flashpoints in the heavens. Providing the needed foundational understanding, Fight for the Final Frontier makes the case that irregular warfare in the space domain is shaped by the fundamental nature of all warfare, along with universal principles of strategy and the essential unity of all strategic experience. Going one step further, John Klein outlines the new arenas for battle, new areas of conflict and competition, and the necessary concepts for operating in this bold new frontier.




The Final Frontier


Book Description

In this highly original and provocative work, Jenkins provides a meticulously researched history of United States weapons policy and shows how presidential advisors helped produce the very enemies they warned against. The comparisons Jenkins draws with the contemporary situation are clear and compelling.




The Final Frontier


Book Description

The proposed book uses the Star Trek television/movie and Star Wars movie series to explain key international relations (IR) concepts and theories. It begins with an overview of the importance of science fiction in literature and film/television. It then presents the development of the Star Trek and Star Wars franchises, and discusses how their progression through time has illustrated key IR theories and concepts. As a bonus, it compares the two franchises to another recent science fiction franchise used to teach IR (Battlestar Galactica).




Science, the Endless Frontier


Book Description

The classic case for why government must support science—with a new essay by physicist and former congressman Rush Holt on what democracy needs from science today Science, the Endless Frontier is recognized as the landmark argument for the essential role of science in society and government’s responsibility to support scientific endeavors. First issued when Vannevar Bush was the director of the US Office of Scientific Research and Development during the Second World War, this classic remains vital in making the case that scientific progress is necessary to a nation’s health, security, and prosperity. Bush’s vision set the course for US science policy for more than half a century, building the world’s most productive scientific enterprise. Today, amid a changing funding landscape and challenges to science’s very credibility, Science, the Endless Frontier resonates as a powerful reminder that scientific progress and public well-being alike depend on the successful symbiosis between science and government. This timely new edition presents this iconic text alongside a new companion essay from scientist and former congressman Rush Holt, who offers a brief introduction and consideration of what society needs most from science now. Reflecting on the report’s legacy and relevance along with its limitations, Holt contends that the public’s ability to cope with today’s issues—such as public health, the changing climate and environment, and challenging technologies in modern society—requires a more capacious understanding of what science can contribute. Holt considers how scientists should think of their obligation to society and what the public should demand from science, and he calls for a renewed understanding of science’s value for democracy and society at large. A touchstone for concerned citizens, scientists, and policymakers, Science, the Endless Frontier endures as a passionate articulation of the power and potential of science.




Astronauts


Book Description

In the graphic novel Astronauts: Women on the Final Frontier, Jim Ottaviani and illustrator Maris Wicks capture the great humor and incredible drive of Mary Cleave, Valentina Tereshkova, and the first women in space. The U.S. may have put the first man on the moon, but it was the Soviet space program that made Valentina Tereshkova the first woman in space. It took years to catch up, but soon NASA’s first female astronauts were racing past milestones of their own. The trail-blazing women of Group 9, NASA’s first mixed gender class, had the challenging task of convincing the powers that be that a woman’s place is in space, but they discovered that NASA had plenty to learn about how to make space travel possible for everyone.




Competitive Strategies


Book Description

This book proposes a new framework to effectively manage both offensive and defensive marketing strategies. It reinterprets the competitive challenge as a circular journey, that is, an endless sequence of three competitive "seasons." The authors call them the games of movement, imitation, and position.