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Daily Archives: February 20, 2014

U.S.-China Relations: Toward a New Model of Major Power Relationship

U.S.-China Relations: Toward a New Model of Major Power Relationship. Edited by Rudy deLeon, Senior Vice President of the National Security and International Policy team at the Center for American Progress and Yang Jiemian, President of the Shanghai Institute for International Studies. February 2014.

“In conjunction with the initiative of the two presidents [President Barak Obama and President Xi Jinping], we proposed that our track II focus on the very topic that engaged the leaders: building a new model of major power relations between the United States and China. To prepare for the dialogue, experts in Washington, California, Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong drafted and exchanged papers, printed in this volume, on the U.S. and Chinese perspectives on what a new model of major power relations would look like in practice; how the bilateral relationship fits into regional and international structures; what governing principles for the relationship could be; and how to take steps towards a positive, constructive relationship. The two sides discussed their approaches and findings in a series of video conference calls through the spring and summer of 2013.  In September 2013, we convened a distinguished group of American and Chinese experts to discuss the concepts raised in the papers. The group is listed with their affiliations at the beginning of this volume.”

CRS – Independence of Federal Financial Regulators

Independence of Federal Financial Regulators. Henry B. Hogue, Specialist in American National Government; Marc Labonte, Specialist in Macroeconomic Policy; Baird Webel, Specialist in Financial Economics. February 12, 2014 “This report discusses institutional features that make federal financial regulators (as well as other independent agencies) relatively independent from the President and Congress. These characteristics are diverse, their relationship to independence sometimes subtle, and they are… Continue Reading

Independent Assessment of the Afghan National Security Forces

Independent Assessment of the Afghan  National Security Forces.  This assessment, tasked by the United States Congress, was made by analysts in CNA’s Center for Strategic Studies. This report (DRM-2014-U-006815-Final) is approved for distribution: January 2014. “We conclude that the security environment in Afghanistan will become more challenging after the drawdown of most international forces in 2014, and that the… Continue Reading

Pew – Mapping Twitter Topic Networks

Mapping Twitter Topic Networks: From Polarized Crowds to Community Clusters “Conversations on Twitter create networks with identifiable contours as people reply to and mention one another in their tweets. These conversational structures differ, depending on the subject and the people driving the conversation. Six structures are regularly observed: divided, unified, fragmented, clustered, and inward and… Continue Reading

Libraries Testing E-Book Interlibrary Loans

Jennifer Howard, Chronicle of Higher Education: “…Worried about security and sales, many publishers and vendors permit individual e-book chapters to be shared but don’t routinely include the lending of whole e-books in library contracts. Even when licenses do allow e-book lending, libraries typically lack the technology to make it work. You can’t just pop an… Continue Reading

Demanding Better Libraries For Today’s Complex World

Expect More Demanding Better Libraries For Today’s Complex World, R. David Lankes in New Librarianship “Today’s librarians are using the lessons learned over that nearly 3,000-year history to forge a new librarianship based not on books and artifacts but on knowledge and community. They are taking advantage of the technological leaps of today to empower our communities to improve.… Continue Reading

Report – Tracking deforestation as it happens

The Guardian, Oliver Balch: “The world’s first monitoring tool providing ‘near real time’ data on changes in forest cover could change how companies track deforestation in their supply chains. A new global mapping service…launched today, Global Forest Watch is pitched as the world’s first monitoring tool providing ‘near real time’ data on changes in forest cover. The brainchild of the World… Continue Reading

New GAO Report – Plutonium Disposition Program

PLUTONIUM DISPOSITION PROGRAM: DOE Needs to Analyze the Root Causes of Cost Increases and Develop Better Cost Estimates, GAO-14-231: Published: Feb 13, 2014. Publicly Released: Feb 13, 2014. “The Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) identified various drivers for the close to $3 billion increase in the estimated cost of the Plutonium Disposition program’s two… Continue Reading

Feasibility study on approaches to aggregate OTC derivatives data

Consultation Paper – Feasibility study on approaches to aggregate OTC derivatives data. Financial Stability Board. February 4, 2014. “A good deal of progress has been made in establishing the market infrastructure to support the commitment that all contracts be reported to TRs. However, the data will be reported to  multiple TRs located in a number of jurisdictions. The… Continue Reading

Laws Affecting the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program

CFR – Laws Affecting the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. Annie L. Mach,  Analyst in Health Care Financing. Ada S. Cornell,  Information Research Specialist, February 18, 2014 “The Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) has been in existence for over 50 years. Since its creation, it has provided private health insurance coverage to federal employees, annuitants, and their dependents. It is… Continue Reading