Present how strategic planning, performance improvement, and Essay

Present how strategic planning, performance improvement, and information systems are interrelated and fundamental to the delivery of quality health care - Essay Example This is because health care organizations are dynamic and thus they experience changes that are rapid, complex, and discontinuous from time to time (Swayne, Duncan, & Ginter, 2006). This makes the people involved in its management to require high degree of leadership skills. The investigations would have the capacity to improve this and thus improve management of these organizations. The issue to be investigated in this research is management of health care organizations. This encompasses issues like strategic planning, operational planning, and tactical planning. Health care organizations face a form of competition that could only be addresses using a systematic fashion (Moseley, 2009). The systematic fashion could be achieved through coordination of strategic planning, operational planning, and tactical planning. Issues that would be investigated by research proposed by this paper will aim at improving these three aspects of management and their coordination. Impact of not investigating this issue would be very great since it would make it difficult to improve management of healthcare organizations. Moreover, it would make improvement of these aspects of management too hard. As a result, health care organizations administrator would be able to use their leadership position and capability to interrelate strategic planning, performance improvement, and information system to provision of quality health care. Therefore, the profitability and survival of health care organizations in their respective markets would be greatly reduced. The research topic, which to be investigated in the proposed research, is improvement of health care organization management. Various specific researches have been undertaken on this research topic. Some of them have been trying to identify the factors that might be hindering proper management of these organizations. Others have been trying to investigate the impact of poor

American Airlines Flight Case Study Essay Example for Free

American Airlines Flight Case Study Essay Cause(s) of Accident The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the probable cause of this accident was the asymmetrical stall and the ensuing roll of the aircraft because of the uncommanded retraction of the left wing outboard leading edge slats and the loss of stall warning and slat disagreement indication systems resulting from maintenance-induced damage leading to the separation of the number 1 engine and pylon assembly at a critical point during takeoff. The separation resulted from damage by improper maintenance procedures which let to failure of the pylon structure. Structural and Mechanical Factors After a thorough examination of the pylon attachment points, fractures and deformations at the separation points in the forward bulkhead and thrust link were all characteristic of overload. Testimony indicated the forklift was not powered for a period of time because it ran out of fuel. Post accident forklift tests showed that under these conditions leakage would allow a drift down of 1 inch in 30 minutes. Movement of 0.4 inch or less would produce a 7 inch fracture at the flange. Contributing Factors The design and interrelationship of the essential systems as they were affected by the structural loss of the pylon contributed to this accident. Flight control, hydraulic, and electrical systems in the aircraft were all affected by the pylon separation. When the engine separated from the pylon hydraulic pressure and fluid were lost and not recoverable. The separation also severed the electrical wire bundles inside the pylon which included the main feeder circuits between the generator and the No 1 a.c. generator bus. The flight crew was unable to restore power to the aircraft. The failure of engineering to ascertain the damage-inducing potential of a procedure which deviated from the manufacturer’s recommended procedure was another contributed factor. The procedure in question was the removal of the pylon attaching hardware and the positioning of the forklift. As a result, maintenance personnel altered the sequence of hardware removal. Investigation Board Findings The engine and pylon assembly separated either at or immediately after liftoff. The flight crew was committed to continue the takeoff. The aft end of the pylon assembly started to separate in the forward flange of the aircraft bulkhead. The structural separation of the pylon was caused by a complete failure of the forward flange of the aft bulkhead after its residual strength had been critically reduced by the fracture and subsequent service life. The length of the overload fracture and fatigue cracking was about 13 inches. All electrical power to the number 1 a.c. generator bus and number 1 d.c. bus was lost after the pylon separated. The captains flight director instrument, stall warning system, and slat disagreement systems were rendered inoperative. Power was never restored. The number 1 hydraulic system was lost at pylon separation. Hydraulic lines and follow up cables of the drive actuator for the left wing’s outboard leading edge slat were severed by the separation of the pylon and the left wing’s outboard slats retracted during climb out. The retraction of the slats caused an asymmetric stall and subsequent loss of control of the aircraft. The pylon was damaged during maintenance performed on March 29 and 30, 1979 at the American Airlines Maintenance Facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Engineering personnel developed procedures for removing the pylon and engine that deviated from manufacturers procedures, and did so without performing proper tests. Recommendations The NTSB recommended that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issue immediately an emergency Airworthiness Directive to inspect all pylon attach points by approved inspection methods. Issue an Airworthiness Directive to require and immediate inspection of all DC-10 aircraft in which an engine pylon assembly had been removed and reinstalled for damage to the wing-mounted pylon aft bulkhead, including its forward flange and the attaching spar web and fasteners. Issue a Maintenance Alert Bulletin directing FAA maintenance inspectors to contact their assigned carriers and advise them to immediately discontinue the practice of lowering and raising the pylon with the engine still attached and adhere to recommended manufacturer procedures. Outcomes After a series of post accident inspections disclosed damaged aft bulkheads in the wing to the engine pylons, the Administrator of the FAA issued an Emergency Order of Suspension on June 6, 1979, which suspended the DC-10 series aircraft type certificate until such time as it can be ascertained that the DC-10 aircraft meets the certification criteria of Part 25 of the FAR and is eligible for a Type Certificate. Twenty days later the FAA issued Special Federal Aviation Regulation 40 which prohibited the operation of any model DC-10 aircraft within the airspace of the United States. On July 13, 1979, after a series of formal investigations, the Administrator found that the DC-10 met the requirements for issuance of a type certificate. And the Emergency Order of Suspension was terminated. In November 1979 the FAA fined American Airlines $500,000 for using faulty maintenance procedures on its DC-10 aircraft by using forklifts to mate the complete engine/pylon assembly with the wing attachment points. Continental Airlines was fined $100,000 on a similar charge. References Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved October 20, 2010, from http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19790525-2 NTSB. (1979). Aircraft Accident Report, American Airlines, Inc. Flight 191. Retrieved October 20, 2010, from http://www.airdisaster.com/reports/ntsb/AAR79-17.pdf

Essay --

In the United States there has been a big increase in obesity in the last 50 years. There has been much controversy on who is to blame for the increase of obesity people or fast food restaurants. Many think that it is the fast food companies fault but they are mistaking the only person to blame is people themselves not McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, etc. People take advantage of the privilege of fast food to the point that they can’t take responsibility for their own actions so they have to blame everyone else but themselves. If people would control themselves, stop being lazy, and have more responsible parents there would be much less obesity. People need to start taking responsibility for their own actions and stop blaming fast food for their obesity. People have free will; no one is forcing them to eat a big greasy burger from the fast foods restaurant with large fries and a large soda. People choose to eat that no one puts a gun to their head and forces them to make a purchase of an unhealthy meal. They buy it at their own risk knowing what can come from eating fast food all the...

That Was Then This Is Now :: essays research papers

The 70’s life style was wild, free, and uncontrolled. Teenagers did whatever they wanted. They partied, stole things, sold drugs, and participated in gang fights. Today, teenagers are more disciplined and have more restrictions. Parents and police are aware of teenager’s lies and trick’s and their participation in unsafe activities. According to S.E.Hinton’s novel, That Was Then, This Is Now, the freedom teenagers have in today’s society is comparably less than the freedoms experienced by teenagers back then. The main characters in the novel, Mark and Bryon which is compared to experiences typical teenagers today encounter. With, all the responsibilities most parents had back then, it seemed like their children weren’t a priority. Most, parents allowed their children to leave the house to do what ever the teens wanted. Teenagers could walk freely with friends with no supervision. If teenagers were injured in fights parents wouldn’t bother to care. Parents back then didn’t realize the hazards and safety concerns of the outside world. Parents would allow their children to go with friends, making no restrictions on curfew, or the activity they were taking part in. Parents were also caught up in the more important things in their life for example working long hours to put food on the table and provide shelter and clothes for their family members. In the novel Bryon realized and stated â€Å"Mom never worried about Mark and me,† Pg 105. Today, parents are more aware of the dangers that can affect their children because of information from T.V news reports and media. Parents also f ear for the safety of their children and if they are getting involved with the wrong friends so they have constant surveillance. ie. Cell phones â€Å"firefly,† and Internet Chat. The surveillance of police in the past 40 years has drastically increased. Police were unaware of the effects teenagers could have on society. Policed believed that teenagers were still kids and couldn’t cause a lot of trouble. The novel proves that police didn’t worry about patrolling or searching for trouble that may involve teenagers because Bryon said â€Å"The police didn’t know about the hippie house, it was safe,† Pg 121. Cops or police didn’t worry or think that teenager’s would do awful things to affect others or themselves. Police had less surveillance over gangs and criminals. At present, police are always patrolling the malls, streets, and schools searching for gangs and violent or drug related situations.

Old Company Case Essay

We are a very old company, but we recognise that our customers are changing, so we continually develop new products to reflect this. David Lee, managing director, Lee Kum Kee Company2 The problem with a lot of family-controlled local brands that have a long history behind them is that it’s very easy to become old and run out of steam. – Antony Chow, vice-president for Greater China, RSCG (an advertising agency)3 The sauce company Lee Kum Kee, one of the best known Hong Kong brands, certainly did not have the problem mentioned above, although it did have a long history that began in 1888, and was run by the same family through four generations. The company was founded by Lee Kam Sheung as a small oyster-sauce manufacturer in Guangdong Province, China. It relocated to Macau in the early 1900s, moved once more to Hong Kong after World War II, and was based there in the decades afterwards. Lee Kum Kee was already expanding beyond the Guangdong-Macau-Hong Kong distribution network in the 1920s to North America, when it was also making shrimp paste. In the 1970s and 1980s, after the torch passed to thirdgeneration leader Lee Man Tat, there was a diversification of geographical markets as well as products at a very quick pace. Lee Man Tat’s sons, who were educated in the West, inherited the leadership from their father in the 1990s, and the pace of modernisation and diversification continued while the Company’s marketing strategy remained as vigorous and Vincent Mak prepared this Case under the supervision of Dr. Chi Kin (Bennett) Yim for class discussion. This case is not intended to show effective or ineffective handling of decision or business processes. This Case is part of the Trade & Industry Department SME case series funded by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Trade and Industry Department SME Development Fund. Any opinions, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material/event (by members of the project team) do not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Trade and Industry Department or the vetting committee for the SME Development Fund.  © 2003 by The Centre for Asian Business Cases, The University of Hong Kong. The Company moreover overcame a consumer-confidence crisis — called 3-MPCD crisis — in the late 1990s and early 2000s and continued to thrive. By early 2003, Lee Kum Kee had already developed more than 200 sauces. Its distribution network covered 60 countries in five continents, and its products were available in more than 80 countries. What lessons about strategic brand management can we learn from the way Lee Kum Kee developed, maintaine d and expanded the reach of its products over a whole century? What lessons about crisis management does the Company’s handling of the 3-MPCD crisis offer? Lee Kam Sheung was born in 1868 in Qibao, a village in Xinhui, Guangdong Province, China. Threat from local gangsters forced him to leave his farming life and move to a small island called Nam Shui in the same province, where oysters were abundant. Lee opened a small restaurant there, often using oysters as stock for soups. One day, while cooking oysters, he absent-mindedly walked away for a long time, so that when he remembered the oysters and looked at the soup, it had already become a thick, strongly aromatic liquid, which he found delicious. Hence the birth of Lee’s oyster sauce, which he began producing under the brand name of Lee Kum Kee in 1888 (â€Å"Kee† meaning â€Å"company† in local Cantonese). In 1902, a fire destroyed Lee Kam Sheung’s manufacturing plant, and he moved to nearby Macau, where oysters were also abundant. He began to sell shrimp paste as well as oyster sauce, and his business soon covered Guangdong, Macau and Hong Kong. Of Lee Kam Sheung’s three sons and two daughters, the eldest son died young, and the family business passed to his two remaining sons, Lee Shiu Tang and Lee Shiu Nan. The former was responsible for marketing while the latter took up product quality and improvements to production procedures. The Company’s products were already selling successfully among the Chinese immigrant population in North American cities at that time. The company opened a Hong Kong branch in 1932 while expanding to meet the increasing demands of overseas markets. In 1946, after the Second World War, the two brothers moved their headquarters to Hong Kong, where the prospering economic climate was more conducive for businesses. The 1970s and 1980s5 Lee Man Tat, son of Lee Shiu Tang, took over as Company chairman in 1972, taking the Company to new heights. His era was marked by agile and flexible marketing; production enhancements through the automation and modernisation of production techniques; further expansion of geographical markets and sales networks, and large-scale diversification of sauce products. One of Lee Man Tat’s important early moves was to launch a new brand called Panda Oyster Sauce, capturing the hype caused by the Chinese government’s gift of a pair of pandas to US President Richard Nixon during his visit to China in 1971. The Panda brand was created as a result of slow growth in the Company’s traditional product, premium oyster sauce, which was too expensive for many families. Panda Oyster Sauce was reasonably priced and was expected to have stronger market penetration power. The brand, however, did not secure a good foothold at once, but after some effective marketing efforts it became a hit and outperformed the old labels.   Lee Man Tat learned from the success of the Panda brand that he needed to cater to different market segments. He soon launched a string of new products and brands at different prices and for different tastes, such as chilli sauce, sweet and sour sauce, chicken marinade and curry sauce. These products did well particularly in North American Chinese restaurants. In 1980, the Company, which was still quite small, with only 25 staff, began exploring the Mainland Chinese market. It was extremely difficult for them at the start, as they knew little about the market. Everything they exported to the Mainland was wrong, from the products themselves to packaging and prices, according to Lee Man Tat’s son Eddy Lee Wai Man, who joined the Company in 1980.6 The Company then reduced the number of products for the Mainland market from 50 to 15, in order to focus its promotional efforts. The products gradually became well-received in the Mainland, although delayed payment from retailers emerged as a problem. In the 1980s, Lee Man Tat’s four sons — Eddy, David, Charlie and Sammy — returned with different US degrees to Hong Kong within a couple of years of each other and joined the Company as interns.7 They all started their stints with low-level duties but as their managerial involvement increased, they began to introduce more and more new concepts from the West. When Lee Kum Kee celebrated its first 100 years in 1988, the Company changed its logo to symbolise its vision of â€Å"building a cultural bridge between East and West with our sauce products†. The Company underwent still greater changes after the 1980s. As Eddy Lee took on more and more leadership responsibility, becoming managing director and then chairman of the group, he and his brothers unleashed new initiatives that combined the flexible strategic approach of their father with Western business thinking. Quality and modernised branding were emphasised, as was an up-to-date information technology system. New Products, Brand Building and Market Expansion In 1992, the Company launched a super premium gourmet sauce called XO sauce, which was made from dried scallop, ham and dried shrimp, and had a variety of applications on noodles, porridge, dim sum, sushi, stir fry dishes and other dishes. The sauce’s popularity was a great triumph for the Company. The sauce was later diversified into additional variants such as XO Seafood Sauce and Premium XO Sauce with Abalone. In 1994, the Company started selling soy sauce, a generic product for which there were established competitors. As a result, sales were slow at the beginning.9 The Company then observed that, in most homes, the amount of soy sauce used for dipping was fairly low, both in frequency and in volume. For the Hong Kong market, however, steamed fish was popular among the Chinese, and housewives wanted to make their home-cooked steamed fish taste like those in the restaurants. Lee Kum Kee saw that it could develop a soy sauce that was sweeter than normal soy sauce, specifically for seafood. The strategy led to success, and the Company went on to develop variants including chilli soy sauce, sweet soy sauce, saltreduced soy sauce, mushroom-flavoured dark/light soy sauces, etc. Lee Kum Kee did not invest significantly in its brand until the early 1990s.10 In 1994, it scrapped its old product labels — as David Lee himself said, the old product labels were boring to him.11 The arch of the company logo became a â€Å"Golden Plaque† that implied a guarantee of product quality, while a detail of the traditional Chinese window frame at the border of the plaque reflected the Company’s Hong Kong heritage. By the late 1990s, the Company aimed to use its name and history in Asia and the many Chinese communities around the world to penetrate the general US and European household market.12 On the industry side, the Company capitalised on its status as a premier Asian food brand to expand its network of retailers, restaurateurs and other manufacturers in the West. Most importantly, to make its products even more consumer-friendly and to appeal to young families that did not wish to spend too much time on cooking, the Company continuously widened its product line. Examples included single-use sauce packets with instructions on how to prepare specific dishes, and a larger variety of ready-made sauces that could be used with a range of ingredients. Even its oyster sauce products came in variants such as Premium, Panda Brand, Choy Sun, Vegetarian and others with added dried scallops and mushrooms. In 1998, the Company launched its first five varieties of sauce packets; in the following year, it added 11 more to include dishes such as sweet-and-sour fish, black-bean chicken and spicy tofu. These lines of products became popular in Asia and were then introduced to the West. Throughout the process of geographical diversification, for new as well as old products, the Company observed the different needs of different regional markets. As David Lee said:13 We †¦ have different packaging and tastes to suit different markets, so a chilli product in Japan will come in smaller bottles and be sweeter and less thick, for instance, than it would be in Ho ng Kong. Development in China14 Lee Kum Kee built its first factory in China in 1990; the plant was located in the southern province of Guangdong. Its sales expansion also started with the Guangdong Province but gradually moved north; in 1998, the company began to sell its products in Beijing. In 2002, the Company’s sales in Beijing had already increased more than 10-fold since it entered the market there, while its sales in Guandong were also growing at a double-digit annual rate. The Company had three factories in the Guangdong Province and was considering setting up new ones in northern China. Lee Kum Kee was turning its market development focus back from overseas to the Mainland in the early 2000s. The potential for the development of this obviously huge market could also be seen in the fact that, of the 200-odd products of Lee Kum Kee, only about 60 were sold in the Mainland. As with other markets, Lee Kum Kee was sensitive about different customers’ tastes, so that a Lee Kum Kee sauce in Beijing might taste a little differently from a similarly named sauce in Shanghai. By 2002, the Company had more than 500 distribution networks in the Mainland, and was ranked fourth in total sales in the sauce market, but it had not yet expanded fully into secondary cities in provinces such as Szechuan and Guangxi. In an interview in 2002, Eddy Lee said it would already be great if Lee Kum Kee could secure one per cent of the Mainland market, which was very fragmented.

The Concept of Arms Race, Sino-Soviet-American Relations, and the Persian Gulf War Essay Example

The Concept of Arms Race, Sino The Concept of Arms Race, Sino-Soviet-American Relations, and the Persian Gulf War Essay The Concept of Arms Race, Sino-Soviet-American Relations, and the Persian Gulf War Essay â€Å"The Concept of Arms Race, Sino-Soviet-American Relations, and the Persian Gulf War† Political Science 170 Winter 2009 Dr. Kendall Stiles February 12, 2009 For centuries, and particularly during the last one hundred years, nations have sought to develop, manufacture, deploy, and improve weapons in reaction to the similar efforts of their adversaries. We call this an â€Å"arms race†. As defined early on by Gray, an arms race involves the following characteristics: [T]here should be two or more parties perceiving themselves to be in an adversary relationship, who are increasing or improving their armaments at a rapid rate and structuring their respective military postures with a general attention to the past, current, and anticipated military and political behavior of the other parties. (Gray 1971, 40) Note that this definition excludes parallel arms acquisition by allies or neutrals, gradual and moderate increases in weaponry, or unilateral increases in weaponry that is unconnected to others’ behavior. On the other hand, the definition includes all types of weapons – conventional and nuclear, personal and strategic. Also, the definition includes both quantitative and qualitative improvements, implying that manufacturing and deploying obsolete weapons could be one way to engage in an arms race where the adversary is focused exclusively on developing new military technology instead. To what extent does this concept help us understand what took place in Sino-Soviet-American relations or the Persian Gulf War as described in as described in chapters 2 and 5 of the Stiles text, respectively? I will argue that the material makes clear that arms racing was a central dimension of the great power relations of the first case, but does not feature as prominently in the Persian Gulf situation. Specifically, the Cold War was largely a conflict over nuclear deterrent capacity rather than direct military confrontation between the U. S. and the U. S. S. R. , while in the case of the Persian Gulf War the United States injected itself in a regional conflict, mostly because Kuwait had been unable or unwilling to match Iraq’s military build-up and quickly succumbed to its forces once they attacked. This analysis offers a way to better understand that arms races are not the most unwelcome development in international affairs and may be preferable to alternative strategies. In 1945, the United States successfully tested an atomic bomb and a few weeks later dropped it on Hiroshima, Japan. It is interesting to note at the outset that although the weapon was originally developed in response to Germany’s threat, and was used against Japan, the principal target of America’s atomic and later nuclear arsenal for the next half-century would be the Soviet Union – an ally of the U. S. when the bomb fell on Japan. But by 1947 American and Soviet relations had deteriorated to the point that they each saw the other as its principal adversary. When the Soviet Union detonated an atomic device in 1949, it was clear to all concerned that this was a signal to the United States. It signaled that both superpowers had the capacity to eliminate each others’ major cities (although, as pointed out in the text, it would take some time before the Soviets would have the capacity to deliver the bomb to a distant target – see page 32). The development of the hydrogen (or nuclear) bomb by 1953 and the successful testing of intercontinental ballistic missiles by both sides by 1957 meant that the populations, industries, and military installations of both superpowers were vulnerable to nuclear attack. What took place in the first decade of the Cold War is a clear instance of an arms race. It was primarily technological in the early years and was both rapid and aggressive, as required by the definition. While one cannot speculate, it seems unlikely that the Soviet Union would have moved so quickly to develop nuclear-capable missiles had the United States not moved first. And these actions would not have been perceived as threatening without the generally hostile environment in which Americans and Soviets consolidated control over their respective spheres of influence and confronted each other’s allies in places like Korea and Berlin. At the same time, it is worth noting that although the rhetoric and posturing were openly hostile, the actions of both superpowers were relatively restrained. The Soviet Union chose not to attack West Berlin even though the presence of an American ally in the middle of a Soviet-dominated state was clearly irksome. Likewise, the United States was careful not to threaten Soviet territory in its war with North Korea and ultimately settled for a stalemate. In Cuba, where the United States might have benefited substantially from an invasion, it chose instead to adopt more tentative and non-violent means to pressure the Soviets to withdraw their missiles. It appears in retrospect that both states were deterred from attacking the other. And ultimately, the Cuban Missile Crisis seems to have prompted the two superpowers to meet face-to-face to negotiate how to prudently manage what was clearly a dangerous military situation. And, as we know, the Cold War ended with a fizzle rather than a bang as both sides accepted each other as rivals but not enemies and dramatically reduced their nuclear arsenals in the 1980s and 1990s. The implication of this story is that an arms race can – especially where nuclear-tipped missiles are concerned – lead world leaders to avoid rather than seek military confrontation. Knowing that her country cannot deliver a â€Å"knock-out punch† may prompt a leader to pursue non-violent ways to resolve disputes. The reverse seems to be true where Iraq is concerned. In 1990, Saddam Hussein, frustrated over Kuwait’s apparent theft of oil from Iraq fields and hoping to establish himself as the dominant power in the region, launched a surprise attack against his smaller neighbor. At the time, the Iraqi army was the forth largest in the world and was equipped with advanced tanks, artillery, and aircraft. The Iraqi army was also battle-hardened, having fought an eight-year war with Iran during the 1980s. Kuwait, for its part, had a reputation for arrogance borne of its extraordinary oil wealth. On the other hand, Kuwait’s military was small and ultimately ineffectual. Iraqi forces were able to overrun the small country in a matter of hours. Shortly after its victory, the Iraqi army began to mass on the border with Saudi Arabia, prompting consternation in this sometime US ally. Saudi Arabia’s government knew that its military would also not be a match for Iraq. Both governments chose to use their oil wealth primarily for other purposes besides full-scale militarization, perhaps in part because neither considered Iraq a particularly serious threat. After all, the only clear indication that war might be imminent, according to the chapter, was that roughly one month before the invasion the Iraqi government released statements indicating its intent to attack Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (see page 83). The two states chose not to enter into an arms race with Iraq. The result was that Saddam Hussein was undeterred from attacking them. One might argue that had Kuwait and Saudi Arabia matched Iraq’s military capability, they would have been spared the catastrophe they endured. But although they could certainly have been able to pay for large numbers of advanced weapons, they could not have matched the manpower Iraq was able to deploy. On the other hand, forming a military alliance with a superpower might have quickly balanced their military capacity relative to Iraq’s. Ultimately, this is precisely what took place, although this could not be considered an arms race according to our definition. In conclusion, these two cases show in different ways how the concept of arms race helps us understand international affairs. In the case of the U. S. and U. S. S. R. , although it proved costly and dangerous, the nuclear arms race night have prevented a direct military confrontation, and ultimately resolved itself once political conditions changed. On the other hand, the lack of an arms race in the Persian Gulf may have been a cause of the war that started in 1990. In other words, the implications of the lack of an arms race may be as dire as the alternative. Reference: Gray, Colin (1971) â€Å"The Arms Race Phenomenon,† World Politics vol. XXIV (October): 39-79.

Brief history of Music essays

Brief history of Music essays The music industry today is growing bigger every minute here in America. However, how did we arrive to the music status that we have today? In this paper, I will provide a brief history of music, and how they link together to form what we have today. The very beginning of music started not with musical notes or pitches, but rather with noise. Noises then are put together in a rhythmic patter to form percussion. Pitch was acquired shortly after and used on special occasions. For example, signals of war, and in ritual dances. The seven-tone scale was developed in China. The seven-tone scale evolved from the non-semi tonal scale: the foundation of music. Through this scale, simple music was formed. Gregorian chants, a form of church music established by Gregory the Great, were created from the use of scales put together with other elements to form a musical setting of the liturgy. This style of music was used in the western churches. Through Gregorian chants, polyphony was born. Polyphony is the use of two notes or more to form harmony, or dissonance. Polyphony formed a new type of music. Two-part singing and folk music are just two examples. Two part harmony soon after expanded to three, four parts, and so on. This expansion of polyphony was spread world wide, and had many different influences due to the birth of music printing in about the year 1500. Sixteenth century was a period of conflict for the history of music. While the Germans and Netherlanders focused more on instrumental polyphony, the Italians focused a lot on the instrumental melody. The outcome of this conflict between the importance of polyphony and monody formed a compromise: the Opera. The Opera is a co-operation of the different areas of music. This made Opera very interesting. Not only did Opera include chorus parts; a form of polyphony, but it also included solos that were accompanied by only one instrument; a form of monody. ...