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Contemporary International Politics. Reagans Doctrine
Contemporary International Politics: Reagan’s Doctrine
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Introduction
The period after World War II saw many presidents of the United States develop a number of policies that were aimed at deterring the effects of the Cold war in various nations. Also referred to as ‘Doctrines’, these policies were specifically aimed at assisting these presidents in combating some of the challenges that came as a result of the cold war. More specifically, they were aimed at reducing the impact of the soviet union’s activities to the United states, as well as, the rest of the world. One such doctrine is the Reagan doctrine, which was established by Ronald Reagan and his administration, and was aimed at contesting the involvement of the Soviet Union in global governance. More specifically, Reagan’s doctrine was aimed at diminishing the influence of the Soviet Union in Latin America, Asia, and Africa (Busch, 2001). This doctrine served to do away with the socialist and communist form of governance in these states, and allow them to develop their own forms of governance such as democracy and capitalism.
This paper examines Ronald Reagan’s doctrine illustrating the situation that motivated U.S diplomatic efforts during his time in office. The paper also explicates the Diplomatic efforts that were carried out in relation to this doctrine, as well as, their effects on the U.S and other countries. Conclusively, the paper will provide the advantages and disadvantages of the doctrine.
Reagan’s Doctrine
After the World War II, the global economy demanded particular attention from the countries that were considered as ‘super powers’. This is because the Soviet Union had gained control over most states, which was slowly taking a toll on the global community. Because the cold war in Europe was on the increase, there was an eminent danger of war between Soviet Union and the United States, and this required immediate response. These two super powers were in conflict because of the Soviet Union’s approach of governance. Primarily, Reagan opposed to communism, which was the government in the Soviet Union (Busch, 2001). With the raise in concern over the start of another war, all superpowers began building up their military defenses and upgrading their weapons. This situation needed diplomatic interaction from the United States to stop what was potentially a disastrous war (Gottfried, 2003). During Reagan’s two-term tenure as president of the United States, his administration developed a doctrine whose aim was to maintain international peace through U.S diplomatic involvement. As mentioned before, this doctrine was aimed at diminishing the effects of the Soviet Union’s interference with the running of other nations and states.
Motivation for U.S Diplomatic Efforts
After the Second World War, the Soviet Union had less superior weapons than those possessed by the American army. With the intense atmosphere and the rift between the United States and Soviet Union, the Soviet Union acquired more weapons for defense, as well as, assurance of power. Gradually, the Soviet Union started feeling the pinch of the increase in the cost of the weapons purchased and the army built up. The Soviet Union also suffered from its unplanned manufacturing and agricultural production, thus driving the country into poverty. Additionally, decreased investments in oil from the United States put a strain on the state’s economy, and the Soviet Union suffered immensely (Edwards, 2005). To lower its oil prices, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan to increase the oil output thus improve the economy. The invasion of Afghanistan prompted international assistance to enable the country to fight off the Soviet Union. Accordingly, the United States provided equipment to the rebels in Afghanistan to fight off the soviet invasion. The United States government was not directly involved in the war, thus avoiding conflict with Soviet Union.
U.S Diplomatic Efforts
Reagan’s doctrine was to raid the globe from communism, which would ensure global economic growth. Reagan’s administrative policies were characterized as insurgent supportive policies that favored the anti-communist rebels in the country. The policies facilitated uprisings in the Soviet Union, as well as, the countries that were under attack from the Soviet Union. Essentially, communism was the target of this doctrine. Reagan was focused on reducing the spread of communism by ensuring that Free states were protected from the communist regime that characterized the Soviet Union (Busch, 2001). With the weapon possessed by the country, Reagan’s approach to curb communism in the Soviet Union enabled nations to reach agreements that would peacefully end the cold war. The key discussion that Reagan proposed was the disarmament of the nuclear weapons that the countries had manufactured to prevent destruction of human life and civilization. The doctrine also required the Soviet Union to free the countries it had invaded (Cowley, 2006). Diplomatic efforts by the United States saved the globe from the eminent danger of another world war.
Effects of Reagan’s Doctrine
Reagan’s doctrine had both positive and negative effects on the U.S and other countries. In relation to the positive effects, the cold war ended with the two super powers being at peace with each other. This means that, the doctrine prevented the breaking out of another war from the first two world wars (Busch, 2001). The war that could have emanated from the crash between the US and Soviet Union could have been catastrophic. In addition to this, the doctrine also facilitated global economic growth. As researchers argue, communism affected economic growth, as it did not facilitate global competition. Therefore, most predicted that a global expansion of communism would affect rapid economies, which would, in turn, encourage more wars (Busch, 2001). The diplomatic efforts by the United States also earned the state more allies who were also opposed to communism. These allies were oil producing countries, and trade between the nations enabled the United States to improve its economy. On the negative side, Reagan’s doctrine resulted in the collapse of the Soviet Union and the unification of Germany (Gottfried, 2003). The collapse affected the economy in the nations that made up the Soviet Union, which resulted in a shift of power. Because Reagan’s doctrine caused the collapse of the Soviet Union, a number of soviet nationals lost their jobs, hence increasing unemployment and poverty in the state. However, the most heart-felt effect of Reagan’s Doctrine was the ending of the Cold War that had haunted various nations at the time.
Advantages and Disadvantages
The advantages and disadvantages of Reagan’s doctrine are drawn from the effects of the doctrine on the U.S and other countries. Researchers have identified two main advantages of the Reagan doctrine including ending the cold war and increasing allies for the United States, which in turn improved trade for the nation (Busch, 2001). The only disadvantage identified with relation to Reagan’s doctrine involves stopping the Soviet Union’s expansion campaign, which affected the economy of the Soviet Union (Busch, 2001).
References
Cowley, R. (2006). The Cold War: A military history. New York: Random House Trade
Paperbacks.
Edwards, L. (2005). The essential Ronald Reagan: A profile in courage, justice, and wisdom.
Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Busch, A. E. (2001). Ronald Reagan and the politics of freedom. Lanham [u.a.: Rowman &
Littlefield.
Walker, M. (1995). The cold war: A history. New York, NY: Holt.
Gottfried, T., & Reim, M. (2003). The Cold War. Brookfield, Conn: Twenty-First Century
Books.
Consumer purchasing pattern-Steam.com
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Consumer purchasing pattern-Steam.com
In Consumer purchasing pattern, the relatively young discipline of marketing is related to as psychology, anthropology, economics, sociology, especially when it involves consumer behavior and motivation. One thing that stands out clearly is the convergence of disciplines. HYPERLINK “http://www.store.steampowered.com” Steampowered.com has built lots of its popularity around the gaming products and services. The site attracts a fan base of over 2.5 million registered members all the time. In order to maintain this growth pattern, steampowered must understand their customer-purchasing pattern and behavior.
Effective marketing solution formulated from the customer-purchasing pattern to solve complains presented by the clients. This plan will go along away in taping into the customer behavior and thus delivering the desired results within HYPERLINK “http://www.store.steampowered.com.The” steampowered.com.
Launching a new website, product or service
The relaunch of a new website from www.steam.com To HYPERLINK “http://www.store.steampowered” www.store.steampowered.com will win the target audience. This will also increase the vvvisibility of the company in this crowded market place. In this age of digital marketing, Launching a website was long overdue. Digital presence is extremely beneficial for an upwardly mobile company considering the promises of the web. Sales volume can increase two fold with properly defined and executed digital marketing practices. For example, the company website is extremely instrumental in the success of the company because, the company sales increased by 7% after the company launched its website. This was the first step towards positive ROI. The company has also launched a number of products based on the performance of the other products in the market. Steampowered has also had an opportunity to analyze the real-time performance of its products in the market thanks to digital marketing and the marketing analytics.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
WHEN THE Company employed a number of SEOs, the company never realized how much they were to gain from it. The company website must optimized for search engine, and the number of results given is 71,100,000 within 0.07 seconds. The steam powered home page comes at the top. This means that the company website can be accessed easily with any search engines
Build awareness and reinforce attributes
With the new website in place, the next step is to continue with awareness building efforts while reinforcing the features, qualities and benefits of the products. This can be achieved by organizing promotional quiz to educate the clients and get instant feedback on the questions answered.
Drive traffic
Driving of traffic to steampowered.com is done by engaging the target audience and luring them to the site through sweepstakes and promotional daily prizes to maintain the traffic. The company has a number of online marketing strategies. While increasing traffic to the company’s website the rough advertisements is one way, the company also uses back links in its website so that when one views a proxy website; they are moved to the company website automatically. In this way once people get to the company’s websites, they get to view all the offers that the company has in store.
Reinforcement of brand loyalty
A client will consider coming back to the steampowered site when they reward program is in place. A reward does not necessarily mean free products and services; it can be in the form of a unique product, which later translates brand loyalty. The company has uses a number of loyalty schemes to maintain their customer base. This is a way of recognizing the contribution of the customers to the company and what they mean to the company as a whole. The company realizes the importance of both loyalty schemes and corporate social responsibility, which are the surest ways of giving back to the community.
Brand extension
Employing an excellent brand extension is a key strategy in marketing, which uses a successful, existing and a popular product brand on several products. The company has a wide range of products of which some are industry leading. For example, mortal kombat is the industry leading action game worldwide and is offered by the company as a demo version.
Generate effective ideas for an effective advertisement
Good promotions will entice and encourage customers to tell their experiences and story, in turn help steam.com, to tell their story to prospective customers. The company has employed various effective marketing strategies since its initiation. This has gone a long way in ensuring that the company has always had a steady stream of cash flows. The company has an asset of pillars that it depends on for its marketing planning and execution, marketing excellence and corporate social responsibility. These are strategies have been instrumental in the success of the company marketing strategies.
Increase membership
Increasing the number of active members is fundamental to the growth of the site and drives home the desired result. By using promotional tactics, which focus on consumer behaviors, and delivering quality benefits, words will spread around between friends about the membership program, in turn fuelling the increase in the number of members joining the site membership program. The company has increased its membership portfolio for both online gamers and buyers of contents. This has ensured that the company has a stable income going by their financials. However, it is imperative to note that the company has always been doing its research and development to deliver the latest contents. They have both mc and windows installable software and games; they have games for all genres, classes and ages. The most exciting thing about the steampowered .com is the fact that the company has a pre-purchase demonstration offer that games can purchase at particularly attractive discounts. In this way, the buyers can decide whether to buy the whole version after testing. Some of the main demonstration offers available at discounts includes; jagged alliance, orchards, satazius, trizine 2 demo etc.
Initiate trial/create interest
In the process of a product launch, the main objective is always awareness. Apart from building product awareness, the next overriding objective is to create interest in the product and initiate trial. Giving people an opportunity to try the products freely or at half the price, if found to be desirable; members will come back for more.
The sampling program coupled with smart rebates can easily enhance the conversion on of a consumer sampling a product into a sale. Collect demographic information and get permission to use them for future marketing. The company also applies marketing tactics to get permission from the target audience to market to the sites products to them, now and in the near future. In developing a hook, like a premium offer or loyalty program, which will compel the target audience to take notice and participate in the games. This tactic is only the overlay in this campaign. The main role of marketing is convince consumers by helping them to recognize a known brand.
CONSUMER PROTECTION REGULATIONS IN THE UK
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CONSUMER PROTECTION REGULATIONS IN THE UK
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Word Count: 2000
Literature Review
Introduction
Today, different statutory instruments, Acts of parliament, and government institutions effect customer protection in the United Kingdom. These, mechanisms, which ensure fairness and quality of services and goods bought by citizens, did not just emerge from thin air but from processes and jurisdictions in the past. This literature review provides an overview of the evolution of the United Kingdom consumer protection regime and its current status is imperative.
Evolution and Development of Customer Protection
The advent of the United Kingdom customer protection regime is not regarded as a recent phenomenon as the development of customer protection legislation dates back to the late 17th century and mid-18th century during the pre-industrial era. Studies on the genesis and development of the customer protection regime show that since then, numerous jurisdictions have culminated in the development of a plethora of jurisprudence on the liabilities and rights that United Kingdom buyers and sellers have. Research by Muhammad Akbar concentrated on examining the origin and emergence of the customer protection regime. This work confirmed that the current customer protection legislation in the country is an outcome of imperative developments that occurred from the pre-industrial era to the post-industrial revolution. According to Muhammad Akbar, the pre-industrial period was characterised by low consumption levels within a simple social set up and fewer products than it is the case today. Later, the principle of caveat emptor within the English law was developed and incorporated to deal with this situation. This doctrine upheld the philosophy of individualism where customers had to look after themselves as laws to protect consumers were few and those that existed only dealt with measures and weights of basic commodities. With the growth in consumption and the number of services and products available for consumption, the principle of caveat emptor lost its relevance as sellers assumed greater responsibility in sales transactions. This necessitated the enforcement of specific customer protection legislation in the United Kingdom.
During the industrial revolution of the 18th century, urbanisation and manufacturing intensified, augmenting consumption. Sellers and product consumers began bargaining from long distances, with the former recognising the need for product quality to maintain market competitiveness. This furthered the need for a regime to safeguard the trading standards to ensure that they enhanced public health and customer protection, along with protecting honest traders from unfair competitor practices. During the period of the industrial society in the 19th century, more developments in customer protection laws took place in England, including case law revolving around buyer-seller relationships. However, consumer legal rights to safe products and services remained unrecognised. In the 20th century, mass production emerged, causing a consumer revolution as many products and services became available to consumers. During this time, large-scale developments occurred in consumer protection law, litigation, and the laws of negligence. Also, a movement initiated by an NGO stimulated the development of laws to protect consumers against unfair commercial and trade practices and defective services and products. This led to the development of customer protection laws used today, although they continued to undergo reforms to fit contemporary needs. From a critical stance, Muhammad Akbar’s work is valuable because it provides an informative and comprehensive account of the evolution of UK consumer protection, which enables one to grasp the changes that have occurred in consumer protection over the years.
Current Status of UK Customer Protection
Numerous researchers have focused on the current status of customer protection in the United Kingdom from different perspectives. For instance, Cliona examined customer protection from the perspective of the various reforms the regime will undergo within the context of the UK and Ireland considering the ongoing Brexit debate. According to this researcher, momentous regulatory divergences will be witnessed in customer protection before, after, and even without Brexit. Two of the most significant divergences before Brexit will be the Consumer Rights Act (CRA) 2015 and the Consumer Rights Bill 2015. The CRA 2015 was established to overhaul the contractual rights of consumers in the supply of digital content, goods, and services, together with regulating unfair contract terms in the United Kingdom. The CRA also integrated new rules relating to digital content, which the rest of the European Union is now catching up with as suggested by Taylor Wessing. On its part, the Consumer Rights Bill 2015 was published to reflect to consolidate the current customer protection law, along with endorsing new consumer rights and remedies in Ireland and the United Kingdom. As Cliona suggests, one of the divergences likely to be witnessed between Ireland and the United Kingdom as regards these two laws before Brexit include the objectives and scope of the CRA and the Consumer Rights Bill. Other divergences in implementing reforms of consumer law cover the areas of privity of contracts, jurisdiction relating to the supply of services and digital content, unfair contract terms, sale of gift vouchers, and transparency in contracts. The divergences possible after Brexit (if it happens) will include the areas of language and concepts utilised, the structure of consumer protection law, and the interpretation of the domestic provisions of the law in both the UK and Ireland. Finally, the divergences in implementing consumer law if Brexit becomes impossible will encompass the areas of the models of consumer protection adopted and modes of mapping amendments against the existing legal framework, which is the Consumer Rights Act 2015. Cliona’s research is critically valuable because it provides adequate illumination of possible differences in consumer protection likely to be experienced in Ireland and the UK if Brexit becomes effective.
Louise Nahon argued that reforms in consumer protection laws will have a significant impact in the United Kingdom, irrespective of whether Brexit is effected or not. This author suggests that some of the reforms proposed to come into effect in 2022 include the introduction of new digital consumer protection rules, revision of rules that impact digital service supply, and augmented transparency obligations on online endorsements and reviews. Also, this author suggested that changes will occur in the enforcement and penalty regime relating to unfair commercial practices and unfair contract terms within the harmonised framework across the entire EU. Wessing also acknowledges some of these consumer protection reforms that will occur in the wake of the recent Brexit referendum. These include the integration of the digital content directive and changes in consumer contracts associated with the online sales of goods. The works of both Louise and Taylor appreciate that the United Kingdom consumer protection regime is one of the most advanced regimes in Europe, which will augment consumer confidence when the proposed reforms are attained. Even so, the two differ in that while Louise believes what Brexit will have significant impacts on this regime, Taylor feels that Brexit will not cause great changes to the regime.
Malte Kramme investigated consumer protection from the perspective of the ramifications that Brexit would have on the area of consumer protection. This scholar examined Brexit consequences to consumer protection under three scenarios, namely, UK membership to European Economic Area (EEA), relationships administrated by World Trade Organisation’s rules, and relationships directed by mutual recognition rules within a tailor-made agreement. Based on the EEA model, the most favourable Brexit scenario would entail UK membership of the EEA. The eventual consequence of this membership on consumer protection would the application of high consumer protection standards in the UK. However, Brexit provisions for strengthening the sovereignty of the United Kingdom are incompatible with the EEA agreement, which compels member states of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) to adopt EU legislation strictly. This incompatibility will augment the complexity of the UK consumer protection regime if Brexit becomes effective. From a WTO-model outlook, the consequence of Brexit to consumer protection will include difficulties in interpreting EU consumer protection directives within the UK legal context and uncertainties of conflict-of-laws, enforceability, and jurisdiction associated with the applicability of EU consumer protection law in the UK. Lastly, from the tailor-made agreement model, the consequence of Brexit on consumer protection is the failure to achieve harmonisation of standards provided by both the EFTA and EU in all consumer protection areas. While Malte offers vital details of some Brexit consequences on UK consumer protection, his work has one weakness, which is the failure to identify the specific consumer protection laws directly impacted by the consequences addressed under each model.
Survey-based research by Oya Pinar, Ibrahim, and Mylenko addressed consumer protection regulations from the outlook of cross-country analysis. They examined the applicability of consumer protection principles and laws in deposit and loan services in 142 countries, including the United Kingdom. The outcomes of their study were that many countries have consumer protection legislation in place, but these laws fail to address specific issues in financial consumer protection. As regards the United Kingdom, these authors appreciated that the country has comprehensive consumer protection legislation. This is because the UK has consumer protection legislation with explicit references to financial services and consumer protection regulations outlined within the financial section legislations framework, besides having general consumer protection law with no explicit references to financial services and other forms of consumer protection legislation. The work of this scholar is dependable because it adopts a valid research instrument and is informed by a broad gamut of datasets, which reflect its reliability. The only problem with the study is its focuses on consumer protection regulations in only two financial services, which implies that its outcomes cannot be generalised to all financial services, especially in the United Kingdom.
In another research effort, Mark and Vickers furthered research on consumer protection in financial services. Specifically, these scholars explored the relationships between consumer protection and the contingent charges for financial services within the United Kingdom context. These authors established that the failure to regulate contingent charges can breed significant economic inefficiencies that compromise consumer protection. Further, they confirmed that contingent charges in conventional settings with sophisticated consumers are efficiently executed because these types of consumers are well informed about consumer protection and can hence influence prices, compared to settings with naive consumers, who are less informed about consumer protection. They concluded that sophisticated consumers use awareness of consumer protection regulation to protect naïve consumers when it comes to implementing contingent charges in UK financial services. Also, they suggested that markets dominated by sophisticated customers can perform inefficiently because these consumers can adopt socially ineffective approaches to evade the high contingent charges that naïve consumers pay. Their conclusions corroborate the claims by Matthew Hilton that the United Kingdom’s consumer protection regime is based on information, where information is provided to individual economic actors to prevent market failures. For this reason, consumer protection regulation in such a scenario would be vital in offsetting the distributional concerns. This study is important because it provides a new perspective for consumer protection policymakers that can be useful in designing policies for curbing monopoly of pricing in the financial sector in the United Kingdom towards ensuring consumer protection against exploitative contingent charges.
Bibliography
Books
Ardic, Oya P, Ibrahim A. Joyce, and Mylenko N ‘Consumer protection laws and regulations in deposit and loan services: A cross-country analysis with a new data set’ (The World Bank 2011).
Journal Articles
Armstrong, M and Vickers J ‘Consumer protection and contingent charges’ Journal of Economic Literature (2012) 50 (2) 477-93.
Hilton, M ‘Consumer protection in the United Kingdom’ (2006) 47 (1) Economic History Yearbook 45-60.
Kelly, C ‘Consumer reform in Ireland and the UK: Regulatory divergence before, after and without Brexit’ (2018) 47 (1) Common Law World Review 53-76.
Khan, Muhammad A ‘The origin and development of consumer protection laws in united kingdom’ (2017) 3 (3) Journal of Asian and African Social Science and Humanities (ISSN 2413-2748) 38-52.
Kramme, Malte F ‘Consequences of Brexit in the area of consumer protection’ GPR: (2017) 14 (5) Journal of European Union Private Law 210-222.
Electronic Source
Nahon, L ‘Consumer law reforms will impact UK regardless of Brexit’ (15 Nov 2019) Out-Law Analysis Pinsent Masons https://www.pinsentmasons.com/out-law/analysis/consumer-law-reforms-will-impact-uk-regardless-of-brexit.
Wessing T ‘UK Consumer law in the wake of the EU referendum (17 Jul 2016) University of Oxford, Faculty of Law https://www.law.ox.ac.uk/business-law-blog/blog/2016/07/uk-consumer-law-wake-eu-referendum.