This volume constitutes the first ever attempt to establish a basis for comparative research on defence procurement regulation. For decades there has been repeated emphasis on the extent to which barriers to trade in Europe and the US prevent a more competitive defence market. Transatlantic Defence Procurement offers the first analysis of the potential impact of defence procurement regulation itself as a barrier to trade between the US and the EU. Part I examines the external dimension of a new EU Defence Procurement Directive, focusing on its implications for third countries, in particular the US. Part II examines foreign access and treatment under US law. Part III maps a future research agenda that is essential for a more systematic understanding of legal barriers to transatlantic defence trade. The book provides context for future initiatives, ranging from reformed market access arrangements to a Defence Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership and beyond.
A deeply intelligent and engrossing narrative that will transform our relationship with water and how we view climate change. The global water crisis is upon us. 1 in 3 people do not have access to safe drinking water; nearly 1 million people die each year as a result. Even in places with adequate freshwater, pollution and poor infrastructure have left residents without basic water security. Luckily, there is a solution to this crisis where we least expect it. Icebergs—frozen mountains of freshwater—are more than a symbol of climate change. In his spellbinding Chasing Icebergs, Matthew Birkhold argues the glistening leviathans of the ocean may very well hold the key to saving the planet. Harvesting icebergs for drinking water is not a new idea. But for the first time in human history, doing so on a massive global scale is both increasingly feasible and necessary for our survival. Chasing Icebergs delivers a kaleidoscopic history of humans’ relationship with icebergs, and offers an urgent assessment of the technological, cultural, and legal obstacles we must overcome to harness this freshwater resource. Birkhold takes readers around the globe, introducing them to a colorful cast of characters with wildly different ideas about how (and if) humans should use icebergs. Sturdy bureaucrats committed to avoiding another Titanic square off against “iceberg cowboys” who wrangle the frozen beasts for profit. Entrepreneurs selling luxury iceberg water for an eye-popping price clash with fearless humanitarians trying to tow icebergs across the globe to eradicate water shortages. Along the way, we meet some of the world’s most renowned scientists to determine how industrial-scale iceberg harvesting could affect the oceans and the poles. And we see firsthand the looming conflict between Indigenous peoples like the Greenlandic Inuit with claims to icebergs and the private corporations that stand to reap massive profits. As Birkhold shepherds readers from Connecticut to South Africa, from Newfoundland to Norway, to Greenland and beyond, he unfurls a visionary argument for cooperation over conflict. It’s not too late for icebergs to save humanity. But we must act fast to form a coalition of scientists, visionaries, engineers, lawyers and diplomats to ensure that the “Cold Rush” doesn’t become a free-for-all.
Try to Remember is a six-year journey through the memories and musings of a man diagnosed with Alzheimer's. It opens with a moment of Greg's forgetfulness, an early symptom of the disease that would exile him to a nursing home for the rest of his life. Mostly, it is stories told to anyone who would listen: of his boyhood in the early 20th century in a small village in Minnesota, spending summers from the age of ten with harvest crews throughout the grain belt states; his early adulthood during the Great Depression and the less-trumpeted dust bowl years when jobs were scarce and ill-paid. He remembers his joys during courtship, marriage, and fatherhood; his triumphs as an entrepreneur involved on the fringes of Canadian politics: his love of horses. His mind returns again and again to summers at the family lake cottage; the night a bear raided the icebox; the day he feared a daughter had drowned; the night the Northern Lights spectacularly outshone Fourth of July fireworks. The memories are funny and sad, exciting and mundane, terrifying and comforting. As scattered as his memories is his fleeting awareness that his mind was failing him.
Innovation in public procurement is essential for sustainable and inclusive growth in an increasingly globalized economy. To achieve that potential, both the promises and the perils of innovation must be investigated, including the risks and opportunities of joint procurement across borders in the European Union and the United States. This in-depth research investigates innovation in public procurement from three different perspectives. First, leading academics and practitioners assess the purchase of innovation, with a particular focus on urban public contracting in smart cities involving meta-infrastructures, public-private partnership arrangements and smart contracts. A second line of inquiry looks for ways to encourage innovative suppliers. Here, the collected authors draw on emerging lessons from the US and Europe, to explore both the costs and the benefits of spurring innovation through procurement. A third perspective looks to various innovations in the procurement process itself, with a focus on the effects of joint and cross-border procurement in the EU and US landscapes. The chapters review new technologies and platforms, the increasingly automated means of selecting suppliers, and the related efficiencies that “big data” can bring to public procurement. Expanding on research in the editors’ prior volume, Integrity and Efficiency in Sustainable Public Contracts: Balancing Corruption Concerns in Public Procurement Internationally (Bruylant 2014), this volume builds on a series of academic conferences and exchanges to address these issues from sophisticated academic, institutional and practical perspectives, and to point the way to future research on the contractual models that are emerging from new procurement technologies.
A young sailor is caught up in the naval siege of Quebec leading up to the battle on the Plains of Abraham. Fourteen-year-old William Jenkins is working at a printing house when he comes to the attention of navigator and naval officer James Cook. William signs up to serve with Cook on the warship HMS Pembroke, part of Britain's fleet setting out to take the French stronghold of Quebec. William soon learns that the world of a British sailor is a harsh one, especially when the ship lays siege to the fortress and is attacked by French fire ships - burning wrecks sent downstream to set the British warships on fire. On one raid, William is captured by the French allies, the Abenaki, and taken into Quebec itself, which is under constant bombardment from British cannons. With the siege strangling Quebec's lifelines, William finds a way outside the fortress walls just in time to join the British soldiers landing their boats and preparing to face the French on the Plains of Abraham. A dramatic story of the Seven Years' War, culminating in the siege and battle that claimed Canada for Britain.
Max and Lia's underwater adventures continue, as a terrifying new set of Robobeasts is unleashed in the oceans of Planet Nemos. Can our heroes defeat their enemies and restore the aquatic worlds to safety? There are four thrilling books to collect in this series!
