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KOZLOWSKI Surname Meaning and Origin

KOZLOWSKI Surname Meaning and Origin The Polish family name Kozlowski is commonly viewed as a geological last name, presented to an indiv...

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Compare and Contrast Augustine(Political Writing) and Aquinas (The Essay

Compare and Contrast Augustine(Political Writing) and Aquinas (The Political Ideas Of ST. Thomas Aquinas) - Essay Example While some thinkers have argued for theological positions such as Christian communism, others propose that Christians should have limited participation in politics. Saint Augustine and Thomas Aquinas’ works attempt to provide a harmonious relationship between politics and Christianity. Augustine and Aquinas thoughts on politics are similar in terms of their theological positions, and differ in terms of Augustine’s theological outlook and Aquinas’s rational position on matters. Augustine, as a classical theologian, had notable works that he produced on politics. This occurred in spite of his firm grounding on religion. Augustine’s work had remained as classical in defining religion’s relationship with the society. Augustine discusses dual citizenship in terms of heaven and earth. He recognizes that human beings are bound to the functioning of the earthly state and the heavenly kingdom. Augustine allegorically refers to cities, the earthly city and th e city of God. The earthly city belongs to the class of individuals who are damned. According to Augustine, such individuals do not possess God’s blessings (Saint Augustine 5). On the other hand, the people in the City of God have God’s blessings. The City of God surpasses earthly institutions such as the state. On the other hand, Thomas Aquinas is a theologian who embarked on a study of the church within an intellectual frame. This explains why the papacy recommended Aquinas’s texts as preliminary in attaining ordainments. This suggests that these two scholars shared a similarity in articulating an objective view of the church. In turn, they had designed a philosophical outlook on spiritual matters. It is essential to highlight that Augustine and Aquinas shared similar convictions about wars. The scholars agree that war can be a just affair as long as it builds on certain premises. According to Aquinas, war is necessary as a means of defense. In addition, war i s vital in the event of ensuring long-term peace. Aquinas laid out Augustine’s principles in justifying given wars. To begin with, there has to be considerable possibilities of winning a given war. In addition, a strong central authority should be responsible for waging such a war. The third premise stated that peace was to be the central motive in pursuing a war. Similarly, Augustine had proposed pacifism as a Christian way of living. This means that Christians should oppose war and violence as a means of initiating conflict resolution. Augustine, however, asserted that peacefulness in the case of a serious wrong, which only violence could stop, is a sin Saint (Augustine 29). Augustine states that defense of the self and others could be necessary in the case of an attack. A legitimate authority, however, has to approve such a defense. In as much as Augustine did not explicitly state the components of a just war, he, in an indirect sense, coined the term in The City of God wo rk. In this sense, it was sometimes necessary to have a war that helped preserve peace in the long-term. All the same, Augustine insisted that war should not be preemptive. This is a functional outlook on war that Aquinas uses to lay out the components of a just war. Both Aquinas and Augustine believe that the state is instrumental in safeguarding a common interest. Augustine discusses this concept in the scope of a political community. Aquinas discusses the state’s purpose in terms of justice. According to Augustine, both the state and the

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Corporate Restructuring Strategies Business Essay

Corporate Restructuring Strategies Business Essay Corporate restructuring is the process of redesigning one or more aspects of a company. The process of reorganizing a company may be implemented due to a number of different factors, such as positioning the company to be more competitive, survive a currently adverse economic climate, or poise the corporation to move in an entirely new direction. Here are some examples of why corporate restructuring may take place and what it can mean for the company. In general, the idea of corporate restructuring is to allow the company to continue functioning in some manner. Even when corporate raiders break up the company and leave behind a shell of the original structure, there is still usually a hope, what remains can function well enough for a new buyer to purchase the diminished corporation and return it to profitability. Purpose of Corporate Restructuring To enhance the share holder value, The company should continuously evaluate its: Portfolio of businesses, Capital mix, Ownership Asset arrangements to find opportunities to increase the share holders value. To focus on asset utilization and profitable investment opportunities. To reorganize or divest less profitable or loss making businesses/products. The company can also enhance value through capital Restructuring, it can innovate securities that help to reduce cost of capital. Corporate Restructuring entails a range of activities including financial restructuring and organization restructuring. 1. Financial Restructuring Financial restructuring is the reorganization of the financial assets and liabilities of a corporation in order to create the most beneficial financial environment for the company. The process of financial restructuring is often associated with corporate restructuring, in that restructuring the general function and composition of the company is likely to impact the financial health of the corporation. When completed, this reordering of corporate assets and liabilities can help the company to remain competitive, even in a depressed economy. Just about every business goes through a phase of financial restructuring at one time or another. In some cases, the process of restructuring takes place as a means of allocating resources for a new marketing campaign or the launch of a new product line. When this happens, the restructure is often viewed as a sign that the company is financially stable and has set goals for future growth and expansion. Need For Financial Restructuring The process of financial restructuring may be undertaken as a means of eliminating waste from the operations of the company. For example, the restructuring effort may find that two divisions or departments of the company perform related functions and in some cases duplicate efforts. Rather than continue to use financial resources to fund the operation of both departments, their efforts are combined. This helps to reduce costs without impairing the ability of the company to still achieve the same ends in a timely manner In some cases, financial restructuring is a strategy that must take place in order for the company to continue operations. This is especially true when sales decline and the corporation no longer generates a consistent net profit. A financial restructuring may include a review of the costs associated with each sector of the business and identify ways to cut costs and increase the net profit. The restructuring may also call for the reduction or suspension of production facilities that are obsolete or currently produce goods that are not selling well and are scheduled to be phased out. Financial restructuring also take place in response to a drop in sales, due to a sluggish economy or temporary concerns about the economy in general. When this happens, the corporation may need to reorder finances as a means of keeping the company operational through this rough time. Costs may be cut by combining divisions or departments, reassigning responsibilities and eliminating personnel, or scaling back production at various facilities owned by the company. With this type of corporate restructuring, the focus is on survival in a difficult market rather than on expanding the company to meet growing consumer demand. All businesses must pay attention to matters of finance in order to remain operational and to also hopefully grow over time. From this perspective, financial restructuring can be seen as a tool that can ensure the corporation is making the most efficient use of available resources and thus generating the highest amount of net profit possible within the current set economic environment. 2. Organizational Restructuring In organizational restructuring, the focus is on management and internal corporate governance structures. Organizational restructuring has become a very common practice amongst the firms in order to match the growing competition of the market. This makes the firms to change the organizational structure of the company for the betterment of the business. Need For Organization Restructuring New skills and capabilities are needed to meet current or expected operational requirements. Accountability for results are not clearly communicated and measurable resulting in subjective and biased performance appraisals. Parts of the organization are significantly over or under staffed. Organizational communications are inconsistent, fragmented, and inefficient. Technology and/or innovation are creating changes in workflow and production processes. Significant staffing increases or decreases are contemplated. Personnel retention and turnover is a significant problem. Workforce productivity is stagnant or deteriorating. Morale is deteriorating. Some of the most common features of organizational restructures are: Regrouping of business: This involves the firms regrouping their existing business into fewer business units. The management then handles theses lesser number of compact and strategic business units in an easier and better way that ensures the business to earn profit. Downsizing: Often companies may need to retrench the surplus manpower of the business. For that purpose offering voluntary retirement schemes (VRS) is the most useful tool taken by the firms for downsizing the businesss workforce. Decentralization: In order to enhance the organizational response to the developments in dynamic environment, the firms go for decentralization. This involves reducing the layers of management in the business so that the people at lower hierarchy are benefited. Outsourcing: Outsourcing is another measure of organizational restructuring that reduces the manpower and transfers the fixed costs of the company to variable costs. Enterprise Resource Planning: Enterprise resource planning is an integrated management information system that is enterprise-wide and computer-base. This management system enables the business management to understand any situation in faster and better way. The advancement of the information technology enhances the planning of a business. Business Process Engineering: It involves redesigning the business process so that the business maximizes the operation and value added content of the business while minimizing everything else. Total Quality Management: The businesses now have started to realize that an outside certification for the quality of the product helps to get a good will in the market. Quality improvement is also necessary to improve the customer service and reduce the cost of the business. VARIOUS STRATEGIES FOR BUSINESS RESTRUCTURING Smart sizing: It is the process of reducing the size of a company by laying off employees on the basis of incompetence and inefficiency. Some Examples Acquisitions: HLL took over TOMCO. Diversification: Videocon group is diversified into power projects, oil exploration and basic telecom services. Merger: Asea and Brown Boveri came together to form ABB. Strategic alliances: Siemens India has got a Strategic alliance with Bharati Telecom for marketing of its EPABX. Expansion: Siemens is expanding its medical electronics division- a new factory for medical electronics is already come up in Goa. Networking: It refers to the process of breaking companies into smaller independant business units for significant improvement in productivity and flexibility. The phenomenon is predominant in South Korea, where big companies like Samsung, Hyundai and Daewoo are breaking themselves up into smaller units. These firms convert their managers into entrepreneurs. Virtual Corporation: It is a company that has taken steps to turn itself inside out. Rather than having managers and staff sitting INSIDE in their offices moving papers from in basket to out basket, a virtual corporation kicks the employees outside, sending them to work in customers offices and plants, determining what the customer needs and wants, then reshaping the corporate products and services to the customers exact needs. This is a futuristic concept wherein companies will be edgeless, adaptable and perpetually changing. The centrepiece of the business revolution is a new kind of product called a Virtual Product Some of the these products already exist, camcorders create instant movies, personal computers and laser printers have made instant desktop publishing a reality. And for all these we can obtain cash instantly at ATMs. Verticalization: It refers to regrouping of management functions for particular functions for a particular product range to achieve higher accountability and transparency. Siemens in 1990 moved from a function-oriented structure to a vertical entrepreneur-oriented structure embracing size business and three support divisions. Delayering- Flat organization: In the post world war period the demand for goods was ever increasing. Main objective of the corporations was production and capacity build up to meet the demand. The classical, pyramidal structure was well suited to this high growth environment. This structure was scalable and the corporations could immediately translate their growth plans into action by adding workers at the bottom layer and filling in the management layers. But the price paid in the whole process was much higher. The overall process became complicated; number of middle managers and functional managers grew making the coordination of various functions complex. Senior/top management was alienated from the front-line people as well as the end users of the product or sen/ice. Decision-making became slower. Hence, a need is felt to attack the unproductive, bulky and sluggish network of white-collar staff. A powerful strategy would be to remove the layers of senior and middle management i. e. making the organization structure flat. The perspective of organizational restructuring may be different for the employees. When a company goes for the organizational restructuring, it often leads to reducing the manpower and hence meaning that people are losing their jobs. This may decrease the morale of employee in a large manner. Hence many firms provide strategies on career transitioning and outplacement support to their existing employees for an easy transition to their next job. The important methods of Corporate Restructuring are: Joint ventures Sell off and spin off Divestitures Equity carve out Leveraged buy outs (LBO) Management buy outs 1. Joint Ventures Joint ventures are new enterprises owned by two or more participants. They are typically formed for special purposes for a limited duration. It is a combination of subsets of assets contributed by two (or more) business entities for a specific business purpose and a limited duration. Each of the venture partners continues to exist as a separate firm, and the joint venture represents a new business enterprise. It is a contract to work together for a period of time each participant expects to gain from the activity but also must make a contribution. For Example: GM-Toyota JV: GM hoped to gain new experience in the management techniques of the Japanese in building high-quality, low-cost compact subcompact cars. Whereas, Toyota was seeking to learn from the management traditions that had made GE the no. 1 auto producer in the world and In addition to learn how to operate an auto company in the environment under the conditions in the US, dealing with contractors, suppliers, and workers. DCM group and Daewoo motors entered in to JV to form DCM DAEWOO Ltd. to manufacture automobiles in India. 2. Spin-off Spinoffs are a way to get rid of underperforming or non-core business divisions that can drag down profits. Process of spin-off The company decides to spin off a business division. The parent company files the necessary paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The spinoff becomes a company of its own and must also file paperwork with the SEBI. Shares in the new company are distributed to parent company shareholders. The spinoff company goes public. Notice that the spinoff shares are distributed to the parent company shareholders. There are two reasons why this creates value: Parent company shareholders rarely want anything to do with the new spinoff. After all, its an underperforming division that was cut off to improve the bottom line. As a result, many new shareholders sell immediately after the new company goes public. Large institutions are often forbidden to hold shares in spinoffs due to the smaller market capitalization, increased risk, or poor financials of the new company. Therefore, many large institutions automatically sell their shares immediately after the new company goes public. There is no money transaction in spin-off. The transaction is treated as stock dividend tax free exchange. Split-off: Is a transaction in which some, but not all, parent company shareholders receive shares in a subsidiary, in return for relinquishing their parent companys share. In other words some parent company shareholders receive the subsidiarys shares in return for which they must give up their parent company shares Feature of split-offs is that a portion of existing shareholders receives stock in a subsidiary in exchange for parent company stock. Split-up: Is a transaction in which a company spins off all of its subsidiaries to its shareholders ceases to exist. The entire firm is broken up in a series of spin-offs. The parent no longer exists and Only the new offspring survive. In a split-up, a company is split up into two or more independent companies. As a sequel, the parent company disappears as a corporate entity and in its place two or more separate companies emerge. 3. Divestures Divesture is a transaction through which a firm sells a portion of its assets or a division to another company. It involves selling some of the assets or division for cash or securities to a third party which is an outsider. Divestiture is a form of contraction for the selling company. means of expansion for the purchasing company. It represents the sale of a segment of a company (assets, a product line, a subsidiary) to a third party for cash and or securities. Mergers, assets purchase and takeovers lead to expansion in some way or the other. They are based on the principle of synergy which says 2 + 2 = 5! , divestiture on the other hand is based on the principle of anergy which says 5 3 = 3!. Among the various methods of divestiture, the most important ones are partial sell-off, demerger (spin-off split off) and equity carve out. Some scholars define divestiture rather narrowly as partial sell off and some scholars define divestiture more broadly to include partial sell offs, demergers and so on. Motives: Change of focus or corporate strategy Unit unprofitable can mistake Sale to pay off leveraged finance Antitrust Need cash Defend against takeover Good price. 4. Equity Carve-Out A transaction in which a parent firm offers some of a subsidiaries common stock to the general public, to bring in a cash infusion to the parent without loss of control. In other words equity carve outs are those in which some of a subsidiaries shares are offered for a sale to the general public, bringing an infusion of cash to the parent firm without loss of control. Equity carve out is also a means of reducing their exposure to a riskier line of business and to boost shareholders value. 5. Leveraged Buyout A buyout is a transaction in which a person, group of people, or organization buys a company or a controlling share in the stock of a company. Buyouts great and small occur all over the world on a daily basis. Buyouts can also be negotiated with people or companies on the outside. For example, a large candy company might buy out smaller candy companies with the goal of cornering the market more effectively and purchasing new brands which it can use to increase its customer base. Likewise, a company which makes widgets might decide to buy a company which makes thingamabobs in order to expand its operations, using an establishing company as a base rather than trying to start from scratch. 6. Management buyout In this case, management of the company buys the company, and they may be joined by employees in the venture. This practice is sometimes questioned because management can have unfair advantages in negotiations, and could potentially manipulate the value of the company in order to bring down the purchase price for themselves. On the other hand, for employees and management, the possibility of being able to buy out their employers in the future may serve as an incentive to make the company strong. It occurs when a companys managers buy or acquire a large part of the company. The goal of an MBO may be to strengthen the managers interest in the success of the company. Purpose of Management buyouts From management point of view may be: To save their jobs, either if the business has been scheduled for closure or if an outside purchaser would bring in its own management team. To maximize the financial benefits they receive from the success they bring to the company by taking the profits for themselves. To ward off aggressive buyers. The goal of an MBO may be to strengthen the managers interest in the success of the company. Key considerations in MBO are fairness to shareholders price, the future business plan, and legal and tax issues. Benefits of Management buyouts It provides an excellent opportunity for management of undervalued cos to realize the intrinsic value of the company. Lower agency cost: cost associated with conflict of interest between owners and managers. Source of tax savings: since interest payments are tax deductible, pushing up gearing rations to fund a management buyout can provide large tax covers. Conclusion: Restructuring strategies encompasses enhancing economy and improving efficiency. When a company wants to grow or survive in a competitive environment, it needs to restructure itself and focus on its competitive advantage. Thus, the merger and acquisition strategies have been conceived to improve general economic well-being of all those who are, directly or indirectly, connected with the corporate sector. The intension of buy back is visualized as to support share value during periods of temporary weakness, survival and to prevent takeover bids.

Friday, October 25, 2019

The Process of Adoption and the Need for Change Essay -- Exploratory E

"I am a 31 yr. old adoptee, I was adopted at birth it was prearranged prior to my birth, my sister who is 3 yrs younger also a prearranged adoption at birth...actually we were picked up by our adopted parents around six to nine weeks but my understanding is I was never with my birth mother I was either in the hospital or at the agency until they came to get us" ("Open Adoption"). Adoption is the process by which people take a child who was not born to them and raise them as a member of their family (Fanshel). Adoption is sometimes used as an easy way to get out of a pregnancy or raising a child. It is a very emotional process that people sometimes spend their whole lives trying to figure more information about the event. Other times it can be used to help the parents who would love to have kids, but are not able. In many cases, this does happen, but doesn't the adoption process need to be a little more difficult? When putting up a child for adoption, there is paper work and money issues and same with adopting a child. Money and paperwork should not be the reason why we have so many children in foster homes, and so many parents who aren't approved to adopt. When putting a child up for adoption, the parent must go through extensive requirement checks that prove to the adoption agencies that the mother can not handle the baby and need to look into adoption ("Wha t is Adoption?"). When adopting a baby, the parents need to be approved, but why are there charges for wanting to take in a kid that would otherwise be forced to live in a foster home? In simpler terms, the process of adoption should be reversed, putting up a baby for adoption and adopting a child. Adoption is a very scary process that many people at all ages might g... ...he World Book Encyclopedia. 1986. Volume 1 Gloria Hochman and Anna Huston "Open Adoption."1993. Adopt. 18 Mar. 2004<http://wwwadopting. org/open1.html>. "Open Adoption". Adoption Forums.com. 8 Apr. 2004 <http://forums.adoption.com/t95498.html>. Pertman, Adam. Adoption Nation. United States-Basic Books, 2000. Stone, Helen. "Foster Parent." The World Book Encyclopedia. 1986. Volume 7 "What is adoption?" Adoption Services. 8 Apr. 2004 <http://wwangelfire.com/mb2/niicca/home/ adoption_services.html>. "What is adoption?". Adoption Story.. 18 Mar. 2004 <http://www.5rocks.com/Adopting/thestory01_what.htm>. "What is adoption?" Family Help Tree.com. 8 Apr. 2004 <http://www.familyhelptree.com/pages/family/family-adoption.htm>. "What is going on with China?" Rainbow Kids.com. 8 Apr. 2004 <http://www.rainbowkids.com/china1196.html>.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Introduction to business Essay

A business function is the different jobs that people do or the different departments that form the basis of an organisations structure. The six business functions are Human Resources, Marketing, research and development, production, finance and administration. Human Resources deal with many different aspects of a business. They deal with recruitment, Job descriptions, dismissals, redundancy etc. They also have a policy-making role; they have to create company policies to create security for people and places within the organisation. Human Resources look after the people at work, they need to motivate them and also look after their needs. Human Resources have to help the MD to develop their roles and roles of other employees within the company. One of Human Resources roles is to bargain and negotiate – they act as a go-between between different groups with different interests, they also liase with the trade unions. Human Resources also have an administrative role, for example they are responsible for paying wages and supervising and implementing health and safety laws. They also educate and develop the workforce – they decide on whether or not any of the employees need training. The Marketing function is responsible for finding out what the customer needs and wants and then satisfying these needs and wants in the most cost effective manner. Sales is sometimes combined with marketing, sales has a different role to marketing though, for example sales has to make the customer think they want what the company makes or offers as a service whereas marketing has to get the company to produce what the customer wants. In order to find out the customers needs and wants they have to carry out primary research such as observations, questionnaires etc along with analysing secondary data. The Marketing department works closely with the production department because the research marketing do will show production what the customer wants, how they want it, where they want it and when. Marketing are also responsible for advertising, packaging, promotion, distribution and pricing. If a company wants to expand and grow a research and development department is essential because research and development furthers the company’s aims by improving processes and by researching new ideas, processes and products. If a company does nothing to improve processes or seek ideas then it is highly unlikely that they shall become/remain successful. If a company is having problems they need to have a research department because some of the work this function carries out can help them to understand what is going wrong. Companies usually set aside available capital in for a ‘research budget’ because it can cost a lot of money. The Administration function basically deals with every single piece of paper work. Some people may see the admin role as petty and this is strictly untrue. Organisations, especially the larger ones depend on their administration department. Administration handles consumer enquiries, communicating messages and producing documents for the company that are accurate. All companies would have an office manager and whereas Human Resources are responsible for deciding if the staff need training the office manager for organising the training, they would advise different departments on the most effective office layout, equipment, working practices and staff development. They analyse admin practices to see if there is any way they could be made better. They provide and maintain communications for the company; this would be phones, mail, Internet and also report and provide statistics on company activities. Overall ensuring a good standard of work. The Finance department is mainly responsible for monitoring the cash flow (monitoring income/revenue and monitoring expenditure) this is represented in a final balance sheet, sources and uses of funds are displayed in a P&L account. The chief accountant is responsible for supervising this department. There are two different types of accounting within a finance department – Financial accounting and management accounting. A financial accountant would keep records of all financial events to provide financial summaries on what has happened (Pay wages and keep day to day records) whereas a management accountant would provide the managers with figures to help them make their own decisions, for example costing and pricing decisions, they would also produce budgets. There are also subsections within the finance department; these include a cashiers department, which deals mainly with cash transactions, and a wages department, which are responsible for supervising the pay roll i.e. calculating and paying staff wages. The production function includes many different sections to help it run properly, Production and planning set standards and targets for each section of production. They monitor the goods or services that are being produced to make sure it is of the right quantity and quality, a comparator then compares what has been produced to what should have so that they can see if production is running smoothly and effectively. The purchasing dept have to provide the materials and equipment needed to make the product/service so that they can keep the production process working in order, the stores dept stock all tools, raw materials and equipment that is needed and finally there is the design and technical support dept who are responsible for researching improvements on existing products and also researching new ones. A technical department would give advice on working practices in order for them to estimate production costs.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Problem solving Essay

Issue 7 â€Å"All nations should help support the development of a global university designed to engage students in the process of solving the world’s most persistent social problems. † I agree that it would serve the interests of all nations to establish a global university for the purpose of solving the world’s most persistent social problems. Nevertheless, such a university poses certain risks which all participating nations must be careful to minimize–or risk defeating the university’s purpose. One compelling argument in favor of a global university has to do with the fact that its faculty and students would bring diverse cultural and educational perspectives to the problems they seek to solve. It seems to me that nations can only benefit from a global university where students learn ways in which other nations address certain soda] problems-successfully or not. It might be tempting to think that an overly diversified academic community would impede communication among students and faculty. However, in my view any such concerns are unwarranted, especially considering the growing awareness of other peoples and cultures which the mass media, and especially the Internet, have created. Moreover, many basic principles used to solve enduring social problems know no national boundaries; thus a useful insight or discovery can come from a researcher or student from any nation. Another compelling argument for a global university involves the increasingly global nature of certain problems. Consider, for instance, the depletion of atmospheric ozone, which has wanned the Earth to the point that it threatens the very survival of the human species. Also, we are now learning that dear-cutting the world’s rainforests can set into motion a chain of animal extinction that threatens the delicate balance upon which all animals–including humans–depend. Also consider that a financial crisis—or a political crisis or natural disaster in one country can spell trouble for foreign companies, many of which are now multinational in that they rely on the labor forces, equipment, and raw materials of other nations. Environmental, economic, and political problems such as these all carry grave social consequences–increased crime, unemployment, insurrection, hunger, and so forth. Solving these problems requires global cooperation–which a global university can facilitate. Notwithstanding the foregoing reasons why a global university would help solve many of our most pressing social problems, the establishment of such a university poses certain problems of its own which must be addressed in order that the university can achieve its objectives. First, participant nations would need to overcome a myriad of administrative and political impediments. All nations would need to agree on which problems demand the university’s attention and resources, which areas of academic research are worthwhile, as well as agreeing on policies and procedures for making, enforcing, and amending these decisions. Query whether a functional global university is politically feasible, given that sovereign nations naturally wish to advance their own agendas. A second problem inherent in establishing a global university involves the risk that certain intellectual and research avenues would become officially sanctioned while others of equal or greater potential value would be discouraged, or perhaps even proscribed. A telling example of the inherent danger of setting and enforcing official research priorities involves the Soviet government’s attempts during the 1920s to not only control the direction and the goals of its scientists’ research but also to distort the outcome of that research—ostensibly for the greatest good of the greatest number of people. Not surprisingly, during this time period no significant scientific advances occurred under the auspices of the Soviet government. The Soviet lesson provides an important caveat to administrators of a global university: Significant progress in solving pressing social problems requires an open mind to all sound ideas, approaches, and theories—respective of the ideologies of their proponents. A final problem with a global university is that the world’s preeminent intellectual talent might be drawn to the sorts of problems to which the university is charged with solving, while parochial social problem go unsolved. While this is not reason enough not to establish a global university, it nevertheless is a concern that university administrators and participant nations must be aware of in allocating resources and intellectual talent. To sum up, given the increasingly global nature or the world’s social problems, and the escalating costs of addressing these problems, a global university makes good sense. And, since all nations would have a common interest in seeing this endeavor succeed, my intuition is that participating nations would be able to overcome whatever procedural and political obstacles that might stand in the way of success. As long as each nation is careful not to neglect its own unique social problems, and as long as the university’s administrators are careful to remain open-minded about the legitimacy and potential value of various avenues of intellectual inquiry and research, a global university might go a long way toward solving many of the world’s pressing social problems.