Friday, February 21, 2020

What Is Meant By Smart Power And How Does Its Application By The Obama Essay

What Is Meant By Smart Power And How Does Its Application By The Obama Administration Differ From The Use Of Hard Power By The Bush Administration - Essay Example These terms are descriptions of the way that American governments deal with other states, especially those states which do not agree with American views. Hard power is the use of forceful tactics such as military actions or economic sanctions. It shows how strong America is, and imposes American views on other people. If the other countries involved are weak, then this can be very effective and President Bush used this kind of approach at the beginning of his first term of office. The invasion of Iraq is a classic example of hard power at work. This tough line was also an important part of President Bush’s election campaign in 2004: â€Å"the Bush administration achieved a greater advantage over Democrats in general and Senator John Kerry in particular on this issue than on any other in the 2004 presidential race.† (Campbell and O’Hanlon: 2006, p. 119) After the 9/11 attack on New York, it was possible to present hard power as a defence tool, not necessarily an a ct of aggression. This made it more acceptable to the American public. Sometimes, however, the opposite of hard power, i.e. soft power is a better approach. People know that America is strong, but they might be more impressed by gentle approaches like aid and support, with diplomatic summits and exchanges of views. America’s culture and image are also aspects of soft power.

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

Financial Risk (Masters Level) Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Financial Risk (Masters Level) - Coursework Example It indicates the highest possible loss amount, which some portfolio will likely lose within a given time period at specified confidence level. A good example would be 95% daily VaR for $1 Million, could mean the likely hood for the same portfolio to lose over a million dollars within a worst day happens to be below 5%. In no way does this mean that such portfolio may not lose over a million dollars. The truth is that over one hundred days, the portfolio would be expected to lose over $1 million for five time approximately. In addition, this does not mean that an individual would not collectively loose significantly more along a longer horizon. Banks, mutual funds, hedge funds as well as other financial service companies or even brokers can utilize value at Risk. Most of such firms use VaR in prediction of size of outlying losses of the future, or even gains that their portfolios or those of their clients might experience (Ran & Jin, 2008: p 1). Most firms make use of VaR in the determination of needed collateral from an execution customer for some margin loan utilized in trading financial instruments, for instance. Buy-side entities like hedge funds make use of VaR in determining whether the allocation of a portfolio does exceed investment mandate or a current risk tolerance (BPL, 2015, 2). Despite the fact that VaR was not used broadly before mid-1990s, the measure’s origin date further back in time. Markowitz Harry and others developed the mathematics, which underlie VaR in portfolio theory context (Glyn, 200:p 32). However, their efforts aimed at a different destination (devising equity investors’ optimal portfolios). Specifically market risk focus as well as the co-movements effects in such risks are core to the manner in which VaR is computed (Ronald, Kees, & Rachel, 1999: P 2). The Motivation for VaR measures utilization, though, arose from the crises, which affected financial service firma through time as well as supervisory responses to such