Balancing Risks

Great powers often initiate risky military and diplomatic inventions in far-off, peripheral regions that pose no direct threat to them, risking direct confrontation with rivals in strategically inconsequential places. Why do powerful countries behave in a way that leads to entrapment in prolonged, expensive, and self-defeating conflicts? Jeffrey W. Taliaferro suggests that such interventions are driven by the refusal of senior officials to accept losses in their state's relative power, international status, or prestige. Instead of cutting their losses, leaders often continue to invest blood and money in failed excursions into the periphery. Their policies may seem to be driven by rational concerns about power and security, but Taliaferro deems them to be at odds with the master explanation of political realism. Taliaferro constructs a "balance-of-risk" theory of foreign policy that draws on defensive realism (in international relations) and prospect theory (in psychology). He illustrates the power of this new theory in several case narratives: Germany's initiation and escalation of the 1905 and 1911 Moroccan crises, the United States' involvement in the Korean War in 1950–52, and Japan's entanglement in the second Sino-Japanese war in 1937–40 and its decisions for war with the U.S. in 1940–41.

This textbook demonstrates how Enterprise Risk Management creates value in strategic- and decision-making-processes. The author introduces modern approaches to balancing risk and reward based on many examples of medium-sized and large companies from different industries. Since traditional risk management in practice is often an independent stand-alone process with no impact on decision-making processes, it is unable to create value and ties up resources in the company unnecessarily. Herewith, he serves students as well as practitioners with modern approaches that promote a connection between ERM and corporate management. The author demonstrates in a didactically appropriate manner how companies can use ERM in a concrete way to achieve better risk-reward decisions under uncertainty. Furthermore, theoretical and psychological findings relevant to entrepreneurial decision-making situations are incorporated. This textbook has been recommended and developed for university courses in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The fragmented information that consumers receive about the nutritional value and health risks associated with fish and shellfish can result in confusion or misperceptions about these food sources. Consumers are therefore confronted with a dilemma: they are told that seafood is good for them and should be consumed in large amounts, while at the same time the federal government and most states have issued advisories urging caution in the consumption of certain species or seafood from specific waters. Seafood Choices carefully explores the decision-making process for selecting seafood by assessing the evidence on availability of specific nutrients (compared to other food sources) to obtain the greatest nutritional benefits. The book prioritizes the potential for adverse health effects from both naturally occurring and introduced toxicants in seafood; assesses evidence on the availability of specific nutrients in seafood compared to other food sources; determines the impact of modifying food choices to reduce intake of toxicants on nutrient intake and nutritional status within the U.S. population; develops a decision path for U.S. consumers to weigh their seafood choices to obtain nutritional benefits balanced against exposure risks; and identifies data gaps and recommendations for future research. The information provided in this book will benefit food technologists, food manufacturers, nutritionists, and those involved in health professions making nutritional recommendations.

Drug overdose, driven largely by overdose related to the use of opioids, is now the leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two public health challenges: reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can arise from the use of opioid medications. Chronic pain and opioid use disorder both represent complex human conditions affecting millions of Americans and causing untold disability and loss of function. In the context of the growing opioid problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. As part of this plan, the FDA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on informing FDA's development of a formal method for incorporating individual and societal considerations into its risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring.

This textbook demonstrates how Enterprise Risk Management creates value in strategic- and decision-making-processes. The author introduces modern approaches to balancing risk and reward based on many examples of medium-sized and large companies from different industries. Since traditional risk management in practice is often an independent stand-alone process with no impact on decision-making processes, it is unable to create value and ties up resources in the company unnecessarily. Herewith, he serves students as well as practitioners with modern approaches that promote a connection between ERM and corporate management. The author demonstrates in a didactically appropriate manner how companies can use ERM in a concrete way to achieve better risk-reward decisions under uncertainty. Furthermore, theoretical and psychological findings relevant to entrepreneurial decision-making situations are incorporated. This textbook has been recommended and developed for university courses in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

In seeking to evaluate the efficacy of post-9/11 homeland security expenses the common query has been, "Are we safer?" This, however, is the wrong question. The correct question is, "Are any gains in security worth the funds expended?" In this engaging, readable book, John Mueller and Mark Stewart apply risk and cost-benefit evaluation techniques to answer this very question. Cataloging the mistakes that the US has made--and continues to make--in managing homeland security programs, Terror, Security, and Money has the potential to redirect our efforts toward a more productive and far more cost-effective course.

"Insurance is often confused with risk management, yet it simply finances part of the risk with another entity, i.e. the insurance company. In reality, it is up to the organization's executive team to proactively manage risks." - Ed Kempkey You don't need a full time risk manager to gain the benefits these best practices offer. Balancing Risk exposes five myths that often prevent organizations from implementing risk management programs, and provides straightforward concepts and metholodologies upon which to build your plan. The step-by-step process includes examples you can follow as well as a simple system to easily document and measure your success. - Increase operational effectiveness and efficiency - Enhance the identification of opportunities and threats - Establish a reliable basis for decision making and planning - Improve stakeholder confidence and trust