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This study aims to offer a strategic management response to societal disruptions of the magnitude triggered by the agricultural, industrial and information revolutions. These pose challenges that are much greater and different in kind than the industry-wide disruptions that businesses have learned to manage. Pandemics, climate change, biotech and artificial intelligence guarantee that such societal disruptions will be an inescapable and recurring reality.

The paper builds on the strategic management responses to wicked problems, which possess in microcosm the chaotic ambiguity that characterizes societal disruptions.

The authors propose a management process that affirms a sense of identity, identifies robust actions, adopts a real-options approach and uses a platform organization.

The primary limitation is that the recommendations and findings are extrapolations of organizational practices in analogous situations. No examples of formal management processes specifically designed to address societal disruptions were identified.

The practical implications are significant. The specific recommendations in the paper directly address strategic management practice in organizations.

The social implications are integral to the motivation of the paper as it describes the intrinsic characteristics of societal change and transformation, enabling organizations to interact with society on a dynamic basis.

While there has been growing interest and research into business and industry disruptions, the challenge of societal disruptions, which is the focus of this paper, has not been directly addressed.

For both the Czech Republic and Poland, globalization is intricately linked to European integration and Europeanization. Globalization and European integration have strongly influenced the policies of these countries over the last 17 years. The Czech policy of accommodation and the Polish policy of initiation toward the European Union (EU) show two different ways how the individual Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries can react to the process of Europeanization. The Czech and Polish policies within CEE area are illustrative examples of reactions to the supraterritorializing effects of globalization. These two CEE countries have answered some of the challenges of globalization through sub-regional cooperation in the Central European Initiative (CEI), Visegrad Group (VG), and the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), followed by accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and later joining the EU. The Czech Republic and Poland are gradually entering the area of supra-territoriality. But concurrently both, as EU member states, participate in building and strengthening external territorial borders of the EU through the Schengen Agreement. Despite sharing the experience of disappearing of the EU internal borders, the Czech Republic and Poland have not completely relinquished their existing territorial identity. In the context of the break-up of the Czechoslovak federation it is also useful to examine the issues of deterritorialization and reterritorialization.

The aim of this chapter is to analyse how the governing capacity of current policy instruments might be affected in futures of smart mobility. In order to explore this issue, the authors make use of the so-called NATO (nodality, authority, treasure, organisation) framework for analysing two contrasting scenarios. The analyses show that the overall governing capacity of many of the policy instruments is strengthened or maintained in both of the scenarios. However, the governing capacity of some policy instruments is reduced, and some seem to need calibration, not least because authorities’ access to and control over data are under question. Future governing capacity hinges on access to data, although all resources are, in one way or another, affected.

Nuclear proliferation has become a global phenomenon since 1945. A debate has emerged about whether the nuclear nonproliferation regime is sufficient to contain nuclear proliferation. Nuclear proliferation regime has confronted new challenges in recent times. Developments stemming from the demise of the former USSR have raised few serious problems: a previously acknowledged nuclear weapon state had been subjected to political disintegration. This was a period of nuclear transformation which required long-term cooperation between Russia and the United States. This period of transition was facilitated by the foresight of policymakers from both sides of the former cold war divide and by the frameworks of arms control and disarmament agreements then in place. Ensuring nuclear stability during this period was possible because of agreements like the NPT and START.

However, the other side of the story is that in January 2000, the Russian Government released its new nuclear policy in a document entitled: “Concept of National Security” which was ratified by Presidential decree on April 21, 2000. The document was updated version of policy statements made in 1993 and 1997, and indicated a heightened sense of conflict with NATO and the United States on nuclear issues, and an increased reliance on nuclear weapons. Russia rejected to adhere to the “no-first-use” of nuclear weapons policy.

Russia’s nuclear policy under Putin entered a period of new realism. Russia was presented as an alternative pole to the West which gave way to new arms race. Therefore the initiative toward nuclear disarmament would most likely be largely cosmetic in nature. This chapter attempts to present a theoretical framework on Russia’s nuclear disarmament policy since early 1990s.

Purpose – The aim of the chapter is to analyze the multinational collaboration between troops-contributing countries, and between military and civilian personnel at UNIFIL's headquarters in South-Lebanon.

Methodology/approach – The methodological approach consisted of semi-structured interviews and participatory observation.

Findings – The multinational collaboration at the HQ was satisfactory, although not optimal as mutual stereotyping continued to exist. Western military personnel still prefers to operate in a NATO framework and resent some of the civil servants’ privileges. This hampers a smooth civil–military cooperation to some extent.

Originality/value of the paper – Few qualitative studies have looked at how participating nations collaborate at missions’ headquarters. This study provides a look inside the daily work of military and civilian personnel at the operational level and, consequently, offers insights for improving multinational collaboration in future (peace) operations.

Many European nations today are willing to give up conscription system. In some other countries a more or less heated debate on maintaining or abandoning conscription has begun. Those countries that hold conscription have significantly reduced the share of conscripts in their armed forces. In our paper, we will argue and demonstrate that conscription has in fact had its day in most European nations. The data base for this paper is twofold. On one hand, we base ourselves on data from the annually published Military Balance of the London International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). On the other hand, we base ourselves on an expert survey among European countries that was conducted in 2001 and has been updated in the year 2005. One major reason for the move from conscript armies to all-volunteer forces seems to be due to the geopolitical changes which have taken place since the end of the Cold War. Another reason is the increasing number of regional conflicts and the ensuing operations abroad. Thirdly, Europe is undergoing a significant social change with an increasing pluralization of life styles and value cultures. The continuing individualization diminishes the willingness for an unconditional commitment to the state. This leads us to the aspect of burden-sharing equality. Where only a constantly diminishing minority of eligible and able young men is drafted, the issue of who has to serve and who does not becomes significant and can produce massive pressure to abolish conscription.