Torture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Torture - Essay Example This paper examines the pivotal differences between Alan Dershowitz and Elaine Scarry on the question of physical torture in order to determine whether the arguments of the former are adequately tackled by the latter as well as the actual possibility of establishment of public accountability standards for extraordinary measures such as the use of physical torture to prevent terrorism. The Ticking Bomb Argument The controversy surrounding the use of torture to prevent terrorism is explicitly demonstrated via the â€Å"ticking bomb scenario†, where a captured terrorist refuses to divulge information concerning the imminent use of weapon – whether nuclear, biological or chemical device – capable of killing and injuring a huge number of civilians (Dershowitz 259). The grave moral dilemma here is whether the captured terrorist should be subjected to torture in order to disclose the location of the device or the bomb to be allowed to explode and kill perhaps thousands of people because of legal and moral considerations. In other words, the safety and security of a nation’s citizens must be weighed against the preservation of human rights, which engenders a choice between one evil or another (Dershowitz 266, 272). While both Dershowitz and Scarry agree that the ‘ticking bomb’ scenario is a rather hypothetical situation, they consider its implications for the individuals and institutions involved, as well as for the society as a whole, from vastly different points of view. According to Dershowitz, in nations such as Israel, for example, where both terrorism and the use of torture to prevent terrorism are anything but hypothetical, the ticking bomb case in fact provides a moral, legal and intellectual justification for applying the system of coercive interrogation (258-9). On the other hand, although being generally deemed unproductive, those methods – euphemistically called by the Israeli Security Services (GSS or Shin Be t) themselves â€Å"moderate physical pressure† – sometimes proved successful and led to prevention of terrorist acts that otherwise might have killed many civilians (Dershowitz 258). The latter observation, however, implies that the possibility of an actual ‘ticking bomb’ case shouldn’t be readily ruled out. Similarly, following September 11, 2001, it has become not so rare practice in the US security and intelligence services to employ rough interrogation technique

International Human Resource Management Assignment - 4

International Human Resource Management - Assignment Example p.65); in that case, multinational corporations have to change and adapt their resources to the shifting global business environment to remain profitable (Caligiuri & Stroh 1995, p.494). MNCs alongside their global subsidiaries have increasingly become fundamental players in the global economy, thereby fuelling a great interest and research in the management strategies and practices of these firms (Mendenhall 1999, p.65). Generally, multinational corporations employ widely varied global management strategies, whose processes, practices as well as systems and structures also vary greatly since different global locations impose varied demands on MNCs operating in them. Establishing effective global strategies is the most daunting task of MNCs because they are caught up in the struggle to enhance their responsiveness to local environments while retaining their controlled corporate structure. This has been encapsulated effectively in the literature of MNCs as one of the most debated ques tions has traditionally been the degree to which subsidiaries’ behaviour resemble that of local corporations versus the degree to which it rhymes with that of their parent corporations (Rosenzweig & Nohria 1994, p.229). This debate has given birth to three typologies of MNCs namely ethnocentric, polycentric, and global; whereas the management strategies of ethnocentric MNCs resemble those of their home countries, those of polycentric MNCs conform to local standards while global MNCs align their management practices to a worldwide standard. Given that cultural differences are more likely to influence organizational behaviour; this paper will draw from empirical illustrations of Multinational corporations (MNCs) to explore the cultural implications for multinational corporations of different approaches to employee voice. HRM is not independent of environmental and various other factors within the enterprise; HRM policy and practices are determined by both internal and external factors