Why isn't the Baltic region like the Balkans? Why have the Baltic republics not experienced ethnic cleansing, border wars, authoritarian rule, and social chaos? Instead, peace, democracy, and market economies have taken root since the fall of communism. Walter C. Clemens, Jr. here uses complexity theory, which analyzes the role of self-organization in complex adaptive systems, to explain the 'Baltic miracle.' He argues that the theory is a vital tool for understanding the remarkable strides made by Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania since 1991 in coping with the transition to partnership with the new Europe. The Baltic peoples have adapted well to the demands of democracy, a market economy, and a constructive role in world affairs. The achievements of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in the past decade are the more amazing when considered against the hundreds of years they were dominated by Teutonic knights, Hanseatic merchants, Sweden, Russia, and the USSR. Clemens uses this history as a springboard to analyze how Balts self-organize today to meet the challenges of transition. One of the first books to apply complexity theory to a major sphere of world politics, The Baltic Transformed will provoke constructive debate with its ambitious and well-grounded analysis of not only Baltic developments but European security more generally. Despite its theoretical foundation, the book is written in a clear and accessible style that will make it invaluable for courses on comparative politics, political development, international relations, security, or transition studies.

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, among the newest member states of the European Union, are part of the "Copenhagen process," the EU’s training and education initiative. These nations have enjoyed special attention in European Vocational Education and Training (VET) policy. This book reviews and analyses reforms in VET and its applications. The book will benefit researchers studying VET in the Baltic states, and in the broader context of internationalisation.

Considers seventy House Concurrent Resolutions relating to the Soviet occupation of the Baltic states, including the political and cultural repression of ethnic minorities.

In this key textbook, Andres Kasekamp masterfully traces the development of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, from the northern crusades against Europe's last pagans and Lithuania's rise to become one of medieval Europe's largest states, to their incorporation into the Russian Empire and the creation of their modern national identities. Employing a comparative approach, a particular emphasis is placed upon the last one hundred years, during which the Baltic states achieved independence, endured occupation by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, and transformed themselves into members of the European Union. This is an essential textbook for undergraduate students taking modules on Eastern or Central European History, Communism and Post-Communism, the Soviet Union, or Baltic Culture and Politics. Engaging and accessible, this is also an ideal introduction to the Baltic States for general readers.

Human language technology is the study of the methods by which computer programs or electronic devices can analyze, produce, modify or respond to human texts and speech. It consists of natural language processing and computational linguistics on the one hand, and speech technology on the other. This book presents the proceedings of the 9th International Conference, Human Language Technologies – The Baltic Perspective (Baltic HLT 2020), organised in Kaunas, Lithuania on 22 and 23 September 2020. This biennial conference offers researchers a platform to share knowledge on recent advances in human language processing for the Baltic languages, as well as promoting interdisciplinary and international cooperation in human language-technology research within and beyond the Baltic States. In addition to the traditional topics of natural language processing and language technologies, this year’s conference featured a special session on resource and tool development for teaching and learning the less resourced Baltic languages. This year, 42 submissions were received, each of which was evaluated by two reviewers, resulting in a total of 34 papers being accepted for presentation and publication. The book is divided into four sections: speech and text analysis (9 papers); machine translation and natural understanding (6 papers); tools and resources (14 papers); and language learning resources (5 papers). Providing a fascinating overview of current research in the field from a primarily Baltic perspective, the book will be of interest to all those whose work involves human language technology.

The product of more than twenty years of research, first-person observations, discussions, and policy analyses, Nation-Building in the Baltic States: Transforming Governance, Social Welfare, and Security in Northern Europe explores the characteristics of the Baltic states as positioned in the northeast corridor in terms of military strife and polit

Human language technologies continue to play an important part in the modern information society. This book contains papers presented at the fifth international conference ‘Human Language Technologies – The Baltic Perspective (Baltic HLT 2012)’, held in Tartu, Estonia, in October 2012. Baltic HLT provides a special venue for new and ongoing work in computational linguistics and related disciplines, both in the Baltic states and in a broader geographical perspective. It brings together scientists, developers, providers and users of HLT, and is a forum for the sharing of new ideas and recent advances in human language processing, promoting cooperation between the research communities of computer science and linguistics from the Baltic countries and the rest of the world. Twenty long papers, as well as the posters or demos accepted for presentation at the conference, are published here. They cover a wide range of topics: morphological disambiguation, dependency syntax and valency, computational semantics, named entities, dialogue modeling, terminology extraction and management, machine translation, corpus and parallel corpus compiling, speech modeling and multimodal communication. Some of the papers also give a general overview of the state of the art of human language technology and language resources in the Baltic states. This book will be of interest to all those whose work involves the use and application of computational linguistics and related disciplines.

This timely volume assesses NATO's current accomplishments, continuing challenges, and potential pitfalls. Leading international scholars and policymakers explore three key themes influencing NATO's future: transatlantic relations, the debate over enlargement, and the organization's new functions. Weighing the fate of an alliance poised for renewal or decline, the contributors offer informed analysis and discussion of an organization that has changed profoundly over the past five years and continues to evolve in the face of an uncertain global environment.

MARKETING STRATEGY 6th edition emphasizes teaching students to think and act like marketers. It presents strategy from a perspective that guides strategic marketing management in the social, economic, and technological arenas in which businesses function today--helping students develop a customer-oriented market strategy and market plan. Its practical approach to analyzing, planning, and implementing marketing strategies is based on the creative process involved in applying marketing concepts to the development and implementation of marketing strategy. An emphasis on critical thinking enables students to understand the essence of how marketing decisions fit together to create a coherent strategy. Well-grounded in developing and executing a marketing plan, the text offers a complete planning framework, thorough marketing plan worksheets, and a comprehensive marketing plan example for students to follow. Available with InfoTracr Student Collections http: //gocengage.com/infotrac.