The Global Age TOPICS IN SAFETY, RISK, RELIABILITY AND QUALITY Volume 17 Editor Adrian.V. Gheorghe Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia, U.S.A. Editorial Advisory Board P. Sander, Technical University of Eindhoven, The Netherlands D.C. Barrie, Lakehead University, Ontario, Canada R. Leitch, Royal Military College of Science (Cranfi eld), Shriverham, U.K. Aims and Scope. Fundamental questions which are being asked these days of all products, processes and services with ever increasing frequency are: What is the risk? How safe is it? How reliable is it? How good is the quality? How much does it cost? This is particularly true as the government, industry, public, customers and society become increasingly informed and articulate. In practice none of the above topics can be considered in isolation as they all interact and interrelate in very complex and subtle ways and require a range of disciplines for their description and application; they encompass the social, engineering and physical sciences and quantitative disciplines including mathematics, probability theory and statistics. The major objective of the series is to provide a series of authoritative texts suitable for academic taught courses, reference purposes, post graduate and other research and practitioners generally working or strongly associated with areas such as: Safety Assessment and Management Emergency Planning Risk Management Reliability Analysis and Assessment Vulnerability Assessment and Management Quality Assurance and Management Special emphasis is placed on texts with regard to readability, relevance, clarity, applicability, rigour and generally sound quantitative content. For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/6653 Jayshree Pandya The Global Age NGIOA @ Risk Jayshree Pandya Risk Group LLC 5403 Dunston Ct Suite 100 Sugar Land, TX 77479 USA ISSN 1566-0443 ISBN 978-94-007-1259-1 e-ISBN 978-94-007-1260-7 DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-1260-7 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York Library of Congress Control Number: 2012932952 © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012 No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfi lming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) To my husband, Pradip And our coming tomorrow, our children: Shree , Shivani and Shiv Foreword If you agree to what this book has to say, do write a foreword and send it to your nation’s decision makers and press. What you have to say matters in the Global Age and this page is for you to fi ll… vii Preface It is with a great sense of humility and personal responsibility that I have embarked on this meaningful mission to address the changing global fundamentals of the emerging Global Age. I fi rmly believe that like many before me, I too have to shoulder a sense of personal responsibility to help make sense of the emerging Global Age and its associated challenges and complexities. This is within my power. The foundation of my macro journey lies in my micro journey. The scientifi c training has helped me integrate micro and macro. It has given me the skills to research and transform complex problems from a scientifi c perspective and help formulate solutions that are clear, direct, scalable and more adaptable to the changing global fundamentals of a Global Age. The scientifi c research skills that I acquired, the scientifi c understanding I gained and the strategic thinking ability I achieved, has helped me in researching complex Global Age problems and practices to identify the root cause of global issues at hand. My micro journey has certainly infl uenced the macro journey, and has collectively enabled me to understand and tackle global issues at their core. The Global Age needs to end an age of apathy. Each one of us needs to be con- cerned about the apathy around us. If enough people across nations get concerned about the state of affairs within their nation, it would certainly help bring about a change that is a global need. This initiative is a product of many years of reading, listening, thinking and analyzing science, innovation, technology, commercialization, industries, govern- ments, academia, nations, global institutions, governance and much more. Evaluation of what has been written and said so far; to what is not being said and done, is attempted here. In order to take a step forward, this book has made a sincere effort in identifying and formulating what needs to be there in a Global Age. This is the core of this effort. My journey from micro to macro, connecting the dots and the resulting evolution is a work in progress. ix x Preface As this book is being written, signifi cant measurable global shifts are happening across nations. These global shifts and the changing global fundamentals of a Global Age have caught nations off guard. There are many across nations that question the global shift and the changing global landscape and hope that it goes away, while there are also many who have taken a convenient path of blaming others for the havoc within their nations. This introductory book T he Global Age: NGIOA @ Risk will address the global shifts and the changing global fundamentals of Global Age, to lay out the much needed foundation of an integrated risk governance framework for the coming tomorrow. This book will not address individual nations or its industries, nor will it propose a selective strategy that any single nation can adopt. That is not the purpose of this book. Defi ning the fundamental integrated risk governance framework needs to be the fi rst priority, before any individual nation and industry risks can be addressed. They will be a topic of discussion for later time. In writing this time sensitive book, I have relied mainly on the knowledge gained over the years through various means. The vision that has developed is rooted in reality that Global Age progress depends on the collective knowledge and foresight. This book is in no way my personal ambition for the Global Age or global governance. Rather, it is a much-needed acknowledgement of the grim reality of the challenges that nations face today—in an emerging Global Age. The proposed integrated risk governance framework is a need of the Global Age. However, this integrated risk governance concept is not going to be easy to pen down, propose or promote—as the most important dimension of this far-reaching integrated risk governance vision will have to overcome many political obstacles. This inbuilt political component of the integrated risk governance vision is diffi cult for any risk manager to manage effectively. The proposed vision to achieve risk centric integrated governance framework across nations is possible, doable, measurable, achievable, actionable and believable; yet ignorable by many, purely based on who is the driver of the proposal, goal and vision. This initiative may prove insignifi cant and irrelevant to those who are used to benefi ting from chaos, confusion and crisis. However, to those who are able to see through all the barriers of ideological agenda and partisan politics, this effort and initiative will make a convincing case for the far-reaching need and understanding of risk concepts, risk fundamentals and risk centric integrated governance. This book invites your participation in the form of your assessment of numerous questions addressed in each chapter. I also invite you to get involved in Risk Group, an independent, non-partisan, pro-active, and participatory Global Risk Think- Tank organization addressing the risks, issues, obstacles and challenges facing nations: its governments, industries, organizations, and academia (NGIOA). In addition, you can take part in online discussion forums on the Risk Group website