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There has been ongoing concern that some regulations, rules, and government policies place a disproportionate burden on small businesses and entrepreneurs. For this reason, small businesses often receive special regulatory treatment, such as exemptions from legislation or extended deadlines for compliance. However, the desire to support small businesses can come into conflict with the interest in addressing the concerns that led to the regulation or policy in the first place. Moreover, it is often unclear whether special regulatory treatment for small businesses is having the intended effect.

Small business. --- Small business --- Industrial Management --- Management --- Business & Economics --- Government policy --- Law and legislation

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While China's growing power has reshaped the global economy and international order, the future global role of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) remains unclear. However, Chinese leaders have articulated Beijing's determination to become a leading global military power, with overseas military access and bases as one component of this vision. Historical cases suggest that China could develop a global basing network within the next 20 years if it is determined to do so. In this short report, the authors synthesize insights from two longer RAND Arroyo Center reports to examine China's growing overseas interests, valuable attributes of potential host nations from Beijing's perspective, and potential power projection operations that the PLA may carry out. The authors also draw several lessons from three countries' experience with overseas access and basing - Gaullist France, the Soviet Union in the late Cold War era, and contemporary Russia in Syria - and discuss the implications for U.S. responses to China's growing global military presence.

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This report presents the findings of a quick-turn study conducted between February 2021 and May 2021. During this time frame, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic had resulted in 83 million confirmed infections and more than 1.8 million deaths worldwide. In the Middle East, there were close to 21 million cases reported and 336,000 COVID-19 deaths. Many countries in the Middle East struggled with health care capacity and access prior to the pandemic, and this crisis has placed significant additional strain on health care delivery in the region. Evaluating strategies used by health care systems and public health and policies implemented by governments in the Middle East during the ongoing pandemic is critical to understanding and disseminating successful approaches to meeting the health care demands of populations in the region. This report outlines the results of an exploratory analysis of five Middle East countries - Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, and Tunisia. Drawing from a literature review and qualitative data collected from focus groups and one-on-one interviews conducted between March 2021 and May 2021, the authors identify common challenges regarding COVID-19 faced by the countries studied, highlight successes and innovations in addressing these challenges, and recommend strategies for strengthening internal infrastructure and regional cooperation between countries. This work should be of interest to regional and international stakeholders as they continue to combat the pandemic, and its findings could inform future research around pandemic response.

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Cyber incidents are occurring with increasing frequency, and these incidents are becoming more disruptive and costlier. Some such incidents exceed stakeholders' capacity to respond using everyday means. The stakes are particularly high with respect to U.S. National Critical Functions (NCFs). Securing NCFs requires unity of effort within the federal government and effective collaboration and cooperation within state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) governments and the private sector. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency asked the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC) to develop a contingency planning implementation (how-to) guide, including a contingency plan (CONPLAN) template, that NCF stakeholders could use to develop NCF-specific CONPLANs to guide their response to and efforts to mitigate the impacts of a significant cyber incident affecting their NCFs. Summarizing key elements of the companion how-to guide, this report is intended to inform leadership and managers in NCF stakeholder organizations across government and the private sector on the purpose, components, and processes for developing an actionable CONPLAN. This report provides an overview of contingency planning for a significant cyber incident, focusing on the importance of planning, the process of developing a plan, and options for operationalizing a plan. It summarizes the major concepts that are explored in detail in the separate how-to guide.

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA's) Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP) provides a suite of grants to help strengthen U.S. communities against terrorist attacks. To inform grant resource allocation decisions, FEMA has developed and maintains a risk-based formula to assess relative threat, vulnerability, and consequences of terrorist attacks in states and major urban areas. The formula helps FEMA decide how to use finite resources for the grant programs. As a result of the evolving threat landscape and as part of ongoing efforts to improve administration of the grant program, FEMA is performing a comprehensive review of the risk formula. As part of this review, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asked the Homeland Security Operational Analysis Center (HSOAC) to conduct an independent review of HSGP's risk formula and data sources. To assess the grant program's risk formula, the research team evaluated the data elements and sources in each component of the terrorism risk formula, reviewed the mathematical calculations used in the risk methodology, and considered alternative data elements and sources to account for the evolving threat environment. The evaluation framework used in this study addresses the formula's compliance with the program's authorizing language, legitimacy to stakeholders, and the validity and simplicity of the risk formula. The review suggests alternative approaches FEMA could consider to improve the risk formula and to address additional dimensions, such as community resilience and equity.

Terrorism --- Federal aid to terrorism prevention --- Terrorism --- Terrorisme --- Aide de l'État à la prévention du terrorisme --- Risk assessment --- Evaluation. --- Prevention. --- Évaluation du risque --- Évaluation. --- Homeland Security Grant Program (U.S.) --- Evaluation. --- United States