Has the Impact of 9/11 Been Baneful or Beneficial?

2013-02-0108 Bilal Syed Critical Issues in Pakistan’s foreign policy 13th October 2012 Has the impact of 9/11 been baneful or beneficial to Pakistan’s security environment? Analyze. The second year of the new millennium was witness to an event which might have perhaps altered the geo-political structure of the world and gave birth to a whole new phenomenon, one, which has been directing foreign policy affairs of the world for almost a decade now.This event comprised the four terrorist attacks on United States soil, on September the eleventh, 2001, in which hijacked planes crashed into the twin towers of the world trade centre, the Pentagon and one fell short of its target in Shanksfield Pennsylvania. These events gave birth to the â€Å"war on terror†, which has not only affected the United States but a lot of other countries as well, especially Pakistan, who had a prominent geo strategic location in the vicinity of the battle grounds for this war. This war has h ad both positive and negative effects on the security and general stability of Pakistan.This essay will try to discern these effects and establish whether in the long run, the impact of 9/11 has been baneful or beneficial to Pakistan’s security environment. Firstly, the positive impacts of the war on terror will be considered. Since the perpetrators of the attacks were considered to be hiding in Afghanistan, all the surrounding countries in the region became important strategic partners of the United States and its allies. Pakistan, perhaps the most influential since it had a long history of dealing with the Taliban and had in depth knowledge of the terrain and surrounding area.Chairperson, Department of Political Science, the Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Professor Razia Musarrat claims that â€Å"Pakistan’s geographical location, its nearness with Afghanistan, its close relations with the Taliban regime, its deep knowledge of the rugged terrain of Afghanistan, a nd its history of Cold War alliance made Pakistan obviously the most important strategic asset for the United States. † Pakistan offered its support to the United States including airbases and military intelligence to help eradicate the terrorist elements present in Afghanistan. As a result over the years Pakistan has received military ssistance and aid from the United States, helping in brining military and technological advancements to the country. It is important to note that at the time of these attacks, Pakistan was in isolation at the world stage due to sanctions imposed on it, after it carried out nuclear tests in 1998. India too was facing the same sanctions, but having a stronger economy meant that it managed to survive this dry spell comparatively more easily than Pakistan. Pakistan on the other hand was suffering from the consequences of these sanctions and the war on terror surprisingly came as a relief.Pakistan has been given economic assistance of almost ten bill ion dollars over a period of ten years as its ties with the waste slowly improved. This aid rescued its stagnant economy and ensured that Pakistan’s economic woes were overcome, a change, very welcome for the Musharraf regime. Thirdly, post 9/11, South Asia became the centre of the World’s attention. A senior political analyst notes, that â€Å"with the presence of two nuclear power friends, and an Al-Qaeda-strewn Afghanistan, South Asia assumed a strategic status in American eyes. The rebirth of South Asia prominence was not limited to America, rather for whole the world.There was a long chain of Heads of States, and highest officials visiting the region every alternative day were evidence of long term strategic interests of the US in the region. † This new found attention allowed internationally isolated Pakistan and India back into the main stream of world politics and bolstered the image of the country in the eyes of the world, as a nation that was against t errorism. A somewhat debateable positive outcome, but one that could be true is that this war against terrorism helped to control the spread of militancy in the country.Former foreign minister of Pakistan, Mr Abdul Sattar argues that, â€Å"another significant benefit of the post-9/11 policy has been containment of the baneful influence of extremists and militants. † Had the war on terror not been targeted against organizations like Al-Qaeda, they might have consolidated their positions in Afghanistan and Pakistan and continued to follow their own agenda’s. The post 9/11 policy helped to contain this spread of ideology but unfortunately could not eliminate it from society completely. Another major impact of the war on terror, it can be argued, is that it led to stability in the region.The main cause of instability in the region over the years has been hostile Pakistan, India relations. Three major wars and countless other incidents aimed at undermining the other countr y, have soured an already messy divorce. The acquisition of nuclear warheads by both states coupled with the Kashmir issue, have caused this region to become highly volatile. This was also the case post 9/11, when after an attack on the Indian parliament in December of 2001, India mobilized its military forces on a large scale against Pakistan.Pakistan too responded and both armies stood face to face with each other opposite the international borders. There was a very serious threat of an outbreak of nuclear war and alarm bells started ringing in the international arena. Eventually it was the presence of the United States in the region which helped diffuse the highly volatile situation. The threat of nuclear war, coupled with the fear that a Pakistan-India war would be harmful to the war on terror, meant that the United Sates put in a full hearted effort to ease tensions.This was eventually the case and stability was brought to the region again. These are some of the positive outcom es to the war on terror for Pakistan. But there have been dreadful negative consequences for the country as well. Firstly, just like it can be argued that just like US presence brought stability to the region; it also brought a lot of instability. This is evident from the impact of the war on Afghanistan, where Prof. Dr. Razia Musarrat argues, that the â€Å"Taliban government had been successful to restore a kind of stability in Afghanistan for the first time after a very long period of unrest.America, by ripping to pieces the Taliban regime, once again pushed Afghanistan into a new phase of insurgency and civil war. This unstable and troubled situation will not remain confined within the Afghan borders; rather will soon spread into the neighbouring states. We can see for ourselves that the unrest and turbulence in Afghanistan has leaked out into Pakistan. † This has been a cause of great concern for Pakistan, because the Afghani brand of militancy and extremism has seeped i n the country and has started rearing its ugly head against the state.Secondly, Pakistan had friendly relations with the Taliban prior to the American offensive. So much so that they were considered supporters of the Taliban, a notion which caused concern to other surrounding countries like India. But after the war, the northern alliance came into power and the resulting Afghan government did not have a favourable view of Pakistan. India on the other hand took advantage of this and firmly established itself in Afghanistan. It became the largest regional donor of aid to Afghanistan in the post war period.Strong relations with Afghanistan could very beneficial for Indian foreign policy since Afghanistan shares such a large border with Pakistan. Having strong relations with a hostile neighbour’s neighbour is a strategically strong move and puts Pakistan in a delicate situation. Also, India could have easy access to Central Asia via Afghanistan, which could give it access to thei r abundant natural resources and open other cheaper trading avenues. India would not have to be dependent on Pakistan for access to Central Asia, which might come across as another blow to Pakistan.Another cause of concern for Pakistan, at the political level, was constant Indian pressure that Pakistan provided a safe haven for terrorists. India took advantage of American presence in the region and looked at this as an opportunity to further one of its foreign policy goals, that is, to ensure that Pakistan was strongly implicated in harbouring terrorists under its roof. The case for this argument was of course Pakistan’s close relations with the Taliban and the fact that Pakistan was a big supporter of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.Secondly India had claimed time and again that Pakistan uses terrorist groups to promote their foreign policy agenda’s. They claimed that the Pakistani intelligence cell, the ISI, with the blessings of the government equipped, trained an d infiltrated militants into Kashmir. This was a very serious claim considering Pakistan was a nuclear state which endorsed state sponsored terrorism. The Indian government hoped that the United States would finally understand India’s point of view and become an ally of India against Pakistan’s state-sponsored terrorism. Indian security agencies hope that the terrorist attack in New York on Tuesday will see the United States put pressure on Pakistan to extradite Dawood Ibrahim, Tiger Memon, Chhota Shakeel and others, who masterminded the serial bomb blasts in Mumbai in March 1993. † Domestically, Pakistan has had to pay a very heavy price for the part it has played in the war. There has been a huge increase in the number of terrorist and militant organizations in the country after the war.Following the events of the 2001-2002 standoff between Pakistan and India, Musharraf, pledged to crack down on the militant organizations working in the country. They were obvio usly not willing to go easily and put up resistance by targeting government and security establishments. Thousands of innocent civilians were killed as result of suicide attacks and the whole country was gripped in a constant state of fear. The law and order situation got so wore that the president himself narrowly survived two bold attempts on his life.The backlash was the worst in the north western region, for the people divided by international borders shared the same strong bonds of ethnicity and culture. Taking cue from the Taliban of Afghanistan, the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan became an active anti-state terrorist organization comprised of mostly Pashtoons, just like the Afghani Taliban. It is responsible for carrying out hundreds of terrorist attacks on state owned institutions and civilians as well. They were perhaps behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and one of the biggest causes for instability in the Khyber-Pukhtoonkhwa province.The situation became too bad to be i gnored and the Pakistan military launched a full scale military operation in which thousands of troops were involved to deal with this menace. Even though millions of rupees and a lot of soldiers were lost in the operation, the operation was unsuccessful and the Taliban continue living in the mountains of the Waziristan region, albeit as outlaws and vigilantes. This religious extremist ideology, unfortunately, is not only confined to Pakistan’s western provinces. This menace has slowly started spreading in the comparatively more peaceful Punjab and Sindh provinces as well.The society is slowly becoming more polarised on the issue of whether Pakistan should keep on fighting America’s war. Others however believe this is a war for Pakistan’s own survival. Whatever the case is, the country has been gripped in a constant state of fear and gloom. Notions of national cohesiveness and unity are fast withering away as the Pashtoon and Baloch communities claim they have f elt the brunt of the war on terror, a notion that is true considering the drone attacks that are carried out in their homelands.A 2012 report on the security situation of 2011 in Pakistan puts the matter in better perspective. â€Å"While  FATA  continued to reel under the impact of terrorism, there was no respite from terror in  KP  as well. Sindh continued to experience a more  centralized pattern  of violence in and around Karachi. However, the extension of the influence of armed extremist political, ethnic, sectarian and criminal groups in the city, and the chances of violence spreading to other areas of the Province, could not be ruled out. † Overall the costs of this war on terror have been staggering for Pakistan.The costs, in terms of monetary terms, political terms, social terms and most importantly loss of life are so huge, that Pakistan is still reeling from the blow. The report mentioned earlier, gives an idea regarding the losses sustained by Pakistan . â€Å"Pakistan’s continuing engagement with the production and export of Islamist extremism and terrorism continued to produce a bloody blowback at home, with a total of at least 6,142 persons, including of 2,797 militants, 2,580 civilians and 765 Security Forces (SFs) personnel killed in 2011.However, even this worrying total constituted an improvement of 17. 75 per cent over the preceding year. 7,435 persons, including 5,170 militants, 1,796 civilians and 469 SF personnel, had been killed in 2010. † Secondly, the war has almost dried up foreign investment in Pakistan, as no one is willing to come here considering the prevailing security situation and the unstable political scenario.The economy is in shambles as a major chunk of the budget goes to the army and less and less is spent on the people. It is true that Pakistan is getting aid from outside, but it cannot just rely on aid to survive in the future. A major energy crisis has added to the woes of the country a nd caused great distress to the public. Anti American sentiments are now at an all time high and the country looks forward to the day it does not have to deal with these issues any more.As former foreign minister Abdul Sattar says, â€Å"So colossal have been the human and material ravages our country has suffered during the last decade that no sensitive citizen can but wish Pakistan had followed a different course, one that might have saved our country and people from the nightmare in which we are still trapped. † If the positive and negative outcomes of the post 9/11 policy are weighed against each other, it can be concluded that it has been overall more baneful than beneficial to the country.Yes, the policy allowed Pakistan to come back into the main stream of international politics and yes, it caused an influx of foreign aid into the country which rescued a stagnant economy, but at what cost? The material costs of thousands of dollars or the cost of human life, to which a value cannot be assigned, have been tremendous. The country is gripped by a war that is ravaging its socio-political fabric. The economy is once again in shambles and the country stands on the brink of bankruptcy.The more alarming thought is that, the war on terror is still not over and its consequences keep haunting the country. Once the coalition troops leave Afghanistan, the whole region will be locked in a geo-political struggle for supremacy and with major players like hostile India involved, the odds do not look good for Pakistan. Works Cited: Balakrishnan, S. â€Å"India Hopes US Will Now Pressurise Pak. †Ã‚  The Times Of India. N. p. , 2001. Web. 14 Oct. 2012. . â€Å"Pakistan Assessment 2012.   South Asia Terrorism Portal. N. p. , n. d. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. . Musarrat, Prof. Dr. Razia. â€Å"US WAR ON TERRORISM AND ITS IMPACT ON SOUTH ASIA. † Thesis. University of the Punjab, n. d. Http://pu. edu. pk. University of the Punjab. Web. http://pu. edu. pk/images/ journal/pols/Currentissue-pdf/RAZIA. pdf Sattar, Abdul. â€Å"REVISIT TO POST-9/11 POLICY. †Ã‚  Criterion-Quarterly  7. 1 (2012): n. pag. Criterion-quarterly. com. 2012. Web. 12 Oct. 2012. .

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An Incident That Made Me Believe In FATE!!! I am choosing that free will exists in our world. I think that I make my own choices every day, but I know that God definitely helps me along the way. Every day I wake up, and I make a decision, should I go back to sleep, lie here looking at the walls, or should I get out of bed and go to class? My story takes place before I was a teenager; I would have to flashback twenty years. What is faith? Is it belief in one’s God? How does one find faith? Can someone that claims to have faith ever doubt? When I was twelve years old, I thought that I was religious. I went to a function with my youth group. In attendance were a great number of kids, I felt lost in the shuffle with so many things going on. Just as I contemplated to sneak away, a boy came over to talk to me, â€Å"How thoughtful,† I said to myself. We sat for a very long time and read the Bible together. It made me feel so special, like I was starting to belong to the group. I felt it was so wonderful that someone took the time to notice me. This experience had a very special meaning to me. One of the most important aspects of teenage life is feeling secure, accepted, and loved. At that moment I felt all those things at one time. My preacher came over to talk with me and wondered why I was sitting all alone. I looked up and realized I was alone. I told her about the boy who had noticed me. We read the bible together, and we talked for hours. She helped me look for him and we couldn’t find him anywhere. I was devastated and had no idea where he could have gone. I had been looking all weekend for the boy who noticed me, only I still couldn’t find him anywhere. That’s when I realized that this was awesome. I know what it is: It is fate or faith? Here I am at a Christian event, and to think I was visited by the Lord. I told the preacher that, and she told me that I need to tell everyone the account of what happened. So there I was, standing in front of this group of kids. I was so anxious, but also calm. The story just flowed out of me. I told everyone what exactly happened to me this weekend. Whether individuals believe in God or not, a person must have a reason for his or her belief. I think fate has dealt me with a wonderful reason to believe in God!!!

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The Stagnation of Content in the Making of Movies - Essay Example While some of these films are successful, others are box office failures. Motives for releasing a remake runs the gamut of saving money, exploiting a popular plot or theme, or capitalizing on the current cultural trends. However, they saturate the movie market and drown the public in a stagnant pool of rehashed content. We, as a society, need to break outside our own self-inflicted monotony, and let our imagination run rampant once again, or else our society may forever be caught in the endless miasma of mediocre entertainment, and with it, our future forced into dull drudgery. The propensity of the Hollywood studios to remake a foreign film is exemplified with the cashing in on the pop culture's current cult buzz. A prime example of this phenomenon is the Japanese movie The Ring (1998), which is one of the most horrifying and the highest grossing films ever to be released in Japan. Its success spawned a series of remakes such as in Korea as The Ring Virus (1999) and in the United States as The Ring (2002). The studios did not have to take the risk of inventing new characters, setting, or plot. They simply moved forward on a tried and true formula that had previously been successful. ... The studio's attempt to save money by reproducing more of the same actually resulted in heavy losses. While the original Ring grossed $129 million, the sequel The Ring Two pulled in a paltry final figure of $75 million in the United States ("Japanese Horror Remake"). This is evidence that the viewing public can get tired of their fond memories, as movie producers fail to deliver on their promises of enhancing and tastefully paying homage to the previous films by taking short cuts and recycling old ideas. Watching a well-made film repeatedly may be far more enjoyable than seeing it repackaged with unfamiliar actors and different production values. A good example of this is the Hitchcock film Psycho (1960). This film is so tense and well crafted that the remake has had great difficulty in living up to its expectations. When a remake is released, the public and the critics will naturally compare it to the original version. The critics at Moviefone called Invasion (2007), Nicole Kidman's remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), "ridiculous, overwrought ... and worst of all, boring" ("Worst Movie Remakes of all Time"). Other films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, House of Wax, and the planned Evil Dead suffer from the audience's high standards when comparing then to the original. The financial effort to save money on a remake almost assures the public that they will see nothing new, and probably the best they can hope for is some enhanced technology in the special effects. The remake of the highly acclaimed Alfie (1966) was remade starring Jude Law, and was panned by critics as, "a hollow, cynical shell of the charming

Business strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Business strategy - Essay Example Globalisation has led to the creation of a situation where firms are desperately trying to generate a distinction for their products and services. The present study would analyse the business strategies of Google in the wake of the turbulence in the markets. The internet search engine industry has an oligopolistic market structure with only three major players namely Google, Yahoo and Microsoft having a majority market stake (Fabos, 2005, p.189-192). The value of this attractive industry segment has been pegged at 16.6 billion US dollars as of 2010 in the North American market alone (SEMPO, 2010, p.1) Task 1 Strategic formulation Vision Corporate vision statement largely displays the direction of a company that it seeks to intent for achieving its set of objectives. The vision statement largely defines the possible future strategies of the organization. A good vision statement not only helps shareholders and customers but also seeks to induce a motivating effect on the employees of t he organization (Fitzroy & Herbert, 2009, p.157). Google’s vision statement is reflected as a ten point strategic framework named as ten things. The ten point vision framework largely includes ensuring simplicity, innovation and ethics (Google-a, n.d.). Core competencies The core competency of Google is based on the aspect of the simplistic yet innovative nature of the product offering of the organization. Google core competencies lie in its ability to produce diverse product with large scale innovations that delights the users by the simple yet effective performance. The core competence of Google also comes from its unique search engine algorithm that has made it the most popular search engine of the web (Sugano, Goncalves & Figueira, 2009, p.57). Mission Statement The mission statement is a single and short statement that describes the purpose of existence of an organization (Kaplan, Norton & Barrows, 2008, p.3-4). The mission statement of Google is stated as follows: †Å"Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful† (Google, n.d.). Stakeholder Analysis Google is a public company which has its shares listed on the bourses of the NASDAQ stock exchange. The stakeholders of Google include suppliers, government, trade associations, employees as well as the employee unions. The company aims to ensure the continuous welfare of the shareholders and ensures a good return on their investments (Morrow, 2008). Environmental and Organizational Audit PESTEL PESTEL is a tool that can be used to analyse the external environment of an organization. PESTEL is an acronym that stands for Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington, 2008, p.65). Political Political factors largely include government polices and legislations. Google is based in USA but it also has operations and business units spread around the globe. Google is being continuously affected by legislations related to censorship of its contents and

Public bank management Essay Example for Free

Public bank management Essay 1.Introductions The model of the Five Competitive Forces was developed by Michael E. Porter that becomes an important tool for analysing an organizations industry structure instrategic processes. This model is applicable to the banking industry. Public Bank do compete with the other financial institution in Malaysia, however they also must cooperate with one another in many respects. There is an underlying problem which is the banks in Malaysia are so similar that there is essentially nothing one of them can do that the others cannot easily duplicate 2. Five Forces Analysis a. Threats of new entrants Malaysia has not put a barrier to entry for any financial institution manly banks in Malaysia, thus making it easy for any financial institution to penetrate into the industry. b. Bargaining power of suppliers a bank has three suppliers of its product, money: 1. Its depositors has no bargaining power whatever in reality. If they make time deposits the bank will set the price or interest rate it will pay. 2. The credit market the credit market as a source of supply of the raw material, money, is open to all at all time if they are qualified participants. The source of supply can be argued to be infinite. 3. The central bank The Central bank is effectively the resource of last resort. Apparently, at least for the moment, it will continue to supply liquidity to the banking system in virtually unlimited quantities at very reasonable cost. c. Bargaining power of buyers In the banking industry, customer have has very limited bargaining power. However the customers may option in changing to other banks that they think is offering a better offer than Public Bank. c. Threat of substitute product For the most part there is no real threat of substitute products in the banking industry. However there probably will be continues evolution of  products from paper to electronic in coming years. This is an area of potential competition for whomever banks that choose to use it in their services. d. Rivalry among competitors Generally all banks offer somewhat the same products and services to their customers, thus there is not much differentiation between Public Banks and the other competitors. This is making the competition much higher. Public Bank is actually ranked as the top banks earners in Malaysia in 2009 alongside with Maybank, Bumiputra Commerce, RHB Capital and Hong Leong Bank. 3. Table 1: Method used to identify opportunity and threat for Public Bank using external environment factors and industrial environment factors.(Factors under industry environment are derived from Porters Five Forces). 4. Opportunities 1. Economic growth Malaysia had definitely have been more economically stable and improving, thus financial institution such as Public Bank are needed to aid the overall development of the country. 2. Government policy Encouraging borrowings, loans, investment and consumption demand. 3. Awards and accolades Through recognition, Public Bank can project a positive image to their customers 4. Market share Public Bank has the highest market share for the private sector unit trust business, thus having a larger customer base. 5.  Low switching cost Nowadays it is easy for any customer to switch to other banks with just a click away, making the switching cost to be faster and cheaper, making it easy for the customers to switch to Public Bank. 5. Threats 1. Substitute product/service are available There is a potential competition to whomever banks that choose to upgrade their product and services to cater to their customers need. Maybank for example provide a customer friendly interface through their website www.maybank2u.com, and it became the most visited website in Malaysia. 2.Substitute performance Maybank, Bumiputra Commerce, RHB Capital and Hong Leong Bank are Public Bank competitors and each is recognized for their performance. This will make the competition even higher. 3. Customer switching cost Other than being an opportunity, switching cost can also be a threat for Public Bank as the customers can also easily switch to other financial institution. 4. Government legal barriers There are no barriers that the government put for any legal financial institution to enter in the industry, making any new entrants penetrate into the market share easily. 5. Exit barriers High exit barriers in the industry are making the competition between Public Bank and the other competitors are even higher. 6. Conclusion Porter Five Forces Model are used to identify how the forces affect the attractiveness and profitability of Public Bank, and through this forces, the factors that influence these forces are used in the table 1, to identify Public Bank opportunities and threats. By identifying Public Banks industry environment, the company can improve and sustain their product and services for their customer, ultimately improving their performance.

The Global Presence Of Zara Commerce Essay

The Global Presence Of Zara Commerce Essay PESTLE Analysis is a type of situation analysis where we need before starting market decisions or business plans. It is extremely important to identify the external environment. The only way to accomplish our goal is through a PESTLE analysis which contains six factors that influence on a business: Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental and Legal. Besides it is also very important for a company to be fully awake of the actions their competitors take. These kinds of factors change constantly. It is no surprise why every time we talk about fashion the same name always comes up: Zara. The largest and the most famous Spanish clothing company in the world. There stores covers almost every continent in the world. The Zara Company was established in 1975 by Amancio Orgega, Zara is the flagship of Inditex (Industria del Diseà ±o Textil, S.A.), the company is located in Galicia, the north-west part of Spain. In a relatively short time frame Inditex has become one of the biggest clothing retailer in the world with 2,692 stores spread across 62 countries worldwide by the end of January 2006. In addition to Zara which accounted for 66 percent of the groups turnover in 2005, Inditex owns seven smaller store brands: Bershka (avantgarde clothing), Pull and Bear (youth casual clothes), Massimo Dutti (quality and conventional fashion), Oysho (undergarment chain), Stradivarius (trendy garments for young women), Kiddys Class (childrens fashion), and Zara Home (household textiles). Political Factors The government and political parties are accountable for evolving the political environment in a country. The chief silent factor in a business is government; they can help an industry by using the form of policies. Zara has been present in Spain, and merely one more main distribution centre for Europe. In addition, the political help that is provided for expansion of the business in other countries must be assessed critically. Because European countries have predictable and safe economic environments, Zara has choices to expand its business around Europe. And these are some of the most important pull factors that give a clear definition of the internationalisation of Zara include: The 1986 admission of Spain in the EU; The globalisation of the economy potential economies of scale; The homogenisation of consumption patterns across nations Zaras believes that national frontiers are no impediment to sharing a single fashion culture The eradication of export obstructions and the growth of Information Technology. (Lopez Fan, 2009). As we know already Zara is a Spanish company so establishing a new branch in another country and all the terms which are related to taxation are political factors for Zara group. The political emphasize on the role of goverment and its effects on our company, and also extent of participation in a political situation. For example Indian government is willing to provide foreign investment in their nation; The Company Zara was provided an open market by India. However the government of India has its own policy which is to be followed by companies as Zara which formed a joint venture with TATA (Shah, 2011) Economic factors Production not transferred to low cost locations: Zara resisted the famous in industry trend to produce fashion cheaply in countries like China. Zara states that this offers more control as it controls most of its steps on the Supply Chain, the design, manufacture and the distribution of products (CNN, 2001). In the UK, half of what products Zara sells are made in Spain, a quarter in the rest of Europe and another quarter in countries in Africa and Asia. For example, longer shelf life clothing such as t-shirts is outsourced to cheap suppliers mostly in Asia and Turkey (Business Week, 2006). Zero Advertising Policy: The rarest company policy is the policy not to advertise. While Zaras competitors mostly rely on expensive advertising campaigns, Zara prefers to invest into opening new stores instead (CNN, 2001). Producer of nearly 11,000 items annually: There is a large product range in the Zara Company. While the competitors of Zara produce about 2000-4000 items annually, Zara produces a whole 11 000 items. In addition brand loyalty is built and an increased number of customer visits as a result of Zara changing its designs every two weeks. A customer visit in Spain on a high street in Zara is 17 times a year compared to 3 times in the average street stores. (The Guardian, 2002). Shortening Product Life Cycle: While the designing of a new product and getting it to the stores by industry takes 6 months, Zara needs just 2 weeks to do the same (Business Week, 2006). To recap, Zara breaks all the guidelines, but it seems that using this strategy proves to be very successful, because Zara is considered to be one of the largest stores in industry. Social Factors Growing of income: People began to look for a high quality and comfortable life when their disposable personal income rose. A wide market share is provided to Zara from this kind of trend. Personalized consumption turns into the mainstream of society. A major guarantor of Zaras success is a small amount, variety, cheap. Fast Fashion: When talking about the strategy of design, an article in Business world Magazine defines it as follows: Zara was a fashion imitator. It focused its attention on understanding the fashion items that its customers wanted and then delivering them, rather than on promoting predicted seasons trends via fashion shows and similar channels of influence, which the fashion industry traditionally used. There will be a depreciation of 0.7% of fashion goods every single day. A new product, from its designing to manufacture, logistics operation and the final sale, needs only about 2 or 3 weeks in Zara. Affordable Fashion: Fashion has received attention by a growing number of people. However, only a small amount of people can afford it because fashion is a masterwork of top designers. By tracking these fashion elements, the designers of Zara design their own product in order to make it affordable to most consumers (Badu, 2010). Technological Factors RD and Production 1. Fast production: Zaras deliveries take up to 6 weeks instead of 6 months which is usual for their competitors.(Ghemawat Nueno, 2006). 2. It is easy for Zara to control their suppliers since they amount to 20. These 20 suppliers account for 70% of Zaras production. Other companies for example have 200 suppliers or even more. Logistic 1. Zara have their own distribution centre with an order to delivery time of 24 hours for Europe and 48 hours for USA and Asia (Tokatli, 2007). 2. The shops receive two deliveries from Zaras distribution centre. Which gives the shops the opportunity to have low inventory and a high turnaround within the shop (Lopez Fan, 2009) (Ghemawat Nueno, 2006). Flexible Supply Chain 1.Zara is vertically integrated and controls its entire production chain. An effect of great importance of the control is the re-reducing the bullwhip effect. (Ghemawat Nueno, 2006) 2. Zara has very short lead times. The Agility of their supply chain allows Zara to deliver from product design to the final customer within 2 weeks for repeat models or 5 weeks for new products (Mazaira, Gonzà ¡lez, Avendano, 2003). Environmental Factors Zara tries to help the sustainable growth of the society and the environments which it interplays with. This dedication to the environment is a fragment of the Inditex group corporate social responsibility policy. Objectives and Actions: At the sores: Zara puts a lot of effort on eco efficiency at their shops. Energy saving is one of the key approaches to ecological preservation the company embraces. Another approach is the development of efficient management models for their stores that proposes some restrictions or changes to be carried into effect for all of the companys processes, from the design of the store itself, the lighting and heating or cooling system equipment, to the possible recycling of furniture and decoration. Zara stores offer only paper or biodegradable plastic bags. About 90% of the bags Zara gives out to customers are papermade. 1. Waste reduction and urge to recycling Every year Zara processes millions of hangers and security tags. In addition both the cardboard and plastics used are recycled. 2. Increasing awareness among the team members Zara heightens all their employees awareness of the need for sustainable practices such as trimming energy consumption, using sustainable transport or modifying habits. With the product 1. The company uses mostly ecological fabrics, like organic cotton. Zara Supports ecological agriculture and uses organic cotton in the manufacturing of selected clothing items(100% cotton, completely free of pesticides, chemicals and bleaches). Due to their distinctive label such products can be recognized very easily at the stores. 2. Producing PVC -free footwear Zara does not use any petroleum derivatives or non-biodegradable fabrics for the production of their footwear. In the transportation Zaras fleet of Lorries ship over 200 million pieces of clothing per year and use 5% biodiesel fuel, which results in lowering the emission of CO2 into the atmosphere by over 500 tones Animal welfare policy All of the animal products, including fur and leather sold at Zara stores is supplied only from animals grown in livestock form and never from animas killed by poachers for skin sale. (Zara, 2010) Legal Factors Plagiarism Plagiarism has become a hug problem in the fashion industry. Trends are very often imitated and cheaply as well as illegally sold in the street. Global expansion Since the European has a smoothly operating trade and legal system which facilitates business operations in member countries, other countries around the world do not provide the same reliabilities . In communistic countries loss of a private run business to the local government is highly probable. Conclusion: Zara has had a very successful history from the moment they opened their small Spanish dress shop, and as we can see now the little-known brand has grown into a leader of the apparel market in less than 30 years. Now the footprints of Zara is nearly everywhere. The big design group, unique strategy, environmental management idea and other operational strategies make Zara success. This PESTLE analysis seeks to improve our understanding of the firm. The research has examined the internationalisation process of the firm with a special focus on motives, entry options and international marketing strategies. The main drawback that arises in a single case study is that of limited validity and representativeness which constrains the potential for making generalisations (Creswell, 1998). Another limitation is that the study was based solely on secondary data. However, this case is deemed adequate to provide good insight, and establish the avenue for future studies.