The comments by Lawson and Legrenzi to our RISP/IPSR article ‘Tracing the modes of China's revisionism in the Indo-Pacific: a comparison with pre-1941 Shōwa Japan’ contribute to moving the debate on revisionism in international politics a step forward. Their notes on the several issues affecting the International Relations understanding of the phenomenon are on the same page as ours and we appear to share similar doubts and a like-minded curiosity on the subject. While grasping some key topics and shedding light on crucial shortcomings in the literature on international change, power transitions and international order, however, their observations do not come unproblematic. In this reply to their timely remarks, we highlight the perks of their argument but also stress how this falls through in providing a complete framework to understand revisionism in international politics.

Goal-setting is fundamental to organisational management, yet not every manager knows how to do it well. A narrative literature review was done to explore current knowledge of definitions and classifications of goals, and principles of goal-setting in the healthcare sector. Online databases generated 65 relevant articles. Additional literature sources were snowballed from referenced articles, and textbooks. Most academic authors define ‘goal’ synonymously as ‘aim’ or ‘objective’, but there is evidence of hermeneutical confusion in general literature. Goal classifications are diverse, differing according to their contextual, structural, functional, and temporal characteristics. Many authors agree that goal-setting is problem-based, change-oriented, and can effectively motivate attainment if the goal statement is formulated with a specific and challenging or SMART framework. However, recent authors report varying definitions for SMART, and evidence of past studies that empirically examined the nature and efficacy of frameworks currently used for formulating goal statements for health programmes are lacking.

Interventions are actions (processes) by humans to prevent, attenuate, create, or augment change(s). Resources (human, material) are consumed in the production of change. In disaster work, interventions are designed to: (1) affect the probability that damage will occur from an event; or (2) effect recovery. The definitions and implications of the terms: effects, outcomes, outputs, efficiency, effectiveness, efficacy, benefits, and costs (human, material, opportunity) as well as cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit are discussed. A new concept of Best Outcome Without Assistance (BOWA) is presented. Responses and interventions directed at prevention or mitigation of the damage produced must be evaluated from the perspective of their outcomes and to what extent they benefit the societies affected or at risk in relation to the goals and objectives defined prior to implementation of the intervention(s).

All damage requires some response. Responses are directed towards the mitigation of further damage once the impact of an event has begun and/or correcting the functional deficits created by the primary and secondary events, and restoring the functionality of the damaged elements to their respective pre-event state. Disaster responses are directed towards search and rescue, relief, recovery, and/or rehabilitation. Responses must be directed at satisfying all or part of defined needs. Implementation of responses must be coordinated through a Coordination and Control Center. Thus, all responses must be driven by clearly stated goals and objectives directed towards specific needs. The Disaster Critical Control Point (DCCP) is the time at which the available supplies balance all of the needs. Selection of appropriate indicators that reflect the severity of the damage and the effectiveness of the response in meeting its goals and objectives and the benefit to society that results is crucial. Use of appropriate indicators eventually will result in the evolution of minimum and optimum standards, and definition of functional and critical thresholds. Evolution of such standards and thresholds will lead to the development of critical pathways (process evaluation) and guidelines to be used in optimizing future responses. All of the steps from preparedness to recovery that are undertaken to minimize the damage and restore the pre-event status are the tasks of disaster management.

This lesson examines mechanisms that can be used for the evaluation of a program or project. The principal concern raised is whether the project has met its stated goals and objectives and whether the project has resulted in producing benefits to the affected society. Short-term (immediate) and long-term (developmental) contributions are discussed. The importance of projects contributing to increasing the absorbing capacity of the affected community for the next event is stressed. Twelve problems commonly encountered in program execution are defined. Optimal management attempts to identify potential pitfalls in advance, designing and implementing mechanisms to avoid them, and to deal with them if they should become manifest. Simply meeting the goals and objectives of the sponsoring organization is inadequate, as all responses must be coordinated and approved by the national coordinating agency. Thus, not only is the effectiveness of the project in meeting the defined goals and objectives important, but the project must be assessed in terms of the overall impact of the project on the society. Reference is made to using the structure provided by the Health Disaster Management: Guidelines for Evaluation and Research in the Utstein Style as promulgated by the Task Force on Quality Control of the World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine and the Nordic Society of Disaster Medicine.

Based on several sources of information an overview has been given on the development, present situation and problems of conservation of animal genetic resources in Europe.

Presently, 1 029 breeds of cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, horses and asses are registered by the EAAP-Animal Genetic Data Bank, Hanover. 42.8 % of the breeds are classified as being ‘at risk’. More than 360 conservation programmes are underway, which, however, in many cases seem to be operated independently of the status of endangerment and of similar breeds in other countries.

The primary objectives of conservation in Europe, i.e. ‘conservation for potential use, later’ and ‘conservation for cultural reasons’, are different from the objective ‘conservation for sustainable use, now’, which is primarily expressed for developing countries. Different objectives call for different answers to questions, such as: are breeds appropriate units of genetic diversity, how should endangerment be defined, what should be conserved and is incrossing and selection compatible with conservation?

In view of the large number of breeds ‘at risk’ and of similar breeds existing in different countries as well as the high costs of conservation it is concluded that characterisation of breeds for genetic uniqueness is presently the most urgent task in conservation. This requires effective co-operation across national borders in Europe.

Fisheries management in the future will require that biological assessments be combined appropriately with operational, social, and economic considerations toward effective management of complex fisheries systems. This is not currently being done in fisheries management because of: (i) the lack of a conceptual and organizational framework for integrated and participatory decision making, and (ii) the lack of more appropriate methodologies for dealing with diverse sources of information, interdisciplinary objectives, and the inherent uncertainty of these systems. An integration of traditional "fisheries science" with other aspects of "fisheries management" and the field of "management science" in a new discipline of "Fisheries Management Science" is proposed. FMS is defined as "the rigorous application of the scientific method of problem solving in the development of strategic alternatives and their evaluation on the basis of objectives that integrate biological, economic, social, and operational factors into management decision making". Management science or operational research provides guidance in methodologies for complex decision making and problem resolution. A multidisciplinary decision framework is proposed involving the following key steps: (1) specification of quantifiable objectives and constraints; (2) modelling of the expected multicriteria performance of a range of proposed management decisions; (3) risk assessment through descriptions of the expected variability in performance measures; (4) risk management through analytical evaluation of risk and ranking of alternate solutions; and (5) continuous monitoring and improvement of past decisions including deviations from expected performance and corresponding adjustment of future alternatives toward achieving strategic objectives.

The principal reason to conduct medical research is twofold: 1) to provide an answer to some question that is important to the investigator(s); and 2) to affect the behavior of others involved in the practice of medicine. In order to accomplish the latter of these two objectives, the results of your labors must be published in a reputable medical Journal so that it can impact upon the practice of your peers. To accomplish this, it is necessary to conform to certain rules in the development of the manuscript, and then have the paper evaluated for its relative merits for publication by a panel of your peers. These issues are addressed in this paper.

We all tend to be somewhat naive about the need to write in terms that can be understood and appreciated by our peers. Without clarity and understanding, our work has little impact on others. All that will be accomplished is the knowledge that you think you have gained from what you have done. There are several benefits associated with submission of your hard-earned work for review by your peers. Perhaps the most significant is that the process of peer review constitutes a learning process for the reviewers as well as the authors.