The Pre-history of the Non-Aligned Movement
This article focuses on the pre-history of the Non-Aligned Movement and of the friendship between Pandit Nehru and Tito from Yugoslavia. It explores the various levels of contacts between Indians and Yugoslavs in the second half of the 1940s, among communists, diplomats, United Nations delegation members and participants of a Yugoslav trade delegation to South Asia. Special attention is given to the question of why Yugoslavia was a rather uninteresting or even hostile country to India in the years immediately after the end of World War II, but grew to be an attractive partner in the aftermath of Tito's break with Stalin, when the country tried to survive between the Anglo–American and Soviet blocs.
Western 'Containment' Policies in the Cold War: The Yugoslav Case, 1948-53
Containment, as conceived by the US government official George Kennan, was an aggressive attempt to cause the Soviet Cold War empire to disintegrate. This can is demonstrated by the case study of how the USA, Britain, and France tried to instrumentalise renegade Tito's Yugoslavia as a wedge to break up the cohesion of the Communist regimes within the Soviet sphere. They supported Tito against subversion and planned Soviet-orchestrated military attack from its neighbouring states; Western plans for the support of Yugoslavia included plans for a selective use of nuclear weapons.
The economics of the open university revisited
Revision of earlier cost calculations for the Open University and Conventional Universities in the U.K. for 1973 confirms the findings of a significant cost advantage to the Open University. An analysis of developments at the Open University since 1973 indicates, however, that there has been little reduction in average cost in real terms and no improvement is likely on known developments to 1979. This is surprising for it might be expected that as student numbers rise average costs would fall. A more detailed analysis of the structure of Open University costs indicates why this has not happened. A major determinant of costs is the number of courses and these have continued to grow rapidly since 1973. The rate of increase of new courses has been faster than the rate of increase of new students. In effect the University has been using the economies provided by increased student numbers to increase student choice through the provision of more courses rather than reduce average cost.Average cost could be reduced whilst keeping the same number of courses by changing the components of the teaching system such as broadcasting. If such fundamental changes were not acceptable then an alternative would be to change the mix of courses between the relatively expensive science and technology areas and the cheaper arts and social science areas. A further alternative is to keep the same mix but ensure a longer life for science and technology courses.