The change of the geopolitical realities, the emergence of new regional dynamics and the perception of security in Central Asia have also changed current perspectives in the region. Fully revised and updated to cover the latest informations and developments, the book will provide comprehensive, accessible and successful introduction for those who are interested in the Central Asia region. As the editors, we have filled a long-neglected gap by producing a volume that authoritatively covers the states of the region. The book will become a definitive text for the teaching as it presents in-depth explorations of systemic and sophisticated way of understanding the actors and processes and offers case study encompassing many subjects about Central Asia. It conbines old and new perspectives with discerning care.

This book –The Changing Perspectives of Central Asia in the 21^st Century- has provided readers with prominent knowledge of independence period, actors, minority issues, nation-state building process, energy, security, water, boundary, regional integration and foreign policies of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan with each other and with Russia, China, America, the EU and Turkey. The book claims that geopolitical realities, regional dynamics and the perception of security in Central Asia have changed. Thus, the book focuses on environmental degradation, cyber insecurity and social unrest triggered by sovereign debt traps. These discussions highlight the necessity to reconsider the traditional perception of security as the analysis has to go beyond the state to address a wide range of security threats.

Dr. Murat YORULMAZ is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Management and Organization at Trakya University, Edirne.

Dr. Serdar YILMAZ is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and International Relations at Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Muğla.

The determinants of local government performance have long been of interest, and have been empirically investigated in a number of recent studies. A general question in this area is: why have some local governments across the countries achieved high rates of performance whilst the others remained at lower levels? Evidence from the relevant literature indicates that some local governments or municipalities, particularly in developed countries, achieve very good performance. Others, in particular those from underdeveloped or developing, have very little or almost no performance.

This research empirically investigates the budgeting conditions in North Cyprus and evaluate how budgeting conditions vary from one municipality to the other in the five major municipalities; Lefkosa, Magusa, Girne, Guzelyurt and Iskele over the period 2004Q1 to 2012Q4. Two types of methodologies are conducted. First; it empirically investigates the determinants of local government deficit by using cointegration techniques. The Johansen co-integration and The Vector Error Correction model (VECM) are applied to test the effect of each element such as own-source revenue, grants, expenditures and debt services on the budget deficit. Second, the study test the convergence hypothesis if similar regions within the country converge to the same long-run steady state by considering five major Cypriot municipalities in the North Cyprus economy.

The results from the empirical analysis on budget deficit findings show that there is evidence of a long-run relationship between general deficit and its determinants. The evidence of causality is found from expenditure and debt to general deficit for Lefkosa municipality. There is unidirectional causality from grant and revenue through deficit for Magusa municipality. Third empirical analysis on convergence introduced that the municipalities with the lowest number of people per staff, commonly diverge from the group mean.

Bu kitap Sivil havayolu taşımacılığında, ilgili dönemler açısından, Pazar payının artırılmasına yönelik sorunları araştırarak temel nedenlerin belirlenmesini ve aynı zamanda konuya yönelik çözümlerin geliştirilmesini amaçlamaktadır. Özellikle mevcut meseleler stratejik pazarlama yönetimi ve rekabetçi stratejiler açısından ele alınmış ve elde edilen bulgular sektörle paylaşılarak, bu konuda faaliyet gösteren şirketlere ışık tutması amaç edinilmiştir. Bunun yanı sıra, özellikle Dünya literatüründeki havayolu pazarlaması ve stratejileri konularında yayınlanan çalışmalardan belirli bir bölümü derlenerek, gerek Türkiye’deki “Hava Yolu Pazarlaması ve Hava Yolu Stratejileri” konularına yönelik teorideki boşluğun azaltılması gerekse de bu konuda çalışmalar yapacak havayolu firmalarına yol gösterecek fikirlerin kazanılmasına yönelik bilgi kaynağının sağlanması, Bu kitabın bir diğer amacını teşkil etmektedir.

Çalışmada, uygulama sonuçlarının irdelenmesi yapılarak; sektörde faaliyet gösteren firmaların rekabetçi açıdan daha başarılı olabilmeleri ve pazar paylarını arttırabilmeleri için; devletin, kamu ve özel havayollarının neler yapmaları gerektiğine dair bir dizi öneriler sunulmuştur. Bu çalışmanın dolaylı olarak ticari hava yolu şirketlerinin hem mevcut varlıklarını sürdürmelerini hem de pazar paylarını daha fazla arttırmalarına katkıda bulunacağı düşünülmektedir.

Economic cybercrime is one of the unwelcomed consequences of unprecedented intrusion of the Internet in our daily lives. Academic interest in understanding the causes and adverse impacts of cybercrime is growing. Opportunity perspective, which perceives individuals’ daily routines and lifestyles as the primary facilitator of victimization, has been widely applied as a theoretical and conceptual framework in cybercrime victimization research. However, this approach put the responsibility of the victimization on victims explicitly, which hampers the application of crime prevention and reduction efforts. This book presents the Contextual Vulnerabilities approach based on the significant findings of a doctoral study conducted at Durham University in the United Kingdom. Contextual vulnerabilities approach posits that cybercrime victimization is the outcome of the confluence of contextual factors that are mostly beyond victims’ control. This approach presumes that controlling individual (micro-level), macro-level and socio-cultural vulnerabilities may prevent cybercrime victimization. Though the preliminary goal of this book is to provide a new theoretical perspective to scholars researching victimization in cyberspace, I hope the wider audience would find it informative.