Local and global resilience practice questions.

In 2017 the NotPetya cyber-attack disabled the information systems of the shipping company Maersk and halted work at several container terminals. The firm rebuilt its network from one surviving copy of its directory and restored operations within about ten days. Which characteristic of a resilient system does this best illustrate?

• The capacity to raise output continuously over the long term
• The capacity to recover function quickly after a shock
• The capacity to prevent shocks from occurring at all
• The capacity to transfer financial risk to an insurer

Answer: The capacity to recover function quickly after a shock

Resilience is measured by how fast function returns after a shock, not by whether the shock can be stopped; a surviving backup shortened recovery time. Treating resilience as prevention leads firms to over-invest in barriers and under-invest in redundancy and recovery planning.

China operates a national system of internet filtering and blocking, often called the Great Firewall, which restricts access to many foreign platforms from within the country. This is best classified as which kind of response to global interactions?

• A civil society campaign against global consumer culture
• A voluntary corporate social responsibility commitment
• A state-imposed constraint on global data flows
• A multilateral trade agreement covering digital services

Answer: A state-imposed constraint on global data flows

The actor is the state and the object controlled is the flow of data across its borders, which makes it a geopolitical constraint rather than a market or consumer response. Recognising the actor matters, because only states can impose controls at the national gateway.

After supply-chain disruption during the COVID-19 pandemic, several European manufacturers moved production of critical components from Asian suppliers back to plants that they own in Europe. Which term describes this decision?

• Reshoring
• Outsourcing
• Offshoring
• Franchising

Answer: Reshoring

Reshoring returns production to the home country, reversing an earlier move abroad (offshoring). Outsourcing transfers a function to another firm wherever it is located, so it describes the arrangement these manufacturers left behind when they brought the work home to plants they own.

The collapse of the Rana Plaza garment building in Dhaka, Bangladesh in 2013 killed more than 1 100 workers. Within weeks, global clothing brands signed a binding factory safety accord with trade unions and non-governmental organisations. This response is best classified as which of the following?

• An intergovernmental treaty regulating international labour migration
• A state-led programme of import substitution industrialisation
• A trade union strategy of nationalising the factories
• A binding brand-union agreement produced by civil society pressure

Answer: A binding brand-union agreement produced by civil society pressure

The buying firms acted, but only once unions, media and consumers had made inaction costly; no government signed the accord, so calling it a treaty would misidentify the actors. Strictly it goes beyond conventional corporate social responsibility, which is voluntary: this agreement is legally binding and jointly governed with trade unions.

After repeated supply disruptions, a manufacturer begins holding buffer stocks and qualifying a second supplier on a different continent. What is being traded off?

• Higher running costs in exchange for greater resilience to disruption
• Lower quality in exchange for faster delivery times
• Reduced emissions in exchange for higher labour costs
• Greater efficiency in exchange for reduced flexibility

Answer: Higher running costs in exchange for greater resilience to disruption

Redundancy costs money continuously and pays only when something fails, which is why efficiency pressure erodes it in stable periods. Recognising resilience as a purchased insurance rather than a free improvement is the analytical point.

The Montreal Protocol on ozone-depleting substances is frequently cited as the most effective environmental treaty. Which feature best explains its success?

• A small number of substances, available substitutes and finance for developing countries
• The absence of any economic interests opposing the agreement
• Binding military enforcement against states that failed to comply
• Universal agreement that ozone depletion was harmless

Answer: A small number of substances, available substitutes and finance for developing countries

The problem was tractable: few chemicals, a small number of producers, technically feasible replacements, and a fund that made compliance affordable for lower-income countries. Comparing it with climate change shows why the same design has not transferred - fossil energy is not a short list of substances with ready substitutes.