Is military force an effective instrument for the promotion of humanitarian values - Free Essay Example

This essay will argue that military force is an ineffective instrument for the promotion of humanitarian values. However, this is qualified by also presenting reasons for discounting the effectiveness of non-military interventions. This essay will be structured as follows. The first sections will confront methodological issues that have to be addressed before the question can be answered. Following this we will embark on a comparison of military and non-military interventions. The essay will evaluate a paradigm case of a successful operation, Australia in East Timor. We will argue it is anomalous and can barely qualify as a genuine intervention. We then see a true case of an intervention, Afghanistan, and conclude that this constitutes a failure of a military promotion of humanitarian values. We will then move onto evaluate two cases of non-military interventions, UN Resolutions and economic sanctions. It will be argued that UN sanctions are impotent, with reference to the actions of Israel. The essay will then examine the sanctions placed on Iraq, and argue that they caused a greater humanitarian crisis than any hitherto encountered intervention. The essay will conclude with reasons why one should refrain from drawing methodological precepts from prev ious interventions, and advocates a case-by-case analysis. It is important to limit the scope of this debate. First of all, I will not be discussing issues such as the legitimacy of military force being used in national liberation movements with the discussion instead focusing on third party military intervention. There are questions that further need to be addressed: Firstly, what constitutes military force? Is it the mere presence of military personnel (e.g. UN Peacekeeping forces), or does it have to be active military participation? Secondly, what are humanitarian values? Thirdly, how does one measure the promotion of such values? Is there a quantifiable way to ask whether their promotion has been effective? Fourthly, are there case studies which can be turned to in order to address the question? If there has never been a genuinely humanitarian intervention, then it will be impossible to assess the success of such an endeavour. In response to the first question, it is simp ler to treat all military interventions of the same ilk. Consider the criteria set out by the Red Cross (1997), arguing that a prerequisite for an intervention to be humanitarian it has to be neutral, impartial and independent. The position of the Red Cross is that no armed force could satisfy these requirements backed as they are by political governments with their own agenda. If one finds this cogent, then there is no prima facie reason for discerning between mercenary, state-backed and UN organisations[1]. In regards to humanitarian values, and how to measure their effectiveness, to find a view backed by consensus is almost impossible. We confront positions as diverse as simple, utilitarian measurements of the amount of people whose lives have been saved (Janzekovic, 2006: 144) to more specific positions such as Regan (1996: 341-342) who claims that an intervention can be deemed successful if it destabilises the region in such a way, so that it is more difficult for the oppressin g-state to continue with its human rights violations. This position would not use a short-term measurement such as deaths to measure the success of an intervention. However, I shall err on the simpler measurement. This is simply due to that the measurement of injuries, fatalities and abuses in a conflict is a simpler tool of analysis, rather than a vague notion such as favourable destabilisation[2]. Finally, as to whether there has been a genuine humanitarian intervention, the answer seems to be negative[3]. Regardless of whether or not one agrees with the historical analysis in the books cited, there is an explanatory problem for believers in genuine intervention, which is the sporadic and inconsistent use of such interventions. This is what Paris (2014: 578-588) calls the inconsistency problem. The thrust of the problem is that such inconsistent use of military intervention in regards to humanitarian crises implies that there is more than just selfless means motivating the interve nors. Although other factors affect the ability to intervene (Binder: 2009), there is a strong motivation that, when combined with the historical record, humanitarian intervention is a misnomer. However, let us leave this issue to the side. What we shall discuss now is the following: Do military interventions for nominally humanitarian ends, save more lives than non-military means for the same ends? Let us examine some of the paradigmatic cases of successful military intervention. One often cited is the success of the Australian intervention in East Timor in 1999. The intervention was required due to the Indonesian governments oppressive measures used to quell an East Timorese population insistent on independence from Jakarta. During the referendum campaign, there was widespread use of militia intimidation to quell support for independence, accompanied by widespread human rights violations. The actions of the Indonesian forces resulted in the displacement of around 40,000 à ¢Ã¢â €š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" 85,000 East Timorese (T. Seybolt, 2007: 88.)). The success of the Australian military has been praised by some, such as Wheeler and Dunne (2001) who took such success as totalling almost a paradigm shift on the effectiveness and new normative perspective of a humanitarian intervention (contrasting it with the collusion of the United States in the violent occupation of the East Timor in 1975 (Amnesty International, 1985). However, although the Australian intervention is largely considered successful, unfortunately, it does not meet the criteria of a humanitarian intervention. Humanitarian interventions, under most definitions (Roberts, 2003:5) have to be a military action without the consent of the oppressing power, in this case, Indonesia. However, as is noted by Chesterman (2002), Australia sought the consent of the Indonesian government, before intervening. The Australian government of the 5th of September said that they would only consider intervention if four conditi ons were met: (i) there was a security council mandate, (ii) if the Indonesian government consented, (iii) if the endeavour was a short term one, and (iv) if the force had a strong regional component Wheeler and Dunne (ibid p.807). What makes the fact that consent was sought from Indonesia considerably stranger was the fact that, apart from Australia, the international community did not believe that Indonesia had any rights over East Timor, with East Timor being internationally considered to be an independent state. As Chesterman goes onto note as well, that, although it is often cited to be an example of successful intervention, the fact remains that the international community displayed great reticence in intervening (contrasted with their enthusiasm regarding Bosnia). Chesterman concludes that if Australia had not intervened, no one else would have (Chesterman 2002:181)) There are also significant reasons that the reason for Australian intervention were hardly impartial either, a s Chesterman also notes that the Howard Government of Australia was probably more worried about the influx of refugees that would come from such a crisis (a point which is corroborated by Gonzalez-Forester (2004), who documents Australia and other countries previous ambivalences to violent Indonesian actions towards the East-Timorese.) This case study appears to support the question posed in the affirmative, as once the Australian forces intervened, the extent of the massacres and expropriations stopped considerably. Thus, there does appear to be some motivation for considering military intervention a useful technique. However, there are also other considerable problems by extrapolating from this example. First of all, the Indonesian forces consented to their intervention, so the Australians were entering a comparatively un-hostile environment, and secondly, this fact is bolstered by the generally warm relations between Australia and Indonesia. In order for us to extrapolate from this example, we would have to see how well interventions perform in a country which does not openly consent to the intervention from a third party. Such an example would be Afghanistan, a country that has twice been intervened by hostile forces supporting apparently humanitarian goals (both Russia (1979-1989) and the United States (2001- Ongoing)). Both of these interventions have had the nominal motivation of humanitarian ends, and both have, to some extent worked towards them. In the case of the Russian intervention, it seems to be that the attempt to intervene has failed, despite the attempt to implement progressive policies (Bennis, 2015). The report cited documents how their attempts to implement progressive policies in the rural areas of Afghanistan provoked widespread rebellion, thus making the humanitarian situation considerably worse. The United States intervention initially seemed to be a more intelligent intervention, with there being a pronouncement of the military intervention being accompanied by humanitarian aid drops. However, as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) note, the aid packages of food (which only occurred around once a month) shared the same yellow packaging as cluster bombs, which led to a number of casualties (Calas and Salignon: 2004, p. 82.) Asides from that, there also seems to be strong reports that human rights are being abused by militant forces which the united states support. For example, the New York Times have reported on a massacre occurring in Dasht-E-Leili, where Afghan Soldiers killed Taliban POWs on their route to Sheberghen Prison (Gall, 2001).this directly violates Article 13 of the Geneva Convention regarding the treatment of POWs (ICRC, 1949). Incidents such as this are indicative of a failed intervention, in regards to the promotion of explicitly humanitarian values. Although the indefinite extension of the US-Afghanistan war means that any conclusion might seem premature, the track record of the past 14 years i ndicates that military interventions do not promote humanitarian ends if the members of the occupying country do not welcome it. We have thus encountered compelling reasons to dismiss the effectiveness of military means for promoting humanitarian ends. What is now necessary is to contrast this with the effectiveness of non-military interventions. We shall examine two such examples: UN declarations and economic sanctions. We shall conclude that both are ineffective: UN declarations are ineffective without military support, and economic sanctions can exacerbate already precarious situations. In regards to the first point, there does seem to be a strong case for this. Consider, for example, the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory in the West Bank and Gaza, as well as their occupation of the Golan Heights in Syria. All of these violate international law, and violate UN sanctions (Hammon, 2010)). However, this does not seem to have deterred the Israeli government from refraini ng from the maintenance of such illegal activities, nor does it seem to have any force in preventing further breaches of international law. Secondly, consider the economic sanctions that were placed on Iraq in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait implemented by United Nations Security Council Resolution 661 (S/RES/661 (1990)) These sanctions are considered to have some of the most disastrous humanitarian results of recent history. The result of these sanctions have resulted in UNICEF reporting around 500,000 Iraqi children under the age of 5 dying (an increase of over 4,000 deaths a month compared to before the sanctions were enforced) (Edwards, 2000) In fact, the oil-for-food program has had effects that compelled the organiser of the program, Denis Halliday, to resign, calling the program genocidal. The fact that this resignation at such a senior level in the UN is almost unprecedented is remarkable in and of itself. What makes this fact more remarkable is due to the fact that the person assigned to replace him, Hans von Sponeck, also resigned from the post, citing similar reasons (ibid.) A counter-point could be raised here, to the effect that it was not so much the food-for-oil program itself that was the problem, but rather the insufficiencies of the program in light of the bombing campaign that almost crippled Iraqs infrastructure. For example, Eric Hoskins claimed that [the bombing campaign] effectively terminated everything vital to human survival in Iraq à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" electricity, water, sewage systems, agriculture, industry and health care (Curtis, 1995: 189). Thus, the point could be raised that this should be cited as a failure of military intervention, rather than non-violent. This point is a strong one, yet the cataclysmic consequences were not invoked by the bombing campaign, rather it was the sanctions which prevented the rebuilding which precipitated a humanitarian disaster. It is difficult to equate the success and failure of these p ositions, as they are often used in tandem, and it becomes difficult to dissociate what could be indications of mere incompetence, from the more malice invocations of the doctrine of realpolitik. In conclusion, it is difficult to ascertain the effectiveness of military force. This is because paradigmatically successful operations, such as East Timor do not qualify. The possibility of a further answer is complicated due to the fact that the Israel-Palestine conflicts demonstrates the impotence of non-military means without the possibility of an armed intervention. Yet, the fact that condemnations are powerless also does not help us answer the question: Afghanistan shows how a militarily backed campaign can make a military solution to legitimate grievances considerably worse, and yet Iraq shows us how economic sanctions also exacerbate precarious scenarios. It seems to be that to offer an answer regarding the effectiveness of this-or-that method is premature, and universal laws det ermining efficacy should be replaced with a case-by-case analysis. Footnotes 1 For a response to this, see Janzekovic (2006, p.130). For a more methodological reason regarding the difficulty of providing meaningful distinctions between forms of intervention, see Raymond (2015. p.295-298) 2 For example, did the UN sanctions against Iraq in response to their invasion of Kuwait destabilise Saddam? It is not obvious to say. 3 For why interventions previous to World War I were not humanitarian, see Losurdo (2014) For why interventions post- World War II were not humanitarian see Blum (2003) Bibliography Amnesty International. (1985) East Timor Violations of Human Rights: Extrajudicial Executions, Disappearances, Torture and Political Imprisonment, 1975à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å"1984. London: Amnesty International Publications. Bennis, P. (2015) Afghanistan in: Assange, J. The WikiLeaks Files: The World According to US Empire. New York: Verso Books. Pp. 368-394 Blum, W. (2003) Killing hope: US military and CIA interventions since World War II. London: Zed Books Calas, F. and Salignon, P. (2004) Afghanistan: From Militant Monks to Crusaders. In: Weissman In the Shadow of Just Wars, Weissman, ed. London: Hurts and Co. Chesterman, S. (2002) Just War or Just Peace? Oxford: Oxford University Press Curtis, M. (1995) The ambiguities of power: British foreign policy since 1945. London: Zed books. Edwards, D. (2000) An Interview with Denis Halliday. Media Lens. [Online] 16th May. Available at: https://www.medialens.org/index.php/alerts/interviews/77-an-interview-with-denis-halliday .html. [Accessed 19th October 2015] Gall, C. (2001) Study Hints at Mass Killing by the Taliban. New York Times [Online] May 1st Available at https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/01/world/study-hints-at-mass-killing-of-the-taliban.html [Accessed 19th October 2015] Gonzalez-Foerster, G. (2004). East Timor: Better Late Than Never. In: Weissman. Ed. In the Shadow of Just Wars, . London: Hurts and Co. 25-42. Hammond, J.R. (2010) Rogue State: Israels violations of UN Security Council resolutions Foreign Policy Journal. [Online] 27th January. Available at: https://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2010/01/27/rogue-state-israeli-violations-of-u-n-security-council-resolutions/. [Accessed 19th October 2015] International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (1997) Can Military Intervention and Humanitarian Action Coexist? World Disasters Report. Oxford: Oxford University Press International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) (1949), Geneva Convention Relative to the Protecti on of Civilian Persons in Time of War (Fourth Geneva Convention), 12 August, 75 UNTS 287, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b36d2.html. [Accessed 19 October 2015] Janzekovic, J. (2006) The use of force in humanitarian intervention: morality and practicalities. Hampshire: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., Losurdo, D. (2014) Liberalism: a counter-history. London: Verso Books. Paris, R. (2014) The Responsibility to Protectand the Structural Problems of Preventive Humanitarian Intervention. International Peacekeeping 21.5: 569-603. Raymond, D (2015). Military Means of Preventing Mass Atrocities. In Rosenberg, S. Galis, T. Zucker A. eds. 2015: Reconstructing Atrocity Prevention. New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp.295- 320 Regan, P M. (1996) Conditions of successful third-party intervention in intrastate conflicts. Journal of Conflict Resolution 40.2: 336-359 Roberts, A. (2002) The So-Called Right of Humanitarian Intervention, in Yearbook of International Hu manitarian Law 2000, 3. The Hgue: T.M.C Asser. Seybolt, T B. (2007) Humanitarian military intervention: the conditions for success and failure. Oxford: Oxford University Press. UN Security Council, Resolution 661 (1990) Adopted by the Security Council at its 2933rd meeting, on 6 August 1990, 6 August 1990, S/RES/661 (1990), available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3b00f16b24.html [accessed 25 October 2015] Wheeler, N. and Dunne, T. (2001) East Timor and the New Humanitarian Interventionism, International Affairs, 77, 4, pp. 805à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å"27.

Nursing Philosophy - 637 Words

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Title Police Abuse. The essay includes the definition of...

Police Abuse An officer who uses more force than policy allows is said to have used excessive force and may be guilty of police brutality, the excessive and lawless use of police force. Police officers are often seen as a thin blue line of protection between criminals and law-abiding citizens, but when they use excessive force, they cross the line and become criminals. Police brutality damages the image of law enforcement as well as the justice system. It leads to loss of trust in the policemen, which then creates a gap between them and people in the community. According to the early policing principles imported from 19th century England, it is the lack of centralized control which forms a corruption in America when opportunities of†¦show more content†¦Furthermore, police officers should receive antiracism and diversity training as a part of their education in police academies. Police officers must learn to conduct themselves in multiethnic and multicultural communities. To fund this solution, everyone must cooperate by respecting the police officers in our community and the law of United States of America. Without the cooperation of everyone, the prevailing widespread of police brutality will continue to grow. The people should give a serious thought of what they are doing in order to avoid violence. Let s just think about the victims of violence and how thousands of people die every year because of brutality. Let s not make one of our families and our next generations become a victim of these humiliating, devastating and inhuman e acts of the police. We, as a nation, need concerted effort in protest for all the victims whose lives have been stolen and sacrifice. The goal must be nothing short of creating a just, humane, peaceful and less violent society. If there is no justice, there will be no peace in the United States. The widespread of police brutality has widened all over the world. The nation must join together to eliminate repression, unjust and abusive treatment by the police in order to have a moreShow MoreRelatedRastafarian79520 Words   |  319 PagesBarrington Edmonds. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-19-513376-5 1. Rastafari movement. 2. Jamaica—Religious life and customs. I. Title. BL2532.R37 E36 2002 299†².676—dc21 2002074897 v To Donnaree, my wife, and Donnisa, my daughter, the two persons around whom my life revolves; and to the ancestors whose struggles have enabled us to survive and thrive This page intentionally left blank Foreword One of the most useful things about Ennis Edmondss Rastafari:Read MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesprinted in initial caps or all caps. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Robbins, Stephen P. Organizational behavior / Stephen P. Robbins, Timothy A. Judge. — 15th ed. p. cm. Includes indexes. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-283487-2 ISBN-10: 0-13-283487-1 1. Organizational behavior. I. Judge, Tim. II. Title. HD58.7.R62 2012 658.3—dc23 2011038674 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN 10: 0-13-283487-1 ISBN 13: 978-0-13-283487-2 Brief Contents Preface xxii 1 2 Introduction 1 What Is Organizational

Marketing Strategic Report Amazon

Question: Discuss about the Marketing Strategic Report Amazon. Answer: Introduction Conducting a SWOT analysis helps the organization to analyze its core strengths and weaknesses. The organization can use its strengths to overcome its weaknesses and threats in the industry. The following marketing report will analyze SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and weaknesses) of Amazon.com. It is a leading group in the e-commerce business. To maximize the revenues in the online retail industry, the organization must make sure that it effectively addresses the issues shown in the below SWOT analysis. In this marketing report, a SWOT analysis of Amazon is conducted and recommendations are given for the company to overcome the weaknesses and threats. It briefly discusses the growth of Indian consumer electronic industry. The discussion includes the description about the market, target segment, new product development and services in India and customer value proposition of the organization. Company Background Amazon.com is the American multinational company, which was founded in the year 1994. It was established by Jeff Bezos in Seattle, Washington, United States. Amazon is the largest online retailer in across the world by the market capitalization and total sales. It is recorded the revenues of $107,006 million in the financial year 2015. There was a hike of 20.2% from the year 2014 (Pinkerton, 2013). In this year, United States was the largest market for the company with the 65.9% of total revenues. The organization has started its business as an online bookstore, after that it diversified its business in selling other products like; CDs, DVDs, electronics, video games, software, furniture, toys, etc. Amazon.com has distinct online websites for different countries; United States, Ireland, Japan, China, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Canada, Australia, France and United Kingdom (Parante, Diane 2007). The products and services of the organization include cloud computing, online shopping and cont ent distribution. According to the report of 2016, 230,800 employees are working under the organization (Mordor Intelligence 2016). The major competitors of Amazon.com are Wal-Mart stores, eBay, Alibaba Group, Best Buy, International Business Machines and Netflix Inc. SWOT Table Strengths Weaknesses 1. Cost leadership 2. Customer centered 3. Strong brand name 4. Effective delivery network 5. Good business relationship with the electronic companies and publishing houses 6. Huge customer base 7. It provides personalized user shopping experience 8. Variety of products offerings 1. Business model is easily imitable 2. Limited presence in the market in comparison to its competitors 3. Less penetration of online shopping and e-commerce 4. Runs at very low margin 5. Tax ignorance issue Opportunities Threats 1. Improve the measures to reduce the forged sales 2. Expansion of business in more product lines 3. Opening physical stores 4. Global expansion 5. People are getting more technology friendly 6. Growth in the demand for cloud computing services 1. Internet security threats 2. Threat of Imitation 3. Strong competitors 4. New emerging shopping portals 5. Local low cost retailers 6. Foreign exchange fluctuation Market Description In India, Consumer electronics market is growing with double growth rate from past few years. There are some reasons behind this, like; affordable pricing, increased awareness about the products, higher income and improvement in the life styles of the population. These are the factors, which are forcing changing the consumer spending pattern (Freeman 2010). It is resulting a strong growth in the consumer electronic market. According to a research report, Indian consumer market has grown at the CAGR of 18 percent in the duration of 2011-2014. The growth in the Indias GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and disposable income of customers is the major reason behind the growth in this market (Mitra, 2015). A research analyzes that there are some major sections of the consumer appliances in India, such as; television, air conditioner, mobile handset, refrigerator market, laptop personal computer market and gaming supports. But still, some products like; televisions, air conditioners and refrige rators have thee low saturation in the India. If India will grow in the future at current growth rate, then the household incomes will be twice in next five years (Joshi 2015). It will benefit the industry. Indian consumer electronics market was US$ 14 billion in the year 2015 and has a CAGR of 18 percent in the duration of five years. It is estimated to become 29 billion by the year 2020. Major players in the market are LG, Samsung, Videocon, Dell, Sony, Godrej, Panasonic, Microsoft, Philips etc. These brands have gained a good market share (Jones, Hill, Comfort Hillier, 2008). The presence of these brands makes the industry in India highly competitive. Findings To maintain the highest revenues in the online retail industry, Amazon must make sure that it effectively addresses the aspects, which are shown in the SWOT analysis. This SWOT analysis of the company states to be the requirement to ensure the strong brand reputation (Helms Nixon 2010). With the great strengths and opportunities, company is facing some issues related to its weaknesses and threats. All the aspects are ranked with the number and written down in order of their importance. An analysis of SWOT is mentioned in the below explanation. Explanation of SWOT table: Strengths Amazon is the largest online seller in the world. In the year 2015, the organization generated better revenues from the online business. With this growth rate, Amazon will become the 2nd largest online retailer in the world. The company is working with low cost structure (Vakhariya 2012). This is major strength of the company, thats why it is ranked at 1. It leads to lower prices, which jointed with the variety of products that result in a comparatively better customer experience. The cost leadership strategy has resulted in the organization in gaining the profits from this action and it assisted the shareholders rise the value from the organization. This is a strongest brand in the online retail industry (Out-Nyarko Sarbah, 2014). This strength is responsible for the rapid growth of the business. Increasing revenues is enabling the company to make the investment in new ventures and developing new products. Effective delivery network and variety of product offerings is helping it in developing a huge customer base. This fact of SWOT analysis indicates that Amazon has necessary strengths to sustain its market position in e-commerce. Weaknesses The weaknesses of Amazon.com develop the challenges, which limit its online retail business. Amazon is implementing a business model, which can be copied by other competitors easily. For example, other organizations can also establish online portal. If the firms will be fully established in the online retail industry, then it would be difficult for Amazon.com to compete in the market (Mishra Kotkar, 2015). The market presence of the company is limited. It edges its ability to attract more customers to any specific product line, which are more sellable in physical stores. As it delivers the products with no shipping cost, so it is in danger of low margins and therefore, it is not able to boost on the costs. Furthermore, Amazon.com has involved in the negative publicity due to avoiding the taxes in United States and United Kingdom. On the basis of this side of SWOT analysis, Amazon must maintain the competitive advantage to overcome its weaknesses (Vijaylaxmi Srinivasa 2015). Opportunities From the above table, it can be analyzed that Amazon has the opportunity to enter in the developing markets. This action should establish the presence of company before other online retailers move. The organization also has the opportunity to open physical stores to enhance the competitiveness against its other competitors, like; Wal-Mart (Das 2015). Furthermore, the company is facing the issues of forged or counterfeit sales, which is against the expectations of customers. This situation creates an opportunity for the company to enhance its technology and policies to consider the counterfeit sales. The demand of cloud computing services is increasing significantly. So, Amazon is expanding its web services in the past years. In 2015, it launched Amazon Machine Learning (Greenspan 2017). With these, Amazon also has the opportunities to come up with its own brands in diversified product lines. Thus, this SWOT analysis shows that Amazon has better growth opportunities in the future. Threats Amazon is facing several significant threats in the online retail industry. There are some external strategic factors, which reduce the business performance. The major threat is the threat of online security. Cybercrime challenges every online retailer. The company must keep some measures to face the attacks of cybercrime (Warner, 2010). For example, it must strengthen its network security. The Amazon.com is facing the major issue of imitation. The emergence of this threat can affect and reduce its market share. Furthermore, an intense competition is a threat against the Amazon.com. Its major competitors; like Wal-Mart, Target, Flipkart, eBay etc. are making efforts to improve their online presence in the retail industry. Fluctuation in the foreign exchange is also a threat for this company because it generates a considerable amount of its revenues from international processes (Agarwal, Grassl Pahl 2012). If there is high exposure in the foreign currency, then the company will be hi ghly penetrating to the fluctuations in the foreign exchange. Thus, this analysis shows that it needs to fortify its competitiveness and marketing and promotional efforts. Recommendations The above discussion shows that Amzaon.com has the required strengths to operate its online business effectively. However, the company is facing some issues and concerns. So, it is recommended that Amazon must increase its presence in the developing countries like; India. It must expand its business in the Indian Consumer market. It will provide major opportunities for growth on the basis of economic development in the country. It must expand the variety of product in the country to fight against the issue of intense competition. The company must introduce a new service for retaining and creating a huge customer base from India. Target Market For the Amazon.com, the target market must be the internet users, who rely on the online shopping and other transactions from the upper and middle class of population. This service of Amazon.com is suitable for the people, who are very choosy and want to buy any product at any cost. New Product Description Although Amazon.com is already a well-established organization in Indian online retail industry, but company wants to expand its business with new product development in India. Looking at competitive environment, the company must come up with an attractive product, which can increase its customer base (Abraham 2012). Amazon.com is launching an online auction hosting software in India. Online auction is the auction over the internet. It can be in different formats. There are some existing competitors, like; Alibaba.com and eBay, who are providing this service. The concept of online auction will increase the range of goods and services, which can be purchased and sold using different auction techniques. This will be a beneficial service for the company in the current web-environment. This product will offer new advantages to the customers, like; utilization of computerized bids through electronic forms and it will provide a search engine to find the products and items and users can sea rch the items by categories. Marketing Mix Amazon.com uses marketing mix as a powerful tool to appeal the customers to its services. For the development of new product, the company will reach to the target customers. As it is an online business organization, so it will use official e-commerce websites for reaching the customers. The websites are like; Audible.com, Amazon.com and various other subsidiaries of Amazon (Ferguson 2017). It should target to encourage its customers to visit its websites and to purchase the products under online auctions. The company is using the value based pricing strategy in India. This includes the prices on the basis of product value. It also considers the perception of Indian consumers. Thus, the company will create the marketing mix, which is updated in relation to current trends in market (Mishra 2015). Consumer Value Proposition The customer value proposition of the company must be that this is the trusted and reliable brand, which provides the opportunities of online shopping and e-commerce. The companys value proposition is that through online auction hosting software, the organization will provide a variety of products with assured quality at bargained prices (Kipley Jewe, 2014). For example, companys bid $1 policy allows the lucky customer the capacity to purchase any item, which is being auctioned for only $1. It can offer more value to the customer. Irrespective of the closing price of auction, once the bid is closed without the reserve price, then the final bidder will get that product. This new product of Amazon.com will offer the customers pleasure of winning the item, which may not be there in the future. The company will offer some short-term live auctions also. The new product of the company fits with its SWOT analysis (Bauer 2012). The company has a major opportunity to expand its business with new product line. This will assist the organization in increase its profitability. The company is developing a strategy profile by considering its SWOT. It is implementing SO strategic profile, in which it will use its strengths to increase opportunities. A good brand image will help the organization in expand its business India and other countries. Maintaining good business relationships can assist it in opening physical stores and expanding in other product categories. It will be fit to the new product of the organization. Conclusion Thus, the study includes the various aspects of SWOT analysis of Amazon.com. The company is launching a new product in India, i.e. Online Auction Software. This is new concept for Indian customers, so Amazon can attract them. It is implementing some effective strategies to attract more and more customers towards its product. The company must focus on the profitability more than volumes. It is implementing SO profile for using its strengths to maximize its opportunities. The marketing report indicates that Amazon.com is doing well globally. Launching new product in India will assist it in generating more revenues in Indian online retail industry market. References Abraham, S.C, 2012, Strategic Planning: A Practical Guide for Competitive Success, Emerald Group Publishing. Agarwal, R., Grassl, W. Pahl, J, 2012, SWOT: introducing a new strategic planning tool. Journal of Business Strategy, 33 (2), pp. 12. Bauer, C, 2012, An integrated decision model for strategic evaluation of the viability of new technologies. GRIN Verlag. Das, K.K, 2015, Growth of E-commerce in India. International Journal of Core Engineering Management, Vol. 2, Iss. 4, pp. 25-33. 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