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With the widespread of e‐services, provided by different organizations at the internal intranet level, the business extranet level, and the public internet level, compliance with international information security management standards is becoming of increasing importance for establishing a common and safe environment for such services. The purpose of this paper is to examine the development of a mathematical model that enables the investigation of compliance of organizations with the widely acknowledged international information security management standard ISO 17799‐2005.

The model is based on the strategy, technology, organization, people and environment – STOPE – framework that provides an integrated well‐structured view of the various factors involved. The paper addresses the use of the model for practical investigations; it describes a practical example illustrating possible practical results.

The results show the strengths and the weaknesses of compliance, with the standard, at different levels: from the level of the measures associated with each of the “131” standard protection controls, up to the level of the STOPE domains.

The paper addresses the use of a mathematical model for practical investigations of compliance with the international information security management standard.

From Europe moving forward into Asia, the Silk Road has the Gulf Cooperation Countries (GCC) on the way. These countries alphabetically include: “Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.” While these countries have long been dependent on oil for development, they are currently planning to reduce this dependence and consider innovation as an important mean for future development. This chapter explores the past progress of innovation in the GCC countries; and highlights future directions ahead. In this respect two end countries of the Silk Road, Italy and China, are also considered. The chapter views innovation from the wide angle of the Global Innovation Index, which has 7 main dimensions, consisting of 21 sub-dimensions, which are refined into 81 international indicators. An approach for looking into the current state, the past progress, and the future directions of innovation in the countries concerned is developed and followed using available data. Although the outcome is based on the currently available data, the approach can be re-used for newer data providing continuous benefits to directing future development.

This chapter is concerned with three main integrated issues. It looks forward towards enhancing ‘sustainable development’, using ‘innovation’, enabled by ‘higher education’ institutions. Therefore, sustainable development is the ‘target’; innovation is the ‘mean’; and higher education (HE) is the ‘enabler’ of the mean for achieving the target. The chapter starts by addressing the ‘target’ through explaining the ‘long time scale’ and the ‘wide scope of issues’ of sustainable development, in addition to elaborating on the past efforts, and considering the current directions expressed by the ‘sustainable development goals’. It then moves on to the ‘mean’ that is the innovation that drives sustainable development, considering its various types and its correlated components given by the ‘global innovation index’. HE, as an important enabler of innovation, is then addressed by considering its impact, its missions and their contribution to innovation, in addition to its challenges and the future development. The chapter finally emphasises views on the future role of ‘HE’ in promoting ‘innovation’ towards enhancing ‘sustainable development’.

In as much as it is contested, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is also unexplored, underdiscussed, and, as a result, misunderstood. Frequently viewed through the lens of international relations and global economy, the diverse dimensions of collaboration, including business and research-industry clusters, that BRI enhances, tend to be excluded from the analysis. In a similar manner, the role of the Arab Peninsula in the grand strategy underpinning BRI and its implementation is rarely discussed. BRI is a forward-oriented initiative, an attempt to reap benefits of developments and circumstances that are only nascent. This bears two potent implications. First, as China attempts to influence the context in which it operates, it is subject to change itself; the Chinese business sector evolution attests to that. Second, some of China’s not so obvious partners of today, including those in the Arab Peninsula, are about to turn into key interlocutors of tomorrow. BRI taps into opportunities thus created. This chapter elaborates on these issues and, against this backdrop, outlines how the remaining chapters included in this volume add to this discussion.

Municipal solid waste (MSW) consists mainly of several recyclable materials such as paper and cardboard. Inside the educational institutes, especially universities, MSW is generated from several facilities including offices and cafeterias. Without an effective management program, solid waste can have detrimental impacts on the environment. This paper aims to assess the solid waste management practices followed at the main campus of Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University (IAU), Dammam – Saudi Arabia.

The MSW samples were collected from different sources inside the IAU campus such as the college buildings (such as the teaching rooms and staff offices), the administrative buildings and services buildings (e.g. the main library, the photocopying center, the restaurant and cafeteria) at least one time per week during a full academic term (January–May) of the academic year 2017–2018. The collected MSW samples were segregated into seven categories, and the net amount of each category and the overall weight of the MSW were determined once every week. The MSW samples were characterized for physical and chemical properties including moisture, carbon and ash contents. Food product waste (FPW) of the main university restaurant was studied separately.

Data on the composition of MSW samples revealed that 80% of wastes were recyclable, 19% as compostable materials, while only 1% of the materials were a non-recyclable waste. More than 73% of the recyclable materials include paper and plastic warranting dire need of an effective solid waste management program. The highest value of FPW was recorded for the breakfast meal.

Most of the waste generated from the university campus was recyclable type that needs to be handled carefully to avoid its mixing with other types of the waste stream. Waste characterization is an important tool that helps in understanding the amount and pattern of waste generation. It can be used as a decision-making tool for implementing sustainable waste management programs for universities.