The Impact of War Conflict on Sustainable Shipping: Conference Report
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
As this is a conference report, there are not really a lot of comments that I could suggest to the authors.
The only point that I could raise is that I cannot find any relavant peer - reviewed papers in the bibliography concerning the impact of war on sustainable shipping. The authors could use for this purpose some of the following articels:
1. Zhang, Y., Zhang, L., Yu, H. and Tu, Y., 2023. Does Geopolitical risk drive natural resources extraction globally? A Case of Global. Resources Policy, 82, p.103450.
2. Michail, N.A. and Melas, K.D., 2022. Geopolitical risk and the LNG-LPG trade. Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy, 28(3), pp.243-265.
3. Haber, N. and Fargnoli, M., 2022. Product-Service Systems for Circular Supply Chain Management: A Functional Approach. Sustainability, 14(22), p.14953.
4. Wedemeier, J. and Wolf, L., 2022. Navigating Rough Waters: Global Shipping and Challenges for the North Range Ports. Intereconomics, 57(3), pp.192-198.
Author Response
Response: Many thanks for the insightful comments. In order to address the reviewer’s comment, the author has added all four peer-reviewed articles that the reviewer mentioned above and added following content to support the scientific argument about the impact of war on sustainable shipping.
- Line 313-319: “Changes in the layout of the global industrial chain, resource extraction policy, and import and export policy are the inevitable effects of the Russian-Ukraine conflict. The stability of law and order in the special area could minimize the geopolitical risks, and can further keeps the natural resources have a stable effect on the global economy [42]. It is obvious that Russian-Ukraine conflict and the affected global economic conditions are counterexamples of the doctrine above.”
- Line 438-439: “Analytical data has been available showing that a shock in geopolitical risk could significantly increases the cost of spot charter rates [56]”
- Line 261-264: “Without the effect from the conflict, manufactures would take achieving environmental objectives and maximizing their profits as the salient factors in order to achieve sustainable outcomes [33].”
- Line 442-448: “The sanctions imposed on Russia by the EU and its member states have had a significant impact on trade and shipping volume in the north range ports (Le Havre, Zeebrugge, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Bremen/Bremerhaven and Hamburg, etc.) The growing supply crisis has led many countries that used to closely developing with the EU and the US to look for partnerships in fast-growing countries such as China and India, which reflexed by the shipping volume [58].”
Besides, the author as added two more peer-reviewed articles relevant context in the following parts:
- Line 330-332: “Furthermore, in order to resist the risk of Russian and Ukraine war, China should invest in improving production ability and energy types [43].”
- Line 439-442: “The impact of war on trade was illustrated as early as the first globalization, which was demonstrated by the study that nineteenth-century wars had a strictly contemporaneous impact on trade [57].”
Reviewer 2 Report
This article is well written and provides in an concise manner the main points of conference presentation held in Dalian Maritime University. Although, the paper has the above advantages further work is required as it lacks scientific argument, methodology or even literature review.
With the above in mind I would kindly suggest to authors to include a literature review. It would also be a more interesting reading if counter arguments are presented and evaluated rather than presenting one view of the various points raised.
Use of English language is good.
Author Response
Response: Many thanks for the insightful comments.
- For the comments of “include a literature review”, the author added “Review of the Related Literature” parts as following:
Line 133-189:
“2. Review of the Related Literature
2.1 World political landscape and global economic structure under the Russia-Ukraine conflict
The intuitionistic effect of Russia-Ukraine conflict is the increases tension in neighboring states [9]. Changing political camps and increasing the military budget are measure that some politically sensitive countries would take. According to [9], as most vulnerable to the crisis, NATO EU nations made the salient expansion of the military. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has been broadly treated as a turning point for European politics, security and economy. In the view of [10], following the conflict in Ukraine, how the conflict rebuilds European politics and consolidate the return of geopolitics is the most salient question.
Political risk will lead to decreased investment and the changing of alternative economic partners [11], which affect the economic structure. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has caused the global economy to receive a slowdown in growth and a boost in inflation. The study of [12] demonstrated three probable aspects on the change of global economic effected by the conflict. First, higher prices for commodities such as food and energy will further push up inflation, which in turn will devalue incomes and affect demand. Second, economies bordering Russia and Ukraine will be particularly affected by trade, supply chain and remittance disruptions. Third, lower business confidence and increased investor uncertainty will put pressure on asset prices, leading to a tighter financing environment and potentially stimulating capital outflows from emerging markets. [12] presented that if the above predicted scenario truly happened, the war could fundamentally change the global economic and geopolitical order. They also illustrate that the inflation is happening as the consequence of sharp increase in oil, natural gas, and food prices.
Since Russia and Ukraine are major utilities in the global grain market, the food crisis triggered by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has a wide regional reach. The change in the global food supply chain is one of the manifestations of the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the economic structure. Beginning from the production and storage process all the way to the transports logistics and retail process, almost all areas of the food supply chain would be impacted by the conflict, even consumers and other food-related industries are affected, especially in Europe and Africa [13]. As a net importer of several commodities, the European agricultural may suffer from the high costs of inputs which may lead to food security crisis [14].
Russia-Ukraine conflict would also challenge the energy security in many region and states. The EU is searching for solutions facing the increasing energy prices and reducing energy dependency on Russia [15]. States like Germany and Italy taking cooperate with alternative suppliers as solutions.
2.2 China Railway Express and global shipping security under the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Beginning from 2011, China Railway Express has opened an important channel for overland freight transportation between China and Europe through West, Central and East lines. Crisis in Ukraine have caused significant fluctuations in global commodity prices, which have an impact on the downstream production and manufacturing industries. It also inevitably increases the risk of cross-border trade and freight market, which makes the stability and reliability of the China Railway Express transport channel more uncertain [16]. According to [16], concerned about the impact of the sanctions, some International freight forwarders have switched their shipments from railway to shipping. [16] also illustrated that because of the sanctions from the US and Europe, the traditional Russian maritime logistics system has been disrupted by greatly limiting the two traditional Russian corridors on the Baltic and Black Seas.
Some scholars have analyzed the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the shipping security from the Russian side. Sanctions in the Russia-Ukraine conflict have limited further Russian development of nuclear icebreaker fleet [17]. According to [17], technology sanctions made the LNG project delayed, Russian Arctic projects would also be slow down because of the investment squeeze and uncertain market access.”
- For the comments of including counter arguments: Although the analyzation of impact of War conflict is mostly objective, the author has re-written the following part to complement the missing counter arguments surrounding this topic:
Line 225-231: “As Zhirong Yu said, parts of scholars hold the view that the root cause of the Russia-Ukraine conflict is a war between Russia and the U.S.-led NATO, and the Zelensky government is only a “puppet" controlled by the U.S. Russia is defending its core interests and strategic space. On the contrary, another voice holds the opinion that the conflict is caused by Russia's bent on invasion to Ukraine [25]. The above two different views, however, do not affect the objective analysis of the change in the position of neutral countries.”
Line 247-248: “Whatever the origins of this war, this is the most appropriate action for both sides of the conflict at the moment.”
Reviewer 3 Report
My opinion about the submission "The Impact of War Conflict on Sustainable Shipping：Conference report" is that it brings few for the scientific literature and in this way is not a good contributions to be published in the Sustainability Journal.
My opinion is to suggest the authors to submit it to another publication, may as working paper to be improved later and submitted as an original article to an international Journal.
The present version as Conference Report does not have scientific structure enough to be published as a contribution for the scientific literature. This is only my opinion about the scientific robustness, not about the quality of the study.
Author Response
My opinion about the submission "The Impact of War Conflict on Sustainable Shipping：Conference report" is that it brings few for the scientific literature and in this way is not a good contributions to be published in the Sustainability Journal.
Response: Many thanks for the insightful comments. For the comment of “few for the scientific literature”, the author has added literature review parts (Line 133-189), and added the quotation of six more peer-reviewed articles to support the scientific arguments.
My opinion is to suggest the authors to submit it to another publication, may as working paper to be improved later and submitted as an original article to an international Journal.
Response: This paper is intending to inform what was discussed in the conference, therefore, submitted under the section called “Conference report”. The very purpose is to attract broader discussion on the subject matter.
The present version as Conference Report does not have scientific structure enough to be published as a contribution for the scientific literature. This is only my opinion about the scientific robustness, not about the quality of the study.
Response: Many thanks for the comment. There is a designed section under Sustainability called “Conference report”. This paper is written based on the requirements of “Conference report”.
Reviewer 4 Report
There are several areas that could be improved in this submission. Firstly, it appears to be a conference report presented as an article, which may not align with the intended format and structure of the journal. It would be beneficial to rework the content to better fit the requirements of an article.
Additionally, while the submission addresses the shipping situation resulting from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it does not clearly establish its relevance to sustainability or align with the journal's aim and scope. It would be helpful to provide a more explicit connection between the shipping issues and sustainability, highlighting the potential environmental or social impacts.
To enhance the quality of the submission, I recommend referring to the article titled 'The Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Its Implications for the Global Food Supply Chains.' This article seems to be highly relevant to the report and can be cited to support the points made in the submission.
Furthermore, the reference list should be revised to ensure it adheres to the journal's guidelines. It is essential to eliminate any repeated references and ensure that all sources are appropriately cited and formatted.
Overall, it would be beneficial to transform the submission from article to a mere communication, incorporating the necessary connections to sustainability and adhering to the journal's guidelines for references and formatting.
The paper must be proofread by a native English speaker before final submission.
Author Response
There are several areas that could be improved in this submission. Firstly, it appears to be a conference report presented as an article, which may not align with the intended format and structure of the journal. It would be beneficial to rework the content to better fit the requirements of an article.
Response: Many thanks for the comment. There is a designed section under Sustainability called “Conference report”. This paper is written based on the requirements of “Conference report”.
Additionally, while the submission addresses the shipping situation resulting from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, it does not clearly establish its relevance to sustainability or align with the journal's aim and scope. It would be helpful to provide a more explicit connection between the shipping issues and sustainability, highlighting the potential environmental or social impacts.
Response: Many thanks for the insightful comments. The author has re-written the following parts in order to provide a more explicit connection between the major issue of the study and journal’s aim and scope:
Line 32-34: “Peace is a common endeavor of humanity and necessary guarantee to achieve sustainable development which need to be actively pursued and maintained by all parties in the international community.”
Line 38-64: “The role of transport in sustainable development was first recognized at the United Nation’s Earth Summit in 1992 and was highlighted in the conference outcome document, Agenda 21. At the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), transport and mobility were recognized as central elements of sustainable development [2]. In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, sustainable transport is mainstreamed into several SDGs and targets which related to food security, health, energy, economic growth, infrastructure, and cities and human settlements. Shipping plays an important role in the transportation industry. The guarantee of shipping safety can provide a stable carrier for sustainable economic and social development.”
Line: 72-80: “Undoubtedly, the Russia-Ukraine conflict has slowed down, and in the future will continue slowing down the progress of technical, environmental, economic and social sustainability of human beings. The study of state conflict issue is cross-disciplinary. It brings together the disciplines of law, political science, economics, and sociology to provide a multifaceted and comprehensive analysis of the safety and security implications of state conflicts on sustainable development. Besides focusing on the impact of Russia-Ukraine conflict on the safety and sustainability of shipping, this conference also focuses on ge-opolitical relation and sustainable economic development to take the predictions and impact assessments of the global changing caused by Russia-Ukraine conflict.”
To enhance the quality of the submission, I recommend referring to the article titled 'The Russia-Ukraine Conflict: Its Implications for the Global Food Supply Chains.' This article seems to be highly relevant to the report and can be cited to support the points made in the submission.
Response: This article is true highly relevant to the article. The author has re-written the following parts citing this article to support the point:
Line 158-166: “Since Russia and Ukraine are major utilities in the global grain market, the food crisis triggered by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict has a wide regional reach. The change in the global food supply chain is one of the manifestations of the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the economic structure. Beginning from the production and storage process all the way to the transport logistics and retail process, almost all areas of the food supply chain would be impacted by the conflict, even consumers and other food-related indus-tries are affected, especially in Europe and Africa [13]. As a net importer of several commodities, the European agricultural may suffer from the high costs of inputs which may lead to food security crisis [14].”
Furthermore, the reference list should be revised to ensure it adheres to the journal's guidelines. It is essential to eliminate any repeated references and ensure that all sources are appropriately cited and formatted.
Response: The author has corrected the reference following the guide of Sustainability.
Overall, it would be beneficial to transform the submission from article to a mere communication, incorporating the necessary connections to sustainability and adhering to the journal's guidelines for references and formatting.
Response: Many thanks for the comment. There is a designed section under Sustainability called “Conference report”. This paper is written based on the requirements of “Conference report”.
