Professor English discusses the difficulties of defining terrorism, the ongoing troubles in Northern Ireland, and the importance of identifying your passion within IR.
Traditional forms of media have historically been critical friends to the intelligence agencies, but this relationship has become antagonistic because of the Snowden leaks.
Icons of War and Terror examines the ways in which the media construct iconic images of lethal violence, particularly within the context of American global hegemony.
By presenting Somalia as the world’s worst country, elements of the media are not only doing Somalia a disservice, they are blinding the world to the opportunities the country has to offer.
The appearance of social media is less a major change than simply one more development in the long history of propaganda. In focussing on technological changes, governments and their armed forces miss the wider political and social issues.
We are routinely presented with the image of an angry bearded man, possibly a clip from a video linked to Al-Qaeda, and then an unspecific warning of an imminent threat. We are asked to be concerned, but not allowed to be informed. The implicit equivalence of margin with radical and radical with violence makes for perpetual insecurity in modern societies.
We could say that all popularly elected governments are today proactively engaged in clever, cunning struggles to kidnap their clients and citizens mentally through the manipulation of appearances, with the help of accredited journalists and other public relations curators. The age of organised political contrivance is upon us. How and why has this happened?
Freedom of expression is the core of a healthy media, a fundamental human right, and vital for a democratic structure. Lack of information can, at any stage of a conflict, make people desperate, restless and easy to manipulate. The potential of the media in conflict and post-conflict situations remains a net positive, and has been sadly underutilized to this point in time
The current swine flu outbreak takes place amidst ongoing international efforts to establish a system of global health security. While considerable progress towards this goal has been made, serious unresolved problems mean that the concept and practice of global health security is likely to face severe challenges.
“The neoconservative way . . . is to put an enormous emphasis on the importance of will in confronting and changing the world. America is currently in as unfavorable a position as it is because, more than anything, of a failure of will . . . [I]t can overcome adverse circumstances and prevail again by the mobilization and determined exercise of will.” –Owen Harries
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