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Book Review: Talking Conflict: The Loaded Language Of Genocide, Political Violence, Terrorism, And Warfare, Jennifer A. Bartlett

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

The language used to describe conflict situations, whether military, political, or personal, has the potential to help resolve or escalate. Terms such as “collateral damage,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “final solution” often refer to historical events, but can also be used to condemn or endorse particular points of view in political speeches, the media, and local debate. Euphemisms, oxymorons, propaganda, jargon: all come into play. The nuanced and powerful rhetoric of conflict is the topic of Talking Conflict, an interesting and wide-ranging encyclopedia discussing the impact of linguistics, political science, journalism, and other fields on the language of conflict.

Sony, Cyber Security, And Free Speech: Preserving The First Amendment In The Modern World, Conrad Wilton

Pace Intellectual Property, Sports & Entertainment Law Forum

Reprinted from 16 U.C. Davis Bus. L.J. 309 (2016). This paper explores the Sony hack in 2014 allegedly launched by the North Korean government in retaliation over Sony’s production of The Interview and considers the hack’s chilling impact on speech in technology. One of the most devastating cyber attacks in history, the hack exposed approximately thirty- eight million files of sensitive data, including over 170,000 employee emails, thousands of employee social security numbers and unreleased footage of upcoming movies. The hack caused Sony to censor the film and prompted members of the entertainment industry at large to tailor their communication …

Post-9/11 Media Coverage Of Terrorism, Zachary S. Mitnik

Student Theses

Media coverage of terrorist attacks plays an important role in shaping the public understanding of terrorism. While there have been several studies analyzing coverage of terrorist incidents prior to 9/11, there has been little research examining post-9/11 coverage. This study fills this gap by examining the media’s coverage of terrorism in the United States between the dates of September 12, 2001 and December 31, 2015. The analysis is based on a list of terrorist-related incidents and New York Times articles written on each incident. This study documents the amount of coverage received by these incidents and identifies the variables influencing …

Dabiq: A Study Of The Usage Of Terrorist-Produced Publications In Framing And Selective Moral Disengagement, Nouran Hussein Mohamed Hussein Khalil

Theses and Dissertations

Dabiq, the official English language publication of ISIS, the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, has been widely circulated online, and has gained a relatively large audience. The study discusses the ways in which the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) uses their official publication, Dabiq, to promote its objectives and to spread terror. In this study, a content analysis is conducted to examine terrorist rhetoric in the magazine and its mediation for the sake of fulfilling the group’s objectives. The study uses two main theories: the theory of framing analyzing how ISIS frames itself, its supporters and its …

Forced Migration Populations And Terrorism, Liam Egan

Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes the relationship between refugee populations per capita and terrorism incidents per capita in a host country. Using data from UNHCR and the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), I conduct cross-national time series poisson and OLS analyses for 164 countries during the years 1992-2013 to explain their relationship.

A Comparative Approach To Counter-Terrorism Legislation And Legal Policy, Paul David Hill Jr

Senior Honors Theses

Since the 9/11 attacks, American legislation and legal policy in regards to classifying and processing captured terrorists has fallen short of being fully effective and lawful. Trial and error by the Bush and Obama administrations has uncovered two key lessons: (1) captured terrorists are not typical prisoners of war and thus their detainment must involve more legal scrutiny than the latter; and (2) captured terrorists are not ordinary criminals and thus the civilian criminal court system, due to constitutional constraints, is not capable of adequately trying every count of terrorism. Other nations, including France and Israel, approach this problem with …

A Radical Idea: Applying Psychological Strategy To Combat Foreign Fighters Defending The Islamic State, David Michael Smaney

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the necessity of psychological strategies to combat the Islamic State’s recruitment of foreign fighters. This thesis argues that psychological strategies are a primary weapon due to the psychological nature of the war against the Islamic State, which is a part of the overall war of ideas. This thesis does not consider psychological strategies for other aspects of U.S. counterterrorism strategy, nor does it reflect the difficulties involved with developing U.S. strategies in the U.S. federal government. Furthermore, this thesis only focuses on foreign fighter defending and supporting the Islamic State, which is the successor of Al …

The Terror Of The Political: Community, Identity, And Apocalypse In Don Delillo's Falling Man, Dillon Rockrohr

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Falling Man by Don DeLillo casts the event of 9/11 and its aftermath in such a way that the novel itself enacts an aesthetic terror aimed at explicating the ubiquitous social-atmospheric elements of community- and identity-formation out of which terror precipitates. As DeLillo figures terrorism in the novel as apocalyptic in that it is a violence that reveals the violence constitutive of political community, including the political community of liberal democracy, which ostensibly relegates violence to domains not considered legitimately political. DeLillo’s novel, as an act of aesthetic terrorism, not only thematizes the instantiation of terror that precipitates out of …

Why We Have The Center For The Resolution Of Intractable Conflict In Oxford, John, Lord Alderdice

New England Journal of Public Policy

The Center for the Resolution of Intractable Conflict (CRIC) was formally established at Harris Manchester College by a decision of the Governing Body of the College in 2013 to facilitate research, teaching and training, seminars and conferences, and direct engagement in situations of political violence and long-standing community conflict in various parts of the world.

The CRIC is a very young institution, but already it is having an impact out of proportion to its size and modest resources. This is because the issues we are addressing have a heightened public profile and also because of the quality and leading-edge of …

Redefining Legitimate Authority: Just War In The Era Of Terrorism, Christopher D. Mercado

Journal of the Indiana Academy of the Social Sciences

Recent attempts by political philosophers to determine if terrorism can be morally justified have analyzed terrorist groups from a just-war perspective; however, many times, these philosophers have subordinated the principle of legitimate authority to the other just-war principles or have neglected legitimate authority outright. Thus, the issue of who decides when, under what circumstances, and how to make war has been relegated to a secondary interest behind the issue of how war is made. This article fills the resulting hole in contemporary just-war literature by reevaluating the principle of legitimate authority. A proper, up-to-date definition of legitimate authority is here …

Homeowner Preferences After September 11th, A Microdata, Adam Nowak

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

The existence of homeowner preferences - specifically homeowners' preferences for neighbors - is fundamental to economic models of sorting. This paper investigates whether or not the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (9/11) impacted on local preferences for Arab neighbors. We test for changes in preferences using a differences-in-differences framework in a hedonic pricing model. Relative to sales before 9/11, we find properties within 0.1 miles of an Arab homeowner sold at a 1.5% discount in the 180 days after 9/11. The results are robust to a number of specifications including time horizon, event date, distance, alternative ethnic groups, and …

The French Army At A Crossroads, Rémy Hémez

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

The Al-Qaeda Organization And The Islamic State Organization: History, Doctrine, Modus, Operandi, And U.S Policy To Degrade And Defeat Terrorism Conducted In The Name Of Sunni Islam, Paul Kamolnick

ETSU Authors Bookshelf

The al-Qaeda Organization (AQO) and the Islamic State Organization (ISO) are transnational adversaries that conduct terrorism in the name of Sunni Islam. It is declared U.S. Government (USG) policy to degrade, defeat, and destroy them. The present book has been written to assist policymakers, military planners, strategists, and professional military educators whose mission demands a deep understanding of strategically-relevant differences between these two transnational terrorist entities. In it, one shall find a careful comparative analysis across three key strategically relevant dimensions: essential doctrine, beliefs, and worldview; strategic concept, including terrorist modus operandi; and specific implications and recommendations for current USG …

Terrorism: A Tool For Shaping Public Opinion, Jonathan E. Voisich

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Public Opinion matters on issues of foreign policy. This makes controlling public opinion very important for governments. In this paper I will argue that elites use terrorism both as a tool for instilling fear and by creating a certain image of groups they wish to support or destroy in order to shape public opinion. I will examine both literature on framing and public opinion data on foreign policy to show why public opinion is so important and how it can be shaped. The two case studies showing terrorism being used in these ways will be the Ronald Reagan administration’s policy …

The Challenge Of Protecting Transit And Passenger Rail: Understanding How Security Works Against Terrorism, Brian Michael Jenkins

Mineta Transportation Institute

Terrorists see transit and passenger rail as an attractive target. Designed for public convenience, trains and stations offer terrorists easy access to crowds of people in confined environments where there are minimal security risks and attacks can cause high casualties. This report examines the unique attributes of the terrorist threat, how security measures against terrorism have evolved over the years, and their overall effectiveness.

Does security work? Empirical evidence is hard to come by. Terrorist incidents are statistically rare and random, making it difficult to discern effects. The fact that terrorists focus most of their attacks on targets with little …

The European Immigration Crisis: An Analysis Of How Terror Attacks Have Affected Immigrant And Refugee Populations In Western Europe, Taylor M. Scimeca

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The 2015 European Immigration Crisis brought an unprecedented number of immigrants to parts of Western Europe as millions of people fled war-torn and politically unstable countries. Similar to the increase in immigrants, Western European countries have also been combatting the rise of terror attacks throughout Europe. The increase in immigration coupled with an increase in terror attacks has caused anti-refugee sentiments among some Europeans and demands for stricter immigration policies. This paper examines how terrorism has impacted refugee and immigrant populations throughout Western Europe with a focus on Germany, France, and Belgium following the 2015 European Immigration Crisis.

In order …

Terror And Territory: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis Of Isil, Robert Riley Strider

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), alternatively the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), is one of many non-state organizations that resulted from the extensive foreign intervention in the Middle East leading up to current conflicts there. Like the wider network that it used to be part of, ISIL is considered to be a great threat to modern first world countries. Using data from the Global Terrorism Database (GTD), this paper analyzed the relationship between the amount of territory ISIL held from June 2014 to December 2015 and the attacks it carried out in that time, …

Automatically Detecting The Resonance Of Terrorist Movement Frames On The Web, Ugochukwu O. Etudo

Theses and Dissertations

The ever-increasing use of the internet by terrorist groups as a platform for the dissemination of radical, violent ideologies is well documented. The internet has, in this way, become a breeding ground for potential lone-wolf terrorists; that is, individuals who commit acts of terror inspired by the ideological rhetoric emitted by terrorist organizations. These individuals are characterized by their lack of formal affiliation with terror organizations, making them difficult to intercept with traditional intelligence techniques. The radicalization of individuals on the internet poses a considerable threat to law enforcement and national security officials. This new medium of radicalization, however, also …

A Swot Analysis Of Community Policing As A Reform Schema For The Egyptian National Police To Counter Violent Extremism, Daniel Waddington Waddington

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Like much of the Middle East and Africa, Egypt has been experiencing increasing incidents of extremist violence and terrorism in recent years. However, an effective methodology for addressing this violence has not been identified. One approach that has been promoted internationally is countering violent extremism through community policing.

Aiding Repression? : The Effects Of U.S. Military Aid On Conflict Intensity And Civilian Targeting, Amira Jadoon

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This three-essay dissertation contributes to a nuanced theoretical and empirical understanding of the links between international security, foreign aid and political violence. It examines how U.S military aid interacts with domestic conflict processes to affect the nature and magnitude of violence within recipient countries. As such, it assesses the usefulness of foreign aid to promote international security, by investigating its implications on conflict intensity and civilian targeting by state and non-state actors.

Explaining The Rise Of Isis, Anas Alqaed

Political Science Theses and Capstones

In this paper I study the circumstances that led to the rise the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/Daesh) and its economic power. I use articles, testimonies before US House of Representatives and analyze economic data to generate facts and draw conclusions. All references rely on primary source documents that were not released in an official capacity by ISIS. These are documents that have been released online by pro or anti-ISIS activists or information that was gathered and analyzed by research centers and international organizations. It is worth noting that non-officially released documents were very helpful in shedding more …

Impact Of Data On Litigation: Enhancing Cybersecurity In The Private Sector By Means Of Civil Liability Lawsuits - The Connie Francis Effect, Jeffrey F. Addicott

Faculty Articles

In order to explore the threats posed by cybersecurity breaches, first outline the steps taken by the government to address those threats in private sector economy, and then call attention to the ultimate solution, which will most certainly spur private businesses to create a more secure cyber environment for the American people - a Connie Francis-styled cyber civil action lawsuit. Technological advances opened up the unfathomable marvels of cyberspace and, by so doing, spawned a modern world that is now completely dependent on cyber, particularly in the context of sustaining and operating our critical infrastructure. Unfortunately, if supervisory control and …

Terrorist Aesthetics As Ideal Types: From Spectacle To "Vicious Lottery", Marshall Battani, Michaelyn Mankel

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

This essay builds on Arnold Berleant’s concept of the negative sublime and his less-appreciated image of the vicious lottery to engage the ongoing discussion about the importance of aesthetic analysis for understanding terrorism. Sociological definitions of aesthetics and terrorism are presented as potential tools to aid in the analyses of terrorist aesthetics. Three aesthetic types of terrorism are developed in the tradition of Weberian sociological ideal typification. The article discusses the appropriateness and applicability of that typology for enriching our understanding of terrorism and counterterrorism.

Post Arab Spring Examination Of American Foreign Aid: Libya And Egypt, Andrew Robert Dickerson

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Every year, the United States uses foreign aid as a foreign policy tool. The Arab Spring gave the United States an opportunity to achieve a historically difficult task in the Middle East: promoting and establishing democracy across the Middle East. This study examines United States foreign aid, primarily military and economic aid, and the success it has on the ruling governing bodies in Libya and Egypt. Does American foreign aid lead to stability of the recipient government? The majority of published works regarding foreign aid effectiveness utilize a large-n case study over several decades without thoroughly examining each case. The …

How Do Counterterrorism Policies Influence Domestic Terrorism On Military Installations, Leona Rena Monroe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Department of Defense (DoD) utilizes risk management to develop antiterrorism practices and policies on military installations. However, there is a gap in understanding the impact these practices have on the culture and relationship among military personnel and their civilians. Using Schneider and Ingram's conceptualization of social construction of target populations, the purpose of this ethnographic qualitative study was to understand the nature of the relationship between antiterrorism programs, culture, and risk management on a single military installation. Using a snowball sampling strategy, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 12 participants who were either a civilian or military person …

A Theoretical Analysis Of Isis Indoctrination And Recruitment, Trevor Hawkins

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This paper is an attempt to use various theories in the social sciences as a tool to understand the mechanisms employed in ISIS indoctrination and recruitment tactics. There is a discussion of theories that have been developed in the field of influence psychology, rationalizing the context of indoctrination within this area of study. There is a discussion of proposedly relevant materials in philosophy, specifically simulacrum and linguistic deconstruction. These components are extrapolated to interpret a first person account of ISIS indoctrination, the first-ever ISIS recruitment film, and a Radical-Islamist periodical Inspire Magazine. Using a form of propaganda film analysis, and …

Boko Haram Terrorism In The Lake Chad Basin Region: Implications For Subregional Security, Abiodun Joseph Oluwadare Ph.D.

Journal of International and Global Studies

Terrorist activities in the Lake Chad Basin region of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon, have impacted negatively on the security, socio-political and economic situations in the region. This paper investigates the evolution of insurgency and the factors leading to its growth in the region. It also examines its socio-political, economic and security implications. Nigeria, in the centre of the imbroglio, has had no respite from terrorist activities for a long time. Boko Haram has carried out many gun attacks and bombings in many strategic places, including the United Nations building in Abuja, the federal capital city. There have been similar …

Addressing Socio-Economic Challenges To Curb Youth Participation In Terrorism In Africa, Tendaishe Tlou

Young African Leaders Journal of Development

The scourge of terrorism has become an international crisis after the 9/11 attacks in America. Terrorism has deeply encroached its claws in Africa on the premise of socio-economic challenges along the clash of civilizations. In countries such as Nigeria, Somalia, Central African Republic, Kenya and the Maghreb region, terrorism is a threat to peace and security, compounded by spiraling youth unemployment rates, the youth bulge, porous borders, poverty, arms proliferation, weak governments, economic problems among other challenges. It is yet to be seen how Africans will unite to deal with this threat to security on the continent given the above …

Without Unnecessary Delay: Using Army Regulation 190–8 To Curtail Extended Detention At Sea, Meghan Claire Hammond

Northwestern University Law Review

This Note analyzes instances of U.S. detention of suspected terrorists while at sea as an alternative to Guantánamo, and how this at-sea detention fits in the interplay of U.S. statutory law, procedural law, and applicable international law. Of particular interest is the dual use of military and civilian legal regimes to create a procedural-protection-free zone on board U.S. warships during a detainee’s transfer from their place of capture to the U.S. court system. The Note concludes that U.S. Army Regulation 190–8 contains language of which the purpose and intent may be analogized to the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure requirements …

The Terror Exception: The Impact Of The 2001 Authorization For Use Of Military Force On United States Counterterrorism Policy In The Middle East Under The Obama Administration, Benjamin Collinger

Undergraduate Student Research Awards

In the traumatic and somber aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Congress passed a critical piece of legislation to provide the president authority to defend the United States and its interests abroad. The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), which responded to the horrors of 9/11, began the United States’ longest war—the global war on terror— and serves as its legal basis today. President George W. Bush signed the AUMF into law on September 18, 2001, only a week after the attacks. Congress agreed with the proposition:

That the President is authorized to use all …