1,720,969 research outputs found
The Securitization of a Despot: How the Bush Administration securitized Saddam Hussein
No full textThis paper applies securitization theory to the Bush administration‟s invasion of Iraq and the removal of its president, Saddam Hussein. First, it examines securitization theory in the field of international relations, and then applies the components of securitization to the Bush administration‟s actions leading up to the war in Iraq and in particular the capture of Saddam Hussein. Those three main components are the securitization actor, a securitization act (speech act), and the audience. In our case study, the Bush administration is considered the actor; the speeches delivered by President Bush and his administration regarding Saddam Hussein and his potential threat level to the US form the speech act and the audience is the American public, which ultimately had to accept the speech acts in order for the securitization to occur. The acts were aided by US media outlets, such as the New York Times and created headlines that reflected the view of the US government, which in turn impacted the audience in order to try to garner support. The speech acts given by the Bush administration and news stories created by the New York Times were powerful enough that securitization was able to occur and was accepted by the audience even though the Bush administration lacked evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction
Understanding the Emergence of Private Security Companies & Variance in Security Contracting
No full textThis Major Research Paper seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of the
emergence and utilization of the private security industry. Rather than merely
providing a detailed account of the multifaceted origins of the private security
industry, a topic heavily debated throughout recent security literature, this paper
seeks to take one step further, by tacking the puzzle of differing military contracting
practices between states. Thus, the purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, to provide
a detailed account of the factors that converged to create a massive industry for
private security, and second, to understand why there is such variance in military
contracting. Through a theoretical analysis of the existing literature, this paper
argues that there is no single explanation that sufficiently justifies the significant
differences in interstate contracting trends. Thus, this paper suggests that a holistic
approach is necessary, where two differing explanations – a political instrumentalist
explanation and a norm and idea explanation – are taken as complementary rather
than competing. Using a synthetic lens, this paper demonstrates that these two
disconnected factors, when taken together, are relevant for analyzing and
understanding variance in military contracting
Understanding the Emergence of Private Security Companies & Variance in Security Contracting
No full textThis Major Research Paper seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of the
emergence and utilization of the private security industry. Rather than merely
providing a detailed account of the multifaceted origins of the private security
industry, a topic heavily debated throughout recent security literature, this paper
seeks to take one step further, by tacking the puzzle of differing military contracting
practices between states. Thus, the purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, to provide
a detailed account of the factors that converged to create a massive industry for
private security, and second, to understand why there is such variance in military
contracting. Through a theoretical analysis of the existing literature, this paper
argues that there is no single explanation that sufficiently justifies the significant
differences in interstate contracting trends. Thus, this paper suggests that a holistic
approach is necessary, where two differing explanations – a political instrumentalist
explanation and a norm and idea explanation – are taken as complementary rather
than competing. Using a synthetic lens, this paper demonstrates that these two
disconnected factors, when taken together, are relevant for analyzing and
understanding variance in military contracting
Practices of Civil-Military Relations in Complex Peace Operations: Comparative Case Study of US and Canada Provincial Reconstruction Teams in Afghanistan
No full textTraditional analyses of operational effectiveness often lack consideration of civil-military relations. However, in operations with complex and ambitious political aims, such as democratization, stabilization and reconstruction, economic development, and respect for human rights, taking a comprehensive approach (the co-ordination of military, diplomatic, and development efforts) is essential. The creation of the Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in Afghanistan aimed to essentially operationalize the comprehensive approach but was largely viewed as ineffective. The aim of this thesis is to increase the understanding of why the comprehensive approach in PRTs failed to live up to its potential and increase operational effectiveness through a comparative case study of US and Canada PRTs.
As often is the case with complex peace operations, the mandates given to both military and civilian leaders are usually broad with little detail and thus are open for interpretation. As such, leadership has significant leeway as to how to conduct the operation, and many leaders have different ways of doing everyday things based on their own dispositions. The current theorizing of civil-military relations largely relies on rationalist and positivist assumptions which cannot readily capture the everyday experiences and dispositions of interveners and are less than insightful when it comes to describing and explaining the nuances of civil-military relations. By using a practice theory lens (specifically Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field, capital, and hysteresis), allows one to move away from models of actions based on realist assumptions and analyze civil-military relations as the result of different processes, practices, and systems of knowledge.
The principal argument of this thesis is that because the habitus of the US and Canada were so misaligned with the field, actual operationalization (or embodiment) of the comprehensive approach was very sporadic and was largely dependent on leadership personality, which negatively effected effectiveness. Without understanding the systems of knowledge and sense-making (the habitus) that underlie decision-making processes one cannot assume that leadership will change its everyday practices to better embody the comprehensive approach. Without this understanding, it is necessary to put in place standard practices, such as training and clearer mandates, to help mitigate hysteresis (or the lag between generating practices that are in line with the new conditions)
The Securitization of a Despot: How the Bush Administration securitized Saddam Hussein
No full textThis paper applies securitization theory to the Bush administration‟s invasion of Iraq and the removal of its president, Saddam Hussein. First, it examines securitization theory in the field of international relations, and then applies the components of securitization to the Bush administration‟s actions leading up to the war in Iraq and in particular the capture of Saddam Hussein. Those three main components are the securitization actor, a securitization act (speech act), and the audience. In our case study, the Bush administration is considered the actor; the speeches delivered by President Bush and his administration regarding Saddam Hussein and his potential threat level to the US form the speech act and the audience is the American public, which ultimately had to accept the speech acts in order for the securitization to occur. The acts were aided by US media outlets, such as the New York Times and created headlines that reflected the view of the US government, which in turn impacted the audience in order to try to garner support. The speech acts given by the Bush administration and news stories created by the New York Times were powerful enough that securitization was able to occur and was accepted by the audience even though the Bush administration lacked evidence that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction
Syrian Refugees in Canada: A Security Issue? A Qualitative Content Analysis of the Conservative Party Rhetoric
No full textIn August 2015, the Syrian crisis reached an all-time high in terms of number of refugees fleeing violence. The displaced sought asylum in numerous neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt (Slim and Trombetta, 2014). Eventually, some resettled in Canada. At the same time, Canada called for a federal election to be held in October 2015. The overlap of these two major events sets the political environment of this major research paper. As a wave of hatred against immigrants reaches all corners of the world, it is interesting to see if it also reached Canada. Following a deductive approach and testing securitization theory, the rhetoric of three main political actors from the Conservative Party of Canada during the 2015 election campaign will be analyzed. This paper argues that, according to the theory of securitization, the Conservative Party tried to link the concepts of refugees and security, but did not perform a securitization attempt per se
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Multilateralism à la Carte? : The Bush II administration and US foreign policy
No full textThe use of unilateral force under George W. Bush is not a new phenomenon in US foreign policy. As the author argues, it is merely a continuation of Bill Clinton’s foreign policy and is deeply rooted in both the foreign policy traditions of Jacksonianism and Wilsonianism. The analysis concludes that Clinton used unilateralist foreign policy with a 'smile' whereas the Bush administration uses it with an attitude.Die unilaterale Außenpolitik unter George W. Bush ist kein neues Phänomen der US-Diplomatie. Dem Autor zufolge ist sie vielmehr eine Fortführung der Politik der Clinton-Regierung und hat ihre Wurzeln in den Traditionen eines Andrew Jackson und Woodrow Wilson. Clinton vermochte jedoch seine unilaterale Politik mit einem "Lächeln" zu verkaufen, wohingegen die Art und Weise der Bush-Administration stets Irritationen hervorrief
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
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