Media Framing on Armed Conflicts: Limits of Peace Journalism on the Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

ABSTRACT

Media framing and coverage of contemporary armed conflicts largely focus on the defence of national security and war propaganda. The concept of peace journalism draws on the Galtung tradition and provides a toolkit for opposing war journalism and contributing to reconciliation. By examining the case of media framing of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, this article asks whether and why peace journalism is possible in the given political context. Our study of limited peace journalism shows that traditions of war journalism are predominant and points to limitations of liberal instruments in (semi-)authoritarian post-Soviet conflict contexts.     

The Atlantis of personnel: The lost world of public employee discipline in the state government

Though there are many procedural job protections afforded public employees, there is a surprising amount of disciplinary actions meted out. A survey of 50 State governments showed that the magnitude of employee discipline is relatively high; there is a positive relationship between states which have low disciplinary records, and their lack of control of the disciplinary process; and there is a “progressive disciplinary profilet” prototypes state that exhibits a high degree of discipline when corrective and minor disciplinary actions are multiples of major disciplinary actions.     

Re-Enchanting Terrorism: Jihadists as “Liminal Beings”

Religious terrorists have been the subject of much scholarly scrutiny. While such analyses have endeavored to elucidate the ideological logic and implications of religious terrorism, the transnational character of jihadists necessitates new ways of understanding this phenomenon. My article attempts to explain how jihadists can be defined as liminal beings who seek to re-enchant the world via their symbolic and performative features. Jihadists' strategically position themselves as ambiguous not only as a distinguishing device, but also to enhance their belief of a cosmic war on earth. Jihadists' use of symbolic imagery on the internet works within the ambit of a magical kind of panoptic power which seeks to both impress and terrify viewers.     

Community Involvement in Rural Regeneration Partnerships: Exploring the Rural Dimension

This paper is about the involvement of local communities in rural regeneration and area development partnerships. In particular it asks questions about the extent to which there are distinctive rural elements to this which differentiate and counterpoise it to such involvement in urban areas. The paper concludes that, whilst there are some commonalities between such involvement across urban and rural communities, there are also challenges particular to rural areas. These are the spatial features of rural areas, the paucity of human capital in rural communities and a much lower resource level than in urban communities. The paper concludes that these challenges can only be met effectively in rural areas where there is strong local voluntary and community sector infrastructure to support community involvement in rural regeneration partnerships.     

Military professionalism in post‐communist Hungary and Poland: An analysis and assessment

Abstract

This article discusses Russian perceptions of and attitudes toward the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Russia has historically disliked and mistrusted NATO, seeing it as the primary threat to its international aspirations; in practice Russia pursues a dual policy. Its harsh condemnation of NATO has not stopped it from cooperating in selected areas of mutual interest. The most important among them is support for NATO's military operations in Afghanistan. The recent rejuvenation of relations between the west and Moscow is known as the strategic ‘reset’, meaning a return to diplomatic contacts and limited cooperation regardless of disagreements over the invasion of Georgia and Moscow's other recent international transgressions. The reset in NATO–Russia relations has only tactical significance, however. Cooperation will take place on a limited basis, but a genuine reset in mutual relations must wait for a reset in Russia's political and strategic priorities.     

Path-Dependent Institutions and Strategic Veto Players: National Parliaments in the European Union

According to the prevailing concept of 'dual legitimacy', national parliaments constitute an important source of democratic legitimacy in the EU. Reinforced parliamentary scrutiny and control of the national representatives in the Council of Ministers seem to contribute to a more democratic Europe. However, if parliaments tie the hands of their governments when they negotiate at the European level, effectiveness of policy-making is jeopardised and national interests may be defeated. Realising this dilemma, members of national parliaments develop strategies to deal with conflicting requirements of national party politics and European policy-making. These strategies and their implications for democracy are influenced by the path-dependent institutional changes in national parliamentary systems. They therefore vary considerably between member states.     

UK OC OK? Interpreting Optimal Classification Scores for the U.K. House of Commons

Iain McLean Nuffield College, Oxford University, Oxford OX1 1NF, United Kingdom. e-mail: iain.mclean{at}nuffield.ox.ac.uk e-mail: spln{at}mail.rochester.edu (corresponding author) Poole's (2000, Non-parametric unfolding of binary choice data.Political Analysis 8:211–37) nonparametric Optimal Classificationprocedure for binary data produces misleading rank orderingswhen applied to the modern House of Commons. With simulationsand qualitative evidence, we show that the problem arises fromthe government-versus-opposition nature of British (Westminster)parliamentary politics and the strategic voting that is entailedtherein. We suggest that political scientists think seriouslyabout strategic voting in legislatures when interpreting resultsfrom such techniques.