Book reviews

Amir Taheri, Holy Terror: The Inside Story of Islamic Terrorism. London: Century Hutchinson; Bethesda, MD: Adler & Adler, 1987. Pp.313. £12.95/$19.95 (hardback); £3.95 (paperback).

Robert O. Slater and Michael Stohl (eds.), Current Perspectives on International Terrorism. London: Macmillan Press; New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988. Pp. 288. £29.50/$39.95 (hardback); £13.95 (paperback).

Juliet Lodge (ed.), The Threat of Terrorism. Brighton: Wheatsheaf Books; Boulder, CO.Westview Press, 1988. Pp. 280. £35/$33.50 (hardback); £12.95 (paperback).

Edward F. Mickolus with Peter A. Flemming (compilers), Terrorism, 1980–1987: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1988. Pp. 314. £49.50/$55.     

NATO Regional peacekeeping center in Central and Eastern Europe: A proposal

Abstract

The article asks what the evolution of NATO–Swedish relations signifies for the understanding of the evolution of security communities. Given the astonishing evolution of NATO and Sweden as a community of practise, it is logical to imagine the two as forming part of the same security community. It could then be argued that common practise can bring about new security communities rather hastily. Analysing NATO's and Sweden's recent discourses on security, the author identifies a significant gap between a principally realist and a predominantly idealist discourse that indicates that the two parties do not share key characteristics of a security community – identities, values and meanings. However, if Libya is the case of the future, the discursive differences may fade and Sweden could more easily pursue its journey towards inclusion in NATO, not as a member of an Alliance, but as a member of NATO as a security community.     

Deliberative Qualities of Generic News Frames: Assessing the Democratic Value of Strategic Game and Contestation Framing in Election Campaign Coverage

News frames are patterns of news construction journalists rely on to present information to their audiences. While much of the research on news frames has focused on their identification and effects, less work has investigated the specific contributions these different frames make to democratic life. Value judgments about distinct news frames are often not generated in a systematic fashion, not grounded in democratic theory, and/or not supported by empirical evidence. In this article, we address these problems by arguing for and extending normative assessment as a standard operating procedure to determine the democratic value of political communication phenomena. We demonstrate the usefulness of normative assessment by showing how two important generic news frames (politics as a strategic game and as a substantive contestation) contribute to a deliberative public discourse prior to a general election. Using data on television news coverage of the German federal election campaign in 2009, we investigate how these frames are related to the inclusiveness and civility of public discourse and the extent to which it features exchanges of substantive reasons for political positions. Results show that mediated democratic deliberation suffers consistently from strategic game framing, while contestation frames make ambivalent contributions. Implications for political communication scholarship as well as journalistic practice are discussed.

[Supplementary material is available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Political Communication for the following free supplemental resource(s): coding protocol used in content analysis.]     

Promoting the Safe and Strategic Use of Technology for Victims of Intimate Partner Violence: Evaluation of the Technology Safety Project

The Technology Safety Project of the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence was designed to increase awareness and knowledge of technology safety issues for domestic violence victims, survivors, and advocacy staff. The project used a “train the trainer” model and provided computer and Internet resources to domestic violence service providers in order to (1) increase safe computer and Internet access for domestic violence survivors in Washington; (2) reduce the risk posed by abusers by educating survivors about technology safety and privacy; and (3) increase the ability of survivors to help themselves and their children through information technology. Evaluation of the project suggests that the program is needed, useful, and effective. Consumer satisfaction was high and there was perceived improvement in computer confidence and knowledge of computer safety. Areas for future program development and further research are discussed.     

In search of copyright author(s)

Who should be considered the author of a work protected by copyright?In recent years, there has been an expanding critical literatureexamining notions of authorship and the role of the author inthe creative process, often leading to suggestions for waysin which the copyright framework might be recalibrated to recognizecollective effort. This book by Lior Zemer is an excellent additionto those works. Eloquently written and skilfully referenced in the eight chaptersthat make up Zemer's book, its key aim is to persuade the readerthat the individual and the public should be seen as joint authorsof creative works. In making his arguments, he takes us froma Conceptual Challenge (Chapter 2) to a     

Can we measure civil society? A proposed methodology for international comparative research

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the concept of civil society in development and governance circles. Broadly understood as the space in society where collective citizen action takes place, civil society has, in fact, proved an extremely difficult concept to define and operationalise. This article proposes a framework and methodology for measuring and comparing the state of different civil societies around the world. It concludes with a discussion of outstanding questions and challenges, drawing on preliminary insights from current efforts to apply the approach in more than 50 countries.