中华基督教会在西南少数民族地区的文化传播研究

西南边疆是文化教育落后的地区,同时又是少数民族聚居和经济最为落后的地区。鉴于这种状况,基督教会在这些地区大力推行和发展教会教育,以教育传播教义,发展教会势力。     

缅甸的穆斯林与缅孟关系

罗兴加难民是历时甚久的政治冲突的旁观者.1992年,大约25万难民从缅甸的若开邦逃亡到孟加拉国,他们声称缅甸当局践踏人权.遣返工作于当年开始,截至1997年4月止,已有23万人被遣返.然而,1997年年中遣反计划暂停.缅孟双方似乎没有解决难民困境的政治意愿,遣返工作进展非常缓慢.除非迫不得已,否则孟加拉国政府决不情愿给予那些剩余的难民以种族上的平等待遇.2002年12月17-18日缅甸联邦总理丹瑞大将访问孟加拉国,这次访问进一步加强了两国之间的关系.近来缅甸政府表现出希望尽快接回至今仍滞留在孟加拉国难民营里的缅甸公民的意愿.     

论我国反恐情报的运用对策

情报在国际反恐斗争中越来越显示出它的重要作用,我国政府已经认识到准确、可靠、全面的情报是打击恐怖主义的先决条件,是制定反恐措施的根本保证。必须根据我国反恐情报运用的现状制定运用对策。     

自杀性恐怖犯罪原因及防控措施探析

自杀性恐怖犯罪是为了达成某种目标或恐怖效果而经常采取的一种犯罪行为。是所有恐怖犯罪活动中最难防范的。目前这类犯罪呈现地域分布全球化、犯罪数量呈上升趋势、个案和系列爆炸结合、犯罪主体年轻化、女性犯罪迅速扩大蔓延、高科技倾向更加明显、人弹更加隐秘的新特点。应对策略有:加强情报收集和分析工作、加强打击力度、强化综合治理、缔结统一国际反恐公约,完善国内反恐怖立法、大力发展生产力、反对"双重标准"、增强公众的心理承受力、倡导不同文明间的对话、交流与合作等。     

The Economic Cost of March 11: Measuring the Direct Economic Cost of the Terrorist Attack on March 11, 2004 in Madrid

This article attempts to measure the direct costs that the terrorist attacks of 3/11 had on the economy of the region of Madrid. The evaluation has been made applying conservative criteria, and the results obtained have to be considered as minimum. The result indicates that the terrorist attacks caused a loss of nearly 212 million euros to the regional economy of Madrid, equivalent to 0.16 percent of the regional GDP (0.03 of the national GDP). This confirms that the immediate economic dimension of a terrorist attack such as the one of 3/11—apart from human catastrophic consequences—is relatively low.     

When Art and Commerce Collide: Colorization and the Moral Right

ABSTRACT

This article challenges the dominant framework that drives US public diplomacy initiatives and insists that, short of major structural changes, US public diplomacy lacks ethical legitimacy. Based on a review of past US public diplomacy practices, the article finds that these efforts were mainly characterized by a one-way flow of information and an emphasis on image management. Using the theories of hegemony, American exceptionalism, Orientalism, and cultural imperialism, the author lays a theoretical framework for analyzing public diplomacy. The author suggests that, for public diplomacy to move beyond propaganda, it needs to incorporate two-way communication and symmetry.     

Boko Haram and the discourse of mimicry: a critical discourse analysis of media explanations for Boko Haram’s improved video propaganda quality

The Nigeria-based violent non-state actor Boko Haram is increasingly reported on in the news media in relation to the Islamic State, another, more prominent, violent non-state actor. In particular, these comparisons have been drawn within the context of reports on Boko Haram’s recent improvement in video propaganda quality. While the associations with the Islamic State are often warranted, there are broader social consequences when colonial power relations are brought into play. Borrowing an approach from critical discourse analysis, 16 online English-language news articles were read through a postcolonial lens in order to analyse the structural relations of dominance that arise when discussing African non-state actors. The analysis revealed that among the corpus of articles, nine developed a discourse of mimicry, which serves to deny Boko Haram full agency, relegate them to a silenced subaltern status, and ultimately to diminish the sense of threat posed to the dominant geopolitical security paradigm.     

Running the Blockade: Information Technology,Terrorism, and the Transformation of Islamic Mass Culture

Arab media is no longer limited to state-sponsored sources, opening a door of opportunity to the Muslim world. Islamic terrorist groups leverage information technology to form resilient, networked organizations that influence how many Muslims perceive events and U.S. political goals. This article looks at the connection between information technology and cultural transformation in the Middle East. It focuses on how information technology—as the major weapon system in the battle of ideas—has been used effectively by Islamic extremists and less so by the U.S. Important conclusions are drawn regarding the necessity of culturally-attuned uses of information technology.     

Alessandro Orsini. Anatomy of the Red Brigades: The Religious Mind-Set of Modern Terrorists

ABSTRACT

Those who study terrorism are familiar with the claim that suicide attacks are the most lethal form of terrorism today. Suicide attacks kill more people on average than non-suicide attacks, thereby justifying why terrorist organizations use this costly method of attack and explaining in part why suicide tactics have proliferated. However, extant empirical support for this claim is largely insufficient, focusing only on macro-level analysis of lethality data. Using data from the Global Terrorism Database, this study examines variation in lethality among suicide and non-suicide attacks based on geographic location, attack type, and target/victim type. It also introduces a new metric—the lethality ratio—to measure costs and benefits of attacks in terms of lives lost. It finds that, although suicide tactics are generally more lethal than non-suicide tactics, they also come at greater costs to the organization. This analysis also finds behavior that is inconsistent with the premise that terrorist groups are focused on maximizing lethality while reducing costs in all cases; that despite certain advantages, suicide attacks may remain a suboptimal tactic from the perspective of the terrorist group; and that additional criteria may help explain why suicide tactics are used.     

Islam and Attitudes toward U.S. Policy in the Middle East: Evidence from Survey Research in Lebanon

This study examines the impact of religious orientation on attitudes toward U.S. Middle Eastern policy among Muslim Lebanese. The data came from a stratified random sample, consisting of 262 Sunni and Shi'i respondents of both genders, conducted in the Greater Beirut area during February and March of 2002. Consistent with the literature about Islamism, the present analysis reveals an empirical distinction between personal and political dimensions of religion in Lebanon. Specifically, support for political Islam is associated with unfavorable attitudes toward U.S. policy in the region, but personal religiosity is unrelated to attitudes toward foreign policy. The study findings contribute in clarifying the debate that has been raging since the September 11 attacks, pitting Islam against the West and associating Islam with political violence.