The terror experts and the mainstream media: the expert nexus and its dominance in the news media

Academic writing on ‘terrorism’ and the availability to the mainstream media and policy-makers of terror ‘experts’ have increased exponentially since 11 September 2001. This paper examines the rise of terror expertise and its use in one particular public arena – the mainstream news media. Using a combination of citation analysis and media analysis, the paper presents a ranking of the most influential terror experts in the mainstream news media in the Anglophone world. It is shown how what has been called an ‘invisible college’ of experts operates as a nexus of interests connecting academia with military, intelligence and government agencies, with the security industry and the media. The paper then takes a small number of case studies of some of the most prominent experts who exemplify the dominant trend in the field and examines the networks in which they are embedded. The last part of the paper uses the data generated to re-examine theories of ‘terrorism’ and the media, of ‘propaganda’ and ‘terrorism’, and of ‘source–media’ relations. It is suggested that the study of terror experts shows the need to study and theorise the media in a wider context by focusing on the relations between media content and production processes and wider formations of power. In so doing, the paper attempts to connect studies of media and terrorism to wider studies of terror and political violence.     

Education,experience and earnings: the career coordinates of female vis-à-vis male police officers in Finland

This study compares the careers of female and male police officers using the common criteria of career success: education, experience, rank, and earnings. The data come from the Police Personnel Barometer 2010-survey, which targeted the entire Finnish police force (N/population?=?7350/11,028). The accumulation of work experience (by age) appears to be slower among female than among male police officers. Female police officers acquire their higher police degrees slightly later during their career than male police officers. Towards the end of the career, male police officers are ahead of females in both rank and earnings. Using comprehensive data from one of the most equal societies in the world, and robust statistical methods, the current paper thus demonstrates that it is very difficult the get rid of the career bias between female and male police officers.     

Military Structure,Civil Disobedience,and Military Violence

In this article, I argue that factors inherent to the structure of a military organization and their relationship with the political leadership play a role in the organization's tendency to perpetrate violence against civilians during civil disobedience campaigns. To examine this hypothesis, I conducted a three-phased statistical analysis on a database containing 97 campaigns that took place between 1972 and 2012. In the first phase, I examined the relationship between military centric factors and violent crackdowns. In the second phase, I examined the relationship between military centric factors and mass killing. In the third stage, I examined the relationship between two specific types of discrimination in the military and mass killing. I found strong evidence supporting the hypothesis mentioned above. High-risk militaries that served a militarized regime, contained loosely regulated or indoctrinated paramilitaries, and discriminated against the protesting group, were much more likely to perpetrate violence against civilians during civil disobedience campaigns than low-risk militaries. The conclusions of this study suggest that further examination of the military's role in perpetrating violence against civilians during protests and conflict may provide some novel findings.     

The European public sphere and the debate about humanitarian military interventions

Studies on the democratic control and legitimacy of Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP) have thus far mostly focused on formal institutions. However, a comprehensive analysis requires including the ‘sociocultural infrastructure’ in which such formal institutions are embedded. Students of democracy have argued that the public sphere is a crucial dimension, if not a precondition for all mechanisms of democratic control in general. This paper investigates whether and in which ways Europeans participated in transnational European communication on humanitarian military interventions (1990–2005/2006). The paper analyzes a full sample of 108,677 newspaper articles published in leading newspapers of six EU member states, and the US as a comparative case. It demonstrates that the ‘national’ arenas of political communication are intertwined and allow ordinary citizens to make up their minds about common European issues in the highly controversial and normatively sensitive realm of humanitarian military interventions.     

Building A Reasonable Power

正China’s military spending is growing moderatelyChina’s defense spending, despite rapid increases, matches the legitimate nationa defense needs of a large country.Chinese President Xi Jinping made these remarks in response to a question on China’s rising defense budget after a speech sponsored by the Koerber Foundation in Berlin on March28 during his two-day state visit to Germany.In early March, the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, passed the     

暴力犯罪死刑适用的量刑情节研究——基于死刑判例的实证考察

暴力犯罪是严重的犯罪行为,是死刑研究的典型样本。在＂保留死刑,严格控制死刑＂和＂宽严相济＂的刑事政策下,司法实践如何运用量刑情节来限制暴力犯罪死刑适用就成为重要课题。通过对暴力犯罪死刑判例的分析,总结出司法实践常见的几种量刑情节。根据这些量刑情节对暴力犯罪死刑适用的影响程度,将量刑情节分为三个量刑等级的情节,即将量刑情节等级化。根据三个量刑等级的情节,运用不同的处理方式来解决量刑情节竞合与冲突的问题,能够有效的从量刑情节方面来限制暴力犯罪的死刑适用。     

当前高校学生军训工作之我见

高校军训工作开展20多年来,取得了很大的成绩,但也存在一定的问题。当前和今后一个时期,加强高校学生军训工作,必须与时俱进创新军训项目、坚持军事技能训练与思想教育并重、着眼长效、完善科学的军训管理机制。     

略论军事监狱制度中人权保障的不足与完善

目前,我国军事监狱在监管方面还存在一些弊端,为了促进国家和军队的监狱制度建设,充分保障犯罪军人的人权,我们应该强化军事监察机关对监狱的监督功能,不断完善军队监狱法律法规体系,推动人权事业向积极的方向发展。     

南海问题与中美新型双边军事关系的构建

南海领土争端非常复杂,与海上优势和领土主张有关的新利益和竞争背后存在战略动机。虽然20世纪90年代后期和过去十年间南海保持着相对和平,但是复现的争议及潜在的冲突升级除了凸显各声索国之间的角力外,更反映了南海问题正在由资源领土之争上升演变为中美两国的地缘战略博弈。中美两国在南海地区的互动,特别是两军愈发频繁的海空相遇以及由此引发的冲突或事故,因此中美两国发展新型双边军事关系是非常必要的。中美两国在南海附近的相遇存在冲突升级的可能性,同时,美国的亚太同盟的存在一定程度上阻碍了中美的双边军事交流。缺乏有效的沟通机制造成了中美双边军事关系的低互动性以及两国战略互信的缺失。考虑到南海作为至关重要的海上交通线,其潜在的海洋资源以及未解决的领土争端,中美两国应该如何更好地理解和解决不断出现的安全挑战并且建立管理危机的机制,这对亚太地区的重要国家(包括美国和中国)都有重大的政策启示。