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- ItemOpen AccessMedia Power and American Military Strategy: Examining the Impact of Negative Media Coverage on US Strategy in Somalia and the Iraq War(2006) Fitzsimmons, Daniel; Fitzsimmons, Scott; Singh, AnitaSince the Vietnam War, the opinions expressed by the American news media have been considered by many politicians and members of academia to be a powerful agenda-setting device. The term 'CNN effect' has come to signify the power of the news media to 'move and shake' American foreign policy, determining when to enter into and when to pull out of military conflicts. Despite the level of scholarship on this concept, very few works have examined the influence of news organizations on military strategy. This study attempts to redress this failing by examining the influence of negative coverage of American military strategy in Somalia, from 1992 to 1993, and the early stages of the Iraq War, from 2003 to 2005. This paper argues that, despite the high level of negative media coverage of these conflicts from both television and newspaper sources, this coverage had no discernable impact on American military strategy in either conflict
- ItemOpen AccessRussia’s Security Interests: Dominating Ukraine(2006) Sherwin, Jillian; Fitzsimmons, Scott; Singh, AnitaAfter the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was forced to redefine many of its interests and domestic policies, including its security policy. The orientation of Russia’s security policy is important for Russia, its neighbours, and the international community because, for the past several centuries, Russia’s concept of security was synonymous with the concept of empire. Today Russia believes that regional power and influence are the keys to its long-term goals. This paper demonstrates that, motivated by its desire to foster and maintain power and influence, Russia’s regional security interests are to create an exclusive zone of influence over the economic, military and political spheres of the CIS members such as Ukraine. Furthermore, this paper demonstrates that the success of Russia’s security directives in Ukraine not only subjugates Ukraine to the pressures of Russia, but reminds the world that Russia is capable of acting as a great power.
- ItemOpen AccessFrom Cuba to Bolivia: Guevara’s Foco Theory in Practice(2006) Johnson, Joshua; Fitzsimmons, Scott; Singh, AnitaIn order to account for Ernesto Guevara’s dramatic swing of fate from Cuba to Bolivia, it is necessary to explore his revolutionary theory developed in response to his experiences in the 1959 Cuban revolution. His foco theory, which places a high degree of primacy on the guerrilla band in creating the conditions for revolution, is starkly contrasted by an historical analysis of the Cuban revolution, where economic, social, and nationalistic forces combined to the benefit of Guevara and Castro. Exploring the political climate of Bolivia at the time of Guevara’s attempted insurrection, it becomes apparent that none of these forces were present for the exploitation of the guerrillas, which ultimately doomed the revolution and Guevara himself. Both the Cuban and Bolivian cases show the significance of socio-political factors in determining the success of an insurrection, and put the validity of Guevara’s foco theory into question.
- ItemOpen AccessPrivate Generosity and Public Regulation: Understanding the Canadian Chartered Banks’ Philanthropic Efforts in Historical Context(2006) Young, Kevin; Fitzsimmons, Scott; Singh, AnitaThis article contributes to our understanding of financial power in Canada by highlighting the ways in which the Canadian chartered banks may have used philanthropy strategically to diffuse public hostility to their power. Taking an historical perspective, it is argued that it was in the 1990s that an important transformation took place in the Canadian banking sector: bank philanthropy not only accelerated, but also became more populist, and showed signs of being reactive to negative public attitudes about the concentration of financial power in Canada. To theorize these phenomena, the Gramscian notion of 'hegemony' is invoked to help explain the banking sectors’ collective behaviour.
- ItemOpen AccessThe Political Economy of Organized Crime and State Failure: The Nexus of Greed, Need and Grievance(2006) West, Jessica; Fitzsimmons, Scott; Singh, AnitaState failure has emerged as a new security threat, however its dynamics are poorly understood as evidenced by our limited insight of its relationship to proximate causes such as organized crime. Most theories of conflict and state failure that incorporate organized crime focus on its ability to finance war and provide economic incentives to sustain instability; however, they ignore the political elements that are present in theories of organized crime. Moreover, it is difficult to discern the difference between crime as a symptom of state failure and crime as an agent of it. The central question posed in this paper concerns how organized crime interacts with the causes of state failure. Applying a political economy analysis to the drug trade in Afghanistan and Tajikistan as case studies, the purpose of the study is to determine whether or not organized crime is a neutral symptom of state failure or if it contributes to the process of disintegration. The findings reveal that organized crime serves as a proximate cause of state failure by feeding off of and reinforcing other causes in a manner that propels weak states towards failure and provides obstacles to the re-establishment of a functional state. This suggests that policy-makers should also approach the problem from a political economy perspective, taking care to isolate the greed aspect of organized crime without exacerbating the legitimate need and grievances of citizens that it exploits and seeks to reinforce. To do so requires an expansion of the traditional toolbox for conflict management beyond traditional military and development instruments to include intelligence and law-enforcement agencies.