Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Narrowly construed, the purpose of this paper is to use the rhetoric generated by the execution of Saddam Hussein as a point of departure to examine if, and how, it illustrates an emerging European identity, particularly one constructed from a perceived opposition to a barbaric, stagnant, and vigilante American presence. It questions: how does the European response to Saddam Hussein’s execution reflect the belief that the abolition of capital punishment has become a distinctly “European” trait? Moreover, how does the use of such rhetoric reinforce particular cultural convictions about Europe as a civilized entity while simultaneously reaffirming the barbaric quality of an alien other? Ultimately, this paper concludes that what is important about the execution of Saddam Hussein is neither whether the execution was indeed barbaric, nor whether the photographs or videos depicting such an act somehow compromised the European quest for the global elimination of capital punishment. Rather, it determines that what is important are the multiple ways in which hierarchical language is deployed as an element to structure and order individual nations, a practice that attempts to define “Europe” by defining what it is not.

Publication Type: Paper/Poster Proposal
Abstract: Before, during, and after the major combat operations in Iraq of Gulf War II, public opinion polls showed that a large proportion of Americans – a majority in some cases – believed that Saddam Hussein was involved in the September 11th attacks. This paper uses June 2004 data collected by the National Annenberg Election Survey (NAES) to test how well John Zaller’s model of persuasion predicts this belief. Zaller’s model holds that the probability of holding a certain belief depends largely upon the probability of being exposed to a certain message and the acceptance of the message. Preliminary analyses suggest that the model does indeed largely explain belief that Saddam Hussein aided the September 11th terrorists. An already-completed analysis of NAES data gathered in June 2003 provided evidence that 1) approval for President Bush was highly correlated with the likelihood of believing in Saddam Hussein’s involvement in the September 11th attacks and 2) frequency of newspaper-readership interacted significantly with approval for President Bush to predict likelihood of believing in Saddam’s involvement. In other words, the more Bush detractors read the newspaper, the less likely they were to believe in Saddam’s involvement. One year later, NAES asked again about Saddam’s involvement. This paper will use both the June 2003 data and the June 2004 data to engage in a more precise test of Zaller’s model with regard to beliefs about Saddam’s involvement in the September 11th attacks.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: After the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in April 2003, the Iraqi media have witnessed a remarkable growth in number and diversity. From the Western journalistic perspective, the invasion is often viewed as a form of “liberation” in terms of press freedom. Over the four years after the collapse of the Saddam regime, there emerged new threats and restraints to ensnare the Iraqi media in various forms of legal, political, religious, and physical dangers against journalists. Based on in-depth interviews with 22 Iraqi journalists working in the country, this study found that various legal and regulatory restraints imposed by the new Iraqi government, political pressures from religious groups, and security-related threats such as murders and abductions by terrorists and militias all work against Iraqi journalists and their yearnings for press freedom. Based upon the classic Four Theories of the Press, and William Hachten’s classification of global press systems, this study concludes that Iraqi media system is heading toward an Authoritarian press system model, instead of a free Libertarian press system. The experience of the Iraqi media and journalists parallels that of media and journalists in the former communist bloc of Eastern Europe where former Marxist-Leninist press systems have transformed into Authoritarian press systems in less than two decades.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: (To be revised.)

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Since the Abu-Ghraib scandal, the role of humiliation in post-conflict settings has come to the forefront of the North-South debate. Whether policy-generated or perceived, humiliation has a become a parallel theme to that of the 'War on Terror', from Guantanamo to Bagram. This paper seeks to analyse the role of humiliation in the polarization between occupier and occupied in post-Saddam Fallujah, which fostered an escalation of violence that led to the entire destrtuction of the city in November 2004. generated after a five months field research, this paper will seek to conceptualise the relationship between humiliation and conflict escalation, as well as to identify future research themes.