In this report, we demonstrate the applicability and value of the context mediation approach in facilitating the effective and correct use of counter-terrorism intelligence information coming from diverse heterogeneous sources.

In 1985, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared publicity to be the ‘oxygen’ of terrorism. Speaking from within a climate of domestic terrorism, such a statement draws into question the nature of contemporary media coverage. The British Broadcasting Corporation, existing as a public sector broadcaster, occupies a unique position in the context of 20th and 21st century mass media. The BBC is central to the creation and direction of national and international news agendas, in the formation of worldwide public opinion, and the brand name and reputation hold connotations of honesty, accuracy and impartiality. It can therefore be positioned as a ‘a microcosm of some larger system or a whole society' (Gomm et al., 2000, p.99). Yet, the historical visual output of the organisation in relation to domestic terrorism emanating from the environment of the Troubles — a significant period in social, cultural, political, and media history — has never been subject to rigorous academic scrutiny. Grounded in the field of media and cultural studies, and drawing upon extensive archival research, this thesis investigates the representation of domestic terror by the BBC in news and documentary format over the three-decade period of 1968-1998 through two interpretive modes of textual analysis: content analysis and semiotics. Throughout, the representation of events is contextualised in relation to media theory, with the words and pictures broadcast by the BBC analysed. The framing of acts of terror as image events is considered, as well as the visual aesthetic, codes, and values, of news reports. Ultimately, this work argues that BBC coverage of the Troubles has clear and identifiable patterns and symbols. Initial outbreaks of violence, where no corresponding representational referents existed, trended towards the vivid and graphic. Gradually, however, there was an overt movement away from this form; with the notable exception of moments where a method of perception created a disjuncture to established means, coverage was dominated by generic media templates, the rhetoric of euphemism, a concerted lack of contextualisation, and empty symbolism of the absent image.

EU has experienced several terrorist attacks since the 1990’s, but now today is facing terrorism on a higher problem level. Terrorism threatens the European fundamental rights that EU is based upon, when it comes to safety for human rights. Its outcome terrorism grows and evolves it becomes harder to stop and predict. Terrorism is now more than ever taking more lives and has become more violent than ever before. Citizens are depending on EU to protect them and tackle the problem, the debate whether EU is doing enough is ongoing. This study seeks to examine the measures EU is taking in the fight against terrorism and how it has evolved since the groundbreakingly terrorist attack in New York 11 September 2001 also known as the 9/11 attack. I will analyse EUs approach to terrorism and weather it is inefficient or effective. The theoretical framework that the study is based on are theories about the organization theory but also efficient the control is in EU’s counter terrorism approach. EU has taken on several measures and policies against terrorism. The result of the study shows that EUs politics against terrorism has been inefficient as countries are not collaborating when it comes to fulfilling the laws and not wanting EU to have too much power over their own politics. EU as an organization is failing due to non-effective work in the member countries.

This thesis is about terrorism metaphorically conceptualised as drama, theatre, spectacle and performance. It focuses on terrorism as a process of communication aimed at manipulating political attitude and behaviour. Even though it is terrorist actors who usually initiate that communication, various audiences play an important part in it, too. Not only do they receive and interpret the terrorist message, but they also have an impact on the content of that message and how it is transmitted. What attests to an important role of audience in terrorism is that in order for terrorism to work, those watching – the audience – need to change their behaviour to suit the political goals of terrorists. Arguably, if it were not for the people who alter their political behaviour as a result of having been terrorized, terrorism would not work, not to mention succeed. Another reason why there can be no terrorism without an audience is because the necessary presence of an audience is exactly what differentiates terrorism from other forms of political violence, such as war, secret killings or torture. While, at least for the time being, terrorism research remains “actor-focused” (Hülsse and Spencer, 2008), there is clearly a need to make it more “audience-focused”, to reflect the importance of the audience in terrorism, as highlighted above. This thesis examines the extent to which this can be achieved using the metaphors of drama, theatre, spectacle and performance. By applying the four dramaturgical metaphors to the terrorist attacks in Budyonnovsk, Dubrovka and Beslan, it investigates the potential of the metaphors to enhance the understanding of the dynamics between terrorism and counter-terrorism as well as the interplay between their respective actors and audiences.

This thesis explores the manifest content of the U.S. Executive framing effort intended to persuade the U.S. Congress, United Nations Security Council, and the American people that there was no greater threat to US national security than the continuing reign of Saddam Hussein\'s regime in Iraq. Through analysis of individual and group contributions to the three dominant themes created by the executive leadership, namely, the link between the regime of Saddam Hussein and terrorism, the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction, and the status of the regime and Saddam Hussein as an outlaw, I illuminate the process used to gain support for the unprecedented policy of preemptive war. The results of my analysis differ with previous literature on the subject which primarily considers the Bush administration\'s effort to be a campaign of lies, intended to lead the American people and the international community to believe a threat existed that the Bush Administration knew was not credible. In contrast to that conclusion, my analysis of the framing effort indicates that the marketing campaign for the Iraq War capitalized on world events, timing, the credibility of the particular speaker and their office and the amplifying effect of the media, making a campaign of lies unnecessary and the process they used replicable. Therefore, this analysis may justify heightened scrutiny for comparable policies in the future, even when the statements and argumentation an administration makes are primarily accurate and verifiable. / Master of Arts

For some countries, terror has been an inherent concept in the formation and transformation of their urban condition. 1959 marked a turning point in the history of the Cuban territory. With the coup of the Cuban Revolution and the beginning of the Castro dominance, a control over the territory and the urban fabric became in effect alongside the exercise of political power. The display of control on the built environment was the tool used to impose the new political system across the island at a faster rate. In response to the frugality consequential of the new political system, a survival phenomenon spontaneously arose as Cuban families struggled with the economic models of the island. Many have had to develop a second means of income by either growing and selling produce or livestock. Urban and rural conditions present a different set of challenges that can potentially be addressed and engaged through architecture, urbanism, and the public realm. Holguin, the capital city of the Province of Holguin, is further known as “the city of parks/ plazas”. The inhabitation of these public spaces have experienced a fast paced transformation within the last 3-4 years, much due to recent public accessibility to the internet. Parks have become places of interaction, of connection and reconnection, not only at a personal, but a virtual scale. This phenomenon have made people take a stand and reclaim their city. Although, Holguin’s parks/plazas are being refurbished, planning deficiencies evidence a lack of engagement to the changes that society is experimenting by the porosity of the blockade. Public spaces that respond to their actual flux of information, and the interaction of the different spontaneous phenomena coexisting in Cuban territory is required in order to provide healthy communities that aid its people to achieve a better quality of life as the country keeps transitioning. In a metaphysical way, architecture is the bonding element that facilitates the regeneration of healthy environments through community engagement . / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

The purpose of this research study is to explore whether consumers would be complicit in the purchase of counterfeit goods once becoming aware of the counterfeit industry being linked to terrorism. Counterfeit goods are defined as identical copies of authentic products and they are produced without the permission of the registered owner (Carpenter & Lear, 2011). Almost any product can be counterfeited from clothing, shoes, jewelry, handbags and even medicines. Counterfeit products are sold at a fraction of the cost of the authentic product. This study identifies the ‘why’ to consumer complicity to purchase the counterfeit items. There are legalities involved with the selling of the copied products, and this research identified the underlying connections to terrorism along with the damaging effects on the U.S. economy. This study examined the variables of consumer knowledge of counterfeits and link to terrorism and willingness to purchase counterfeit products.

Since the renowned terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, exclusionary narratives or “othering” have proliferated in the securitized West. Prominently associated with media campaigns, popular culture, or political debates, exclusionary discourses operating within the Canadian judiciary have been largely overlooked. Inspired by the work of Giorgio Agamben and Richard Ericson, this study is a critical discourse analysis of sentencing decisions within five terrorism cases. Findings suggest that “othering” operates in these decisions through seven discursive mechanisms. Those mechanisms construct the offenders as Muslim non-conforming foreign “others” threatening the Canadian nation, and worthy of exclusion. As such, the offenders are seen as deserving of punitive incarceration by the severest extent of the law. The courts also justify this punishment by invoking political imperatives namely the need for the State to preserve its alliance with other nations engaged in the “War on Terrorism” and the necessity to counter the “discontent with the West”. Although limited by legal safeguards, the exceptional state power at play in the post 9/11 era is not without effect on the wider population of Muslim in Canada and abroad.

Kan Prateepjinda Terrorism in Popular Culture: A Discourse Analysis of the Portrayal of IRA Terrorism in Films Abstract The paper begins by asserting that -terrorism‖ is a social construct based on discourse from a particular historical context, and that our understanding of terrorism is fashioned by that discourse. It goes on to argue that film, as a powerful medium of popular culture, generates meaning of social events and gives filmgoers a feeling of reality; film functions as a second view on the world, guiding audiences from reel to real. The study shows how the forty-year long (1968-2008) history of IRA terrorism is portrayed through a selection of eight films, and the -articulation‖ and -interpellation‖ are studied empirically through the portrayal of terrorism in these films. The discourse on terrorism is analyzed in terms of discourse productivity, and the study uses Foucault's genealogy to trace the -history of present-day IRA terrorism.‖ The findings show that discursive formations are displayed as four different features of IRA terrorism constructed by film language and textual language. These different features reveal the discontinuity of the discourse that is framed by particular time periods. The paper concludes that IRA terrorism (and the acts of IRA terrorists), as portrayed in the eight...

The recent proliferation of jihadist incidents of terrorism in recent years has heightened interest in the modus operandi of terrorist operations. Available literature suggests a strong link between criminality and terrorism and the emergence of a crime-terror nexus. Current research on the nexus is based on dated examples and very rarely incorporates theory or an analytical lens. The purpose of this thesis is to explore modern manifestations of the crime-terror nexus from a social perspective in response to emerging data. The research reviews recent open-source data and literature at the institutional level, organisational level and the individual/social level. Analysis was approached from selected social and criminological angles including rational choice theory and a social psychological standpoint. Conclusions pointed to the increasing importance of social factors in areas such as radicalisation and group interactions to the processes of terrorism. Rather than attempting to explain causality, the study simply encourages the use of alternative perspectives when addressing the threat of terrorism. The thesis encourages academics and policy-makers to address the crime-terror nexus as a social problem that is fast becoming a national security threat. The research also highlights the importance of...