School of Social and Political Sciences - Research Publications
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ItemGeopolitan Democracy in the Anthropocene(Sage Journals, 2017)The proposed new epoch of the Anthropocene, whereby humans have become the dominant geological force shaping Earth systems, has attracted considerable interest in the social sciences and humanities but only scant attention from democratic theorists. This inquiry draws out the democratic problems associated with the two opposing narratives on governing the Anthropocene – Earth systems governance and ecomodernism – and juxtaposes them with a more critical narrative that draws out the democratic potential of the Anthropocene as a new source of critique of liberal democracy and a new resource for democratic renewal. While Ulrich Beck welcomed reflexive cosmopolitan democracy (understood as a civil culture of responsibility across borders) as the appropriate response to the world risk society, this narrative develops an account of hyper-reflexive ‘geopolitan democracy’ based on a more radical extension of democratic horizons of space, time, community and agency as the appropriate response to navigating the Anthropocene.
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ItemDemocracy in Reverse: The 2016 General Election in Zambia(SAGE Publications, 2016-12)On 11 August 2016, Zambia held elections for the presidency, National Assembly, local councillors, and mayors. Concurrently, a referendum was held on whether to enhance the Bill of Rights in the Constitution of Zambia. The elections were significant for several reasons: It was the first contest under a newly amended Constitution, which introduced important changes to the electoral framework. It also marked a break with Zambia's positive historical record of arranging generally peaceful elections. Moreover, the election featured an electoral playing field that was notably tilted in favour of the incumbent party. Ultimately, the incumbent president, Edgar Lungu of the Patriotic Front, edged out opposition challenger Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development. The election was controversial and the opposition mounted an unsuccessful legal challenge to the final results. The 2016 elections represent a reversal in the quality of Zambian democracy and raise questions about the country's prospects for democratic consolidation.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableIAEA Non-Compliance Reporting and the Iran Case(Arms Control Association, 2016-01)Agreement by Iran in Vienna on 14 July 2015 to roll back and constrain its nuclear program handed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) its greatest non-compliance reporting challenge yet. As the multilateral organization charged with determining compliance with nuclear safeguards agreements, the IAEA has had experience with eight significant non-compliance cases, including that of Iran prior to this latest agreement. But none matches the procedural complexity, technical intricacy and political sensitivity of the Comprehensive Joint Plan of Action concluded by Iran with China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States and the European Union. To fulfil its role the IAEA’s Secretariat and Director General, Yukiya Amano, will need to draw on the Agency’s extensive experience with past non-compliance cases, exploit the latest verification technology promised by the agreement, marshal its finest report-crafting expertise and steer an impartial, balanced, sensitive path through treacherous political waters.
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ItemManaging the Global Nuclear Security Architecture After the Summits(International Atomic Energy Agency, 2016)
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ItemNuclear Security Diplomacy Beyond Summitry 1(Taylor & Francis, 2016)This chapter assesses the role of multilateral diplomacy in strengthening nuclear security after the nuclear summit process ends in 2016. Nuclear security diplomacy is taken to mean communications, discussions, and negotiations among states, especially through high-level gatherings of government representatives, and other stakeholders, notably industry and civil society. Diplomacy may, at first glance, seem to be a laughingly fey response to the threat of nuclear terrorism. One of the challenges in ensuring comprehensive nuclear security is the array of institutions, mechanisms, and arrangements that deal with the issue, either at a broad policy level or in more substantive terms. The Council would also likely play a critical role in reacting to a major nuclear terrorism incident. However, both UNGA and the Council have comprehensive agendas that only allow episodic attention to nuclear security and cannot therefore be expected to play a regular, attentive diplomatic role in this field.
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ItemThe IAEA's Organizational Culture: Myths and Realities(RJISSF, 2016)in his classic work Organizational Culture and Leadership, Edgar Schein, the guru of organizational culture studies, identifies three levels of culture, “from the very tangible overt manifestations that one can see and feel to the deeply embedded, unconscious, basic assumptions.”1 He designates these as artifacts, espoused values, and underlying assumptions. Artifacts are an organization’s visible structure, processes, and symbols. Espoused values are those that an organization publicly proclaims. Underlying assumptions are those unlikely to be articulated publicly, but taken for granted as ‘the way we do things around here.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableSustaining the Nuclear Watchdog with a Grand Budgetary Bargain(Taylor and Francis Group, 2016-05-11)On March 11, 2011, a powerful earthquake struck the east coast of Japan. Fifty-six minutes later the seismic safety experts at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concluded that the event, and its accompanying tsunami, could damage nuclear power plants in the region. The Agency’s Incident and Emergency Centre was activated, declared to be in “full response mode” and staffed continuously 24 hours a day for the following 54 days. Approximately 200 agency personnel were diverted from their normal activities to the Fukushima disaster response, keeping in touch with Japanese authorities, advising concerned member states and coordinating offers of assistance. Fukushima-related activities ended up consuming all unencumbered funding in the agency’s safety and security budget for 2012 as well as requiring a one-off transfer of funds from other major programs. This incident illustrates graphically the hand-to-mouth existence of what is popularly known as the “nuclear watchdog.”
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ItemSex in prisoner power relations: Attitudes and practices in a Ukrainian correctional colony for men(Wiley, 2017-01-01)Abstract Most research on prison sex has originated in the global West, often employing quantitative methodology. Building on a semi‐ethnographic study of a Ukrainian prison, this article explores how prisoners and officers perceive prisoner sex. Rape was not reported in this prison, despite the relatively young prison population. I argue that the informal prisoner power structure of the prison underworld diminishes sexual abuse. Thus, contrary to much of the literature, masculinity, homophobia, and informal prisoner hierarchies can equally instigate and restrain prison violence and sexual victimisation.
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ItemSending a message: The Australian's reporting of media policy(SAGE, 2015-11-01)As Australia's only national general newspaper, with an elite ‘political class’ audience, The Australian has been at the forefront of newspaper proprietors' attempts to influence media policy. This article analyses The Australian's reporting of two key media policy proposals affecting newspapers: the establishment of the Australian Press Council in 1975–76 and the Independent Inquiry into Media and Media Regulation (the Finkelstein inquiry) in 2012–13. While the events were 36 years apart, the paper's stance and rhetoric were remarkably similar. However, its approach to journalism and to providing information to its audience changed in several important respects.
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ItemNews Corporation Tabloids and Press Photography During the 2013 Australian Federal Election(Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2017)Academic attention has often been focused upon analysing words in journalism texts and, consequently, the impact of photographs in newspaper journalism has tended to be overlooked. This is problematic because images are a key method by which news is selected, framed and communicated, particularly in tabloid newspapers. This article focuses upon criticisms that tabloids from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation Australia were biased—against the Kevin Rudd-led Labor government and towards Tony Abbott’s conservative Liberal–National Coalition—during the 2013 federal election in Australia. Through an analysis of front pages, this article explores how photographs contributed to reporting the campaign and expressing the strong political preferences of News Corporation. The article concludes that Murdoch’s Australian tabloids shifted towards a British-style overt partisanship in their reporting of the 2013 election. Images were at the forefront of that shift as they are a powerful tool for conveying messages of newspaper support and opposition, and occupy a central place in how political issues, events and individuals are represented and understood.