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FRANCIS BEER

University of Colorado, Boulder, Political Science, Emeritus

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Francis A. Beer is Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of Colorado, Boulder. He received his A. B. (1960) from Harvard and M. A. (1963) and Ph.D. (1967) from Berkeley. His books include: Meanings of War and Peace; Peace Against War: The Ecology of International Violence and Integration and Disintegration in NATO: Processes of Alliance Cohesion and Prospects for Atlantic Community as well as related monographs on The Political Economy of Alliances and How Much War in History. He has edited Alliances: Latent War Communities in the Contemporary World. He has co-edited with Christ’l De Landtsheer Metaphorical World Politics and, with Robert Hariman, Post-Realism: The Rhetorical Turn in International Relations. He has published articles in the American Communication Journal, American Journal of Psychology, American Political Science Review, Atlantic Quarterly, Clio’s Psyche, Ētudes Internationales, International Interactions, International Organization, International Studies Notes, International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Journal of Memetics; Journal of Political and Military Sociology, Peace and Change, Peace and Conflict, Peace Psychology Review, Political Communication, Political Psychology, Politics and the Life Sciences, POROI Journal, Review of General Psychology, Review of International Studies, Rhetoric and Public Affairs, and Social Epistemology. He has been President of the International Studies Association/West and co-edited with Ted Gurr a series of Sage books on “Violence, Conflict, Cooperation.” Professor Beer has received numerous grants and awards including Fulbright research grants to France and the Netherlands. He has lectured at the University of Bordeaux in France and Cambridge University in England. He is listed in Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who in the World. His present interests center on meaning, metaphor, and myth in international relations, with a particular concern for war and peace.
His website is http://spot.colorado.edu/~beer/
His blog is http://francisbeer.wordpress.com
See also https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Francis_Beer/contributions
Supervisors: Stanley Hoffmann, Harvard and Ernst B. Haas, Berkeley
Address: Boulder, Colorado, United States

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Personal Narrative & Research by FRANCIS BEER

Personal Narrative and Research

Globalizing Terrorism by FRANCIS BEER

Globalizing Terrorism and the Internet

After Boston: Terrorism and Response

by FRANCIS BEER and Lyle Bourne, Jr

Terrorism remains at the top of the news. Each new day seems to bring word of attacks in dif f er... more

Variable Effects of Terrorist Attacks

Terrorism remains at the top of the news. Each new day seems to bring new terrorist attacks in di... more

Rhetorics, Metaphors, and Terrorists

The rhetorical turn in international relations involves a new focus on the language through which... more

Rhetoric of Terror

Terrorism after 9/11: reactions to simulated news reports

The American journal of psychology, 2009

Two experiments examined participants' responses to simulated news reports of terrorist attac... more Two experiments examined participants' responses to simulated news reports of terrorist attacks. Participants were told that a nondemocratic nation had sponsored strikes on military and cultural or educational sites in the United States. Participants in both experiments reacted more conflictually to terrorist attacks on military sites than to those on cultural or educational sites. Their conflictual responses on a thermometer scale escalated after repeated attacks. When tested in 2002 and 2004, 1 and 3 years after the real World Trade Center attacks, participants' reactions were more conflictual than those of participants examined before September 11, 2001. Furthermore, current participants' fear and anger increased, and forgiveness decreased, over repeated simulated attacks. Participants lower in masculinity showed more fear and less anger than did those higher in masculinity. This study shows that terrorist attacks produce more than simple terror.

Flying Bombs from 9/11

Toward the Terrorist Anti-World

Book Reviews : Terrorism: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Edited by YONAH ALEXANDER and SEYMOUR MAXWELL FINGER. (New York: The John Jay Press, 1977. Pp. 316. $15.00.) International Terrorism and World Security. Edited by DAVID CARLTON and CARLO SCHAERF. (New York: Halsted Press, 1975. Pp. 324. $1...

Political Research Quarterly, 1980

Terrorism: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

The Western Political Quarterly, 1980

NATO and Alliances by FRANCIS BEER

NATO Now and Then: Alliance Agents and Structures in Anarchical International Society

Book Reviews : Integration and Disintegration in NATO: Processes of Alliance Cohesion and Prospects for Atlantic Community. By FRANCIS A. BEER. (Ohio State Uni versity Press, 1969. Pp. xiii, 330. $10.00

Political Research Quarterly, 1970

Integration and Disintegration in NATO. By Francis A. Beer. (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1969. Pp. xiii, 330. $10.00

Journal of Politics, 1970

Integration and Disintegration in NATO: Processes of Alliance Cohesion and Prospects for Atlantic Community. (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1969), 330 pp.

The Political Economy of Alliances: Benefits, Costs and Institutions in NATO

Allliances: Latent War Communities in the Contemporary World

Old World, New Horizons: Britian, Europe, and the Atlantic Alliance

The American Political Science Review, 1972

War and Peace by FRANCIS BEER

War and Peace in the 21st Century

The Epidemiology of Peace and War

International Studies Quarterly, 1979

ABSTRACT Epidemiology is a relatively advanced discipline which offers theories and methods that ... more ABSTRACT Epidemiology is a relatively advanced discipline which offers theories and methods that may be useful in helping us better understand peace and war. Similarities between peace and health, war and disease, center in concern with preservation and extension of human life, on the one hand, and prevention of physical damage and death, on the other. The epidemiological model suggests that description of peace and war should move toward an integrated definition which includes both broad and narrow dimensions. Standard measures of morbidity and mortality, and the distinction between endemic and epidemic configurations of disease, can help specify patterns of peace and war. Attempts to explain peace and war should not focus on a possible single primary agent. Instead, they should try to identify a system of multiple interrelated causes, including social, biological, and physical dimensions of the environment, as well as rational and irrational aspects of decision making. Prediction should include prognoses of the natural course of wars in general and of particular wars, as well as the identification of nations at high risk of war. Prescription implies intensive care in acute cases, positive alteration of chronic risk factors, and an experimental perspective.

Personal Narrative and Research

Globalizing Terrorism and the Internet

After Boston: Terrorism and Response

by FRANCIS BEER and Lyle Bourne, Jr

Terrorism remains at the top of the news. Each new day seems to bring word of attacks in dif f er... more

Variable Effects of Terrorist Attacks

Terrorism remains at the top of the news. Each new day seems to bring new terrorist attacks in di... more

Rhetorics, Metaphors, and Terrorists

The rhetorical turn in international relations involves a new focus on the language through which... more

Rhetoric of Terror

Terrorism after 9/11: reactions to simulated news reports

The American journal of psychology, 2009

Two experiments examined participants' responses to simulated news reports of terrorist attac... more Two experiments examined participants' responses to simulated news reports of terrorist attacks. Participants were told that a nondemocratic nation had sponsored strikes on military and cultural or educational sites in the United States. Participants in both experiments reacted more conflictually to terrorist attacks on military sites than to those on cultural or educational sites. Their conflictual responses on a thermometer scale escalated after repeated attacks. When tested in 2002 and 2004, 1 and 3 years after the real World Trade Center attacks, participants' reactions were more conflictual than those of participants examined before September 11, 2001. Furthermore, current participants' fear and anger increased, and forgiveness decreased, over repeated simulated attacks. Participants lower in masculinity showed more fear and less anger than did those higher in masculinity. This study shows that terrorist attacks produce more than simple terror.

Flying Bombs from 9/11

Toward the Terrorist Anti-World

Book Reviews : Terrorism: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Edited by YONAH ALEXANDER and SEYMOUR MAXWELL FINGER. (New York: The John Jay Press, 1977. Pp. 316. $15.00.) International Terrorism and World Security. Edited by DAVID CARLTON and CARLO SCHAERF. (New York: Halsted Press, 1975. Pp. 324. $1...

Political Research Quarterly, 1980

Terrorism: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

The Western Political Quarterly, 1980

NATO Now and Then: Alliance Agents and Structures in Anarchical International Society

Book Reviews : Integration and Disintegration in NATO: Processes of Alliance Cohesion and Prospects for Atlantic Community. By FRANCIS A. BEER. (Ohio State Uni versity Press, 1969. Pp. xiii, 330. $10.00

Political Research Quarterly, 1970

Integration and Disintegration in NATO. By Francis A. Beer. (Columbus, Ohio: Ohio State University Press, 1969. Pp. xiii, 330. $10.00

Journal of Politics, 1970

Integration and Disintegration in NATO: Processes of Alliance Cohesion and Prospects for Atlantic Community. (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1969), 330 pp.

The Political Economy of Alliances: Benefits, Costs and Institutions in NATO

Allliances: Latent War Communities in the Contemporary World

Old World, New Horizons: Britian, Europe, and the Atlantic Alliance

The American Political Science Review, 1972

War and Peace in the 21st Century

The Epidemiology of Peace and War

International Studies Quarterly, 1979

ABSTRACT Epidemiology is a relatively advanced discipline which offers theories and methods that ... more ABSTRACT Epidemiology is a relatively advanced discipline which offers theories and methods that may be useful in helping us better understand peace and war. Similarities between peace and health, war and disease, center in concern with preservation and extension of human life, on the one hand, and prevention of physical damage and death, on the other. The epidemiological model suggests that description of peace and war should move toward an integrated definition which includes both broad and narrow dimensions. Standard measures of morbidity and mortality, and the distinction between endemic and epidemic configurations of disease, can help specify patterns of peace and war. Attempts to explain peace and war should not focus on a possible single primary agent. Instead, they should try to identify a system of multiple interrelated causes, including social, biological, and physical dimensions of the environment, as well as rational and irrational aspects of decision making. Prediction should include prognoses of the natural course of wars in general and of particular wars, as well as the identification of nations at high risk of war. Prescription implies intensive care in acute cases, positive alteration of chronic risk factors, and an experimental perspective.

Book Review Peace Against War: The Ecology of International Violence by Francis A. Beer

American Journal of Sociology, 1983

Peace Against War: The Ecology of International Violence. By Francis A. Beer. (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman & Co., 1981. Pp. xxvi, 447. $19.95 cloth, $9.95 paper.)The Coming End of War. By Werner Levi. (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications, 1981. Pp. 183. $20.00 cloth, $9.95 paper.)Understanding ...

Journal of Politics, 1983

Peace Against War

Meanings of War and Peace. By Francis A. Beer. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2001. 256p. $39.95 cloth, $19.95 paper

Perspectives on Politics, 2003

Meanings of War and Peace

Drift and Pluralization in International Trade

International Organization, 1974

World Order and World Futures

Journal of Conflict Resolution, 1979

Controlling Nuclear Weapons: The Evolution of Morality, Politics, and Science

The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 1984

324 THE JOURNAL OF APPLIED BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE Vol. 20/No. 4/1984 ously, with effects so devastati... more

Ranking International Conflict and Cooperation Events

by FRANCIS BEER and Lyle Bourne, Jr

A set of psychological laboratory experiments was used to refine scales of conflictual and cooper... more

Presidents' Media Rhetoric Prepares War

War Cues and Foreign Policy Acts

The American Political Science Review, 1987

Page 1. WAR CUES AND FOREIGN POLICY ACTS FRANCIS A. BEER ALICE F. HEALY GRANT P. SINCLAIR LYLE E.... more

War and Peace Trends

Trends in American Major War and Peace

Journal of Conflict Resolution, 1983

This article attempts to describe possible historical trends in American major peace and war. Wit... more This article attempts to describe possible historical trends in American major peace and war. With caution, because of the small number of data points, it notes that (a) periods of major peace have become more frequent and shorter; (b) major wars that break up the peace periods have necessarily become more frequent; (c) the length of major wars shows no clear overall trend, though there may be reason to believe that major wars have become more frequent and longer in our own time; and (d) major war casualties appear to have increased absolutely, though not relative to population. These results are compared with possible historical trends in the more general international system, as well as with patterns suggested by probabilistic theory. One explanation for the American experience of peace and war lies in the dynamics of U.S. growth. If one assumes that the apparent trends will continue, the findings finally allow us to extrapolate the scope and limits of future American peace and war.

How Much War in History: Definitions, Estimates, Extrapolations, and Trends

Why wars end: some hypotheses

Review of International Studies, 1986

American Major Peace, War, and Presidential Elections

Peace & Change, 1984

Dynamic Decisions: Experimental Reactions to War, Peace. and Terrorism

A set of psychological laboratory experiments, motivated by image theory, focuses on the dynamics... more A set of psychological laboratory experiments, motivated by image theory, focuses on the dynamics of individual responses to international attacks. Results illuminate some dimensions of individual reactions to war, peace, and terrorism. Young American citizens are reluctant warriors. They respond slowly to news reports of international attacks. Without successive attacks, conflict responses decay over time. After several rounds of reported attacks, individuals generally escalate their responses but only up to the level of an attacker's conflict actions. Individual responses to international attacks vary with a number of additional influences. These include: prior knowledge and priming, types of attackers, types and locations of targets, individual personality and gender. Conflictual actions are more linear and unidimensional than cooperative ones, and there is no clear firebreak between conventional and nuclear weapons.

Peace Agreement, Intractable Conflict, Escalation Trajectory: A Psychological Laboratory Experiment

International Studies Quarterly, 1995

... A good deal of theorizing and research has also focused on gender as an important pre-cogniti... more

Metaphorical World Politics

Metaphorical World Politics Review By RHariman

The Enlightenment was dedicated to the search for truth but motivated in part by revulsion agains... more The Enlightenment was dedicated to the search for truth but motivated in part by revulsion against the horror of war. The wars they knew were often religious wars, fought for and justified by words that could be repeated endlessly without regard to observable reality. When one considers the carnage wrought on behalf of the Prince of Peace, key elements of the Enlightenment project make more sense than usual. Religion should be separated from government, society should be organized around institutions that depend on reason, and language should be kept in check by norms of plain speech and direct reference. Because language was a persistent cause of war, the restriction of language became a prerequisite for peace. So it is that much later a book on evil can be paired with another on metaphor. Both topics were linked in a common negation and both challenge key elements of that legacy. The concept of evil appears as a return of the repressed: a religious concept of great popular appeal carried by a powerful word lacking a clear referent and easily manipulated by political authorities. Likewise, metaphor opens the door to all that modern analysis had proved to be useless, obstructive, or dangerous: sliding signifiers, social meaning, emotional reactions, ideological manipulation, collective madness, and language once again taking over the world. The sleep of reason produces monsters. It is to the credit of these two books that they face up to the Enlightenment problem while disputing its aversion to rhetoric. Truth, Reconciliation, and Evil attempts to reclaim " evil " as an important term for analysis, advocacy, and judgment in the contemporary world. It does so by examining how a variety of discursive practices provide resources for individual reflection and collective action in response to torture, genocide, and other practices that destroy people. Individual chapters focus on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commis

Post-Realism: The Rhetorical Turn in International Relations Francis A. Beer and Robert Hariman, eds. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1996, pp. viii, 429

Canadian Journal of Political Science-revue Canadienne De Science Politique, 1998

Despite the fact that the conduct of world politics has always depended on rhetorical skill, rhet... more

Post-Realism: The Rhetorical Turn in International Relations

by FRANCIS BEER and Robert Hariman

Prudence: Classical Virtue, Postmodern Practice (review

Philosophy and Rhetoric, 2004

ABSTRACT Philosophy and Rhetoric 37.2 (2004) 176-180 &quot;Would it be prudent?&quot; The... more ABSTRACT Philosophy and Rhetoric 37.2 (2004) 176-180 &quot;Would it be prudent?&quot; The phrase echoes in memory, linking Dana Carvey from Saturday Night Live to the presidency of the first George Bush. Robert Hariman has been wrestling with prudence for over a decade, and he has now produced a powerful volume that brings together not only his thoughts but also those of a number of other distinguished authors. The result is a book that will become a standard reference for those interested in prudence. The subtitle, Classical Virtue, Postmodern Practice, and the title of the first chapter, &quot;Theory without Modernity,&quot; give some idea of the subtexts that drive the book. This is a book about prudence, and more. It is about virtue in classical, modern, and postmodern settings. It is about the dynamic complexity of practice—decision, judgment, and action in public and private life. Hariman gives us a definition: &quot;Prudence is a mode of reasoning about contingent matters in order to select the best course of action&quot; (5). That would be too easy. He also surrounds prudence with a penumbra of related words to broaden our understanding of the complex lattice of semantic meaning. Our legacy from the Greek and Roman lexicon includes words like phronesis and prudentia. Contemporary nouns involve cautiousness, circumspection, and care. Related adjectives are &quot;careful, judicious, tactful, discerning, sensible, frugal, wise, sage, level-headed, balanced, moderate, politic, practical pragmatic, expedient&quot; (vii). These synonyms, for Hariman, describe a narrow, modern form of prudence, part of the calculative tradition inherited from Aristotle, that ultimately leads to the saddle points of rational choice. They are, however, only a part of the story. Hariman aims to relieve their &quot;stodginess&quot; by recovering the performative tradition of prudence from Cicero. Prudence, from this perspective, is defined not just abstractly as a set of rules but more dynamically as a set of roles. Prudence includes character, and is performed by characters. Pericles in Athens is an iconic example of superb political leadership that blends the honor of the leader with the glory of the state. Prudence combines integrity of the self with respect for others. This is a broad, ambitious interpretation of prudence. It recuperates not only a classical vision of prudence but also one of politics. It rearranges other virtues to revolve in a constellation around prudence. In this reconstituted form, prudence reemerges to shine as &quot;a crucial element of political leadership,&quot; the central political virtue. The book is divided into three parts: &quot;Conceptual Frameworks,&quot; &quot;Rhetorical Structures,&quot; and &quot;Provisional Networks.&quot; All three of the sections are identified in structural terms, which is interesting since Hariman&#39;s conception of prudence as a primary political virtue is very agent-centered. The structures, however, provide the settings in which the political observers and actors perform. The first section provides a sample of the rich literature that focuses on philosophical concepts of prudence in earlier times and places. It begins with a chapter by Robert W. Cape Jr. that discusses &quot;Cicero and the Development of Political Practice in Rome.&quot; This chapter is critical to the book, since it lays a part of the foundation. It is the first substantive essay and it must also make the case for combining calculative and performative prudence. Cape gives us a fine exposition of prudentia in the Roman context. Interestingly, he suggests that &quot;prudentia is a contraction of providentia, &quot;&#39;foresight.&#39;&quot; (37).The virtue of prudence was typically associated with age and experience. Imprudence, on the other hand, was associated with youth, recklessness, and impropriety (37). Prudence involved knowledge of practical matters, law, and custom as well as proper speech, including rhetoric, and behavior. Prepon mattered. Prudence for Cicero, however, was much more than simply knowing how things work: it was ultimately the extended performance of justice on the public stage. The next chapter, by Eugene Garver, entitled &quot;After Virtù: Rhetoric, Prudence, and Moral Pluralism in Machiavelli,&quot; moves the story of prudence from the late classical to the early modern period. As the title indicates, Garver&#39;s concern is also with the relation of prudence and virtue. In a...

What Would Be Prudent?: Forms of Reasoning in World Politics

... 50. Barry Balleck, "Talking War and Peace: Realist and Idealist Rhetoric in the Persian ... more

Maximizing Prudence in International Relations

e-international relations, Feb 12, 2013

The article presents maxims for prudence in international relations and foreign policy.

Realist/Idealist Texts: Psychometry and Semantics

Peace Psychology Review, 1994

Realism/Idealism are major rhetorical tropes of international relations. This paper attempts to ... more

Rhetorical Realism: Deconstructing Waltz

International Studies Notes , 1998

" Realism has an important rhetorical dimension. Kenneth Waltz provides an example of argumentat... more

Post-Realism Post 9/11

The events of 9/11 and afterwards appear to reinforce realism as the dominant theory of internati... more The events of 9/11 and afterwards appear to reinforce realism as the dominant theory of international relations. 9/11 demonstrated the continuing dangers of anarchic international society, realists believe, and showed that sovereign states must continue to guard their own interests, using military force as an essential means to maintain security. Post-realists agree that realism’s cognitive simplicity fits the perceived crisis of 9/11. At the same time, post-realism suggests that political action is more complex and dynamic than realism believes. The attack from Al Qaeda did not come from another state, and the military responses in Afghanistan and Iran did not demonstrably weaken it. Post-realism emphasizes the importance of multiple perspectives, interpretations, and meanings—realist and non-realist--for developing a critical understanding of international relations. As one example, this paper includes an account of U.S. imperialism, identifiable through discursive analysis as a distinctive cultural formation. Though the single, simple viewpoint of realism may seem compelling, post-realism suggests that seeing the world through multiple frames is likely to produce more prudent strategies in world politics.

What War Becomes

This paper is part of a larger project focusing on globalizing communication. http:// inpress.lib... more This paper is part of a larger project focusing on globalizing communication. http:// inpress.lib.uiowa.edu/globalizingcommunication/ We focus here on what war becomes in current popular culture. Suspense, tension, fear, an explosion of shooting, and dying. This is the popular culture of Oliver Stone in Platoon. Other movie makers have not been far behind. That is not, however, the popular culture of war in global news broadcasting. What war becomes as you move from the movie house to the global news broadcast is the focus of this analysis.

TRAVELING TOGETHER ON THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY: CONVERSATIONS ABOUT POLITICS, LANGUAGE, AND DISTANCE LEARNING

Distance learning is on the horizon. What it will become is not yet fixed. However it evolves, it... more Distance learning is on the horizon. What it will become is not yet fixed. However it evolves, it will include as a central component the information superhighway. The paper examines the communication that occurs when two classes travel together down this road. The course was Politics and Language, taught separately at the University of Colorado and the University of Iowa. The information superhighway joined the courses via a listserv that facilitated daily communication and a web site where individual research projects could be communicated to everyone. The course was an exploration of one possibility on the information superhighway: a possibility of asynchronous collaboration in which students in different places at different times learn from each other as well as from the faculty. The paper describes the planning involved in putting the course together, the organization of the two classes, and the way in which the new technology facilitated students' learning.

Leading with Blood in the Streets: Global Broadcasters, Protesters, and Democratic Leaders

Globalizing media broadcasters and protesters lead with blood in the streets. Globalizing politic... more Globalizing media broadcasters and protesters lead with blood in the streets. Globalizing political leaders, on the other hand, can not lead with blood in the streets. Globalizing communication and political actors thus perform the interactive logic of globalization, playing out the mutually reenforcing incentives of globalization. They dance together on the world stage, the big screen of world news.

Seattle: Protesting and Resisting the Globalizing Economy

Seattle was an inflection point for protest against the globalizing economy. Before Seattle the 2... more Seattle was an inflection point for protest against the globalizing economy. Before Seattle the 2000 spring meeting of the World Bank would have not have been big news. After Seattle, however, it had become a major media event -- targeted by the protesters and watched closely by the global media. Before Seattle the protesters were not big news. Like the World Bank, they did not make it into the global news.

The Rhetoric of Global Leadership Cooperating, Crusading, and Preparing for War

Global telecommunications technology and practice offer the permissive conditions for global poli... more Global telecommunications technology and practice offer the permissive conditions for global political leadership and political rhetoric. Global media provide a new platform, an expanded public domain for talk and action. The medium, as Marshall McLuhan famously said, is the message; but media do not fully determine their own use. The players on the global stage follow their own scripts. Media elites have their own concerns, choosing stories that they feel appropriate for their tasks. Issues like Iraq ebb and flow as a focus of news attention. Political actors seize the stage to a greater or lesser degree. Though their speaking parts may be small, they can set the plot lines. The leaders are the main characters and dominate the action as reporters frame the talk.
The rhetoric of global political leadership includes different stories, characters, and performances. In the cases we examined, Presidents Clinton and Bush set different tasks for themselves and adopted different rhetorical styles to accomplish the tasks. And they addressed different audiences within the global domain. Both addressed the Other-- Hussein, Milosevic, the Taliban, and Hussein. Clinton focused on nurturing cooperative international allies, persuading coalition members to undertake collective action as team players. Bush was unwilling or unable to address a global audience in this way. His crusading performance, combining the Lone Ranger and a frontier preacher talking hell fire and brimstone, appealed mainly to parts of the U.S. audience.
In the emerging global public domain, media elites, political players, and audiences use different scripts in different situations to adapt, learn, and evolve together. Some are more successful than others.

GLOBAL MEDIA DIPLOMACY AND IRANIAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS The New Space of Global Media Diplomacy

21st century diplomacy occurs as part of a highly complex global system, both openly and behind c... more 21st century diplomacy occurs as part of a highly complex global system, both openly and behind closed doors, publicly and and privately. Political actors use the media, and media actors use the politicians to advance their interests in different ways. The question today is not whether or not there shall be diplomatic publicity, but rather who does it where, when, why, and how. The case of Iranian nuclear weapons shows globalizing media and political elites using new technologies as part of a dynamic and sophisticated diplomatic process.

Geography of Global Communication

The geography of global communication is different from physical geography. Globalizing media new... more The geography of global communication is different from physical geography. Globalizing media news focuses on familiar nations and subjects. Beyond that, the geography depicted depends on the broadcasters' conception of importance to a global audience as they operate under the time constraint of a twenty-four minute broadcast.

From Behind Lines

Globalizing media report from behind the lines of military combat. There are two rules: they do n... more

Bad News, Good News after the Second Iraq War

The first rule of political journalism is that: bad news trumps good news almost every time. Only... more

Globalizing Media and International News

Globalizing Media and International News

Globalizing Sympathy

Global news media slowly, subtly, and inexorably expand our sympathy beyond the screen to the wo... more

Globalizing Hegemony and Resistance: Words and Images of Terror and Protest

Globalizing Hegemony and Resistance In the 21st century, the United States has adopted globalizat... more Globalizing Hegemony and Resistance In the 21st century, the United States has adopted globalization as a major policy. Global institutions like the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organization advance a global agenda. More partial groupings, like the G7 and G8 (Heads of State from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States) have also moved this agenda forward.Such globalization has different political, economic, social, cultural, and scientific dimensions. Globalizing policies and processes have variable impacts and activate different responses from actors in different parts of the world. Some of the responses support hegemony, while others bolster local resistance (cf. There is solid reasoning behind globalization. Economic theory, for example, suggests that free trade brings economies of scale and efficiencies of specialization. At the same time, globalization can bring distortions and dislocations. It also carries unequal costs and benefits for different political groups, social classes, and geograpahical areas. These issues are not only discussed and negotiated in boardrooms and academic journals. They have very real implications for the lives of individuals in more local communities. And these people have ways of making their views heard. One way that this occurs is through the media, which are also globalizing and creating their own sectoral tendencies and contributions toward hegemony and resistance (cf. Tehranian, 1999; Taylor, 1997; Comor, 1994). CNN Worldview, during the period of our study, carried reports of economic protests at a series of economic meetings of the G7, later the G8. The political leaders at the G7 and G8 meetings used the media to project hegemonizing images of power and purpose. At the same time, protesters against economic globalization used the global media network to make their points and convey their own messages. The demonstrations provided the media with exciting visual images—colorful people, engaged in collective action, with police opposition and sometimes violent clashes. Protesters were able to use local actions to make global points and reach a global audience. Media reporting included both protesters and protestees, and the media reports generated sympathy for both groups (see also Shaw, 1996). They also strengthened the globalizing and hegemonic tendencies of the media that carried their messages. Stories of Resistance The presentation centers on the way that global news media tell the story of resistance, using words and images of protest and terror. The emergence of global news broadcasting has opened an expanding global media domain and a new theater for political agents and political action. Our presentation examines the extent and variety of reports of political protest and terror in this new global media domain. We have recorded global news broadcasts during the following years: 19982000 of CNN's WorldView and 200103 of BBC's World News. In this presentation, we report the frequency of news stories about political protest and terror. Focusing on half a dozen specific episodes (Kosovo, IsraelPalestine, USIraq twice, the activity of al Qaeda and Afghanistan), we analyze the words and images used to describe protest and terror. Finally, we draw conclusions about the implications of these media reports for the psychology of protest and terror, political hegemony and resistance, and the emerging global communication regime (see also Beer and Boynton, 2004).

Globalize Resistance.pdf

Globalizing Resistance.pdf

Protest generates media coverage. When people are willing to put their lives on the line the medi... more

GLOBALIZING WALLS.pdf

As globalizing media tell their wall stories, they give the walls legitimacy and power. Media wal... more As globalizing media tell their wall stories, they give the walls legitimacy and power. Media wall stories imply that the walls are important news. Wall stories are an important part of the myths--the dominant narratives-- of past history, present events, and the prospective future of globalizing culture.

Globalizing Democracy

Mainstream media promote democracy within the context of reporting global news.

Globalizing Media and North-South Initiatives

Reuveny/North and South in the World Political Economy, 2008

The paper examines similarities and differences in the presentation of news by websites aspiring ... more The paper examines similarities and differences in the presentation of news by websites aspiring to a global audience in the north and in the south. We compare the websites of Aljazeera, BBC and CNN. We found that the different networks reported initiatives in ways that reflected common technology and professional norms, on the one hand, and their diverse cultures on the other. The cultures of the media elites and their target audiences give particular flavors to each network and help to differentiate its personality from competitors. The technology and professional norms of the globalizing media are largely a creation of northern actors. They have had an important influence in establishing a common platform, a space in which political and media elites create the news. This space has been, at least till now, largely a northern space, reflecting northern professional "best practices" and appealing to northern audiences. Further, Aljzeera's production of an English language website uses not only a northern language but also points to an audience using that language. At the same time, the emergence of globalizing media with southern roots, such as Aljazeera, has allowed southern media actors to speak in a somewhat different voice. To survive in the common communication ecosystem, they must also differentiate themselves and create their own niches. Northern dominated common technology and norms have driven the convergence of globalizing news media and the integration of international communication. Simultaneously, northern and southern identities and interests, ideologies and interpretations now interact in the mixed, hybrid space that is the emerging international communication order.

Globalizing Political Action: Building bin Laden and Getting Ready for 9/11

As globalization gathers momentum at the beginning of the 21st century, global communication is i... more As globalization gathers momentum at the beginning of the 21st century, global communication is increasingly important. Part of this process is global news, which has emerged as a separate genre made possible by the development of new communication technology. Media elites have used the ability to communicate from anywhere to anywhere in real time to create a new global space, which has become a domain for global political action. In this space, media elites mix political content with entertainment values in news reality television, the global political theater of the real. Capturing images from the vast ocean of daily human activity, they create breaking news. They help construct dramatic political characters like Osama bin Laden. They weave past and present experience together in gripping ongoing stories like terrorism that give meaning to current events and prefigure the future.

Globalizing Terror

1 In the aftermath of the attack on September 11, 2001 British Prime Minister Tony Blair said, "N... more 1 In the aftermath of the attack on September 11, 2001 British Prime Minister Tony Blair said, "Never forget how we felt watching the planes fly into those twin towers." There is nothing extraordinary about his statement until you think about what he did not say. He did not say the people of New York City watched. He did not say the people of New York and New Jersey watched. He did not say Americans watched. He was speaking to and for the world, and he said that we watched and felt. The change in the speed of communication over the past fifty years has produced a revolution. For the first time in human history the shot was heard around the world.

Mythic America in a Globalizing Mythworld: Political Dreams and Shadows

American Exceptionalism and US Foreign Policy: Public Diplomacy at the End of the Cold War. By Siobhàn McEvoy-Levy. New York: Palgrave, 2001. 256p. $75.00

American Political Science Review, 2002

Public diplomacy, or foreign policy rhetoric, is an increasingly important dimension of internati... more

BODY, MIND, AND SOUL IN THE GULF WAR DEBATE1

Between Maastricht and Sarajevo: European Identities, Narratives, Myths

European identity emerges from narrative. The multiple narratives of Historical Europe include Co... more European identity emerges from narrative. The multiple narratives of Historical Europe include Cold War Europe, a hegemonic narrative, or myth. The end of the Cold War has lessened the political authority of this narrative, increasingly opening it to revisionist interpretations and releasing previously repressed competitors to contend in a more pluralistic, multivocal European environment. The legitimate heir of Cold War Europe is Europe-Maastricht, an integrative identity that beckons into the future with a Europtimistic vision. Based on instrumental rationality and development, it promises peace and prosperity. It is, however, challenged by an increasingly powerful Europe-Sarajevo, a disintegrative identity that emphasizes deeper historical ethnic and cultural roots and threatens the dominant political and economic construction of Europe during the last half century. (published in Francis A. Beer, 2001, Meanings of War and Peace, pp. 150-163: College Station: Texas A&M University Press).

The Good Indian and the Little Eichmanns: Ward Churchill in Colorado

This radio play, in the satiric tradition of the German Austrian writers Bertolt Brecht and Karl ... more This radio play, in the satiric tradition of the German Austrian writers Bertolt Brecht and Karl Kraus, focuses on the academic termination of tenured Professor Ward Churchill from the University of Colorado. Churchill had said publicly that bond traders killed during the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers in New York were "little Eichmanns". The play explores various dimensions of this event. The current authors perform this play on YouTube and provide the written script.

Metaphorical World Politics - Edited by Francis A. Beer and Christ'l De Landtsheer Truth, Reconciliation, and Evil - Edited by Margaret Sonser Breen

Political Psychology, 2006

Books reviewed:Metaphorical World Politics. Edited by Francis A. Beer and Christ'l De Landtsheer.... more

Book Review: Francis A. Beer and Christ'l de Landtsheer (eds.), Metaphorical World Politics (East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2004, 342 pp., $29.95 pbk

Millennium-journal of International Studies, 2006

Metaphorical politics: Mobilization or tranquilization?

Politically Speaking: A Worldwide Examination of Language Use in the Public Sphere Westport CN: Praeger, 1998

Abstract Realism, the traditional theory of internationalrelations, constructs a simple, taut nar... more Abstract Realism, the traditional theory of internationalrelations, constructs a simple, taut narrative of world politics. Realist science parsimoniously describes a system in which the main characters are nation states, motivated by power interests, locked in a permanent structure of deadly combat. Post-realism develops a more complex,theory for a more evolved global system. It reframes realist theory as one rhetoric, powerful in its own right, among multiple contending rhetorics. Post-realism emphasizes the increasing importance of world actors other than nation states, driven by motivations other than power, combining in cooperative as well as conflictual ways. Post-realism suggests that international strategy includes three critical dimensions: competition, control, and critical judgment. Strategy, so conceived, blends self-interest, interactions with others, ethics and morality. It emphasizes the inventory and distribution of alternative cognitive schemata, their place in polit...

Games and Metaphors

Journal of Conflict Resolution, 1986

TALKING ABOUT DYING: RHETORICAL PHASES OF THE PEACE/WAR POLICY CYCLE

Members of Congress who serve on foreign relations committees regularly talk about dying. Four Co... more Members of Congress who serve on foreign relations committees regularly talk about dying. Four Committee Hearings about Somalia are analyzed. The language of dying varies through four phases of a policy cycle: 1) mobilizing attention and support; 2) self-congratulation; 3) critical reflection; and 4) policy making. Speaking about dying changes dramatically as Congress, the Administration, and the nation move through the foreign policy cycle.

Paths Through the Minefields of Foreign Policy Space: Practical Reasoning in the U.S. Senate Discourse about Cambodia

A path metaphor is appropriate for exploring practical reasoning about United States foreign poli... more A path metaphor is appropriate for exploring practical reasoning about United States foreign policy. Political talk about the future is characterized as a set of paths. These paths established narrative continuity between past, present, and future. Alternative possible future paths exist in the form of past precedents. Actors, travel along the paths. The actors want certain things, and they interact on the paths. Decision-makers consider other actors' capabilities, primarily military ones.

Reflections on Collective Consciousness: The Persian Gulf Debate

The traditional theory of international relations presents collective consciousness as a single, ... more The traditional theory of international relations presents collective consciousness as a single, simple foreign policy mindset deciding issues of peace and war. However, the Persian Gulf debate demonstrated a more complex, multiplistic view, one that displayed varied interests and opinions. The outcome of this collective consciousness was war. Maintaining progress toward peace requires constructive collective learning that cre ates a change in collective consciousness allowing people to conceptualize and enhance peaceful images and to inhibit warlike ones. A smarter and wiser humanity with a more comprehensive and complex view of international relations will incorporate and reflect a more developed collective consciousness.

Validities: A political science perspective

Social Epistemology, 1993

Validity is a central legitimating word in the lexicon of political science, suggesting the conne... more Validity is a central legitimating word in the lexicon of political science, suggesting the connection of scientific theory and research with the political world. Validity is constrained by uncontrollable variance in sampling, context, text, and analysis. Judgements of validity include scientific and political dimensions, implying serious anomalies. These may be partly dissolved by more complex definition and decomposition into multiple, parallel, switchable validities.

Nationalization : the history of a Socialist idea /

Thesis (A.B., Honors)--Harvard University, 1960.

Debt at the University of Colorado

Seven Generations: Commencement Address, May 6, 2005

Explorations at the Edge of Time: The Prospects for World Order

The American Political Science Review, 1993

Poetic Justice: The Literary Imagination and Public Life

The American Political Science Review, 1996

... Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Nussbaum, Martha Craven, 1947-Poetic justi... more

The Sins of the Nation and the Ritual of Apologies - By Danielle Celermajer

Political Psychology, 2010

The book begins with two chapters on apologies and apologies as speech acts. The following two ch... more The book begins with two chapters on apologies and apologies as speech acts. The following two chapters describe apology's religious roots in Judaism and Christianity. Next are two chapters on political apology in Australia. The last two chapters discuss the relationship between apology and taking responsibility and apology as political action.

Testimony after Catastrophe: Narrating the Traumas of Political Violence By Stevan Weine

Political Psychology, 2008

An Infantile Disorder?: The Crisis and Decline of the New Left. By Nigel Young

Journal of Politics, 1979

States’ rights and human rights

Psyccritiques, 2010

Mémoires d'Espoir: l'Effort, 1962 …. By Charles de Gaulle (Paris: Plon, 1971. Pp. 224. 27.50 francs.)Memoirs of Hope: Renewal and Endeavor. By Charles de Gaulle (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1972. Pp. 392. $10.00.) Translated by Terence Kilmartin.Les Chênes qu'on Abat… By André Malraux (Paris: G...

Journal of Politics, 1972

Research and Writing Themes