You may have noticed that, since the tragedy of 7 October in Israel and its aftermath in Gaza, the Russo-Ukraine War has almost disappeared from the news agenda.[i] It is hardly mentioned on the 24-hour news channels and relegated to the back pages of major newspapers. In this and other ways, the Israel-Hamas War has … Continue reading Airtime Given Coverage of the Israel-Hamas War
Riyadh’s Global Cybersecurity Forum
Delighted to have participated in the 2023 Global Cybersecurity Forum, 1-2 Nov, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia #GCF2023. It provided me with a jam-packed two days of activities. I did interviews and a podcast, but my main contributions were: First, a talk on cybersecurity capacity building, moderated by Alexandra Topalian, a truly helpful moderator and speaker … Continue reading Riyadh’s Global Cybersecurity Forum
Change and Continuity in War Propaganda
William H. Dutton The Russo-Ukrainian War has reinvented trench warfare, but also many aspects of war propaganda.[i] Fear over the power of propaganda in the world wars heightened work on media and communication research. In several respects, war propaganda from the Russo-Ukraine War might again revise and revive old research agendas – a case of … Continue reading Change and Continuity in War Propaganda
Timeline of Key Moments in the Russia-Ukraine War (RUW) Case Study
Timeline of Key Moments in the Russia-Ukraine Case 1991 Post-Soviet Ukraine gained independence and became a regular member of the UN, the Council of Europe, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty[1] 2013 Public protests against the Ukraine government began 21 November in Kyiv’s Independence Square (Maidan Nezalezhnosti) after Ukraine’s … Continue reading Timeline of Key Moments in the Russia-Ukraine War (RUW) Case Study
Opinion: A. Michael Noll on AI Hype
AI CRAZED HYPE A. Michael Noll Posted with permission of the author AI (artificial intelligence) is gripping the media. The claim is made that computers can think and understand language. Predictions are being made that AI will replace human creativity in music, art, and literature. Others predict that the harm from AI will mean the … Continue reading Opinion: A. Michael Noll on AI Hype
The Symbolic Politics of Labelling Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
What should we call the Russian invasion of Ukraine?
Governance – the Cross-Cutting Political Crisis
The world is facing mounting threats – true crises. They include such major issues as climate change, nuclear arms proliferation, trust in information and communication, and artificial intelligence (AI), one of the latest crises to be portrayed as an existential threat. Each has unique and evolving histories, but I take some solace in that many … Continue reading Governance – the Cross-Cutting Political Crisis
The Societal Costs of Attention Deficits
The attention of a goldfish?
Cognitive Politics
In the preface to Harold D. Lasswell’s (1936: v) book entitled Politics, he famously defined politics as the study of ‘who gets what, when, and how’ – also the subtitle of his book. He went on to argue that influence is central to politics and that “[c]oncepts for the study of influence must be changed … Continue reading Cognitive Politics
Cyber Insecurity
If I tell friends and colleagues that I am working on a ‘cybersecurity project’, I can see them mentally move along to other topics. In sounds technical and only technical. Arguably, most internet users and ordinary people generally see cybersecurity as a technical field – one that is likely to be impenetrable or uninteresting … Continue reading Cyber Insecurity