E-Democracy and the European Public Sphere

The chapter starts with an outline of outstanding recent contributions to the discussion of the EU democratic deficit and the so-called “no demos” problem and the debate about European citizenship and European identity—mainly in the light of insights from the EU crisis. This is followed by reflections on the recent discussion on the state of the mass media-based European public sphere. Finally, the author discusses the state of research on the Internet’s capacity to support the emergence of a (renewed) public sphere, with a focus on options for political actors to use the Internet for communication and campaigning, on the related establishment of segmented issue-related publics as well as on social media and its two-faced character as an enabler as well as a distorting factor of the public sphere. The author is sceptic about the capacities of Internet-based political communication to develop into a supranational (European) public sphere. It rather establishes a network of a multitude of discursive processes aimed at opinion formation at various levels and on various issues. The potential of online communication to increase the responsiveness of political institutions so far is set into practice insufficiently. Online media are increasingly used in a vertical and scarcely in a horizontal or interactive manner of communication

Breaking the masculine looking glass : women as co-founders, nurturers, and executors of extremism in New Zealand : a thesis presented in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Defence and Security, Massey University, New Zealand

The world of extremist violence is not wholly masculine despite presenting as such. Women are just as capable as men of embracing toxic ideologies, organized hate, and committing acts of violence. Yet when it comes to women's active presence in violent extremism (VE) and Extremism/Terrorism (E&T), general skepticism about women’s agency and free will means that any discussion will be focused on men. Focusing on the NZ environment post 9/11, this thesis presents insight into how women can, and do, participate in extreme ideologies, specifically in contemporary Islamic (IE) and Right-Wing extremism (RWE). It aims to advance conceptual foundations applicable to the NZ counter-terrorism (CT) environment and enhance public and government agency understandings. This thesis will show that the predisposition to gender profile women erases them as potential extremists (violent and non-violent) which has ramifications for national security. This erasure happens in two ways. Firstly, gendered norms and narratives that infantize or sexualize these women inspire security, legal and political responses to do the same. Secondly, it leads security frameworks to focus on men and disregard the women in their lives. Continuing to underestimate women means the more extensive and complex picture of extremism in NZ remains missing. Women's IE or RWE ideological adherence and involvement are not purely domiciliary. Framing it as such deprecates women’s contribution as actively committed co-creators of a euro supreme nation or a militant Islamic caliphate. This thesis confirms that extreme male hegemonic movements have long drawn diverse female recruits, and NZ women are not the exception. If NZ refuses to treat these women now or in the future with the same seriousness as their male counterparts, gender cynicism obscures potential national security threats. NZ needs to update its future-focused CT infrastructure to remove definitional silos and gender-blind spots because VE and E&T are ongoing global and local phenomena

New realities in foreign affairs: diplomacy in the 21st century

Modern diplomacy is currently experiencing fundamental changes at an unprecedented rate, which affect the very character of diplomacy as we know it. These changes also affect aspects of domestic and international politics that were once of no great concern to diplomacy. Technical develop­ments, mainly digitization, affect how the work of the diplomat is understood; the number of domestic and international actors whose activity implicates (or is a form of) diplomacy is increasing; the public is more sen­sitive to foreign policy issues and seeks to influence diplomacy through social media and other platforms; the way exchange between states, as well as the interchange between government and other domestic actors, pro­gresses is influencing diplomacy’s ability to act legitimately and effectively; and finally, diplomats themselves do not necessarily need the same attri­butes as they previously did. These trends, reflecting general societal devel­opments, need to be absorbed by diplomacy as part of state governance. Ministries of Foreign Affairs, diplomats and governments in general should therefore be proactive in four areas: 1. Diplomats must understand the tension between individual needs and state requirements, and engage with that tension without detriment to the state. 2. Digitization must be employed in such a way that gains in efficiency are not at the expense of efficacy. 3. Forms of mediation should be developed that reconcile the interests of all sides allowing governments to operate as sovereign states, and yet simul­taneously use the influence and potential of other actors. 4. New and more open state activities need to be advanced that respond to the ways in which emotionalized publics who wish to participate in govern­ance express themselves. (author's abstract

Drylands Facing Change

This edited volume examines the changes that arise from the entanglement of global interests and narratives with the local struggles that have always existed in the drylands of Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia/Inner Asia. Changes in drylands are happening in an overwhelming manner. Climate change, growing political instability, and increasing enclosures of large expanses of often common land are some of the changes with far-reaching consequences for those who make their living in the drylands. At the same time, powerful narratives about the drylands as ‘wastelands’ and their ‘backward’ inhabitants continue to hold sway, legitimizing interventions for development, security, and conservation, informing re-emerging frontiers of investment (for agriculture, extraction, infrastructure), and shaping new dryland identities. The chapters in this volume discuss the politics of change triggered by forces as diverse as the global land and resource rush, the expansion of new Information and Communication Technologies, urbanization, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the spread of violent extremism. While recognizing that changes are co-produced by differently positioned actors from within and outside the drylands, this volume presents the dryland’s point of view. It therefore takes the views, experiences, and agencies of dryland dwellers as the point of departure to not only understand the changes that are transforming their lives, livelihoods, and future aspirations, but also to highlight the unexpected spaces of contestation and innovation that have hitherto remained understudied. This edited volume will be of much interest to students, researchers, and scholars of natural resource management, land and resource grabbing, political ecology, sustainable development, and drylands in general. The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license