Foucault’s Rhetorical Theory and U.S. Intelligence Affairs

In 2003, the U.S. Air University published “The Role of Rhetorical Theory in Military Intelligence Analysis: A Soldier’s Guide to Rhetorical Theory” written by Air Force Major Gary H. Mills. In this essay, Mills argues that the rhetorical theory of French historian and philosopher Michel Foucault “serves as a powerful military-intelligence force multiplier.” Foucault is described by Mills as a “reluctant, unintentional military tactician.” Likening Foucault’s rhetorical theory to a weapon used by a combat force might strike rhetorical and critical scholars as bizarre given Foucault’s theoretical and political project. Therefore, in this essay, I attempt to understand the meaning and accuracy of Major Mills’s claim, as well as consider the broader implications of Foucault’s rhetorical theory in relation to U.S. intelligence and national security organizing

‘America’s “Engagement” Delusion: Critiquing a Public Diplomacy Consensus’

The Obama administration has embraced ‘engagement’ as the dominant concept informing US public diplomacy. Despite its emphasis on facilitating dialogue with and among Muslims overseas, this article demonstrates that, in practice, engagement aims to leverage social media and related technologies to persuade skeptical audiences to empathize with American policies. Indeed, its primary means of implementation – participatory interactions with foreign publics – is inherently duplicitous. Through the authors’ description of how engagement is rooted in long-standing public relations and corporate marketing discourses, and in light of the historical and structural foundations of anti-Americanism, this contemporary public diplomacy strategy is shown to be both contradictory and, ultimately, delusional. As an alternative, the authors argue that an ethical public diplomacy should be pursued, i.e., a public diplomacy that embraces genuine (rather than contrived) dialogue. Although this approach is difficult to achieve (primarily because it implies a direct challenge to entrenched US foreign policy norms), it constitutes a mode of public diplomacy that better reflects the idealized principles of American democracy

Data-Driven Public Diplomacy: A Critical and Reflexive Assessment

This essay presents a critical and reflexive assessment of contemporary efforts to innovate the measurement and evaluation of public diplomacy. Analyzing a recent and pivotal report called “Data-Driven Public Diplomacy,” it explains how the institutional and ideological residue of the Cold War underwrites these initiatives in the context of American activities in its contemporary “War on Terror.” Inspired by Marx’s concept of the fetish—n under-represented conceptual approach to public diplomacy research—he authors critique the thinking of public diplomacy scholars and officials, arguing that both an omnipresent past and a powerful form of technological fetishism are discernible in the “Data-Driven Public Diplomacy” report. An outcome of the type of thinking represented in the report, they conclude, has been the pervasiveness of contradictions and, in this area of foreign policy, disempowering implications

The Implications of Technical Language in Defining, Assessing, and Managing Risk

David Clanaugh, Michigan Technical University, and Hamilton Bean, University of Colorado, Denver, on the distorted ways in which risk is measured, assessed, and communicated, especially with a view to hiding the influence of private interest

Exploring Whether Wireless Emergency Alerts Can Help Impede the Spread of Covid-19

This study offers a preliminary exploration of whether state-level (N=6) and local-level (N=53) Wireless Emergency Alert (WEA) messages might contribute to impeding the spread of Covid-19 in the United States. The study compares changes in reported rates of infections and deaths between states and localities that issued WEA messages in March and April of 2020 with states that did not. Small sample sizes and differences in the rates of Covid-19 spread prohibit robust statistical analysis and detection of clear effect sizes, but estimated effects are generally in the right direction

Decomposition of Spectra from Redshift Distortion Maps

We develop an optimized technique to extract density--density and velocity--velocity spectra out of observed spectra in redshift space. The measured spectra of the distribution of halos from redshift distorted mock map are binned into 2--dimensional coordinates in Fourier space so as to be decomposed into both spectra using angular projection dependence. With the threshold limit introduced to minimize nonlinear suppression, the decomposed velocity--velocity spectra are reasonably well measured up to scale k=0.07 h/Mpc, and the measured variances using our method are consistent with errors predicted from a Fisher matrix analysis. The detectability is extendable to k\sim 0.1 h/Mpc with more conservative bounds at the cost of weakened constraint.Comment: 5 pages and 4 figures, submitted to MNRA

Molecular markers reveal reproductive strategies of non-pollinating fig wasps

1. Fig wasps have proved extremely useful study organisms for testing how reproductive decisions evolve in response to population structure. In particular, they provide textbook examples of how natural selection can favour female-biased offspring sex ratios, lethal combat for mates, and dimorphic mating strategies. 2. However, previous work has been challenged, because supposed single species have been discovered to be a number of cryptic species. Consequently, new studies are required to determine population structure and reproductive decisions of individuals unambiguously assigned to species. 3. We used microsatellites to determine species identity and reproductive patterns in three non-pollinating Sycoscapter species associated with the same fig species. Foundress number was typically 1-5 and most figs contained more than one Sycoscapter species. Foundresses produced very small clutches of about 1-4 offspring, but one foundress may lay eggs in several figs. 4. Overall, the data show poor match to theoretical predictions of solitary male clutches and gregarious clutches with (n-1) females. However, sex ratios are male-biased in solitary clutches and female-biased in gregarious ones. 5. At the brood level (all wasps in a fig), a decrease in sex ratio with increasing brood size is only significant in one species, and sex ratio is unrelated to foundress number. In addition, figs with more foundresses contain more wasp offspring. 6. Finally, 10-22% of females develop in patches without males. As males are wingless, these females disperse unmated and are constrained to produce only sons from unfertilized eggs

Infectious Causation of Abnormal Host Behavior: Toxoplasma gondii and Its Potential Association With Dopey Fox Syndrome

The apicomplexan parasite Toxoplasma gondii, the causative agent of toxoplasmosis, can infect all warm-blooded animals. T. gondii can subtly alter host behaviors—either through manipulation to enhance transmission to the feline definitive host or as a side-effect, or “constraint,” of infection. In humans, T. gondii infection, either alone or in association with other co-infecting neurotropic agents, has been reliably associated with both subtle behavioral changes and, in some cases, severe neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia. Research on the potential impact of T. gondii on the behavior of other long-lived naturally infected hosts is lacking. Recent studies reported a large number of wild red foxes exhibiting a range of aberrant behavioral traits, subsequently classified as Dopey Fox Syndrome (DFS). Here we assessed the potential association between T. gondii and/or other neurotropic agents with DFS. Live, captive foxes within welfare centers were serologically tested for T. gondii and, if they died naturally, PCR-tested for vulpine circovirus (FoxCV). Post-mortem pseudo-control wild foxes, obtained from pest management companies, were PCR-tested for T. gondii, FoxCV, canine distemper virus (CDV), canine adenovirus type (CAV)-1 and CAV-2. We also assessed, using non-invasive assays, whether T. gondii–infected foxes showed subtle behavioral alterations as observed among infected rodent (and other) hosts, including altered activity, risk, and stress levels. All foxes tested negative for CAV, CDV, CHV, and DogCV. DFS was found to be associated with singular T. gondii infection (captives vs. pseudo-controls, 33.3% (3/9) vs. 6.8% (5/74)) and singular FoxCV infection (66.7% (6/9) vs. 11.1% (1/9)) and with T. gondii/FoxCV co-infection (33.3% (3/9) vs. 11.1% (1/9)). Overall, a higher proportion of captive foxes had signs of neuroinflammation compared to pseudo-controls (66.7% (4/6) vs. 11.1% (1/9)). Consistent with behavioral changes seen in infected rodents, T. gondii–infected foxes displayed increased attraction toward feline odor (n=6 foxes). These preliminary results suggest that wild foxes with DFS are infected with T. gondii and likely co-infected with FoxCV and/or another co-infecting neurotropic agent. Our findings using this novel system have important implications for our understanding of both the impact of parasites on mammalian host behavior in general and, potentially, of the infectious causation of certain neuropsychiatric disorders

Understanding patterns of contraceptive use among never married Mexican American women

Background: Non-marital fertility differs considerably by race, ethnicity, and nativity. These differences arise largely from racial and ethnic disparities in contraceptive practices. Empirical work has not assessed the relative importance of the various mechanisms proposed to account for racial, ethnic, and nativity differences in contraceptive behavior among never married women. Objective: Our objective is to describe racial, ethnic, and nativity disparities in contraceptive practices and determine the relative importance of the various mechanisms proposed to explain those disparities among never married, non-cohabiting women. Methods: Pooling data from the 2006‒2010 and 2011‒2013 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), we compare the age- and parity-standardized patterns of contraceptive use among never married, non-cohabiting Mexican immigrants, US-born Mexican Americans, Blacks, and Whites. We also examine the extent to which socioeconomic characteristics, access to family planning, and attitudes towards family life give rise to group differences in patterns of contraceptive use. Results: Never married, non-cohabiting Whites are more likely than their minority counterparts to use very effective methods of contraception. Socioeconomic disparities explain some of the group differences in contraceptive practice. Differing levels of access to family planning also explain a significant portion of the difference in contraceptive practice between Whites and Mexican immigrants. Conclusions: Policies aimed at alleviating socioeconomic inequality and differential access to family planning services may be effective at reducing disparities in contraceptive use between White and non-White never married, non-cohabiting women, especially White/Mexican-immigrant differences

Cosmological Tests of Gravity

Modifications of general relativity provide an alternative explanation to dark energy for the observed acceleration of the universe. We review recent developments in modified gravity theories, focusing on higher dimensional approaches and chameleon/f(R) theories. We classify these models in terms of the screening mechanisms that enable such theories to approach general relativity on small scales (and thus satisfy solar system constraints). We describe general features of the modified Friedman equation in such theories. The second half of this review describes experimental tests of gravity in light of the new theoretical approaches. We summarize the high precision tests of gravity on laboratory and solar system scales. We describe in some detail tests on astrophysical scales ranging from ~kpc (galaxy scales) to ~Gpc (large-scale structure). These tests rely on the growth and inter-relationship of perturbations in the metric potentials, density and velocity fields which can be measured using gravitational lensing, galaxy cluster abundances, galaxy clustering and the Integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect. A robust way to interpret observations is by constraining effective parameters, such as the ratio of the two metric potentials. Currently tests of gravity on astrophysical scales are in the early stages --- we summarize these tests and discuss the interesting prospects for new tests in the coming decade.Comment: Invited review for Annals of Physics; 58 pages, 8 figures