A new world a new American foreign policy: the Carter administration, Nicaragua, and the legacy of the Vietnam War, 1977-1981

The impact of the Vietnam War conditioned the Carter administration’s response to the Nicaraguan revolution in ways that reduced US engagement with both sides of the conflict. It made the countries of Latin America counter the US approach and find their own solution to the crisis, and allowed Cuba to play a greater role in guiding the overthrow of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza Debayle. This thesis re-evaluates Carter’s policy through the legacy of the Vietnam War, because US executive anxieties about military intervention, Congress’s increasing influence, and US public concerns about the nation’s global responsibilities, shaped the Carter approach to Nicaragua. Following a background chapter, the Carter administration’s policy towards Nicaragua is evaluated, before and after the fall of Somoza in July 1979. The extent of the Vietnam influence on US-Nicaraguan relations is developed by researching government documents on the formation of US policy, including material from the Jimmy Carter Library, the Library of Congress, the National Security Archive, the National Archives and Records Administration, and other government and media sources from the United Nations Archives, New York University, the New York Public Library, the Hoover Institution Archives, Tulane University and the Organization of American States. The thesis establishes that the Vietnam legacy played a key role in the Carter administration’s approach to Nicaragua. Before the overthrow of Somoza, the Carter administration limited their influence in Nicaragua because they felt there was no immediate threat from communism. The US feared that an active role in Nicaragua, without an established threat from Cuba or the Soviet Union, could jeopardise congressional support for other foreign policy goals deemed more important. The Carter administration, as a result, pursued a policy of non-intervention towards the Central American country. After the fall of Somoza, and the establishment of a new government with a left wing element represented by the Sandinistas, the Carter administration emphasised non-intervention in a military sense, but actively engaged with the new Nicaraguan leadership to contain the potential communist influence that could spread across Central America in the wake of the Nicaraguan revolution

Why becoming a national treasure matters: Elite celebrity status and inequality in the United Kingdom

This article presents the first analysis of ?national treasure?as a status designation for an elitecategory of British celebritieswho holda unique position in the Great British hall of fame.The emergence of this status designationis situated in the context of two intersecting processes of cultural changein the post-War period ?the rise of celebrity culture and the popularisationof the state honourssystem. It is proposedthat national treasure status results from the accumulation of three interlocking forms of validation: peer, state and media. After reviewing these underpinning forms of validation, we consider one of Britain?s most celebrated national treasures?Dame Judi Dench. The aim is toillustrate empirically the status elevation and sedimentation processes through which particular elite celebrities become national treasures, and the various ways in which they might respond to thisstatus designation. Though the term ?national treasure?for many ?including those so-designated ?may seema trite term of endearment,we arguethat it is in factan ideological assemblageinvestedwithsignificance.On the one hand, national treasures help revalidate the notion of the authentic celebrity within an apparently meritocratic system that recognises and rewards talent, hard workand dedication. In a context of a relentlesslybleak newscycle, they are a wholly virtuousexpression of the national identity, signifying all that is great about Britain.On the other hand, although national treasures are constructed as being ?of the people?, by authenticatingthe underpinning institutional forms of validation, their status transformation contributes to the legitimation and reproduction ofstatus hierarchies,cultural authorityand inequality in the UK

«Julgamento pelos media»: policiamento, ambiente mediático das notícias 24/7 e a «política da indignação»

This article analyses the changing nature of news media-police chief relations. Building on previous research (Greer and McLaughlin, 2010), we use the concepts of “inferential structure” (Lang and Lang, 1955) and “hierarchy of credibility” (Becker, 1967) to examine former Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) Commissioner Sir Ian Blair’s “trial by media”. We focus on the collective and overwhelmingly hostile journalistic reaction to Blair’s declaration in 2005 that: (a) the news media are guilty of “institutional racism” in their coverage of murders; and (b) the murders of two 10-year-olds in Soham, 2001, received undue levels of media attention. A sustained period of symbolic media annihilation in the British mainstream press established a dominant “inferential structure” that defined Blair as the “gaffeprone Commissioner”: his position in the “hierarchy of credibility” was shredded, and his Commissionership de-legitimized. The unprecedented resignation of an MPS Commissioner is situated within the wider context of “attack journalism” and the rising news media “politics of outrage”.Este artigo analisa a natureza em mudança das relações entre os meios de comunicação social e a chefia da polícia. Com base em estudos prévios (Greer & McLaughlin, 2010), usamos os conceitos de «estrutura inferencial» (Lang & Lang, 1955 e «hierarquia da credibilidade» (Becker, 1967) para analisar o «julgamento pelos media» do antigo comissário do Serviço da Polícia Metropolitana (MPS), Sir Ian Blair. Centramo-nos na reação coletiva e fundamentalmente hostil por parte dos media à declaração de Blair em 2005, que afirmara que: (a) os media são culpados de «racismo institucional» na sua cobertura dos homicídios; e (b) que os homicídios de duas crianças de 10 anos em Soham, 2001, receberam níveis desproporcionados de atenção por parte dos media. Um longo período de aniquilação simbólica na imprensa britânica generalista estabeleceria uma «estrutura inferencial» que definiu Blair como comissário «dado a gafes»: a sua posição na «hierarquia da credibilidade» foi destruída e foi-lhe retirada a legitimidade no cargo. A demissão sem precedentes de um comissário da MPS insere-se num contexto mais abrangente de «jornalismo de ataque» e na crescente «política da indignação» nos meios de comunicação social

See also Young 1971: Marshall McLuhan, moral panics and moral indignation

Despite the fact that he introduced the concept into the sociology of deviance, Jock Young never claimed ownership of ‘moral panic’. There is little to no evidence suggest that he felt the need to keep up with the burgeoning literature on ‘moral panics studies’; rather, in much of this literature, his name is all but invisible, reduced to ‘See also Young, 1971’. This essay begins with a review of Jock Young’s original use of ‘moral panic’ before discussing how he subsequently rejected the term, and then reflecting on why and how he re-engaged with it. My position is that Jock Young was ambivalent about how the term was subsequently developed and transformed into what he viewed as: an incredulous ‘left idealist’ reaction to morally challenging issues; a mechanical sociological model used to decide on whether something was or was not a ‘boil-in-the-bag’ moral panic; and finally a dismissive journalistic judgement. In all these ‘moral panic for dummies’ usages, for Young, the volatile energizing moral dynamics of ‘action + reaction’ have been lost as has his nuanced appreciation of the shifting cultural significance of moral panic. Perhaps most significantly, the core dynamic of ‘moral indignation’ and its channelling—concerns that are present in all of Jock Young’s work—have likewise been lost in common usage of moral panic

Mainstreaming domestic and gender-based violence into sociology and the criminology of violence

Sociological and criminological views of domestic and gender-based violencegenerally either dismiss it as not worthy of consideration, or focus on specificgroups of offenders and victims (male youth gangs, partner violence victims). Inthis paper, we take a holistic approach to violence, extending the definition fromthat commonly in use to encompass domestic violence and sexual violence. Weoperationalize that definition by using data from the latest sweep of the CrimeSurvey for England and Wales. By so doing, we identify that violence is currentlyunder-measured and ubiquitous; that it is gendered, and that other forms of violence (family violence, acquaintance violence against women) are equally ofconcern. We argue that violence studies are an important form of activity forsociologists

‘Caution! The Bread is Poisoned’: The Hong Kong Mass Poisoning of January 1857

This article examines the Hong Kong mass poisoning of 15 January 1857, in which bread from a Chinese bakery that supplied the colonial community was adulterated with arsenic. Even though there is a wealth of printed and manuscript documentation available many vital aspects of the poisoning remain unclear. What kind of incident was it: an act of terrorism and attempted mass murder, a war crime, a criminal conspiracy, an act of commercial sabotage, an accident or even an imagined or imaginary event? Throughout, our focus remains firmly fixed on the central act of the poisoning itself and on what it reveals about the precarious nature of early colonial Hong Kong. Interpretations have swarmed over the available ‘facts'. Equally ironic is what happened to the afterlife of how the event was understood. This article seeks to rescue the Hong Kong poisoning from being a freakish and isolated footnote of only local interest. Accepting this historical verdict would be a mistake as it is of significance not only at a local level, but geopolitically in Britain and across the empire

Theorizing Institutional Scandal and the Regulatory State

One by one, UK public institutions are being scandalised for corruption, immorality or incompetence and subjected to trial by media and criminal prosecution. The state?s historic response to public sector scandal ? denial and neutralisation ? has been replaced with acknowledgement and regulation in the form of the re-vamped public inquiry. Public institutions are being cut adrift and left to account in isolation for their scandalous failures. Yet the state?s attempts to distance itself from its scandalised institutions, while extending its regulatory control over them, are risky. Both the regulatory state and its public inquiries risk being consumed by the scandal they are trying to manage