Theory,Method, and the Mechanism of Framing: Reflections on the Syrian Civil War and Palestinian Intifada

This article bridges two literatures: research on social movements, in which framing is widely recognized as an important causal mechanism; and research in civil wars and insurgencies, which tends to deemphasize cultural-interpretative factors such as framing. We argue that it is important that insights of framing be applied to insurgencies because there is a fundamental framing action that often occurs. We have in mind civil wars in which oppositional activists, who previously had pursued nonviolent tactics, apply a prognostic frame of ‘what to do’ that specifies armed conflict. Drawing on methodologies of subject–verb–object grammars used to analyze political texts, this article elaborates a comprehensive approach to framing that involves not only shifts in the < verb>, or specifications of ‘what to do’, but also shifts in a < subject>, or definitions of ‘who we are’, and in an < object>, or the targets of ‘who the enemy is’. We use organizational texts from the first Palestinian Intifada to demonstrate the approach. We also consider frame shifts in the Syrian civil war, inferring the grammatical structures of the frame transformations for secularists and radical Islamists from events leading up to the outbreak of sustained violence. This article proposes that a three-part grammatical approach captures the interrelated elements of a full and robust framing mechanism that is generalizable. It represents an advance over framing perspectives that typically isolate identity and target components from action prognoses, therefore missing the synchronization among the three, and how limits and/or opportunities for one shape the definition of the others.     

Cinema,drone warfare and the framing of counter-terrorism

The study of the cinematic representation is extremely useful in framing of counter-terrorism policies, whether in the US or elsewhere. This paper examines cinema’s interest in drone warfare as well as the lives and personalities of drone pilots. It argues that drone warfare suffers a considerable image problem that has been brought out in several recent features and it is unlikely that any major cinematic myth of drone warfare will easily develop, certainly in comparison to myths concerning special forces and special operations.     

Violent vs. Non-Violent Struggle: Investigating the Impact of Frames on Movement Strategies in Yemen

Why do some opposition movements escalate into armed conflict while others abide non-violently under very similar conditions? In order to account for this variance, the article proposes to transcend the limitations of existing structural theories within civil war studies by including a framing perspective. It accentuates and elucidates the agency component and the interactive dynamics of the construction and negotiation of meaning, which remain a ‘black box’ in current models. In a comparative study of two movements in Yemen, the article identifies and describes the respective collective action frames, establishes why and how strategic movement actors construct them in their specific particularity, and relates this to the question of why constituents take certain forms of action. The findings assert the theoretical contribution of an integrative approach.     

(Re-)emergent orders: understanding the negotiation(s) of rebel governance

Abstract

The concept of order is often neglected in the study of conflict – seemingly such a ‘disordering’ process. With the recent increase in the examination of rebel governance however, bringing order back into our understanding of rebel and insurgent groups has much to offer in exploring the everyday politics which connect authorities, rebel movements and the population itself, in a complex mass of intersubjective and power-based interactions and negotiations. Rebels both shape and are shaped by existing forms of order in complex and ongoing ways. This article explores how varying elements interact in the negotiation, framing and enforcement of order and develops an original analytical framework to examine the perpetual negotiations of rebel movements in their attempts to cement their control.     

Tilting at windmills: The flawed U.S. policy toward the 1971 Indo-Pakistani war

ABSTRACT

This article examines decision-making mistakes made by U.S. President Nixon and national security advisor Kissinger during the 1971 India-Pakistan crisis and war. It shows that Nixon and Kissinger routinely demonstrated psychological biases that led them to overestimate the likelihood of West Pakistani victory against Bengali rebels as well as the importance of the crisis to broader U.S. policy. The evidence fails to support Nixon and Kissinger’s own framing of the 1971 crisis as a contest between cool-headed realpolitik and idealistic humanitarianism, and instead shows that Kissinger and Nixon’s policy decisions harmed their stated goals because of repeated decision-making errors.     

Reconciling strategic studies … with itself: a common framework for choosing among strategies

Three distinct, and seemingly irreconcilable, schools of thought are identified within the strategic studies literature. One which searches for “universal principles of war,” a second, “context-dependent,” approach that seeks to embed each instance of warfare within its concurrent social, political, technological milieu and, finally a “paradoxical logic” school, which equates strategy with the generation of uncertainty. The author offers some intuitive concepts from non-cooperative game theory to develop a “dominate-mix” approach to strategy choice. In doing so, he helps to reconcile these disparate approaches and provides a simple framework to assist researchers in framing military decisions as well as to assist planners in choosing among strategies.     

Successful or Failed Rebellion? The Casamance Conflict from a Framing Perspective

Empirical evidence and theoretical work suggest that conflicts over self-determination are particularly likely to escalate into very violent and protracted civil wars. However, the intensity of the secessionist conflict in Casamance, Senegal, remained low. As prevailing theories on armed conflicts fail to explain the limited escalation in Casamance, this article resorts to framing theory. Framing helps to include a micro-approach towards conflict studies in order to overcome deficits of macro-approaches. It reveals how movements interpret and construct their environment in order to mobilise potential followers to participate in their activities with the help of strategic communication. However, framing only leads to collective action, if it effectively resonates with the population addressed. The article shows that the movement's framing successfully initiated rebellion in Casamance, but did not broadly resonate with the population, which accounts for the limited intensity of violence.     

Framing Political Violence: Success and Failure of Religious Mobilization in the Philippines and Thailand

How do religious civil wars evolve? Many violent conflicts are fought between groups of different faiths. The paper argues, however, that religious differences rarely directly lead to conflict onset. Rather, the apparent religious dimension of many civil wars is a consequence of successful religious framing. Political and military leaders offer religious interpretations designed to legitimize the use of force and to mobilize believers to violent action. Such framing processes can be more or less successful, depending inter alia on the authority of the political and religious leadership, on the coherence and appropriateness of the frames, on the existence of persuasive counter-frames, and on the availability of communication infrastructures that allow for effective dissemination of religious frames. Comparing violent conflicts in the Philippines and Thailand, the paper shows that religious mobilization can fail along the theoretically predicted lines.     

Framing Protest and Insurgency: Boko Haram and MASSOB in Nigeria

Why do some protest movements erupt into rebellion, whereas others protest peacefully under similar circumstances? Addressing this question, this paper investigates the cases of Boko Haram (rebellion) and MASSOB (non-violent protest) in contemporary Nigeria. Conventional explanations of rebellion focusing on opportunity, inequality, and repression cannot explain why these movements have pursued different protest strategies. This paper tries to explain this puzzle by investigating the signifying work and meaning construction of both movements drawing on the framing approach from social movement studies. The framing analysis shows that the different protest behavior largely results from the differing cultural context of both movements, from the agency of the framers, and from successful frame alignment, which results in frame resonance and, thereby, the successful mobilization for collective action.     

析火灾原因不明

火灾原因不明作为一种火灾原因在实际操作中存在一些问题。分析造成火灾原因不明的主客观因素 ,提出改变目前状况的措施。     

环境试验技术的现状综述与集成环境应力试验分析系统

在阐述可靠性环境试验技术基本内涵的基础上,分析了国内环境试验技术研究与应用的发展概况,以及存在的主要问题。最后,针对复杂机电设备,从功能和信息集成的角度,提出了一种集成环境试验分析系统的构成模式及主要功能。     

多目标数据关联的神经网络方法

数据关联是多目标跟踪的关键问题。基于 Hopfield神经网络的 JPDA是解决这一关键问题的有效方法之一 ,但此方法的难点在于优化系数的整定。提出一种改进算法 ,用于解决优化系数在线自适应整定问题。首先重新构造了李雅普诺夫能量函数 ,接着引入变化的优化系数因子 ,并给出了优化系数求解的迭代公式 ;最后对已有和改进的算法进行了仿真研究。结果表明改进的方法和原有的方法相比 ,一方面具有在线整定优化系数的功能 ,另一方面可以获得和原有算法非常接近的估计误差。     

基于线阵CCD的弹丸图像处理

分析了线阵CCD测弹丸攻角的原理,研究了线阵CCD在弹丸动态测试中的整体图像处理方法,提出一种新的方法:帧相减、局部归一化、二维自适应除噪滤波器和两重阈值复合算法的综合。该方法对复杂环境下的动态CCD图像处理特别有效。     

Properties of a multifacility location problem involving euclidian distances

This paper considers a problem of locating new facilities in the plane with respect to existing facilities, the locations of which are known. The problem consists of finding locations of new facilities which will minimize a total cost function which consists of a sum of costs directly proportional to the Euclidian distances among the new facilities, and costs directly proportional to the Euclidian distances between new and existing facilities. It is established that the total cost function has a minimum; necessary conditions for a mimumum are obtained; necessary and sufficient conditions are obtained for the function to be strictly convex (it is always convex); when the problem is “well structured,” it is established that for a minimum cost solution the locations of the new facilities will lie in the convex hull of the locations of the existing facilities. Also, a dual to the problem is obtained and interpreted; necessary and sufficient conditions for optimum solutions to the problem, and to its dual, are developed, as well as complementary slackness conditions. Many of the properties to be presented are motivated by, based on, and extend the results of Kuhn's study of the location problem known as the General Fermat Problem.     

A linear programming solution to the generalized rectangular distance weber problem

The Weber Problem generalized to the location of several new points with respect to existing points is formulated as a linear programming problem under the assumption that distances are rectangular. The dual problem is then formulated and subsequently reduced to a problem with substantially fewer variables and constraints than required by an existent alternative linear programming formulation. Flows may exist between new as well as between new and existing points. Linear constraints can be imposed to restrict the location of new points. Pairwise constraints limiting distances between new points and between new and existing points can also be accommodated.     

A novel non-separation opening scheme of front cover for rocket launch canister

In view of that existing opening technologies of front cover for rocket launch canister have disadvantages such as causing damage on the ground equipment, not being reused and easily broken. A novel reusable non-separation spring-driven opening scheme is proposed to achieve rapid and reliable opening of the front cover. The mathematical model of the opening process of the front cover is established by the rigid body dynamics theory. To establish a response surface model to optimize the opening scheme, three main influencing factors of the opening process are obtained through the designed experiments, including the pre-compression, the stiffness of the thrust spring, and the thrust spring force arm length. In addition, the prescribed kinematic law was taken as constraint, and the smaller thrust spring preliminary pressure and angular velocity was taken as optimization expectations. The results show that the opening scheme meets the design requirements on opening process well. It also shows that the optimized scheme can reduce the kinetic energy of the front cover, and the impact on the canister effectively, achieving a reliable and rapid opening of the front cover.     

一种动态门限群签名方案的安全性分析

门限群签名是群签名的推广,其中只有授权子集才能代表整个群体进行签名。一旦发生纠纷,签名成员的身份可以被追查出来。指出一种动态门限群签名方案有冗余,提出了针对该签名三种攻击。分析结果证明该门限群签名方案不具有防冒充性,不能抵抗合谋攻击,门限的动态更新、群成员注销和系统密钥更新也不安全。     

火灾统计工作中存在的问题及其对策

本文结合重庆市火灾统计工作实际,简要剖析在火灾统计工作中普遍存在的问题,并提出解决问题的对策。     

Can Limited Intervention Work? Lessons from Britain’s Success Story in Sierra Leone

ABSTRACT

Following frustrating campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, Western interventions are becoming more limited, with troops being deployed for short bursts and residual peace-building tasks being left to others. Although this approach limits exposure for the intervening government, it struggles to achieve meaningful political change. Examining the comparatively successful British intervention in Sierra Leone (2000–02), this article identifies the conditions for effectiveness in these campaigns. It challenges the historiography of the case by framing armed confrontations and raids as enablers of politics rather than ends in themselves; indeed, in both the conduct and study of intervention, politics must reign supreme.