Pakistani Political Communication and Public Opinion on US Drone Attacks

Conventional wisdom holds that Pakistanis are overwhelmingly opposed to American drone strikes in their country’s tribal areas and that this opposition is driven by mass media coverage of the loss of life and property the strikes purportedly cause. Using an approach based in the literature in political communication and public opinion, we argue this conventional wisdom is largely inaccurate. Instead, we contend that awareness of drone strikes will be limited because Pakistan is a poor country with low educational attainment, high rates of illiteracy and persistent infrastructure problems that limit access to mass media. Moreover, because of these same country characteristics, Pakistanis’ beliefs about drone strikes will be shaped primarily by informal, face-to-face political communication, rather than through more formal media sources. We test this argument using data that we collected by fielding a 7,656 respondent, nationally-representative survey carried out in Pakistan in 2013. The results of the statistical analysis support our arguments.     

The legality of unmanned aerial vehicles outside the combat zone: a case study of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan

The drone is the latest tool to promote interests of a nation-state. It is clear that USA as well as other major powers anticipate that robotics will play a key role in future warfare. Today, more than 70 countries have already acquired drone technology and many others are desperate to join the ranks. This urge for drone technology will ultimately lead to a “boundless and borderless war without end.” In the case of Pakistan, the US drone campaign has raised some important issues regarding how their use could, or should, be regulated in the future. This article analyses the legal issues raised by the US's use of drone technology in non-combat zones, such as Pakistan. It is argued that a reckless disrespect of Pakistan's sovereignty has had adverse implications and consequences for the legitimacy of the Pakistani government. Drone strikes have prompted instinctive opposition among the Pakistani population, hurt their feelings and estranged them from the government. This in turn has added to Pakistan's instability and stimulated a ground-swell of animosity toward the USA.     

谈高校校报思想政治教育的作用

高校校报既是高校思想宣传工作的重要阵地,又是高校进行思想政治教育的重要平台。深入分析、挖掘校报的思想政治教育作用,对校报提高办报质量,有针对性地为高校发展提供舆论支持具有深远意义。只有充分发挥高校校报在思想政治工作中的作用,才能稳固校园主流媒体的地位。     

Brinkmanship,not COIN,in Pakistan’s post-9/11 Internal War

Politics is critical to making sense of Pakistani successes and failures in dealing with non-state armed groups. This includes domestic political currents; regional political currents; and the global impetus of the post-9/11 era. How these currents overlap renders to any reading of insurgency in Pakistan real complexity. This article engages with this complexity rather than shirking from it. Its hypothesis is that while the insurgency bordering Afghanistan has been an epicentre of Pakistani military efforts to fight the Taliban, this theatre is in of itself insufficiently inclusive to grasp the nature of Pakistan’s security challenges and its consequent responses.     

Pakistan’s response to US foreign policy towards South Asia 1977–1993

Relations between the USA and Pakistan have been tenuous since the 1947 partition of British India and the subsequent creation of the former. The 1979 Soviet intervention in Afghanistan focused the attention of the international community on South Asia. This article will examine the foreign policies of three successive US Presidential Administrations between 1977 and 1993, and how their decisions and corresponding actions were interpreted by the Pakistani government and its people. The key finding is the trend of the ebb and flow of US interest in Pakistan. The primary research conducted for this article shows that Pakistanis recognize this trend and consider it hypocritical of the US government. The current conditions in South Asia are ominously similar to those of 1992 with the drawdown of US and NATO troops from Afghanistan. Policy-makers would be wise to review the events of 1977–1993 so that the cycle is not repeated again.     

论报纸策划的具体措施

作为传统媒体之一的报纸媒体,一直承担着信息传播的重要任务,在社会生活中起着重要作用。面临新媒体高速崛起,多媒体的日渐融合这样的环境,也仍然不能忽视报纸媒体的影响力。但是,在高速发展的信息社会中,报纸媒体的创意与策划显得越来越重要。     

Predators and Peace: Explaining the Failure of the Pakistani Conflict Settlement Process in 2013-4

ABSTRACT

Did US drone strikes cause the unravelling of the Pakistani conflict settlement process between the government and the TTP in 2013-14? In answering this question, we present strong, fieldwork-based evidence that the effects of leadership decapitation, civilian casualties, and loss of legitimacy and credibility as a negotiation partner by both the government and the TTP interacted in the context of specific social, political and cultural characteristics of a tribal society. We find that drone strikes ‘produced’ some of these factors, but not all, which allows us to conclude with four concrete policy recommendations for rethinking the use of drones.     

媒体在恐怖危机事件中的传播策略刍议

恐怖危机事件与媒体相互依赖,二者之间存在着共生关系。媒体对于恐怖危机事件的处置既具有积极作用,又存在着一定的消极影响。在恐怖危机事件的报道中,媒体必须及时发布权威信息,把握好报道的内容,坚持正确的舆论导向,坚持以人为本的原则。     

Drone Strikes and Grand Strategy: Toward a Political Understanding of the Uses of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Attacks in US Security Policy

This article analyzes the political utility of US drone strikes theoretically and deductively. Placing strikes within the context of the theorized political functions of force and considering how they fit into two grand strategies, restraint and selective engagement, I argue that these strikes buy the United States relatively little in the way of political effects assuring its own security because the terrorism threat they are intended to combat is a limited one within the skein of US global interests. Furthermore, their contribution to counter-terrorism efforts is likely to diminish with the adoption of armed drones by non-state actors. Drone strikes can, however, provide leverage over recalcitrant US client states while reassuring liberal partners and giving them some leverage over US choices. In addition, within the counter-terrorism sphere, drone strikes are less likely to inflame popular opinion than are alternative uses of force. This analysis contributes to an increasingly rigorous examination of the strikes’ role in US foreign and security policy.     

论网络舆情与高校思想政治教育的关联

随着互联网的普及,网络舆情对高校思想政治教育产生了广泛影响,二者之间存在密切关联。网络舆情蕴含思想政治教育功能,思想政治教育对网络舆情具有疏导作用。根据二者的密切关联,对大学生开展有针对性的教育已成为思想政治教育工作者面临的新课题。     

Pakistan’s nuclear future: continued dependence on asymmetric escalation

ABSTRACT

In 2019, the geostrategic landscape of South Asia significantly changed. A crisis between India and Pakistan involved air strikes across international boundaries for the first time since the 1971 war. Pakistan came close to economic collapse, while India re-elected hawkish Narendra Modi as prime minister in a landslide. These developments, alongside the United States’ efforts to strike a deal to leave Afghanistan and rapidly improving US-India relations, portend new challenges for Pakistan’s security managers—challenges that nuclear weapons are ill-suited to address. Despite the shifting security and political situation in the region, however, Pakistan’s nuclear posture and doctrine seem unlikely to change. This article explores the roots of Pakistan’s reliance on the traditional predictions of the nuclear revolution, most notably the notion that nuclear-armed states will not go to war with one another, and argues that this reliance on nuclear deterrence is a response both to Pakistan’s security environment and to serious constraints on moving away from nuclear weapons toward an improved conventional force posture. Pakistan’s central problems remain the same as when it first contemplated nuclear weapons: the threat from India, the absence of true allies, a weak state and a weaker economy, and few friends in the international system. While 2019 may have been a turning point for other states in the region, Pakistan is likely to stay the course.     

‘Just another border incident’: The Rann of Kutch and the 1965 India–Pakistan War

ABSTRACT

The India–Pakistan War of September 1965 has attracted little attention in the larger body of work on South Asia. Further, almost nothing has been written on the earlier skirmish, in April 1965, between Indian and Pakistani security forces in the Rann-of-Kutch, an uninhabited salt marsh. This article argues that the limited conflict in the Rann, its immediate consequences, and its impact on Pakistani military and civilian leaders were central to Pakistan’s consideration of a military solution to the ongoing dispute in Kashmir, which then led to Indian retaliation and the outbreak of war.     

新时期公安边防部队涉警舆情应对研究

随着现代信息技术的发展以及互联网的普及,社会舆论载体日益增多,而公安工作的特殊性又使公安机关极易成为社会关注的焦点。广泛、动态的涉警舆论一方面促进了公安边防工作的有效开展,但另一方面也给公安边防部队及公安边防工作带来巨大挑战。密切掌握涉警舆情动态,切实提高公安边防部队应对负面涉警舆情的能力,是公安边防部队履行三大历史使命的保证。     

A critical perspective on a recent survey of opinion in Pakistan's tribal zone

This paper is a critically analysis of a public opinion survey recently conducted by the New America Foundation (NAF) and Terror Free Tomorrow (TFT) in the Federally Administered Tribal Area, FATA, of Pakistan on various issues pertaining to the war on terror. I argue that the survey misinforms about the tribal public opinion. To substantiate the argument I demonstrate that the survey is marred by ethical and methodological shortcomings.     

Great-power Responsibility,Side-effect Harms and American Drone Strikes in Pakistan

In International Relations (IR), the actions of great powers are usually assessed through their direct effects. Great powers are generally considered to be responsible for the consequences of their actions if they intentionally caused them. Although there is discussion on “double-effects” and “side-effect harms” in the realms of philosophy and political sociology, these largely remain absent from the field of IR. This article bridges that gap by clarifying a set of yardsticks through which side-effect harms of great powers’ actions can be evaluated, including “capacity”, “historical precedent”, “voluntarism” and “unintentional causality”. These yardsticks are deduced through the Theory of Special Responsibilities, which combines elements of Constructivism and the English School. The theoretical framework presented is then applied to the case of American drone strikes in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan. A number of terrorists in FATA have relocated elsewhere within Pakistan to escape these strikes, subsequently harming individuals in new locations. The article asks: who bears responsibility for the harm brought to civilians by these dislocated terrorists? Analysis from the perspective of the theoretical framework, constructed and applied here, suggests that even if the US may claim not to have directly intended such an outcome, it still shares some responsibility for the harm to innocent civilians.     

依据信息加工原理 提升舆论战作战功能

舆论战是通过舆论传播平台传递信息,作用于受众的思想或心理,争取人心,实现小战大胜或不战而胜。依据信息加工原理,分析研究信息源、信息、媒介和受众这四个要素,是提升舆论战作战功能的必由之路。     

群体性事件网络舆情传播规律与对策研究

随着互联网的不断普及,现实世界发生的群体性事件往往迅速在虚拟的网络世界引起强烈反响,一旦处理不当将会引发甚至恶化群体性事件。通过分析群体性事件与网络舆情之间的关系,研究群体性事件网络舆情形成机制与传格规律．并在此基础上提出应对群体性事件网络舆情的对策。     

浅谈边防部队基层干部“六结合”监督模式

在分析公安边防部队基层干部监督的特点及现状的基础上,构建以党内监督、行政监督、群众监督、新闻舆论监督、法制监督、自我监督为主体,相互协调、相互促进的公安边防部队基层干部＂六结合＂监督模式。     

基于知识图谱和二级传播理论的网络舆情事件传播分析

在目前的网络舆情事件传播分析中,尽管生命周期模型能够较好地描述舆情事件的发展规律,但却忽略了部分时期之间存在的共性特征,无法充分体现意见领袖对网络舆情事件传播过程的影响。本文提出了一种基于知识图谱和二级传播理论的网络舆情事件传播分析方法,首先,构建网络舆情事件知识图谱;然后,基于知识图谱计算用户影响力挖掘意见领袖;最后,考虑到意见领袖的重要地位,为有效刻画网络舆情传播规律、周期与途径,根据传播学二级传播理论构建网络舆情事件传播模型,将生命周期模型的五个时期按照舆情发展态势划分为三个阶段：潜伏期（爆发期阶段）、爆发期（成熟期阶段）以及成熟期和衰退期（消亡期阶段）。实验结果表明,该方法能够有效计算和发掘包括意见领袖在内的用户影响力,传播、分析网络舆情事件效果较好。