2009-2012 Obama's First Term, Bush's "Legacy", Arab Spring & World Jihadism

Karl M. Van Meter

Description

This work is based on the systematically use of computer-assisted co-occurrence of key words analysis of English-language media reports. With almost 20 entries per day or over 6,000 press reports per year, we not only characterize, for each year of Obama's first term, the overall structure to world media representation of major topics of international conflict, but also define in detail the thematic clusters of reports,
their internal structure, their external relationships and their evolution over time. Each of the four years is treated in a separate chapter and results are summarized in the final chapter, along with anticipations concerning the future.

Sujets

• Relations internationales
• Diplomatie
• Géopolitique

Informations

• Publié par: L'Harmattan
• Date de parution: 15 octobre 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 7
• EAN13: 9782140021145
• Langue: Français
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Karl M. van Meter

20092012 Obama’s First Term, Bush’s “Legacy”, Arab Spring & World Jihadism

© L’Harmattan, 2016 5-7, rue de l’École-Polytechnique, 75005 Paris http://www.harmattan.fr [e-mail] ISBN : 978-2-343-10327-3 EAN : 9782343103273

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2009-2012 Obama’s First Term, Bush’s “Legacy”, Arab Spring & World Jihadism

Karl M. Van Meter 2009-2012 Obama’s First Term, Bush’s “Legacy”, Arab Spring & World Jihadism

& ADI

T ABLE OF C ONTENTS

C HAPTER 1 Introduction - Obama’s First Term, Bush’s "Legacy", Arab Spring & World Jihadism............................................................ 9 C HAPTER 2 2009 - Obama Replaces Bush at the White House but Disappears in the World Media.................................................... 15 C HAPTER 3 2010 - Pakistan and Torture to the Fore ............................................. 45 C HAPTER 4 2011 - Pakistan Again, Followed by Nuclear and United Nations .... 55 C HAPTER 5 2012 - Israel, With or Without “Kill”................................................. 65 C HAPTER 6 The 2012 ADI Syria Special Report................................................... 83 C HAPTER 7 Two 2012 Special Reports Hugo Chavez & The CIA - Mossad’s “Prisoner X” ..................................................................... 131 C HAPTER 8 Key Word Trajectories, Cluster Evolution & Bibliography............. 137 B IBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................. 153

C HAPTER 1 Introduction - Obama’s First Term, Bush’s "Legacy", Arab Spring & World Jihadism

Why was Obama not a major key word in the world press during 2009, his first year in office as President of the United States of America, and why was Bush – who was no longer at the White House – still a major key word? How did the Arab Spring evolve into Islamic jihadism throughout the Middle East and Africa, and the civil war in Syria? Answers can be found by going over 6,000 to 7,000 press reports per year and becoming an “expert”, but such political analysis can be greatly aided by and sometimes corrected or contradicted by the use of specialized computer programs of textual analysis. In 2009, such analysis tells us that the key words in the international press most closely associated with the key word “Bush Administration” were “Legacy” and “Torture”, and gives a rather clear indication that Bush’s historical legacy as President of the United States will be associated with the official use of torture, and that that association was more important in 2009 than the arrival of Obama in the White House. The “nuts and bolts” of the analysis we present in this book require some clear and precise definitions, even before describing the methods of textual analysis that produce the results we have just mentioned. There is no problem with the term “key word”, but when we start talking about a key word serving as a label for a cluster, things start getting complicated. Essentially, we use a system of analysis based on the co-occurrence of key words in units of text; specifically, key words that appear together in the press reports we analyze. If “Bush Administration” and “Torture” both occur in a press report, that counts as one. If that pair of key words appears five different times in a text, then that counts as five. Using these counts as a measure of association between key words, we put those most closely associated