scholarly journals The Geopolitical Threat Index: A Text-Based Computational Approach to Identifying Foreign Threats

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Trubowitz ◽  
Kohei Watanabe
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Computational Approach ◽  
Supervised Machine Learning ◽  
Proof Of Concept ◽  
Us History ◽  
Threat Index ◽  
International Threat ◽  
Compare And Contrast

Abstract Few concepts figure more prominently in the study of international politics than threat. Yet scholars do not agree on how to identify and measure threats or systematically incorporate leaders’ perceptions of threat into their models. In this research note, we introduce a text-based strategy and method for identifying and measuring elite assessments of international threat from publicly available sources. Using semi-supervised machine learning models, we show how text sourced from newspaper articles can be parsed to discern arguments that distinguish threatening from non-threatening states, and to measure and track variation in the intensity of foreign threats over time. To demonstrate proof of concept, we use news summaries from The New York Times from 1861 to 2017 to create a geopolitical threat index (GTI) for the United States. We show that the index successfully matches periods in US history that historians identify as high and low threat and correctly identifies countries that have posed a threat to US security at different points in its history. We compare and contrast GTI with traditional indicators of international threat that rely on measures of material capability and interstate behavior.

“Little Plants in the Country”: Henry Ford's Village Industries and the Beginning of Decentralized Technology in Modern America

Prospects ◽  
1988 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
pp. 181-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard P. Segal
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
New York ◽  
Information Processing ◽  
Real Estate ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Physical Proximity ◽  
The World ◽  
Word Processors

“Technology Spurs Decentralization Across the Country.” So reads a 1984 New York Times article on real-estate trends in the United States. The contemporary revolution in information processing and transmittal now allows large businesses and other institutions to disperse their offices and other facilities across the country, even across the world, without loss of the policy- and decision-making abilities formerly requiring regular physical proximity. Thanks to computers, word processors, and the like, decentralization has become a fact of life in America and other highly technological societies.

The Empire of Death: How Culture and Economics Affect Informed Consent in the U.S., the U.K., and Japan

1994 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 357-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
George J. Annas ◽  
Frances H. Miller
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Informed Consent ◽  
Assisted Suicide ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Medical Intervention ◽  
Jack Kevorkian ◽  
Open Discussion ◽  
Legislative Changes

American culture reflects a paradox: the more openly we discuss death and its inevitability, the more money we spend to postpone and deny it. Sherwin Nuland's book How We Die, a frank description of the way our bodies deteriorate with and without medical intervention, topped the New York Times best seller list in the spring of 1994. At the same time, Jack Kevorkian, arguably the world 's best known physician, was being acquitted of violating Michigan 's law against assisted suicide, while a Michigan commission was debating legislative changes to permit physicians to help their terminally ill patients kill themselves. Despite such open discussion of death and expansion of the informed consent doctrine, U.S. medical expenditures at the end of life remain astronomically high. Most of this elevated spending is attributable to new medical technology.In J.G. Ballard 's Empire of the Sun, the United States, British and Japanese cultures are contrasted through the eyes of a young British boy incarcerated by the Japanese army in China during World War II.

The Role of Religious Value in Political Judgment

1968 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 415-427
Author(s):  
Quentin L. Quade
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
New York Times ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Political Issue ◽  
Religious Interventions ◽  
Number Of Citations

In The issues of the New York Times from February, 1965, to November, 1967, religious leaders and groups are reported 185 times commenting on one political issue: Vietnam. If a comparable search were done on an inclusive list of political topics, such as civil rights, the number of citations would be greatly multiplied. Most of these statements are on substantive issues — the United States should do this, do that — rather than on the theoretical questions about religion's role vis à vis politics. Most of these religious interventions presume some connection between religion and politics, whether articulated or not. A similar examination of some leading religious journals, for example, Chrisianity and Crisis, Commonweal, Christian Century, America, produces similar results: in articles and editorials, such publications are deeply immersed in direct commentary on political problems of our time.

scholarly journals Political News Discourse Analysis Based on an Attitudinal Perspective of the Appraisal Theory—Taking the New York Times’ Report China-DPRK Relations as an Example

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jinxiu Jin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
North Korea ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Appraisal Theory ◽  
Political News ◽  
News Discourse ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

The relationship among China, the United States and North Korea has already been a focus of international politics. From June 19 to 20, North Korea leader Kim Jong-un ended his third visit to China within 100 days. This is also his three consecutive visits to China since he took office in December 2011. The high density and frequency are not only rare in the history of China-DPRK relations, but also seem to be unique in the history of international relations, indicating that China-DPRK relations are welcoming new era. This paper selects the New York Times’ report on China-DPRK relations as an example, which is based on an attitudinal perspective of the appraisal theory to analyze American attitudes toward China. Attitudes are positive and negative, explicit and implicit. Whether the attitude is good or not depends on the linguistic meaning of expressing attitude. The meaning of language is positive, and the attitude of expression is positive; the meaning of language is negative, and the attitude of expression is negative. The study found that most of the attitude resources are affect (which are always negative affect), which are mainly realized through such means as lexical, syntactical and rhetorical strategies implicitly or explicitly. All these negative evaluations not only help construct a discourse mode for building the bad image of China but also are not good to China-DPRK relations. The United States wants to tarnish image of China and destroy the relationship between China and North Korea by its political news discourse.

scholarly journals GOVERNANCE OF THE FACEBOOK PRIVACY CRISIS

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence J. Trautman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Audit Committee ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Front Page ◽  
Select Committee ◽  
The New York Times ◽  
Social Media Platforms

In November 2018, The New York Times ran a front-page story describing how Facebook concealed knowledge and disclosure of Russian-linked activity and exploitation resulting in Kremlin led disruption of the 2016 and 2018 U.S. elections, through the use of global hate campaigns and propaganda warfare. By mid-December 2018, it became clear that the Russian efforts leading up to the 2016 U.S. elections were much more extensive than previously thought. Two studies conducted for the United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), by: (1) Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project and Graphika; and (2) New Knowledge, provide considerable new information and analysis about the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) influence operations targeting American citizens.By early 2019 it became apparent that a number of influential and successful high growth social media platforms had been used by nation states for propaganda purposes. Over two years earlier, Russia was called out by the U.S. intelligence community for their meddling with the 2016 American presidential elections. The extent to which prominent social media platforms have been used, either willingly or without their knowledge, by foreign powers continues to be investigated as this Article goes to press. Reporting by The New York Times suggests that it wasn’t until the Facebook board meeting held September 6, 2017 that board audit committee chairman, Erskin Bowles, became aware of Facebook’s internal awareness of the extent to which Russian operatives had utilized the Facebook and Instagram platforms for influence campaigns in the United States. As this Article goes to press, the degree to which the allure of advertising revenues blinded Facebook to their complicit role in offering the highest bidder access to Facebook users is not yet fully known. This Article can not be a complete chapter in the corporate governance challenge of managing, monitoring, and oversight of individual privacy issues and content integrity on prominent social media platforms. The full extent of Facebook’s experience is just now becoming known, with new revelations yet to come. All interested parties: Facebook users; shareholders; the board of directors at Facebook; government regulatory agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); and Congress must now figure out what has transpired and what to do about it. These and other revelations have resulted in a crisis for Facebook. American democracy has been and continues to be under attack. This article contributes to the literature by providing background and an account of what is known to date and posits recommendations for corrective action.

scholarly journals Big Data and Journalism: How American Journalism is Adopting the Use of Big Data

Novum Jus ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-89
Author(s):  
Julián Rodríguez ◽  
Andrew M. Clark
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Big Data ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
The Public ◽  
Digital Format ◽  
American Journalism ◽  
Depth Interviews

This research uses in-depth interviews with three data journalists from the Houston Chronicle and the New York Times in the United States to describe the role of data journalists, and to illustrate how and why they use big data in their stories. Data journalists possess a unique set of skills including being able to find data, gather data, and use that data to tell a compelling story in a written and visually coherent way. Results show that as newspapers move to a digital format the role of a data journalist is becoming more essential as is the importance of laws such as the Freedom of Information Act to enable journalists to request and use data to continue to inform the public and hold those in power accountable. 

scholarly journals Communicating the “Race” for the COVID-19 Vaccine: An Exploratory Study in Newspapers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Brazil

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luisa Massarani ◽  
Luiz Felipe Fernandes Neves
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Media Coverage ◽  
Exploratory Study ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Computer Assisted ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Understanding Of Science

The search for an effective solution to control the COVID-19 pandemic has mobilized an unprecedented effort by science to develop a vaccine against the disease, in which pharmaceutical companies and scientific institutions from several countries participate. The world closely monitors research in this area, especially through media coverage, which plays a key role in the dissemination of trustful information and in the public’s understanding of science and health. On the other hand, anti-vaccine movements dispute space in this communication environment, which raises concerns of the authorities regarding the willingness of the population to get vaccinated. In this exploratory study, we used computer-assisted content analysis techniques, with WordStat software, to identify the most addressed terms, semantic clusters, actors, institutions, and countries in the texts and titles of 716 articles on the COVID-19 vaccine, published by The New York Times (US), The Guardian (United Kingdom), and Folha de São Paulo (Brazil), from January to October 2020. We sought to analyze similarities and differences of countries that stood out by the science denialism stance of their government leaders, reflecting on the severity of the pandemic in these places. Our results indicate that each newspaper emphasized the potential vaccines developed by laboratories in their countries or that have established partnerships with national institutions, but with a more politicized approach in Brazil and a little more technical-scientific approach in the United States and the United Kingdom. In external issues, the newspapers characterized the search for the discovery of a vaccine as a race in which nations and blocs historically marked by economic, political, and ideological disputes are competing, such as the United States, Europe, China, and Russia. The results lead us to reflect on the responsibility of the media to not only inform correctly but also not to create stigmas related to the origin of the vaccine and combat misinformation.

The Civilianization of a Nuclear Weapon Effects Test: Operation ARGUS

2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 283-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa M. Mundey
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Nuclear Weapon ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Long Distance ◽  
White House ◽  
International Geophysical Year ◽  
Test Operation ◽  
International Geophysical

In 1958 the United States secretly conducted a low-yield, high-atmosphere nuclear weapon effects test in the South Atlantic code-named ARGUS. It tested a theory devised by Nicholas Christofilos that an anti-missile shield could be created around the planet by trapping high-energy electrons in the Earth’s radiation field. In order to conduct the test before the October 1958 nuclear test moratorium, the military borrowed International Geophysical Year equipment and used the program as cover for the clandestine nuclear tests. Though the experiment determined that an electron shield could not work, it provided important research data for weapon effects, atmospheric physics, and long-distance communications. In March 1959, Hanson Baldwin and Walter Sullivan of the New York Times published an unauthorized account of the tests. In response, the White House presented ARGUS as a civilian science program of the International Geophysical Year rather than a nuclear weapon effects test. In the internal debate about declassification, in the publicity of the test, and in the memories of James Killian and Herbert York, Operation ARGUS demonstrates that many scientists and Americans remained comfortable with anti-militarism, even under militarized policies.

Handguns: Risks versus Benefits

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. 781-782
Author(s):  
KATHERINE K. CHRISTOFFEL ◽  
TOM CHRISTOFFEL
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
New York ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gun Control ◽  
Second Amendment ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Supreme Court ◽  
P 16

THE ISSUE There are an estimated 40 to 50 million handguns in the United States, with approximately 2 million more being manufactured annually1 (The New York Times, July 9, 1985, p 16). The high prevalence of handgun injury in the United States is unique in all the world and is increasing. Children are among the growing legions of US citizens harmed by the handgun epidemic.2 The effort to control handguns is focussed on developing laws to control their manufacture, importation, purchase, possession, and use. Opponents of these legal approaches claim that gun control endangers constitutional freedoms. When asked, the US Supreme court has consistently rejected that position in favor of the view that the Second Amendment protects a collective, not a personal, right to bear arms.3,4

Droning Discourse

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bibi Imre-Millei
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Terrorist Attack ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The United States ◽  
New York University ◽  
Law Schools ◽  
Al Jazeera ◽  
New Yorker ◽  
The Us ◽  
Remotely Piloted Aircraft

How is gendered language utilised to position the United States in relation to target states to morally justify Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) strikes? State discourse of the US during the George W. Bush and Barrack Obama administrations projected an image of remotely piloted systems as mechanisms of masculine protection. US officials assert that RPAs not only protected Americans at home, they protected populations vulnerable to terrorist attack abroad. While the RPA itself was coded as masculine, RPA pilots are feminised because they are protected from battle while using the RPA. The RPA takes the position of the ultimate masculine protector and its operators become feminised in US rhetoric. The surveillant assemblage of pilot, RPA, and sensor-analytics systems sustaining the RPA, is examined through a rigorous discourse analysis of state officials’ statements during the Bush and Obama administrations. Statements are taken from a number of reputable publications including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Al Jazeera, CNN, and BCC, among others. Statements are also taken from the report “Living Under Drones,” from the law schools of Stanford and New York University. This research begins to answer the question of how technology is gendered in relation to RPAs and RPA strikes.

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