1. Introduction 2. Fear, interest and honor 3. The spirit and its expression 4. The ancient world 5. Medieval Europe 6. From Sun King to Revolution 7. Imperialism and World War I 8. World War II 9. Hitler to Bush and beyond 10. General findings and conclusions.

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A Cultural Theory of International Relations

It is often held that the establishment of electoral democracy is key to the creation of political legitimacy. This article challenges this idea and presents an alternative. Many empirical studies reveal that electoral democracy has no necessary implications for the establishment of legitimacy. Even in the successful and stable Nordic democracies, there is scant evidence that legitimacy is created on the input side of the political system. For example political legitimacy in the former Yugoslavia broke down not because ethnic groups realized they would become permanent minorities but because the new Croatian state violated citizens’ rights in the exercise of power. Legitimacy turns out to be created, maintained, and destroyed not at the input but at the output side of the political system. Hence, political legitimacy depends at least as much on the quality of government than on the capacity of electoral systems to create effective representation.

Creating Political Legitimacy: Electoral Democracy versus Quality of Government

1. The neo-conservatives: a new political interest group 2. Origins and early development 3. The nineties: from near-death to resurrection 4. The neo-conservative association 5. The false history 6. Outreach to the media and evangelicals 7. Iraq: the false pretenses 8. America: perception and counter perception 9. The neo-conservative 'World War IV' and its impact on American society 10. The balance sheet and looking ahead Appendix.

America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order

Social media platforms such as Twitter pose new challenges for decision-makers in an international crisis. We examine Twitter's role during Iran's 2009 election crisis using a comparative analysis of Twitter investors, US State Department diplomats, citizen activists and Iranian protesters and paramilitary forces. We code for key events during the election's aftermath from 12 June to 5 August 2009, and evaluate Twitter. Foreign policy, international political economy and historical sociology frameworks provide a deeper context of how Twitter was used by different users for defensive information operations and public diplomacy. Those who believe Twitter and other social network technologies will enable ordinary people to seize power from repressive regimes should consider the fate of Iran's protesters, some of whom paid for their enthusiastic adoption of Twitter with their lives.

https://researchbank.swinburne.edu.au/file/a5b910c8-96c2-4bf7-9fb3-7e9632a84628/1/PDF (Published version).pdf

Twitter free Iran: An evaluation of Twitter's role in public diplomacy and information operations in Iran's 2009 election crisis

Considerable progress has been made in understanding the underlying mechanisms driving the long-wave behaviour of the world socioeconomic development. A controversial mechanism discussed is the close relationship between K-waves and the outbreak of majors wars. Social scientists and politicians are well acquainted with the fact that chance events have been responsible for the outbreak of wars and their course and outcome. Two main trends are now acknowledged: the increasing recognition of the existence of some cyclical patterns of warfare involving the core of the world system, and a shift toward newly evolving patterns involving non-state actors and asymmetric warfare. We may tentatively agree that wars are not merely the result of blind social and political forces. In Part I, the reader will find a mix of contributions dealing with new visions or revisions of the concept of long waves considered from very different perspectives related to their unfolding. Those contributions discussing objectively the issue of K-waves and their relation with military conflicts, following old and/or new conceptualizations of the phenomenon, were selected to form the book's Part II. Finally, those contributions with strong emphasis on the analysis of future scenarios, related or not related with warfare and/or world security compose the body of the Part III.

Kondratieff waves, warfare and world security

David Frum and Richard PerleNew York: Random House, 2003. 284pp, $37.95 cloth (ISBN 1-4000-6194-6)If you think that Donald Rumsfeld is too subtle and soft-spoken, this is the book for you. David Frum, a Canadian former speech writer for President Bush who helped coin the phrase "the Axis of Evil," and Richard Perle, a leading hawk during the Cold War and a strong advocate of the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, mount a vigorous a defence of the Bush war on terror and extend the line of reasoning to areas in which the administration has so far lacked the courage of its instincts. Supporters of the president will find the book right on target; critics will see it as the triumph of ideology over objective appraisal. It is hard to imagine anyone being persuaded by it. Furthermore, in the end the authors do not deliver on the sub-title, "How to Win the War on Terror."Frum and Perle do a fine job of laying out the administration's case. They argue that the only way to combat terrorism is to wage war on it, not treat it as a criminal enterprise to be met by legal instruments, as Clinton supposedly did. Terrorism itself (not specifically defined) is the enemy of civilization and the US cannot give a free pass to groups like Hamas that claim to be acting in a just cause. The US has enormous power and must not shrink from using it to coerce countries like Iran and Syria that sponsor terrorists and yet claim clean hands. Saudi Arabia is a particular problem since the regime seeks the benefits of being an American ally while spreading Wahhabi extremism throughout the Muslim world. The US must make clear that these activities will not be tolerated and back up its threats with the full panoply of political, economic, and--as a last resort--military instruments. The Saudi royal family, for example, should be reminded that the oil-rich eastern region is heavily populated with Shiites who might be quite happy to secede. The Europeans of course can be counted on to oppose any strong actions. They are not powerful enough to do much on their own, resent American influence and idealism, and have no stomach for confronting a dangerous world. But as American policy succeeds in Iraq and elsewhere, supporters of a free society in the Third World will take heart and tyrants will pull back, leading to greater successes and support for the American policy.This book is avowedly one of advocacy, not disinterested analysis. There is nothing wrong with this, but the best books of this type engage the most sophisticated alternatives. Frum and Perle do not. With the exception of whether the US should seek a compromise in the dispute between the Israelis and Palestinians, they do not bother telling the reader why anyone might disagree with them. This makes the book misleading for people who are not well informed and disappointing for those who are, and both groups are left in the dark as to how the authors would engage in a more serious dialogue. To take just one example, the issue of how the US and other countries should balance protection of civil liberties and the need to vigorously pursue terrorists is a crucial and vexing one. …

Richard Norman Perle

Papers

An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror

Reshaping Western security : the United States faces a united Europe