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This study examines the communication of conceptual metaphors in contemporary narratives of British politics, and specifically, the competitive communication of a Commonwealth 'family of nations' metaphor in the context of ongoing Brexit debates. This line of inquiry has been pursued through an analysis of parliamentary speeches made in the House of Commons and the House of Lords in the period from 23 June 2015 (1 year before the EU Referendum) through October 2018, facilitated by the use of computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software. Although multiple 'family of nations' metaphors were identified, British parliamentarians made more references to the Commonwealth as a family unit than other multi-national groupings, and two prominent variants of this family metaphor have been defined. Speakers competed for control over the meaning of the base metaphor, with mainly English Conservative speakers communicating a positive aspirational variant (framing the Commonwealth as a historically rooted, harmonious and prosperous alternative to the EU), while speakers from the other main parties communicated a competing critical judgmental variant (framing the Commonwealth as discriminatory, unequal and failing to defend shared human rights principles). It is argued that this metaphor, and particularly its positive aspirational variant, contributes to a broader communicative effort to encourage the imagination of a transnational and global British orientation and identity outside Europe.

Political myths contribute to effective political communication with their ability to render a social group's world and experiences more coherent by providing stories or narratives that explain where they came from, how they came to be in their present condition, and what their future holds. One such contemporary political myth, identified as Global Britain and triggered by the sense of crisis surrounding Brexit, has been vigorously promoted by English conservative politicians and public intellectuals in an effort to alter perceptions about what the UK's proper place, roles and identity should be in the international system. Global Britain's advocates view Brexit as an opportunity to reclaim Britain's internationalist credentials by renewing old relationships with people's and societies in its former empire. Among many rhetorical tools used in the articulation of Global Britain is a "Commonwealth as Family" conceptual metaphor which has been deployed to contribute content to the political myth and force behind its main objective – persuading the British public that they and their country will be better off out in the world among their closest 'kith and kin' rather than tied down in what they view as an inefficient, undemocratic and sclerotic European Union.

Shortly following Canada's controversial adoption of nuclear weapon roles in NORAD and NATO in 1963, the focus of nuclear debates shifted to the potential impact on Canadian and international security of the construction of US anti-ballistic missile (ABM) systems. This article expands the focus of scholarship on the ABM issue from the political and policy-making settings to include members of the attentive elite and the news media, and finds these groups deeply divided between liberal and conservative internationalists. On the one hand, supporters of liberal internationalism believed that AMB systems would destabilise the international security environment and ultimately increase the likelihood of nuclear war. Conservative internationalists took the opposite position, arguing that the systems represented a necessary addition to the Western nuclear deterrent and would make nuclear war less likely. In other words, the ABM debate exposed deep divisions in Canadian society between those who preferred diplomatic and multilateral versus military means of achieving middle power goals in the international system.

Details defense spending & arms transfers for the armed forces, as well as the funding of paramilitary forces, in Iran, the South Caucasus, & Central Asia. At issue is modernization of the armed forces, which is influenced by foreign aid; foreign military presences; participation in international military exercises/training programs (under CIS, NATO, & US auspices); & participation in bilateral & multilateral defense, security, & military agreements. The last is given some attention, highlighting the kind of security cooperation fostered in the Tashkent Treaty, potential NATO membership, the Shanghai Forum, the Central Asian Union, & GUUAM. Four national & five international trends emerging with respect to regional armed forces development are delineated, eg, importation of more conventional weapons & growing & often competing interests of extraregional countries in regional affairs, respectively. 3 Tables. J. Zendejas

This study examines how (and how well) politicians in the UK Parliament use their historical knowledge in debates about intra–Commonwealth trade following Brexit. Based on a rigorous analysis of 2 days of parliamentary debates in the House of Commons and House of Lords in early 2017, one of our conclusions is that UK parliamentarians used their historical knowledge in cross-domain (the practice of applying historical knowledge to a field of human activity that is very different from the original historical circumstances) ways. Our study thus develops our understanding of the role of analogical reasoning in the cognition of policymakers. On the other hand, although Conservative speakers did not refer to a wide range of economic or trade historical topics, they did use their historical knowledge from other domains in the promotion of deepening intra–Commonwealth ties as an alternative to the Europe-dominated focus of British international policies since 1973. In these ways, our study thus adds to our knowledge of how policymakers use historical knowledge to understand complex issues such as Brexit.

Although global assessments provide evidence of biodiversity decline, some have questioned the strength of the evidence, with local assemblage studies often showing a more balanced picture of biodiversity change. The multifaceted nature of biodiversity and imperfect monitoring datasets may partially explain these findings. Here, using an extensive dataset, we find significant biodiversity loss in the native avifauna of the European Union (EU). We estimate a decline of 17–19% in the overall breeding bird abundance since 1980: a loss of 560–620 million individual birds. Both total and proportional declines in bird numbers are high among species associated with agricultural land. The distribution of species' population growth rates (ln) is centered close to zero, with numerical decline driven by substantial losses in abundant species. Our work supports previous assessments indicating substantial recent biodiversity loss and calls to reduce the threat of extinctions and restore species' abundances, for the sake of nature and people.

This work was supported by the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) [grant number WC1014] and the Natural Environment Research Council through National Capability funding to the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology. ; Biodiversity is changing at unprecedented rates, and it is increasingly important that these changes are quantified through monitoring programmes. Previous recommendations for developing or enhancing these programmes focus either on the end goals, that is the intended use of the data, or on how these goals are achieved, for example through volunteer involvement in citizen science, but not both. These recommendations are rarely prioritized. We used a collaborative approach, involving 52 experts in biodiversity monitoring in the UK, to develop a list of attributes of relevance to any biodiversity monitoring programme and to order these attributes by their priority. We also ranked the attributes according to their importance in monitoring biodiversity in the UK. Experts involved included data users, funders, programme organizers and participants in data collection. They covered expertise in a wide range of taxa. We developed a final list of 25 attributes of biodiversity monitoring schemes, ordered from the most elemental (those essential for monitoring schemes; e.g. articulate the objectives and gain sufficient participants) to the most aspirational (e.g. electronic data capture in the field, reporting change annually). This ordered list is a practical framework which can be used to support the development of monitoring programmes. People's ranking of attributes revealed a difference between those who considered attributes with benefits to end users to be most important (e.g. people from governmental organizations) and those who considered attributes with greatest benefit to participants to be most important (e.g. people involved with volunteer biological recording schemes). This reveals a distinction between focussing on aims and the pragmatism in achieving those aims. Synthesis and applications. The ordered list of attributes developed in this study will assist in prioritizing resources to develop biodiversity monitoring programmes (including citizen science). The potential conflict between end users of data and participants in data collection that we discovered should be addressed by involving the diversity of stakeholders at all stages of programme development. This will maximize the chance of successfully achieving the goals of biodiversity monitoring programmes. ; Publisher PDF ; Peer reviewed

1.Biodiversity is changing at unprecedented rates, and it is increasingly important that these changes are quantified through monitoring programmes. Previous recommendations for developing or enhancing these programmes focus either on the end goals, that is the intended use of the data, or on how these goals are achieved, for example through volunteer involvement in citizen science, but not both. These recommendations are rarely prioritized. 2.We used a collaborative approach, involving 52 experts in biodiversity monitoring in the UK, to develop a list of attributes of relevance to any biodiversity monitoring programme and to order these attributes by their priority. We also ranked the attributes according to their importance in monitoring biodiversity in the UK. Experts involved included data users, funders, programme organizers and participants in data collection. They covered expertise in a wide range of taxa. 3.We developed a final list of 25 attributes of biodiversity monitoring schemes, ordered from the most elemental (those essential for monitoring schemes; e.g. articulate the objectives and gain sufficient participants) to the most aspirational (e.g. electronic data capture in the field, reporting change annually). This ordered list is a practical framework which can be used to support the development of monitoring programmes. 4.People's ranking of attributes revealed a difference between those who considered attributes with benefits to end users to be most important (e.g. people from governmental organizations) and those who considered attributes with greatest benefit to participants to be most important (e.g. people involved with volunteer biological recording schemes). This reveals a distinction between focussing on aims and the pragmatism in achieving those aims. 5.Synthesis and applications. The ordered list of attributes developed in this study will assist in prioritizing resources to develop biodiversity monitoring programmes (including citizen science). The potential conflict between end users of data and participants in data collection that we discovered should be addressed by involving the diversity of stakeholders at all stages of programme development. This will maximize the chance of successfully achieving the goals of biodiversity monitoring programmes.