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This exploratory study aims to understand why, and propose remedies for, the treatment of political risk and sustainability as siloed risk areas in risk analyses. I employ an interdisciplinary theoretical approach that focuses on the roles of values and worldviews, stages of sustainability and hybrid knowledge to understand this siloing. The large-N interpretive method used here combines content frequency counts with discourse analysis to examine over 400 corporate communication documents from 37 companies. The study also explores how, through corporate communication, companies that provide political risk analysis convey what is at risk and what counts as sustainability. I argue that the broad shared 'cultural' tones of what it means to be in the political risk field pose challenges for integrating political risk and sustainability. The study concludes with several recommendations on how to overcome the current barriers in order to integrate political risk and sustainability in risk analyses.

AbstractEach year the prevalence of digitized information becomes more entrenched, not least with the amount of activity on social media. Yet, new media studies pose a number of challenges to international relations scholarship, which are only beginning to be addressed. With some exceptions IR scholars who conduct this research tend to rely on traditional qualitative methods and have been hesitant to embrace interdisciplinary collaboration—especially with those disciplines outside of the social sciences—as well as methodological pluralism across interpretive and quantitative approaches within the social sciences. This tendency shows a general lack of understanding of what new/social media might mean, not only as a source of and tool for generating information but also as a structural factor in how we conduct IR research and practice international relations. In this way, social media can provoke IR scholars to ask questions about their own discipline. This article aims to address these challenges and to provide suggestions on how to bring structural aspects of new media into IR research. In particular, it incorporates ideas centered on the shifting media ecology as fundamental to examining these structural challenges in terms of practicing international relations and in the visual turn in IR.

Despite the financial crisis of 2008 and the ensuing global economic recession, arms producers and military services companies continued their upward trend in arms sales. At the same time, large-scale acquisitions returned to the arms industry in 2010, while acquisition activity in general increased, including acquisitions by non-OECD countries in OECD arms markets. The military spending cuts proposed in 2010 in Western Europe and the USA are likely to have an impact on arms producers in the future, but to what extent remains to be seen. Companies outside of North America and Western Europe -- those regions that dominate the SIPRI Top 100 and the global arms industry overall -- also displayed resilience in light of the economic recession. As smaller OECD countries outside the Euro-Atlantic region with arms producers in the SIPRI Top 100 for 2009, the cases of Israel, South Korea and Turkey illuminate small state experiences in pushing for globally competitive arms industries. In each case, the underlying technological and industrial infrastructures have determined when and to what extent technological developments are integrated into domestic arms production and whether the integration leads to indigenous technological sophistication. Access to arms technology via transfers is also a key factor in the development of domestic arms industries. A requirement for offset investment in return for large arms procurement contracts can lead to technology transfers, although limitations are imposed by the USA on re-exports of US technology. In contrast, domestically funded military research and development allows national control over the resulting technology. Adapted from the source document.

Enthält: Arms production. - S. [252]-271 The SIPRI top 100 arms production companies, 2008. - S. [272]-280 Major arms industrie acquisitions, 2009. - S. [281]-283

The economic downturn following the 2008 global financial crisis and the subsequent austerity measures imposed in North America and Western Europe began to have an impact on sales in the world's arms industry in 2011-12. However, the impact on the industry was not uniform, with varied results for individual company. Ongoing spending discussions have generated uncertainty in the largest arms and military services market -- the United States -- and are a key reason companies based there and in Western Europe are seeking increased market shares in other regions, including Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Individual companies are taking steps to insulate themselves against austerity measures through military specialization, downsizing, diversification, and exports and other forms of internationalization. In some cases company subsidiaries have maintained or increased arms and military services sales outside of the countries in which the parent companies are headquartered. Companies also use acquisitions to improve the products and services they already deliver. While much attention is paid to acquisitions, a number of divestitures also indicate the ways in which the industry is restructuring to accommodate the austerity environment and changing customer requirements. Governments use a number of strategies to assist their arms industries outside of their home markets. These include direct government arms export promotion; support for cost reductions; and the use of rhetoric about arms industry employment. In contrast, countries that have not cut military expenditure see this dilemma as an opportunity to either obtain more favourable terms on arms imports or to develop their own industries. Adapted from the source document.

The public spending crisis in the Global North has not yet had a large overall impact on the major companies in the arms production and military services industry ('the arms industry'). The most likely reason for this lack of major change is that the impact of the world financial slowdown is being delayed by the structure of the arms industry. The economic and spending uncertainties in both the USA and Western Europe will have general implications for the way in which weapon programmes are developed and implemented, and so have contributed to uncertainty as to whether arms sales will be maintained or increase at the same rate as in the past. Adapted from the source document.

AbstractCruel memes spread messages of hate via social media. The Internet itself extends the memes' geographical reach, and many such cruel memes circulate across borders. This article examines the activities of cruel memeing—practices of creating, commenting on, reinforcing ("liking"), sharing, remixing, and otherwise endorsing cruel memes—as microscale hostile engagements in global politics. This is a politics of the everyday that is accessible to people in their ordinary lives and that is designed to be entertaining as well as cruel. The research draws on a large dataset of memes, comment threads, and related information from two opposed Reddit communities, r/TheLeftCantMeme and r/TheRightCantMeme. The power-flow theoretical framework structures an interpretive analysis of how cruel memes circulate within the social media space. We examine content (including narrative, degree of cruelty, and other components), and velocity of information flow, as well as access to the flow. Focusing on racism, antisemitism, and disdain for political opponents, we draw on interpretive methods to analyze the flow of information that spreads hate. We find: (1) normalization of divisiveness, derisiveness, and bigotry; (2) justifications of violence; and (3) emergence of agents despite pseudonymity. Cruel memeing activities combine with the structure of the online communities to spread hatred far beyond social media platforms.

Scholars of international relations frequently explore how states normalize the use of military force through processes of militarization, yet few have analyzed how new information and communication technologies impact on these processes. The essays in this forum address this gap, and consider the political significance of new technologies, new actors, and new practices that shape "Militarization 2.0" and normalize political violence in the digital age. The authors in this forum rely, to varying degrees, on common militarized tropes and dichotomies (such as authenticity, belonging, and (de)humanizing framings) that are key to militarization, including those devices that rest on gender, race/ethnicity, and heteronormativity. Moving beyond a military-centered approach to militarization, the authors' questions cover ministries of foreign affairs; the embodied performances of celebrity leaders and insurgency groups; arms producers, the military video game industry, and private military and security companies; and violence entrepreneurs. The forum closes with reflections from Cynthia Enloe.

Scholars of international relations frequently explore how states normalize the use of military force through processes of militarization, yet few have analyzed how new information and communication technologies impact on these processes. The essays in this forum address this gap, and consider the political significance of new technologies, new actors, and new practices that shape "Militarization 2.0" and normalize political violence in the digital age. The authors in this forum rely, to varying degrees, on common militarized tropes and dichotomies (such as authenticity, belonging, and (de)humanizing framings) that are key to militarization, including those devices that rest on gender, race/ethnicity, and heteronormativity. Moving beyond a military-centered approach to militarization, the authors' questions cover ministries of foreign affairs; the embodied performances of celebrity leaders and insurgency groups; arms producers, the military video game industry, and private military and security companies; and violence entrepreneurs. The forum closes with reflections from Cynthia Enloe.