Stephen Pinker and the long peace: alliance,deterrence and decline

It is now widely accepted, at least among academic students of war, that there has been a great and generally benign transformation in the character of war. The sort of big wars involving the world's greatest powers, those that in practice or in prospect dominated international affairs from the rise of Napoleon to the collapse of communism, are now considered to be essentially obsolescent. But to what extent is that really true?     

Military Power and Political Influence

This is an edited text of the sixth John Vincent Memorial Lecture delivered by Lawrence Freedman at the University of Keele on 8 May 1998. Against the background of Soviet military power in Europe in the 1970s, the author explores in the first place the question of the utility of force in circumstances where there is no immediate danger of war, and concludes with a discussion of its contemporary relevance for the armed forces of the Atlantic alliance.     

Cultural policy‐making in the free trade era: an evaluation of the impact of current world trade organisation negotiations on audio‐visual industries

The delicate compromise concerning the regulation of world trade in audio‐visual materials is about to be upset. Ongoing negotiations under the World Trade Organisation's General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) are seeking to establish, in the words of US negotiators, “clear, dependable and predictable trade rules” for transnational media exchanges. This article evaluates the impact of the GATS on audio‐visual industries and considers the extent to which cultural industries fit into the framework of multilateral trade talks. Based on interviews with trade officials in the WTO and the UK Department of Trade and Industry, the article concludes that liberalising and deregulatory policy shifts are more likely to emanate from corporate and state environments than from the slow and detailed negotiations in WTO headquarters in Geneva where “defensive” interests appear to be dominating over “offensive” ones.     

Metrics,models and the meaning of media ownership

Concentrated media ownership has become an increasingly salient issue in the context of global demands for social justice and democracy. This article calls for cultural policy analysts to highlight issues of media ownership and maps out three approaches to ownership that are designed to provide a more holistic account of the problems and potential solutions. Attention is first paid to ‘metrics’ and the gathering of quantitative data; next, to the generation of normative models of media ownership; and then, to an ideological perspective on ownership that locates it in relation to systems of thought and action that privilege particular ways of thinking about and ordering the world. By arguing for a renewed focus on ownership that is based on the integration of all three perspectives into a more holistic methodology, the article aims to provide scholars with a conceptual and a strategic framework for understanding and intervening in ongoing debates about the dynamics of contemporary cultural industries.     

“Count What You Have Now. Don't Count What You Don't Have”: The Japanese Television Drama Around 40 and the Politics of Women's Happiness

Voted top new Japanese word of 2008, “arafô”, abbreviated from the English “around forty”, has been used in various media to describe women born between 1964 and 1973, who came of age during Japan's Bubble Era, and who entered the workforce as the country's Equal Employment Opportunity Lawwas being implemented in 1986. Arafô, or “forty-something women”, theoretically have more choices in relation to work and family than previous generations. During a time when society is ageing, their choices in employment, marriage and childbirth have been judged in journalistic and government discourses to be both progressive and problematic. At the same time, arafô have been associated with difficulties regarding individual freedom in the spate of television programs, books and magazines for and about them. The term and the gender trends it encapsulates were brought to national attention by the critically acclaimed 2008 television drama Araundo 40: Chûmon no ôi onnatachi (trans. Around 40: Demanding Women). We situate Around 40 in discussions about Japan's demographic crisis to argue that the series presents a wide array of life courses available for women near age 40 but ultimately recasts postwar gender roles for the 21^st-century sociopolitical climate. Around 40 shows how the diversification of life courses is interpreted in the influential medium of television drama.