"Beyond anything we have ever seen": beheading videos and the visibility of violence in the war against ISIS
This article examines the role of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's (ISIS's) beheading videos in the United Kingdom and the United States. These videos are highly illustrative demonstrations of the importance of visual imagery and visual media in contemporary warfare. By functioning as...
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| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Oxford University Press
2015
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| In: |
International affairs
Year: 2015, Volume: 91, Issue: 4, Pages: 725-746 |
| Further subjects: | B
Usa
B Terrorism B Violence B Dschihadismus B Communication policy B Religion B Regional conflict B Effects B Warfare B Video recording B Security policy B Syria B Bedrohungsvorstellung B Militancy B Great Britain B Collective security B Islam B Fundamentalism B Development B Effect B Propaganda B Tendency B Iraq B Information policy |
| Summary: | This article examines the role of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria's (ISIS's) beheading videos in the United Kingdom and the United States. These videos are highly illustrative demonstrations of the importance of visual imagery and visual media in contemporary warfare. By functioning as evidence in a political discourse constituting ISIS as an imminent, exceptional threat to the West, the videos have played an important role in the re-framing of the conflict in Iraq and Syria from a humanitarian crisis requiring a humanitarian response to a national security issue requiring a military response and intensified counterterrorism efforts. However, this article seeks to problematize the role and status of ISIS's beheadings in American and British security discourses by highlighting the depoliticizing aspects of reducing a complicated conflict to a fragmented visual icon. The article concludes by emphasizing the need for further attention to how the visibility of war, and the constitution of boundaries between which acts of violence are rendered visible and which are not, shape the political terrain in which decisions about war and peace are produced and legitimized. (International Affairs (Oxford) / SWP) |
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| ISSN: | 0020-5850 |
| Contains: | In: International affairs
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