Foreign Societies Research Articles

PECULARITIES CONCERNING THE TRANSLATION OF POLITICAL SPEECHES IN THE MODERN PERIOD

The article is devoted to the study of the terminology of political discourse in modern English and the ways of its transmission in the process of translation. The difference between translation and paraphrase or summary, or any kind of adaptation, lies in the correctness and completeness of the information transference. Nowadays, the language is used not only as a means of forming and expressing thoughts, but also as a means of concealing them. In the context of political struggle and the process of transition in the world, the awareness of the fact that political discourse is a linguistic and cultural problem is becoming increasingly stronger. Difficulties in translating political discourse texts are often related to the fact that the boundaries between certain types of political texts are not always clearly defined in scientific research, which makes this topic relevant. Since political discourse is created for the speakers of a particular culture, the translator faces a number of additional challenges when interpreting it into another language. The purpose of translation is to convey the essence of the original thought as accurately as possible to a reader (listener) who does not know the source language. To translate means to express correctly and completely, using the tools of one language, what has already been expressed earlier by means of another language. That is why the purpose of this article is to identify the ways to preserve the fullness of meaning when translating political texts from English into Ukrainian. To define the concept of political discourse; to study the main characteristics of political speeches as a subtype of political discourse; to identify the features of English political speeches; to analyze the ways of translating speeches into Ukrainian. Modern political discourse is characterized by a number of specific features. The point here is not only the use of specific vocabulary determined by political activity, but also in the proper selection and organization of certain structures of expression in accordance with the pragmatic guidelines. Today, in both Ukrainian and foreign societies, the ability of language to influence people's attitudes to facts and events, in particular the impact of language on the political sphere is quite clear, which makes scholars interested in the language of politics. In order to reproduce certain characteristics of the speech in translation, the translator sometimes needs to use translation grammatical transformations, which are changes in the grammatical character of a word, phrase or sentence in the translation. To analyze political speeches, we have taken the speech of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak at the Munich Security Conference and the speech of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a joint session of both houses of the US Congress.

Whose duty? Which reform?

ABSTRACT Lucia Rafanelli’s book opens up an important space for reflection on the ethics of ‘reform intervention’. Her purpose is both to demonstrate that the field of foreign influence and its modes is considerably more diverse than often appreciated and to propose a set of ethical guidelines for addressing it. The principles she proposes are cogent and well-supported. My reflections focus on two issues concerning the duty of reform intervention. The first topic that I address concerns the scope of the duty and the distinction between the duty of members to promote justice in their home society and the duty of non-members to reform intervention in foreign societies. The second issue concerns the topic of legitimacy in relation to the character of the duty of reform intervention and whether we are, as Rafanelli proposes, all bound by this duty if we accept a natural duty of justice.

Breaking the Borders: Elizabeth Gaskell’s Travel, ‘French Life’ and its Spatial Intertextuality

According to the nineteenth-century ideology of separate spheres, women were supposed to avoid the public sphere and to stay at home, as depicted in most artistic and literary representations. Even though much content in her travel writing represented by letters and the journal article ‘French Life’ is about daily living in ordinary foreign societies, I argue that Elizabeth Gaskell is treating some basic questions of human and social values such as class differences and gender distinctions. This paper emphasizes the significance of travel and travel-writing in Gaskell's personal and professional life, examining how her exposure to other cultures shapes her novels and positions her as a cross-cultural literary figure. Combining ESRI technology, I apply the old map (1864, Paris) to it and draw a GIS picture. The route is based on the journal article ‘French Life’ by Gaskell: by comparing it with the locations and landscapes mentioned in Charles Dickens’s The Tale of the Two Cities, I find there is only one overlapping place: Faubourg Saint-Germain. However, the narratives of the two writers about this same place are so different. Multiple layers of mobility are uncovered in ‘French Life’: starting with Gaskell's physical mobility in Paris and the Mohls' residence, followed by an exploration of her social activities within the salon setting as a British writer, and culminating in an analysis of Gaskell's professional development exemplified through her creation during her time with the French families.

Издан сборник научных статей «Золотые соты» к юбилею профессора Историко-архивного института РГГУ Е. В. Пчелова

The article is a review of the collection of articles "Golden Honeycombs," published in 2022 to celebrate the anniversary of professor of the Russian State University for the Humanities, specialist in the field of auxiliary historical disciplines E.V. Pchelov, author of more than 900 published works, member of national and foreign societies, including the Historical and Genealogical Society in Moscow, the Russian Genealogical Society, the Russian Historical Society, the Russian Association of Antiquarians, the International Historical Society "Catherine the Great" (Zerbst, Germany), and others. The collection has been prepared by his friends, colleagues and students; it can be divided into three parts. The first part is devoted to scientific, pedagogical, and educational activities of Evgeny Vladimirovich and characterizes his extensive scientific activities, showing his connection with scientific and pedagogical school of the History and Archives Institute. The range of Evgeny Vladimirovich’s scientific interests is extensive, covering issues of ancient Russian history, genealogy of ancient Russian princes, genealogical and dynastic history of the Rurikovs and the Romanovs, history of science and art, semiotic research on the history of Russian state symbols, various problems in the field of onomastics, historical chronology, bibliography, sphragistics, numismatics, and other auxiliary historical disciplines. The second part of the collection includes articles written by E.V. Pchelov’s colleagues and friends. The publications analyze various sources covering the period from the Early Middle Ages to Modern times and touching upon problems of the history of science and everyday life, archival studies, source studies, sphragistics, genealogy, chronology, emblematics, heraldry. The most relevant historiography is demonstrated, articles are accompanied by colorful and helpful illustrations. The third section contains materials on E.V. Pchelov’s biography and work and includes a biographical reference and a list of published works from 1993 to 2021. The bibliography of published works includes monographs, textbooks and manuals, articles, abstracts, reviews of educational and methodological materials, reference publications, amounting to 939 titles. The collection can be considered a comprehensive and relevant scientific publication, expanding modern scientific knowledge on national and foreign history and auxiliary historical disciplines and contributing to expansion of the historiography of scientific areas covered in the collection.

The Problems of Translating German Literary Texts and its Solving (The Sorrows of Young Werther as a model for intermediate translation)

Our research deals with the problems of translating literary texts from German into Arabic, and focuses in particular on the role and causes of intermediate translation through the research example that relates to the Arabic translation of the Egyptian translator Ahmed Hassan Al-Zayat for Goethe's novel "The sorrows of young Werther". It shows also the negative aspects of the intermediate translation of the original text and attempts to identify the motives that lie behind the translation process and to clarify the diversified style of translators. Accordingly, the research plan included an introduction and five topics, including some recommendations to support the translation field and its development in the Arab countries, as well as a conclusion that contained the main conclusions, and explains why some translators use intermediate translation, and how to avoid the negative result of intermediate translation. It emphasizes also the role of the translator and his development and provides the importance of translation as the basis for cultural dialogue between countries. This study shows also that any neglect of translation and translators means losing a chance to qualify Arab society to enter into a cultural dialogue with foreign societies.

Закордонні українці в радянському житті Валер’яна Поліщука

The vision of Ukraine as a national and cultural unity within ethnic Ukrainian lands not only did not disappear from the Polishchuk’s works in the Soviet period but was purposefully advanced in his multi-genre cultural practices. Establishing creative contacts with émigré writers as well as Polishchuk’s concept of a literary radio magazine became one of the most important directions of this activity. The article examines the connections of V. Polishchuk with émigré artists Volodymyr Vynnychenko, Mykyta Shapoval, Oleksandr Oles, and Pavlo Kovzhun. Analyzing their contacts, the author finds the permanent need for writers on different sides of the Soviet border to maintain a creative dialogue. The beginning for the dialogue was laid in the pre-Soviet period, that is, in the times of the UNR/Hetmanate/Directorate. In order to delegitimize the activities of Ukrainian political emigration, the idea of “two Ukraines”, Soviet and émigré, appeared in the Soviet discourse of the first half of the 1920s. Despite the use of rhetoric about the existence of “two Ukraines”, the main strategy of V. Polishchuk was not separation, but the combination of the proletarian image of Ukraine with national feelings and literary traditions. In a number of his publications, Polishchuk paid particular attention to the centers of Ukrainian cultural life outside the jurisdiction of the Soviet government (Lviv, Prague) investigating the life of foreign societies and artists. His texts about foreign countries were full of genuine interest. But with all frankness, part of Polishchuk’s biography remained outside the official pro-Soviet discourse, existing in understatements, hints, subtexts. However, we can consider the pre-Soviet period of Polishchuk’s biography as the main factor that influenced his views on the nationally determined Ukrainian cultural identity within the united Ukrainian territories.

International activities of German political foundations and American philanthropic funds. A comparative analysis

The paper is aimed at investigating the influence of political foundations upon internal and external policy of a state, analyzing place and role of foundations in international relations. The relevance of the topic under investigation is stipulated by the expansion of semi-official and guerilla diplomacy instruments in governments’ external policy toolkits, which are widely financed by political foundations. The paper deals with the development of contemporary political foundations of the USA and Germany, including comparative analysis of performance features. The classification of foundation functions in the context of international relations is introduced. A conclusion is drawn that German political foundations are designed according to a model of a ministry of foreign affairs with the elements of a political party whereas a typical American philanthropic foundation is based on a model of a business corporation. German representatives tend to be present on the spot, continuously make contacts and keep track of local developments. The Americans apply project-based approach, and aim at creating NGOs or partnerships geared towards concrete actions or tasks making claims for international legitimacy. Foundations in Germany and the US are different in terms of funding models, degree of governmental involvement, scale and methods both serve as proxies and commentators of ruling elites' ideology contributing to foreign policy aims of their countries of origin. Foundations due to distancing from official diplomacy and legal autonomy (although activities of major foundations are frequently adjusted to the policy of a state of origin) achieve a wide room for maneuver. They penetrate into foreign societies and exert influence over sensitive spheres of modern statehood, such as education, domestic policy, expert community, media, etc. Hence a great deal of ties and points of influence “from inside” upon social and power structures of a foreign country are shaped, and could be exploited to further interests of a state of foundations’ origin. Experience of Western foundations is actively employed by other states and organizations, including non-Western. A range of tools could be applied for the strengthening of bilateral and multilateral cooperation within the framework of the Eurasian integration project of Russia according to the principles of mutuality and inclusivity.

Paradoxes of Aggravated Vulnerability, Marginalization, and Peril of Forest-Based Communities after Increasing Conservative Forest and Protected Areas in Nepal: A Policy Lesson on Land-Based Climate Change Mitigation

Many measures of international policies and support have dictated developing countries to upscale land areas of intact forestry, special biodiversity conservation site, and other wild reserves to half the land territory of the nation by 2050 for resulting environmental, and other benefits to global societies. The international initiations and work urged scholars to assess the potential impacts of the aggressive policy on forest-based communities and especially those living in institutionally and geo ecologically vulnerable areas. This study compiled the impacts of such international policy interventions on diverse affairs of the local community and national economies in Nepal and drew some conclusions on the well-being future of such forest-based communities. It explained that the international interventions in managing community-based resources induced serious disturbances in many local systems and resulted in vicious circles of emigration, income losses, social problems, psychological stresses, and food insecurities. The interventions have placed some communities and especially indigenous ethnic groups in the position either to be displaced from their ancestors’ homelands or suffer for generations. This study also explained some reinforcing phenomena that emerged from the external interventions which have placed situations of the resource impacting local communities adversely for years. It also investigated whether support of international agencies in policy formation and implementation for resource management safeguards the well-being of the resource-based communities. The agencies resulted in the best environmental and other benefits to foreign societies which have aggravated the misery of local communities, particularly the poor people, women, and indigenous ethnic communities. The adverse impacts on the local societies are not repercussions (accidentally or unknowingly happened). All these findings infer that the international policies of upscaling forests and wilderness areas or making conservation areas in half of their land territory, especially in developing societies for the global benefit, may place the lives of the forest-based communities in peril of suffering for generations or extirpating.

Confronting the field: Tylor's Anahuac and Victorian thought on human diversity

Victorian anthropologists have been nicknamed ‘armchair anthropologists’. Yet some of them did set foot in the field. Edward Burnett Tylor's first published work, Anahuac, or Mexico and the Mexicans, Ancient and Modern, described his youthful travels in Mexico. Tylor's confrontation with the ‘field’ revealed significant tensions between the different beliefs and attitudes that Tylor held towards Mexican society. Contrasts between the evidence of Mexico's history (prior to European contact) and the present-day society of the 1850s led Tylor to see both progress and degeneration in Mexico, both ‘authentic’ culture and deep cultural mixture. In order to show that he was capable of uncovering the ‘authentic’ Mexican society, Tylor portrayed himself as a professional traveller-ethnographer, even though he was an anthropological novice. The embodied confrontation with the physical field also created tensions in Tylor's relationship to Mexico. Despite Tylor's mainly ethnocentric vision of foreign societies, his experiences of physically navigating the Mexican land and environment led him towards an empathetic relativism with respect to material culture and social practice. At the same time, his role as a traveller encouraged him to see the field as a fluid entity with no clear boundaries, even as he searched for a bounded and untouched Mexican society amidst cultural mixture. Drawing out the tensions resulting from a Victorian traveller's confrontation with the foreign field allows for a more balanced engagement with the works of these Victorian scholars of human diversity, which have often been portrayed as naively ethnocentric.

ОЦЕНКА ИНСТРУМЕНТОВ ПУБЛИЧНОЙ ДИПЛОМАТИИ: ИСТОРИЯ, ЗНАЧЕНИЕ И ОСОБЕННОСТИ

Modern international relations require additional sources of influence, as well as different ways of their development and application. One of the sources is public diplomacy, which has many formats and is used by various actors in world politics. The evaluation and management of its tools is aimed at implementing a comprehensive diplomatic strategy of the state in order to influence the population of a foreign state, its political opinions and decisions. The issues of public diplomacy are receiving more and more attention in the expert discourse. Analysis and identification of the most effective methods and technologies of public diplomacy in terms of achieving the set goals should also serve to clarify the features of its influence on political processes. The purpose of the study in the article is to substantiate the fact that public diplomacy is a state foreign policy tool in the format of communication channels for the interaction of the state with foreign societies for political purposes. The research methodology lies in the fact that in order to achieve the set goal and solve problems, dialectical and systemic approaches, general scientific methods of retrospective, situational, comparative, factor analysis, content analysis of scientific literature, economic-statistical, comparative, analytical research methods were used. The research approach is based on a comparison of the emergence stage of public diplomacy and the mechanisms of a new stage in public diplomacy – analyzing the influence of public opinion on the formation and implementation of foreign policy. In addition, an assessment is made of the effectiveness of public diplomacy tools, what, thus, contributes to the understanding that at present public diplomacy serves as a means not only to establish relations between foreign societies, but also to promote the foreign policy interests of the state. As a result of the study, it is shown that higher education is one of the most successful tools in the practice of public diplomacy

Do journalists cater to audience's social identity? Assessing the alignment of news content with readers’ national identity orientations

This study investigated the use of national stereotypes and home cultural referents (so-called “domestication”) in foreign news reporting, in relation to social identity theory which posits that individuals are drawn to information/assessments that positively describe the social groups to which they belong. Through a content analysis of influential newspapers from three different countries, this study finds that foreign news coverage tends to depict the home culture favorably while generally denigrating foreign societies, consistent with the theory's predictions. The study also finds that foreign news generally portrays the foreign society negatively with or without the stereotype but that stereotyping will enhance negativity. This research also employed cultural theories to probe the reciprocal nature between the audience and the journalists, both of who may share similar cultural frames.

Between the Islamic and Chinese Universal Empires: The Ottoman Empire, Ming Dynasty, and Global Age of Explorations

Abstract This article studies two sixteenth-century Asian texts: Khitay namah, a Persian travelogue about the Ming dynasty written by the Muslim merchant Ali Akbar and presented to the Ottoman sultan, and Xiyu, an illustrated Chinese geographical treatise with detailed travel itinerary from China to Istanbul by the Ming scholar-official Ma Li. In addition to demonstrating the breadth of Ottoman and Chinese knowledge about each other in the global Age of Exploration, these two books, written respectively for the monarchs of the self-proclaimed Islamic and Chinese universal empires, reflect the Ottoman and Chinese imperial ideologies in an era when major world powers aggressively vied for larger territories and broader international influence. Both the Ottoman and Chinese authors recast the foreign Other as the familiar Self – Ali Akbar constructed an Islamized China while Ma Li depicted a Sinicized Ottoman world – to justify their countries’ claims to universal sovereignty and plans for imperial expansion. Like many contemporary European colonial writers, Ali Akbar’s and Ma Li’s exploration of foreign societies, their literary glorification of their own culture’s supremacy, and their imposition of their own cultural thinking on foreign lands all served their countries’ colonial enterprise in the global Age of Exploration.

Sprachwechsel in der neuesten litauischen Migrations- und Mobilitätsliteratur

Language Change in the Most Recent Lithuanian Literature of Migration and Mobility. When discussing literary multilingualism within the Lithuanian literary scene, researchers usually refer to different groups of authors. Some were born and socialised abroad immediately after the Second World War, some left Lithuania after 1990, but producing their texts in different linguistic contexts all of them write consistently in one language, English or Lithuanian. In the most recent Lithuanian migration and mobility literature, however, one can observe examples of intra-textual bilingualism or multilingualism, which illustrate the integration problems of Lithuanian (labour) migrants into foreign societies on the one hand and the development of multiple global identities on the other. The paper examines these spreading tendencies focusing on the exemplary novel Stasys Šaltoka (2017) by Gabija Grušaitė and discussing the structure and functions of the intra-textual code-switching. The creative use of language directed against conventional linguistic purism shows that the young generation of Lithuanian authors tends to break language and cultural borders. The authors Unė Kaunaitė, Gabija Grušaitė and others show that the playful use of multilingualism can be subversive, ironic, but at the same time can highlight the problems of language dominance and thus political, social and cultural exclusion, express group mentality, identity changes, etc. The way that Lithuanian literature deals with multilingualism, expressed explicitly or implicitly, reveals the extent to which certain literary texts can be described as transcultural, in line with the current tone of European and global migration and mobility literature.

The Impact of virtual groups in social media programs on changing the social habits of university students – An applied study on female students of Qassim University –: أثر الجماعات الافتراضية في برامج التواصل الاجتماعي على تغير العادات الاجتماعية للطالبات الجامعيات – دراسة تطبيقية على طالبات جامعة القصيم –

The study aimed to identify the impact of virtual groups in social networking programs on changing social and economic customs among female university students. To achieve this, the study relied on the social survey method. The closed questionnaire tool was used to collect data. The study was applied to female students of Qassim University from Faculty of pharmacy, Faculty of sharia (Islamic Law) and Faculty of Arts, the number of the sample was (273) students, and were chosen in a stratified manner. In the light of the hypothesis of the explained theories, which are (social progress, proliferation, determination, cultural courses), the study reached a number results, the most important of which are: that Arabic and foreign social materials shared among female members of virtual groups, whether among relatives or friends or among work groups, are related to the change of social customs of young woman’s engagement in Saudi society, so that it is directly from the suitor to the young woman without an intermediary before asking the guardian. The study also found that there is a relationship between the virtual group of female friends and the virtual group of relatives in social networking programs and the change in the expenditure and consumption habits of female university students. The study also reached that there is no relationship between virtual groups and the type of material shared and the level of contentment of the article sent with the customs of the first months of marriage (honeymoon). The customs of honeymoon have changed because of the cultural contact with foreign societies. It turns out that the interpretation of the economic imperative and the interpretation of cultural courses and the interpretation of proliferation are all suitable to interpret the connection of virtual groups in social networking programs with the change of social customs.The study concluded with a number of recommendations, most notably: The need to raise the awareness of parents and family regarding the enlightenment of young women who are getting married about the importance of taking into consideration the rationalization when setting up wedding ceremonies in Saudi society, and that arranging them should be in a modern style with taking into account the values and customs of Saudi society. The study came to a conclusion as a whole that there is an impact of the new social networking on the change of social and economic customs of young women in university. This enhances the importance of conducting and testing a number of different theories. This work would be done through working on more studies and researches which seek the relation between one of social networking programs and consumption. Also, the relation of social networking programs with the change of the concepts, roles and responsibilities of marriage and marital relationship. This would be done through using qualitative and quantitative tools (focused interview, content analysis, case study) in order to describe and interpret aspects that cannot be discovered by the questionnaire.

DIPLOMASI BUDAYA PEMERINTAH PROVINSI KALIMANTAN SELATAN DALAM FESTIVAL BANJAR 2018-2019

Indonesia conduct cultural diplomacy activities not only by central government but also regional government, including Provincial Government of South Kalimantan. The purpose of this research is to understand how Provincial Government of South Kalimantan conducted cultural diplomacy in Festival Banjar 2018-2019. The concepts used in this research are Cultural Diplomacy by Gienow-Hecht and Donfried and Paradiplomacy by Duchacek. This research uses constructivist paradigm and qualitative research method with qualitative data analysis techniques by Miles, Huberman and Saldana. The results of this research reveal that Festival Banjar 2018-2019 is a form of cultural diplomacy carried out by sub-national actor, in this case Provincial Government of South Kalimantan. Festival Banjar 2018-2019 is a cultural diplomacy agent practice belongs to mixed model; agenda to promote South Kalimantan culture and tourism; vehicle through South Kalimantan art and floating market simulation; target audience are the diplomatic corps and foreign societies. Provincial Government of South Kalimantan as a sub-national actor also related to paradiplomacy where the implementation involves two main types of paradiplomatic activities, such as lobbying through interactive talk shows with the target audiences; and media exposure during the event.

FORMATION OF CRM BASED VIRTUAL TRAINING

In the article distance education, advantages of it are informed, the dynamics of development of distance education is shown and the question of formation CRM ­ based distance education is considered. Note for information that distance education is a organized form of educational process on the basis of electronic, telecommunication, software and hardware. Distance education provides long-distance communication between teacher and learner through telecommunications and computer networks based on operative, regular dialogue and feedback. Electronic materials, electronic textbooks, tv programs are presented to learners as forms of information in distance education. Educational institutions must develop a special set of educational and methodological materials for each student to study specific training courses for organizing distance education. As noted, due to the students are on long distance, the main part of the scientific and educational-methodological base of distance education is a virtual information-educational environment. Computer systems, creation of virtual information-educational environment, e-learning methodical fund, electronic catalogs, electronic libraries on the basis of the Internet is the basis of distance education. Distance education is impossible to implement without e-lectures, laboratory works, seminar assignments, methodical instructions for their implementation, which can be obtained through the Internet. That is why the creation and application of a distributed information system is of particular importance for the effective provision of software and hardware opportunities which is equipped the teaching process with e-learning materials, enablied students to use these teaching materials, communicated with teachers, recommended, performed inspection and laboratory assignments and more. For this reason, during the organization of distance education in educational institutions CRM systems can be widely used and its benefits can be used as an intellectual information service. Thus, every university, research institute can use this system to ensure efficiency in their activities. This system can be used to provide the relevant needs of students, teachers, researchers and administration, who are the subjects of scientific and pedagogical activities. First of all, CRM systems define curricula for each specialty of their "clients" (learners) and are investigated suitable information needs. Necessary information is obtained in accordance with the received needs. It should be noted that the ways and sources of obtaining information are different. Thus, information can be obtained from electronic textbooks, data banks, electronic libraries of foreign scientific societies, electronic publications and other resources, as well as various scientific research and educational institutions through scientific cooperation. Through such an approach, the advantages (to choice of place, time, duration and pace of training and to save significantly in financial resources, practicality, time and etc) of distance education can be realized most effectively. Keywords: distance education, electronic materials, electronic textbooks, tv programs, learning computer programs, e-library, distance education organized on basis of CRM.

Design of Associate Content Based Classifier (ACBC) for Malicious URL Prediction by Rule Generation Algorithm

Recently, the internet is becoming as the most effective tool to interact with many foreign societies especially during COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the digital platform is increasing in many developing countries and at the same time, the chance of fraudulence is also increasing day by day. In the digital world, phishing assaults are emerging as the most common type of social engineering attack. Currently, many websites are targeting to acquire the confidential data, which is stored in websites. Recently, the classification techniques are employed to detect the phishing websites. Many tools are used for anti-phishing purposes; they are blacklist and antivirus software. The confidential data in a fake surrounding has intended the category of leaked data due to the action of attackers. In this scenario, machine learning method is observed as a very effective to classify the phishing and non-phishing web (Uniform Resource Locator) URLs. This classification struggles in classifying the leaked data content-based challenge. Therefore, the proposed algorithm is associated with the content-based classification method along with the rule-based generator algorithm. This research article integrates the content-based classification with a rule-based generator algorithm to improve the overall performance of the system. The updated public online repository called Mendeley dataset is used in the proposed research work. The proposed algorithm is used in 7k phishing and real websites content data for performing feature extraction. The extracted feature is then analyzed with our proposed algorithm to provide better prediction accuracy. Also, the proposed work has concluded that, the associate algorithm has achieved better accuracy, when compared to other existing methods.

The Fatal Conceit of Foreign Intervention: Evidence from the Afghanistan Papers

Abstract The fatal conceit of foreign intervention refers to the limitations faced by governments using discretionary power to address perceived problems in foreign societies. Drawing on evidence from the “Afghanistan Papers”—a collection of internal government documents compiled by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) and released in December 2019—we demonstrate how the failure of the U.S.-led intervention in Afghanistan to meet the stated objectives illustrates the fatal conceit of foreign intervention. We explore the limitations faced by foreign government interveners in three stages, reflecting distinct decision nodes within a means-ends framework in which the policies relating to foreign intervention are formulated and implemented.

Russian Cyber Information Warfare: International Distribution and Domestic Control

Cyber information warfare (IW) is a double-edged sword. States use IW to shape the hearts and minds of foreign societies and policy makers. However, states are also prone to foreign influence through IW. This assumption applies mainly to liberal democratic societies. The question examined in this article is how Russia uses IW on other countries but protects itself from the same activities. The authors’ main argument is that while Russia executes influence operations and IW in cyberspace, it strives for uncompromising control over its domestic cyberspace, thus restricting undesirable informational influence over its population.

Oppositional gaze or revenge? A critical ideological analysis of foreignness and foreign identities in Nollywood feature films

The media, including popular media such as music and films, often generate conversations about different spectrums of society. Due to an overabundance of imagery and sounds from the media, including television, film, advertising, social media and the internet, audiences are constantly bombarded with stereotypes and ideologies about other races and identities. As an exponentially growing popular culture industry, Nollywood – the Nigerian movie industry – positions itself as a source of knowledge and popular discourse about issues emanating from the continent and other places. With this growth, Nollywood seems to have been given a spot in the political circle of identity politics, giving it the power to represent the ‘Others’. This study interrogates the theme of identity construction in African films by focusing on the ways in which some select Nollywood films of the early and late 2000s and early 2010s frame and construct foreign races and foreign societies, using critical ideological analysis and the framework of critical race theory. Representations and portrayals of difference in the analysed movies could be serving some ‘revenge’ of sorts, transgressing age-long representations of Black people in Blaxploitation films. The multiplex representations as seen in the analyses serve the primary purpose of such stereotypes: to reproduce and to reaffirm prejudices that over time become naturalized and normalized. The study thematically specifies the significant use of labels, stereotypes and certain orthodoxies that aim to frame and characterize foreign societies in popular Nigerian films and suggests some broader implications of the findings.