Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane Recent documents in Dylan Kissane en-us Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:21:13 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/31 http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/31 Wed, 11 Feb 2009 01:35:40 PST While Australian political parties have maintained official websites for some years, the 2007 Australian Federal election saw the first significant integration of Web 2.0 technologies into a national election campaign. The two major parties - the conservative Liberal Party and the socialist Labor Party - both embraced blogs, flash animation, online video and popular social networking sites in an attempt to win votes, particularly in the 18 to 35 year-old demographic. The Labor Party was far more successful in using Web 2.0 and their online efforts were judged to have played a large role in winning the absolute majority of voters under the age of 35 to its platform on election day in November 2007. Closer analysis of available polling data, though, suggests that the Web 2.0 campaign was largely insignificant in attracting young voters and that the notion that online campaigning will win over young Australian voters is largely misplaced. Dylan Kissane Various http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/30 http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/30 Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:17:17 PST Dylan Kissane Various http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/29 http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/29 Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:29:17 PDT Dylan Kissane Power Cycle Theory http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/28 http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/28 Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:25:19 PDT Dylan Kissane Various http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/27 http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/27 Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:18:21 PDT Dylan Kissane Various http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/26 http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/26 Sat, 25 Oct 2008 03:02:49 PDT "Charles Doran and Wes Parsons' innovative power cycle methodology for measuring international power and explaining the onset of conflict spurred theorists to re-examine their assumptions about power. The world, however, has changed markedly in the decades since power cycle theory first emerged. The advent of globalisation, the emergence of powerful regional institutions and the transfer of state sovereignty to transnational non-state actors all suggest that power cycle theory and its twentieth-century assumptions are in need of reformulation. It is now time to embrace new measures of power - including national innovative power and 'soft power' - and to recognise that military power is no longer superior to economic power. It is time, also, to recognise the growing power of non-state actors and to account for their power in a world of states. The reformulation of power cycle theory herein will be of interest not only to scholars and students of international relations but also the lay reader with a curiosity about the present and future of world politics."ISBN 978-3-639-09704-7 Dylan Kissane Power Cycle Theory http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/25 http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/25 Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:11:53 PDT Dylan Kissane Power Cycle Theory http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/24 http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/24 Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:15:42 PDT According to many theoretical realists, power in international relations can be measured with attention to material capabilities, the extent influence over other states and even single factors such as military might. Further, for realists the greatest powers in the international system are states or coalitions of states, with international organisations, corporations, transnational groups and individuals barely registering in terms of power in most realist theory. One of the reasons for this state-centricity is the assumption by realists of an anarchic system. Faced with theorising international systemic anarchy, the realists and, indeed, most international relations theorists looking at the notion of power focussed only on the largest and most prominent actors, the states. Yet if a theorist assumes a systemic order which is something other than anarchic then different assumptions about the nature and place of power must also be made. Should the system be assumed to be complex - as some recent research argues - then not only does the nature of power change but also its location for, in a complex system, even the smallest and seemingly most insignificant actor can effect changes of a system-changing nature. This paper argues that the turn towards the assumption of systemic complexity in international relations theory requires more than a simple re-assessment of the realist assumption of anarchy; it also requires a redefinition of key notions of international relations, such as power, and, thus, a paradigm shift in the field itself. Dylan Kissane International Systems http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/23 http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/23 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 08:28:00 PDT Unpredicted and unpredictable storms have cut a disastrous swathe through coastal communities in recent years. If the international relations system can be imagined as a peaceful coast, then conflict is the storm that wrecks havoc upon those in its path. One goal, then, of those within the discipline who study conflict is to forecast these international storms and, in power cycle theory, there exists a method which is of some utility to this end. This paper re-introduces power cycle theory, explaining its components and methodology before introducing the specific changes to the method that are the result of the author's research. A strong, positive correlation between conflict and 'critical points' on the power cycles of states is established and it is concluded that this reformulated power cycle theory may offer new insights for explaining and predicting conflict. Dylan Kissane Power Cycle Theory http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/22 http://works.bepress.com/dylankissane/22 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:49:56 PDT The 2007 Australian federal election was the first in which the online campaign and Web 2.0 technologies moved into the mainstream. Though not the first election campaign where political parties had maintained an internet presence, it was the first in which Facebook friends of party leaders were compared in the mainstream press, the first where YouTube videos became election issues and the first where online interactions between parties and party supporters were reported as real and breaking news. Amongst all of the online campaigning, though, it was the Australian Labor Party (ALP) that was widely recognised as presenting the best and most effective online presence. With a site that embraced social networking tools, hosted online video, included regular blog posts from leading party figures and drew on user contributions for content, the ALP's Kevin07.com.au brought the election campaign to Australia's online community in a way that was without equal in this or any previous election. The site, widely held to be aimed at drawing young people to the ALP, was judged an unqualified success in the wake of the ALP's historic November win where the party secured a significant majority of the youth vote. The role of the Kevin07.com.au site in drawing young people to the ALP is, however, open to debate. Indeed, when one considers pre-election polling data, it becomes clear that young voters had established firm voting intentions long before the ALP's online campaign was launched. This paper is presented in four parts. The first presents a review of the increasingly important role played by the online elements of an Australian federal election campaign. Tracing an eleven year, four election period from 1996 to 2007, this section traces the growing focus of political parties, the mainstream media and voters on the online presence of campaigning parties. The second part of this paper presents the ALP's Kevin07.com.au site, the centrepiece of the ALP's online campaign for young voters. The third part of this paper offers evidence that contradicts the notion that the online campaign of the ALP was effective in winning young voters to their cause. Specifically, by considering opinion poll data from 2005 until the election in November 2007 it is clear that while there was a significant rise in support for the ALP amongst young people, this rise occurred many months before the launch of the website and can be attributed to the party's change in leadership. A discussion section follows and the paper concludes by suggesting that - for a number of reasons - the 2007 election was an anomaly in terms of the impact of the internet on the voting intentions of Australian youth and that future campaigning online may well have a measureable and significant effect in drawing young people to a political party. Dylan Kissane Various