The Impact of Globalization on War: The CNN Effect and Western Policy before the Kosovo Intervention Babak Bahador i London School of Economics PhD Dissertation UMI Number: U615855 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615855 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Britisri uwai) oi rt>imcai and Economic Science T*£S£S F 1 5 qgOik&'j 2 Abstract: This dissertation attempts to provide insights regarding the impact of globalization on war. The methodology that is used to assess the primary question (What is the impact of globalization on war?) involves the utilisation of one manifestation of globalization - the CNN effect - that is operationalised to assess one area of potential impact - Western foreign policy during the Kosovo civil war. The dissertation is arranged into two sections. The first is largely theoretical and defines globalization, explains how the CNN effect is a manifestation of globalization and reviews the CNN effect on war at a theoretical level. The second is largely empirical and involves a detailed case study of Kosovo specific media coverage and foreign policy in the West over the fifteen-month period before the 1999 NATO intervention. The employment of this particular case study opens other areas of potential insight that are also explored in this dissertation. The first relates to foreign policy making and how the CNN effect has impacted its traditional role and operation. The second relates to the specific case study itself and the role of the Western media in NATO’s decision to intervene in Kosovo and the specific events that led to this decision. If it were demonstrated that the CNN effect did indeed play a role in this intervention, this would be a useful interpretive addition to the current analysis of this particular conflict. In addressing these questions, it is also hoped that a more detailed understanding of the nature of globalization itself emerges. As theory should develop from practice, and not the other way around, it is only through attempts to apply abstract and novel concepts such as globalization to practice that current attempts at theorising can improve. 3 Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - ............................................. ..................................... ..... — 13 INTRODUCTION 14 Purpose o f the Dissertation and Relevance to Literature....................................................... 17 Method and Central Questions............................................................................................... 18 Summary o f Chapters.............................................................................................................19 Limitations o f this Dissertation..............................................................................................21 CHAPTER 1: GLOBALIZATION______________________________________________ 24 Criteria 1 - N o v e lty .............................................................................................................................26 Criteria 2 - Empiricism..........................................................................................................................27 Infrastructures and Dimensions o f Interconnectedness..........................................................29 Reach...................................................................................................................................................29 Density................................................................................................................................................31 Speed...................................................................................................................................................33 Frequency............................................................................................................................................34 C riteria 3 - G lobality ..........................................................................................................................35 T he Causes of G lobalization ........................................................................................................... 37 G lobalization and Its Co n ten t ............................................................................... 38 T he R ole of Fragmentation in G lobalization ............................................................................40 The Relationship between the Global and the Local ......................................................................... 47 The Relationship between the Means and the Message.....................................................................48 4 CHAPTER 2 - THE CNN EFFECT ___________________________________________________ 52 D efining the CNN effect..................................................................................................................... 55 What is the Agent?..................................................................................................................56 What is Affected?....................................................................................................................58 Effect or Effects?.....................................................................................................................60 The Accelerant Effect.........................................................................................................................60 The Impediment Effect.......................................................................................................................61 The Agenda-Setting Effect.................................................................. 64 Related Effects....................................................................................................................................66 The Challenging Effect.......................................................................................................................67 T he CNN E ffect and G lobalization ............................................................................................... 68 Novelty, Empiricism and the CNN Effect ................................................................................70 Reach...................................................................................................................................................70 Density................. 73 Speed.................................................................................................................................................. 77 Frequency........................ 79 Globality and the CNN effect................................................................................................. 79 The CNN effect and Causality................................................................................................82 CHAPTER 3: DEMONSTRATING THE CNN EFFECT _______________________________ 85 Research A pproaches in the CNN E ffect Literatu re ............................................................. 86 Interview-Based Approaches ..................................................................................................86 Media-Based Approaches .......................................................................................................90 Quantitative Approaches........................................................................................................94 The Policy-Media Interaction Model..................................................................................... 96 T he Challenging CNN E ffect Model - A N ew Research A ppro a ch ................................. 103 The CNN Effect and Macro Influences................................................................................ 115 A lternatives to the CNN E ffect...................................................................................................122 5 CHAPTER 4 - THE CNN EFFECT AND WAR ______________________________________ 131 The People and the CNN effect...................................................................................................... 132 The Rise of Public Opinion.............................................................................................................. 135 The CNN effect and Public Opinion................................................................................................ 137 The Military and the CNN effect..................................................................................................139 The G overnment and the CNN effect.......................................................................................... 142 Diplomacy and the CNN effect ............................................................................................. 143 Foreign Policy and the CNN effect ...................................................................................... 149 Foreign Policy Theory.....................................................................................................................