This year, the Journal of International Affairs (JIA) is pleased to announce a special issue titled “Contentious Narratives: Digital Technology and the Attack on Liberal Democratic Norms.” This issue will focus on how illiberal or authoritarian regimes use digital technology to undermine liberal democratic institutions and norms.
Relevant topics may include but are not limited to:
- The methods used to sabotage liberal institutions, including doxing – the unauthorized and malicious hacking of potentially damaging information – human trolls, state-sponsored media, and bots.
- The means used to identify weaknesses in democracies, including digital surveillance technologies used to collect intelligence or undermine investigations.
- The ways in which connected devices can empower mass movements and undermine states, especially authoritarian regimes.
- Russia’s role in undermining liberal democracies through state media such as RT and Sputnik, doxing, and other information operations intended to undermine the foundational institutions and internal stability of adversaries, often called the Gerasimov Doctrine.
- The use of narratives to undermine accusations of human rights abuses or war crimes.
JIA welcomes submissions from academics and practitioners of international relations, political science, history, technology, media, and related fields. Accepted papers will be peer reviewed, edited, and published in the special issue scheduled to run mid-2018.
Submission Guidelines
JIA is accepting proposals and abstracts on a rolling basis, with a submission deadline of April 1, 2018.
Complete articles should be up to 2,500 words in length (excluding footnotes) and adhere to the Chicago Manual of Style.
Submitted articles must be original work written in an academic style and not draw substantially from material previously published by the author.
Proposals, abstracts, and full-text articles with a short author biography (200-word limit) should be submitted via e-mail to the selection committee at [email protected]. Please include “JIA – Special Issue Article Submission” in the subject line.
Contact senior editors Zachary Hanson and Amir Khouzam at [email protected] with any questions.