Center for Strategic Communication

Language, language, please!

by | Apr 23, 2015 | Monitor

[ by Charles Cameron – unclear language gives an out-of-focus snapshot of reality, estimative language hopes to facilitate precision ] . Take a quick look, then skip to the rest of this post & come back later. Unless you already know this thing by heart, and...

Unholy: perhaps it’s a useful word

by | Jan 30, 2015 | Monitor

[ by Charles Cameron — when religion casts a long and violent shadow ] . cover art for the Unholy album, New Life behind Closed Eyes ** Unholy may prove to be a very useful word, I think. It’s not secular, it’s not irreligious, it doesn’t lack...

Brief brief: of binding and loosing

by | Jan 27, 2015 | Monitor

[ by Charles Cameron — really just a note to myself, but you may read it over my shoulder ] . Joas Wagemakers, blogging on Jihadi-Salafi views of the Islamic State at the Washington Post, was talking about the “caliphate” today, and as usual, I went...

Language as tripwire: Kobani and Ayn al-Arab

by | Oct 9, 2014 | Monitor

[ by Charles Cameron — third in a series nibbling at the edges of the importance of precision in language ] . Charles Lister, presently a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center and previously with Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Center, is a...