A Study on “International Terrorism Discourse Turn” in Cyber

Space: A Qualitative and Quantitative Combined Perspective

Leiming Wang

and Shanti C Sandaran

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia

Keywords: Cyberspace, Language Security, Discourse Turn, Quantitative Analysis, Qualitative Analysis, Terrorism,

Chomsky, Non-Traditional Security, National Security, International Security.

Abstract: Polymorphic cyber space is an ecological enclave. Cyber space is a virtual yet objective entity which is

characterized by borderless, decentralization, poly domain and so on. It stretches across three domains of

physical domain, cyber domain and cognitive domain. This papers will adopt quantitative model analysis of

the discourse and linguistic features , and has found that the discourse strategies have played a more

decisive, imperceptible and influential role in global counter-terrorism campaign. This paper firmly holds

that the discourse turn of international terrorism studies has turned up, especially under current complex

global situations. Therefore, a cyberspace language security strategy based on bi-dimensional framework of

technology and law should be an indispensable part of each and every country’s overall national security

strategy with an aim to the realization of the overall national security.

1 INTRODUCTION

Without the construction of the anti-terrorism

discourse, the global anti-terrorism campaign may

present different picture. Securitization and

securitization removal remain the most dimensions

and practices in the field of non-traditional security.

Security is no longer regarded as a solid concept and

category with fixed connotation and definite

extension. language security is an increasingly

prominent strategic item and field. With the spread

of the global terrorism and the global war on

terrorism, the language strategy has been playing an

increasingly important role. It is no exaggeration to

say that without a comprehensive, systematic and

institutionalized language security strategy, there is

no contemporary topic of terrorism, and thus the war

on terrorism loses its legitimacy and rationality.

Language constructivism plays a new, subversive

and even revolutionary role in Cyber Space. The

mainstream discourse system and public opinion

communication system in the traditional offline

physical world are often controlled by the ruling

group. The vast majority of news and information

have been screened, re-selected and processed by

the official censorship authorities. Therefore, it is

difficult to appear and spread deviant news and

information. However, with the rapid development

of cyber space, the power of network equalizing

rights has been rapidly highlighted. Thus, the

sub-groups and grassroots individuals who have

been suppressed or marginalized in the past can

quickly generate, publish, comment on or even

control news, ideas and information that they want

to manipulate with the gorgeous power of network

technology. Make full use of the physical and

political boundaries of the network and send

compiled information to any corner of the planet

where the network signal can reach in real time, thus

opening the door to unlimited expansion of the

audience and obtaining its public opinion influence

or even some dominant power in the physical world.

This is a real information power, a very threatening

parallel power. The language security of cyber space

will depend greatly on the perfection of cyber space

public opinion mechanism itself and the perfection

of controlling mechanism.

2 A REVIEW OF THE BASIC

THEORY OF LANGUAGE

SECURITY

First of all, the study of international relations and

Wang, L. and Sandaran, S.

A Study on â

AIJInternational Terrorism Discourse Turnâ

I in Cyber Space: A Qualitative and Quantitative Combined Perspective.

DOI: 10.5220/0011732100003607

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Public Management, Digital Economy and Internet Technology (ICPDI 2022), pages 163-167

ISBN: 978-989-758-620-0

 2023 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. Under CC license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

163

international security has turned linguistically in the

20th century. Language is the product of society and

is constructed by social reality at the same time. The

discourse mechanism of cyber space influences,

guides and shapes the thoughts, ideas, judgments,

emotions and ideologies of the broad audience

through various direct or indirect ways. "Sad

Narrative" and "Evil Condemnation" have become

the international language security narrative strategy

standard technique and routine. As the saying goes,

soldiers and horses have not moved, grain and grass

first; the contemporary version should be revised to：

soldiers and horses have not moved, public opinion

first! The prelude to this war on terror is a full-time

public opinion and language strategy. First, event

rendering and effect amplification. After being

attacked by terrorists, the United States, in the

shortest possible time, carried out propaganda

through various channels of propaganda, including

the internet, television, newspapers, radio, and even

the production of special propaganda materials for

bundled propaganda.

Secondly, in the 21st century, international

security and its research appear discourse turn. After

several years of development, discourse turn

presents an integrated trend. including a whole set of

ideas, theories, analytical tools, analytical methods,

data sets, narrative strategies, etc. Rational narrative

is the premise and cushion of legitimacy action.

Counter-terrorism also requires a reputation, so

mobilizing huge economic and military resources

from home to overseas countries to carry out the war

on terrorism and peripheral operations, all of which

call for a reasonable basis and reason.

Finally, international security presents dual

characteristics, integrating the multidimensional

characteristics of physical and psychological dual

attributes as the core. From the beginning, the

non-traditional security items have both physical

and institutional characteristics. Under objective

circumstances, in order to effectively cooperate with

the effectiveness and legitimacy of the use of

military strategy, and in order to realize the

prominence and rationality of non-military strategy,

discourse strategy is systematically applied by the

vast number of countries and international

organizations.

3 A QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS

OF TYPICAL SECURITY

DISCOURSE

Based on the literature from CNKI, SCI and EI

database, it can be found that the research on the

topic focusing on “linguistic or discourse” features

and those focusing on the “non - linguistic or non -

discourse” is not balanced and symmetrical. The

following tables and charts are the graphic

representations of the relevant research:

Table 1: A publishing number distribution between topics between: “terrorism” and “terrorism linguistics or terrorism

discourse”.

Type/Number terrorism terrorism linguistics terrorism discourse

Periodical 43800 53 73

Thesis 3186 204 102

Meeting 578 0 1

Newspaper

Book

2636

4280

Total 54480 258 176

Table 2: A high frequency distribution of key words on “terrorism” topics on disciplines.

Keywords safety security

Discourse

anal

sis

Language

anal

sis

Linguistic

anal

sis

Legal

anal

sis

Political

anal

sis

Sociological

anal

sis

Psychological

anal

sis

Number

eriodicals

306 2239 27 0 1 3 0 0 5

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Table 3: The actual choice and usage of words on “terrorism discourse studies”.

Concrete

Word

Usage

Positive words

(for praising and justifying)

Good right righteous just justice friend woe defense

peace

Protect protection maintain maintenance victim

prosperity cherish

Advancement development help aid assistance

humane respect moral

Rational reliable etc

Negative Words

(for criticizing and

dehumanizing

bad unrighteous unjust enemy foe attack war evil

irrational

Radical radicalism extreme extremism extremist

extremism organizations extremism activities terror

terrorist terrorism terrorism organizations terrorism

activities terrorism behaviors terrorism crime

anti-human absolute barbaric brutal bloody

Discriminate attack slaughter etc

From the above data and related database, it can

be easily found that the anti-terrorism states prefer

to select positive and laudatory words and

expressions to express and describe themselves

while prefer to choose negative and derogatory

words to express and describe the terrorists. And it

can also be seen that both the counter-terrorism

states and the terrorism organizations are inclined to

choose and coin absolute and extreme expressions to

attack and label their counterparts to realize the

effects of moral advantage and demonization. The

specific statistical features of terrorism discourse

and the statistical model will be dealt with in a

separate paper later.

4 A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF

TYPICAL SECURITY

DISCOURSE

It can be seen that, driven by the strategic needs of

building a counter-terrorism framework, a country

must carry out the overall planning of the

propaganda language strategy, and a series of

subsequent entity actions need the construction and

maintenance of the public opinion field. The

language security of a country is first reflected in the

control and adjustment of public opinion right and

leading power at home and abroad. When creating

public opinion field, it needs a clear definition and

guidance of a country's language security policy.

The main processes are as follows: the establishment

of terminology database, the construction of

dangerous scene, the analysis of security situation,

the creation of re-security public opinion field and

the dynamic maintenance of security public opinion

mechanism. In the strategic planning and practice of

international counter-terrorism language, the

selection of negative vocabulary, demonizing

opponents, self-empowerment and extreme logic

have become the main strategies and means of

national actors. For example, language security

strategies play a vital and almost irreplaceable role

in enemy creation and division. Human struggle has

a long history, struggle is an absolute and extreme

process of discourse and practice interaction. In the

practice of global anti-terrorism discourse, the

United States has adopted the following language

security strategies: label strategy, emotional

strategy, image management strategy, psychological

penetration strategy and so on. The label strategy

mainly uses negative qualitative words to label the

target, which makes it demonized, devalued and

dehumanized in the public domain. In

counter-terrorism practice, terrorism, terrorists,

terrorist organizations are the most typical label

vocabulary. Islam and Muslims were successfully

labelled enemies of the liberal Western world by

defining certain Islamic groups and Muslim

communities as undesirable and threatening others.

Emotional strategy refers to the active adoption of

inflammatory, emotional and demagoguery

vocabulary, arousing the attention, empathy,

sympathy and de-rationalization of the broad masses

of people and countries at home and abroad who do

not know the truth, so that they can make

unconventional or even unconventional decisions

and behaviors in the state of passion. The core of

image management is to maintain the dual structure,

that is, to take the dual opposites of good and evil as

the center line, to do our best to shape us into the

just side, to shape the other side into the evil side,

A Study on â

AIJInternational Terrorism Discourse Turnâ

I in Cyber Space: A Qualitative and Quantitative Combined Perspective

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and to maintain and consolidate this image through

different relay links.

Discourse is the most common human social

phenomenon. Without discourse, there is no social

culture. Through the use of language symbols, the

exchange of ideas and information and the

interaction in the actual scene, human beings

constantly create meaning, understand the world,

and through the basic category frame and species

division logic, realize "narrative with words "," act

with words" and "do with words ". Language world

or discourse world and physical world or real world

are not only one-way mirror relations, but two-way

interactive coupling relations. Categorization is a

basic way for human beings to understand the world.

Wang Yin describes it as a mental process based on

experience, subjective and objective interaction as

the starting point, subjective generalization and

classification of external events, which gives the

world a certain structure. And make it from disorder

to orderly rational activities. (Introduction to James

Paul Gee discourse Analysis: theory and methods,

2000) "Existential threats" often appear as threats

that challenge the identity of State actors

themselves. Then according to the role orientation of

the actor to the threat, and the role identity of the

actor in the international community, deal with the

"existential threat ". (Fang, 2015) The security of an

objective fact requires a series of security steps and

a series of security principles and mechanisms. The

security of an event usually takes a series of

processes: term creation, topic construction,

orientation, meaning spreading, discourse

mechanism, discourse right creation and integration

practice. The following will analyze the normative

path of security discourse through the facts of

terrorist discourse.

First of all, in the fundamental sense, the use of

the word is much better than the meaning and value

contained in such vocabulary as" totalitarianism

"and" liberation movement ", etc. The ambiguity and

fuzziness of language itself are both its

disadvantages and its advantages. The "terrorism"

vocabulary is very refined to crush all the other

comparable synonyms or similar vocabulary. What

other words are more authoritative, persuasive and

expressive in expressing the "terror" image than the

"terror" vocabulary itself? This is also the shrewd

and cunning of politicians' political vocabulary.

Professor Wang Yin pointed out that people often

use "event domain" as a unit to experience and

understand the world and store it in the brain as a

block of knowledge, which is completely in line

with people's general cognitive law. (Wang, 2007)

Secondly, one or two terms alone is not enough

to create a grand, inclusive, rigorous and thorough

thematic narrative discourse framework. After

completing the term creation, the next work is to

complete the theme construction, that is, through the

narrative discourse strategy, to complete the

anti-terrorism discourse framework, so that it has a

complete, unified and continuous narrative

framework. By framing an interpretation framework,

continuous discourse output and meaning production

are carried out.

Thirdly, after finalizing the term and framing the

subject, the most urgent thing is to identify and

determine the meaning and object of the word. Next,

meaning spreading, that is, using a series of

language strategies, discourse skills, narrative

strategies to pave the way for policy significance,

interpretation and maintenance. Man is an organism

that creates meaning. There may be multiple

versions of human construction or display of self

and life. Each version of construction is related to

the special situation of a certain moment, thus

forming a unique life story. (Amelia Libridgerifka

Tuvo-Mashachitama Chilbo, 2008) P · Horton points

out that there is a consensus that terrorists are mostly

mentally normal, even those who are willing to

sacrifice their lives for their own cause, not

psychopaths.

(David P · Horton)

Further, the structure of discourse mechanism is

to form a set of stable discourse strategic concepts,

discourse strategic tools and discourse strategic

planning in continuous discourse practice. Although

scattered, random and disordered discourse practice

plays a certain role in a certain time and space in

history, it is not conducive to the creation and

maintenance of the standard of forming a

systematic, stable and orderly discourse framework,

so that it can not achieve the desired long-term

strategic intention and goal. Therefore, it is

necessary for discourse makers to construct a unified

and coherent discourse strategy system with stable

connotation and external characteristics from the

perspective of theory.

Finally, the right to speak to create and integrate

practice. The powerful charm and prestige of the

right to speak swept through all the classical theories

of international politics and international relations,

and the language and its surrounding carriers

realized the magnificent turn from behind the scenes

to the front of the scene on the stage of human

history. Moreover, through a series of integrated

discourse practice, discourse power can be

maintained, protected and optimized.

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5 CONCLUSION

To summarize, the discourse turn of international

terrorism studies has appeared. Therefore, a

cyberspace language security strategy based on

bi-dimensional framework of technology and law

should be established for the holistic national

security.

REFERENCES

Amelia Libridgerifka Tuvo-Mashachitama Chilbo, Wang

Hongyan Translation Narrative Research: Reading,

Analysis and interpretation of Chongqing University

Press, 2008, p .7.

David P · Horton. Translated by Yin Jiwu Lin Minwang,

Political Psychology: Situation, Individuals and Cases.

Fang Fang's Media discourse on Terrorism and the

identity of China and the United States China

University of political Science and Law Press ,2015,

p .113.

Introduction to James Paul Gee discourse Analysis: theory

and methods Foreign language Teaching and Research

Press, 2000, p .82.

Wang Yin Cognitive Linguistics Shanghai Foreign

language Education Press 2007, p .240.

A Study on â

AIJInternational Terrorism Discourse Turnâ

I in Cyber Space: A Qualitative and Quantitative Combined Perspective

167