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THE CNN EFFECT IN ACTION
fascinated, stating that he learned more from CNN than from the CIA.
The so-called CNN effect, as it became known, claimed to change the
very politics surrounding war. In the immediate aftermath of the Gulf
War, for example, it was widely believed that media images of Kurdish
refugees were instrumental in the decision to establish safe havens.
Conversely, the fear of a backlash from television images of the
“Highway of Death,” in which hundreds of Iraqis fleeing Kuwait
were killed, was believed to be a factor in the U.S. decision to terminate
the Gulf War before the U.S. military destroyed large segments of the
Republican Guard. When asked about the decision to end the Gulf
War, Brent Scowcroft, the U.S. national security advisor at that time,
responded, “. . . if you look, at the ‘highway of death,’ look at the tel-
evision pictures it’s just one mass of destroyed and burning, equip-
ment, and that’s pretty graphic ...I think it was a significant aspect
of the decision [to end the war] that we did not want to look like
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butchers who were bent on revenge by slaughtering people.”
The CNN effect continued to be considered an important factor in
subsequent Western humanitarian military interventions throughout
the 1990s, such as those in Somalia, Haiti, and the former Yugoslavia.
Those who believed in its power reached divergent conclusions as to
its potential benefits. Although many diplomats and policymakers 4 5
viewed it as an intrusive new player that could pressure governments
into foolish policy, some in humanitarian circles saw it as a potential
force for good, causing outside intervention in cases of human suffer-
ing that might otherwise be ignored. 7
In this chapter, the CNN effect is defined and further clarified by
addressing a number of key questions relating to its agency, affect, and
scope. The CNN effect is then assessed in the context of the recent
globalization literature, from which a number of explanatory insights
are derived. As the CNN effect, in many ways, is a manifestation of the
larger globalization trend, the theoretical work on the latter proves
particularly useful for advancing current understandings of the former.
Defining the CNN Effect
The CNN effect is defined by Steven Livingston as the impact of new
global real-time media on diplomacy and foreign policy. 8 Piers
Robinson describes it as the responses from domestic audiences and
political elites to global events that are transmitted by real-time
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communications technology. Joseph S. Nye Jr. characterizes it as the
impact of the increased free flow of broadcast information and
shortened news cycles on public opinion in free societies. 10 Based on
these three definitions, which are in no way an exhaustive list of all the