Paul Kamolnick

American Workers and the Future of Minimum Wage Politics

This essay provides a detailed, worker-oriented assessment of the new federal minimum wage law. Using a class-analytic approach and empirical findings generated by the 1987-1989 campaign to increase the federal minimum wage, I examine specific provisions of the new law and key political-economic variables evident in the struggle to pass it. I conclude by offering strategic observations on key trends likely to shape future campaigns to increase the federal minimum wage.

Simmel's legacy for contemporary value theory : A critical assessment

In this essay I critically assess Georg Simmels legacy for contemporary value theory and provide the rudiments of an alternative approach. My central thesis is that Simmel fails to satisfactorily conceptualize the nature and origin of value because of his devotion to an asocial, Cartesian–Kantian conception of mind, human freedom, and agency. In contrast, I incorporate recent data from neuroscience, social self theory, developmental psychology, and elements of Marxs theory of the commodity form to provide the terms of a postmetaphysical, intersubjective alternative.

How Muslim Defenders Became “Blood Spilling” Crusaders: Adam Gadahn's Critique of the “Jihadist” Subversion of Al Qaeda's Media Warfare Strategy

Adam Gadahns Abbottabad letter offers a rare opportunity to examine how this Al Qaeda Senior Leadership (AQSL) media operative and spokesman conceptualizes and executes media warfare. In this article, I first introduce, depict, and employ the authors Terrorist Quadrangle Analysis (TQA) as a useful heuristic for conceptualizing and representing the four interrelated components of the AQSL terrorist enterprise: political objectives, media warfare, terrorist attacks, and strategic objectives. This TQA construct is then employed to conceptualize Gadahns media warfare acumen. Gadahn is shown to be an adept communications warfare operative who conscientiously disaggregates and evaluates key target audiences, messengers, messaging, and media. Gadahns vehement critique of select “jihadi” groups, in particular Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP), al-Shabaab, and the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), is then described. Key here is how and why Gadahn denounces their indiscriminate, murderous terrorist attacks on Muslim non-combatant civilians and other protected persons as effectively subverting his intended AQSL media warfare strategy and undermining AQSL strategic and religio-political objectives. A concluding section briefly summarizes these chief findings, offers select implications for scholarship and counter-AQSL messaging strategy, and identifies study limitations.

Of Jihads, Jihadists, and Jihadisms

The last three decades have witnessed the re-emergence of political violence and terrorism committed in the name of Islam. The five books reviewed below were published between 2010 and 2014 and each addresses a dimension of militant violent politics in the name of Islam. Each—even those of earliest vintage—contains valuable insights and analyses, and often direction for formulating a more intelligent and thoughtful national security policy. They are reviewed under two themes: a) seminal ‘‘jihadist’’ scholars; b) comprehensive examination and interpretation of the broader phenomena of ‘‘jihads,’’ ‘‘jihadists,’’ and ‘‘jihadisms.’’ We now examine each and note when relevant noteworthy strengths and limitations of this scholarship. Terrorism and Political Violence, 28:803–812, 2016 Copyright # Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0954-6553 print=1556-1836 online DOI: 10.1080/09546553.2016.1205465

Al Qaeda's Sharia Crisis: Sayyid Imam and the Jurisprudence of Lawful Military Jihad

Militant Islamist Sayyid Imams legal critique of Al Qaedas anti-U.S. mass casualty terrorism holds great potential utility for counterterrorist messaging strategy. In this article, a jihad–realist Islamist theological–jurisprudential methodology is first defended as the means most productive for delegitimizing Al Qaeda among high value, religiously motivated recruits. Second, Sayyid Imams specific allegations and detailed Sharia proofs against Al Qaeda are presented. Finally, implications are drawn for U.S. counterterrorist messaging focusing especially on the utility of wielding this theological–juridical approach as compared to other “counternarrative” approaches, and the vital need to accurately characterize Islamism and its relation to terrorism.