Projecting the Future through Political Discourse
The case of the Bush doctrine
1st Edition
Published on 25. May 2011
XI, 218 pages
978-90-272-8693-2 (ISBN)
Description
This monograph examines the rhetorical nature and function of representations of the future in political discourse, focusing on political actors' use of hegemonic images of future "reality" to achieve their political goals. It argues that a key ideological dimension of political rhetoric lies in politicians' use of projections of the future to legitimate policies and actions. This argument is grounded in systemic-functional and critical discourse analyses of the "Bush Doctrine," the U.S. policy response to the September 11 terrorist attacks which sanctioned a "preemptive" military posture. By focusing on the discursive construction of the future, this project addresses a lacunae in critical discourse studies and calls attention to the crucial role that the discourse and practice of "futurology" has played in post-Cold War politics and society. It will be of value to scholars interested in the discourses of politics, the "war on terror," U.S. national security, and futurology.
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Content
- Projecting the Future through Political Discourse
- Editorial page
- Title page
- LCC data
- Dedication page
- Table of contents
- Acknowledgements
- Chapter 1. Introduction
- Project overview
- Contribution to critical discourse studies
- Why study discourse about the future?
- The future in social and cultural life
- The future in political discourse
- Analytic framework: Critical discourse analysis and systemic-functional linguistics
- Data: The articulation and evolution of the Bush Doctrine
- Chapter overview
- Chapter 2. The Politics, rhetoric, and ideology of projecting the future
- The modernist future: Knowable and controllable
- Reclaiming the future as potentiality and possibility
- Projecting the future in news media and policy discourse
- News Media discourse: "Waiting for action and pushing it along"
- Policy discourse: Constructing and legitimating imperatives for action
- Conclusion
- Chapter 3. Securing the future for the "American Peace"
- Introduction
- Preempting the future: Construals of agency in the 2002 National Security Strategy
- Legitimating preemptive intervention through proximization
- From the Cold War to the war on terrorism: Construing the past, projecting the future
- Creating imminence: Conflating present character with future action
- Knowing the future: Redefining preemption
- Conclusion
- Chapter 4. Prefiguring the future
- Introduction
- Construing field: Contrasting agency, reifying the "threat"
- Intertextual context
- Tenor relations: Implicating the public
- Mood: Positioning the public
- October speech
- March speech
- Evidentiality: Privileging the Bush future
- October speech
- March speech
- Axiological legitimation: Protecting a future that favors freedom
- Conclusion
- Chapter 5. Transforming national security, legitimating preventive war
- Introduction
- Critical intertextual analysis
- 2002 National Security Strategy: A synchronic analysis of the Bush Doctrine
- Creating disjunctions: Legitimating and naturalizing the preventive war doctrine
- Transforming national defense: Ensuring a "Just Peace" through preventive war
- From "preemption" to "prevention": Linguistic transformation and semantic obfuscation
- Conclusion
- Chapter 6. Preserving "Pax Americana"
- Introduction
- Preserving "Pax Americana": Intertextual origins of the Bush doctrine
- Conclusion
- Chapter 7. "Clear and present danger"
- Introduction
- Analysis
- Contextualizing the future
- Constructing agency through dialogic discourse
- Knowing the future and its alternatives
- Discussion and conclusion
- Conclusion
- Concluding remarks
- Postscript
- Works cited
- Index
