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Access Type

WSU Access

Date of Award

January 2018

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.A.

Department

Communication

First Advisor

Patricia McCormick

Abstract

ABSTRACT

THE IMPERIAL STRATEGY OF THE “WAR ON TERRORISM”:

U.S. NONPARTISAN POLITICAL DISCOURSE TOWARD THE MIDDLE EAST

by

FATIMA A. IBRAHIM

July 2018

Advisor: Professor Patricia McCormick

Major: Communication Studies

Degree: Masters of Arts

This study analyzes the concept of terrorism. It provides a socio-political and historical context to examine U.S. imperial ambitions and the consecutive declarations of the “war on terrorism” as the core strategy of U.S. national security and foreign policy towards the Middle East. This study provides a critical discourse analysis intertwined with traditional-imperial ideologies of Said’s Orientalism, exceptionalism, and Hofstadter’s “paranoid style” in American politics, to examine the ways in which these ideologies are reinforced in the form of discursive practices in the post-9/11 presidential primary debates of 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016. The study explores how both Republican and Democratic candidates communicate similar yet rhetorically distinct messages to incite a culture of fear and exaggerate threats to America’s democratic values and security. Both parties espouse the same position in justifying the “war on terrorism” in the Middle East, which makes the U.S. a one party state in this respect.

Keywords: critical discourse analysis (CDA), 9/11 terrorist attacks, terrorism, “war on terrorism,” United States, Middle East

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