1st Edition

Rhetoric, Media, and the Narratives of US Foreign Policy Making Enemies

By Adam Lusk Copyright 2022
    218 Pages 23 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    218 Pages 23 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Rhetoric, Media, and the Narratives of US Foreign Policy: Making Enemies studies the process of communicating threats to the US public and explores when and why the American public believes another country or regime is a threat.

    Through a comparative and historical study, the author focuses on how the media environment enables and constrains rhetorical strategies deployed to construct, reproduce, and change narratives about a threat. Recent literature on threat inflation, securitization, and critical security studies returned to the concept of "threat." Building on this renewed conceptual attention, this book examines why and how policy makers and other public figures, in particular the President, convince the public about a threat and will be of interest to students and academics in the disciplines of political science, international relations, foreign policy, security studies, and contemporary history.

    Chapter One. Threats as Social Facts
    Chapter Two. Towards a Theory of Threat Legitimation
    Chapter Three. “Sister” Chile and “Saving” Cuba: Newspaper and Logos
    Chapter Four. Democracy and Dictatorship: Threats of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union during the Radio Age
    Chapter Five. Freedom Fighters and the Drug Lord: Threats of Nicaragua and Noriega during Television Media Ecology
    Chapter Six. Conclusion

    Biography

    Adam Lusk is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Rosemont College, USA. He teaches courses in International Relations and Comparative Politics, as well as First Year Connections Seminar. His research interests include international security, threat perception, global environmental politics, and norms and ethics in International Relations.