President Joe Biden's political speeches on two different wars The War in Afghanistan vs. The War in Ukraine
Author
Brødbæk, Lisa
Term
4. term
Publication year
2022
Submitted on
2022-05-29
Abstract
This thesis examines how U.S. President Joe Biden employs strategies of legitimization in two political speeches on major conflicts—the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan and the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Drawing on Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, it analyzes how language and discourse practices construct meaning and how five legitimization strategies (appeals to emotion, hypothetical futures, rationality, voices of expertise, and altruism) are mobilized. The data comprise two official White House speeches (August 16, 2021; March 26, 2022). The analysis investigates whether the same strategies recur and how resources from the Afghanistan speech are redeployed to frame and construct the war in Ukraine in Biden’s later address, situated within an intercultural and globalized communication context. The findings indicate that Biden draws clear parallels between the two events and reuses mobilizing strategies from the first speech in the second, thereby contributing to the discursive construction of the war in Ukraine. The study underscores the role of political discourse in shaping understandings of war across international audiences.
Denne afhandling undersøger, hvordan USA’s præsident Joe Biden anvender legitimeringsstrategier i to politiske taler om store konflikter—tilbagetrækningen fra Afghanistan i 2021 og den russiske invasion af Ukraine i 2022. Med udgangspunkt i Norman Faircloughs kritiske diskursanalyse analyseres, hvordan sprog og diskursive praksisser skaber betydning, og hvordan fem strategier for legitimering (appeller til følelser, hypotetiske fremtider, rationalitet, ekspertrøster og altruisme) mobiliseres. Datagrundlaget er to officielle taler fra Det Hvide Hus (16. august 2021; 26. marts 2022). Analysen undersøger, om de samme strategier går igen, og hvordan ressourcer fra Afghanistan-talen genanvendes til at indramme og konstruere krigen i Ukraine i Bidens senere tale, set i en interkulturel og globaliseret kommunikationskontekst. Resultaterne indikerer, at Biden drager tydelige paralleller mellem de to begivenheder og genbruger mobiliserende strategier fra den første tale i den anden, hvilket bidrager til den diskursive konstruktion af krigen i Ukraine. Studiet fremhæver politisk diskurs’ rolle i at forme forståelser af krig på tværs af internationale målgrupper.
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