Abstract
This study explored the Bush administration’s construction of the 2003 United States invasion of Iraq. Specifically, this study focused on the subtler narratives and tools utilized by the administration within their construction of the invasion in order to illuminate the potential employment of problematic discourses and practices. Using a qualitative framing and critical discourse analysis, twenty public addresses from President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell were analyzed to highlight the potential utilization of colonial narratives and practices within the administration’s constructions. As such, Edward Said’s Orientalism, Makua Mutua’s Savages-Victims-Saviors Metaphor, and Achille Mbembe’s Necropolitics were selected as the theoretical tools. The analysis undertaken concluded the presence of colonial narratives and practices within the administration’s construction of the invasion, a utilization that presented itself through three dominant themes: 1) ‘American and Western Supremacy’, 2) ‘The Construction of the Colonial Other’, and 3) ‘Iraq as a Death World’. While limited only to an analysis of the administration, the research conducted highlights the necessity to dissect the hidden narratives and tools utilized by Western actors to justify bouts of violence, due to their ability to reproduce unequal power relations that enable modern imperialism to thrive.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Imperialism, Discourses, Power, State, Warfare
