Article published In:
Journal of Language and PoliticsVol. 11:4 (2012) ► pp.562–582
Terrorism rhetoric under the Bush Administration
Discourses and effects
In this paper I examine some of the properties of the speeches by former U.S. President George W. Bush framing the issue of terrorism as the most pressing menace humanity is facing and some of the consequences of the selective appropriation of the discourse on terrorism initially instantiated by Bush. The theoretical framework for the analysis is a multidisciplinary Critical Discourse Analysis approach relating discursive and socio-political aspects of U.S. presidential discourses on terrorism in the Bush era. Parallel to an analysis of common characteristics of political discourse, such as ‘us’ versus ‘other’ representations, the device of over/less characterisation, hyperboles and repetitions, attention is also directed towards the socio-political effects deriving from the ways in which ‘terrorism’ and ‘terrorists’ have been represented by the presidential discourse on terrorism that condition the contemporary life of individuals and groups all around the world.
References (59)
Ahmed, Akbar. 2003. Islam under Siege. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Anderson, James. 2003. “American Hegemony after 11 September: Allies, Rivals and Contradictions.” Geopolitics 8 (3): 35—60. 
Anderson, Sean K., and Stephen Sloan. 2003. Terrorism: Assassins to Zealots. Lanham: Scarecrow Press.
Bartolucci, Valentina. 2010. “Analysing Elite Discourse on Terrorism and its Implications: The Case of Morocco.” Critical Studies on Terrorism 3 (1): 119—135.
Beck, Ulrick. 2002. “The Terrorist Threat, World Risk Society Revisited.” Theory Culture Society 19 (4): 39—55.
Blumenthal, Sidney. 2004. “Bush and Blair: The betrayal.” The Guardian, 14 November.
Brunn, Stanley D. 2003. “11 September and its Aftermath: Introduction.” Geopolitics 8 (3): 1—15.
Buch-Andersen, Thomas. 2009. “Islam a political target in Norway.” BBC News Oslo, 20 April.
Burke, Jason. 2003. Al-Qaeda: Casting a Shadow of Terror. London: I.B. Tauris.
Butt, David G., Annabelle Lukin, and Christian M. I. M. Matt. 2004. “Grammar — The First Covert Operation of War.” Discourse and Society 15 (2—3): 267—290.
Buzan, Barry. 2006. “Will the Global War on Terror be the New Cold War?” International Affairs 82 (6): 1101—1108.
Chang, Gordon C., and Hugh B. Mehan. 2008. “Why e must Attack Iraq: Bush’s Reasoning Practices and Argumentation System.” Discourse and Society 19 (4): 453—482.
Charteris-Black, Jonathan. 2005. Politicians and Rhetoric: The Persuasive Power of Metaphor. New York: Palgrave.
Cienki, Alan. 2004. “Bush’s and Gore’s Language and Gestures in the 2000 US Presidential Debates.” Journal of Language and Politics 3 (3): 409—440.
Coe, Kevin, David Domke, Erica S. Graham, Sue Lockett John, and Victor W. Richard. 2004. “No Shades of Gray: The Binary Discourse of George W. Bush and the Echoing Press.” Journal of Communication 541: 234—252.
Collins, John, and Ross Glover. 2002. Collateral Damage. New York: New York University Press.
Cox, Caroline, and John Marks. 2006. The West, Islam and Islamism: Is Ideological Islam Compatible with Liberal Democracy? London: Civitas.
Croft, Stuart. 2006. Culture, Crisis and America’s War on Terror. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dalby, Simon. 2003. “Calling 911: Geopolitics, Security and America’s New War.” Geopolitics 8 (3): 61—86.
Edwards, George C. 2003. On Deaf Ears: The Limits of the Bully Pulpit. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Erjavec, Karmen, and Zala Volcic. 2006. “Mapping the Notion of ‘Terrorism’ in Serbian and Croatian Newspapers.” Journal of Communication Inquiry 30 (4): 298—318.
Fairclough, Norman. 1992. Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.
. 2009. “Language, Reality and Power.” In English Language: Description, Variation and Context, ed. by Jonathan Culpeper, Francis Katamba, Paul Kerswill, Ruth Wodak, and Tony McEney, 512—522. New York: Palgrave.
Fekete, Liz. 2004. “Anti-Muslim Racism and the European Security State.” Race and Class 46 (1): 3—29.
Fowler, Roger. 1991. Language in the News: Discourse and Ideology in the Press. London: Routledge.
Gerges, Fawaz A. 2003. “Islam and Muslims in the Mind of America.” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 5881: 73—89.
Githens-Mazer, Jonathan, and Robert Lambert. 2010. Islamophobia and Anti-Muslim Hate Crime: A London Case-Study. European Muslim Research Centre. Exeter: University of Exeter.
Guittet, Emmanuel P. 2008. “Miscarriages of Justice and Exceptional Procedures in the ‘War against Terrorism’.” CEPS Special Report, September.
Gunn, Joshua. 2004. “The Rhetoric of Exorcism: George W. Bush and the Return of Political Demonology.” Western Journal of Communication 68 (1): 1—23.
Ivie, Robert L. 2007. “Fighting Terror by Rite of Redemption and Reconciliation.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs 10 (2): 221—248.
Kaplan, Amy. 2003. “Homeland Insecurities: Reflections on Language and Space.” Radical History Review 851 (Winter): 82—93.
Keen, David. 2006. Endless War? Hidden Functions of the ‘War on Terror’. London: Pluto Press.
Keenan, Jeremy. 2004. “Terror in the Sahara: The Implications of US Imperialism for North and West Africa.” Review of African Political Economy 1011: 475—496.
. 2006. “Security and Insecurity in North Africa.” Revue of African Political Economy 33 (108): 269—296.
Kellner, Douglass. 2002. “September 11, Social Theory and Democratic Politics.” Theory, Culture and Society 19 (4): 147—159.
Kleinfeld, Margo. 2003. “Strategic Trooping in Sri Lanka: September Eleventh and the Consolidation of Political Position.” Geopolitics 8 (3): 105—126.
Kurlantzick, Joshua. 2003. “China’s Dubious Role in the War on Terror.” Current History 102 (668): 432—460.
Jackson, Richard. 2007. “Constructing Enemies: ‘Islamic Terrorism’ in Political and Academic Discourse.” Government and Opposition 42 (3): 394—426.
Lakoff, George. 2004. Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate. White River Junction: Chealsea Green.
Lawrence, Julia. 2006. “Knocking on Europe’s Door: Islam in Italy.” The Brookings Institution 1—9.
Lazar, Annita, and Michelle M. Lazar. 2004. “The Discourse of the New Order: ‘Outstanding’ The Double Face of Threat.” Discourse Society 15 (2—3): 223—242.
Maggio, J. 2007. “The Presidential Rhetoric of Terror: The (Re)Creation of Reality Immediately after 9/11.” Politics & Policy 35 (4): 810—835.
Mamadouh, Virginie. 2003. “11 September and Popular Geopolitics: A Study of Websites Run for and by Dutch Moroccans.” Geopolitics 8 (3): 191—216.
Mayer, Jane. 2008. The Dark Side. New York: Doubleday.
McCarthy, Erin. 2002. “Justice.” In Collateral Language: A Guide to America’s New War, ed. by John Collins and Ross Glover, 125—137. New York: New York University Press.
Russell, John. 2005. “Terrorists, Bandits, Spooks and Thieves: Russian Demonisation of the Chechens Prior to and Since 9/11.” Third World Quarterly 26 (1): 101—116.
Stoddard, Eve W., and Grant H. Cornwell. 2002. “Unity.” In Collateral Language: A Guide to America’s New War, ed. by John Collins and Ross Glover, 175—190. New York: New York University Press.
Suskind, Ron. 2004. “Faith, Certainty and the Presidency of George W. Bush.” New York Times, 17 October.
Taylor, Stephanie. 2001. “Locating and Conducting Discourse Analytic Research.” In Discourse as Data: A Guide for Analysis, ed. by Wetherell Margaret, Taylor Stephanie, and Simeon J. Yates, 5—48. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
van Dijk, Teun A. 2001. “Discourse, Ideology and Context.” Folia Linguistica 30 (1—2): 11—40.
. 2005. “War Rhetoric of a Little Ally.” Journal of Language and Politics 4 (1): 65—91.
Weiss, Gilbert, and Ruth Wodak (eds). 2003. Critical Discourse Analysis. Theory and Interdisciplinarity. London: Palgrave.
Wodak, Ruth. 1996. Disorders of Discourse. London: Longman.
. 2009. “Language and Politics.” In English Language: Description, Variation and Context, ed. by Jonathan Culpeper, Francis Katamba, Paul Kerswill, Ruth Wodak, and Tony McEney, 576—593. New York: Palgrave.
Wodak, Ruth, Rudolf de Cillia, Martin Reisigl, and Karin Liebhart. 2009. The Discursive Construction of National Identity. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Wolf, Paul. 2003. “The Rhetoric of Terrorism.” University of Leeds Papers. Accessed June 12, 2011. http://ics01.ds.leeds.ac.uk/papers/pmt/exhibits/1843/rhetoricTerr.pdf.
Woods, Joshua. 2007. “What We Talk When We Talk about Terrorism: Elite Press Coverage of Terrorism Risk from 1997 to 2005.” International Journal of Press/Politics 12 (3): 3—20.
Zarefsky, David. 2004. “Presidential Rhetoric and the Power of Definition.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 34 (3): 607—619.
Zerubavel, Yael. 1993. “The Death of Memory and the Memory of Death: Masada and the Holocaust as Historical Metaphors.” Paper presented at the 43rd Annual International Communication Association Conference, Washington, May 27—31.
Cited by (19)
Cited by 19 other publications
Jacoby, Tim
2023. Islam, violence and the ‘four dogmas of Orientalism’. Race & Class 65:2 ► pp. 75 ff. 
Efeoğlu Özcan, Esranur
2022. Pull the weeds out or perish: Using pandemic metaphors to strengthen in-group solidarity in Turkish political discourse. Metaphor and Symbol 37:2 ► pp. 171 ff.
Mironova, Vera & Sam Whitt
2022. Due Process and Accountability Under Transitional Justice: Evidence from Mosul, Iraq. Journal of Conflict Resolution 66:9 ► pp. 1650 ff.
Mohnke, Margaux, Ursula Christmann, Yannick Roos & Chris Thomale
O'Brochta, William, Margit Tavits & Deniz Aksoy
2022. Western Political Rhetoric and Radicalization. British Journal of Political Science 52:1 ► pp. 437 ff.
Bartolucci, Valentina
2019. The Discourse on Terrorism of Donald Trump. In Reading Donald Trump, ► pp. 127 ff.
Bogain, Ariane
2019. Terrorism and the discursive construction of national identity in France. National Identities 21:3 ► pp. 241 ff.
Fisher, Daren G., Laura Dugan & Erica Chenoweth
2019. Does US presidential rhetoric affect asymmetric political violence?. Critical Studies on Terrorism 12:1 ► pp. 132 ff.
Thibodeau, Paul H., James Fleming & Maya Lannen
2019. Chapter 8. Variation in methods for studying political metaphor. In Variation in Political Metaphor [Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 85], ► pp. 177 ff.
Bulgakova, Yulia, Veronika Shabanova & Anastasiya Eliseeva
2018. The Language of Leadership: Analyzing Public Speeches of Presidents (Literature Review). In Leadership for the Future Sustainable Development of Business and Education [Springer Proceedings in Business and Economics, ], ► pp. 69 ff.
Rowley, Loretta, Kevin Coe & Robert Layne
2018. Discovering and Recovering Arguments About Terror. In Recovering Argument, ► pp. 206 ff.
Bartolucci, Valentina & Joshua Skoczylis
2017. The Practice of Counterterrorism in the United Kingdom and its Sociopolitical Effects. In The Palgrave Handbook of Global Counterterrorism Policy, ► pp. 337 ff.
Boeynaems, Amber, Christian Burgers, Elly A. Konijn & Gerard J. Steen
2017. The Effects of Metaphorical Framing on Political Persuasion: A Systematic Literature Review. Metaphor and Symbol 32:2 ► pp. 118 ff.
Busch, Peter
2017. The Changing Media. In The Palgrave Handbook of Security, Risk and Intelligence, ► pp. 429 ff.
Hampl, Marek
2017. ‘BENEFICIARY’ AS A MEANS FOR A DICHOTOMOUS REPRESENTATION IN POLITICAL DISCOURSE. Discourse and Interaction 10:1 ► pp. 31 ff.
Bartolucci, Valentina & Giorgio Gallo
2015. Terrorism, System Thinking and Critical Discourse Analysis. Systems Research and Behavioral Science 32:1 ► pp. 15 ff.
Oleinik, Anton
2015. The language of power: a content analysis of presidential addresses in North America and the Former Soviet Union, 1993–2012. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 2015:236
Rasmussen, Joel
2015. ‘Should each of us take over the role as watcher?’ Attitudes on Twitter towards the 2014 Norwegian terror alert. Journal of Multicultural Discourses 10:2 ► pp. 197 ff.
McKinnon, Sara
2013. Text‐Based Approaches to Qualitative Research. In The International Encyclopedia of Media Studies, ► pp. 319 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.