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Journal of Language and Politics
Vol. 16:2 (2017) ► pp.176–194

Democratic peace as global errand

America’s post-Cold War foreign policy jeremiad

ORCID logo | Kent State University
Focusing on the foreign policy discourse of George H. W. Bush and William Clinton, I examine the role the American jeremiad played in conceptualizing the geopolitical change initiated by the ending of the Cold War. I identify “extending the democratic peace” as the nation’s post-Cold War “errand” and argue that this global mission represented the contemporary “re-dedication” of American policy to the nation’s “divine cause.” I demonstrate that a key issue facing the nation was whether the U.S. would reap the benefits of its Cold War victory by extending its political-economic system globally or whether it would turn inward and, thereby, give rein of the future to the forces of “anarchy” and chaos.” As with earlier renditions of the jeremiad, the post-Cold War variant turned this liminal moment into a “mode of socialization” (Bercovitch 2012, 25) by deploying the concept of democratic peace to legitimate an interventionist foreign policy.
Keywords: American jeremiad, democratic peace, foreign policy discourse, George H. W. Bush, post-Cold War era, William Clinton
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Analytic Framework
  • 3.The Post-Cold War Jeremiad
    • 3.1The errand continues: Democratic peace as global mission
    • 3.2Liminality and the new frontier
    • 3.3Threat as promise: Revitalizing the errand
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Speeches analyzed
  • References


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Published online: 21 March 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jlp.16004.dun
References (63)
Speeches analyzed
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May 31, 1989. Remarks to the citizens in Mainz, Federal Republic of Germany. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL]
January 31, 1990. Address before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL]
August 2, 1990. Remarks at the Aspen Institute Symposium in Aspen, Colorado. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
October 1, 1990. Address Before the 45th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, New York. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
January 9, 1991. Open letter to college students on the Persian Gulf Crisis. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
January 29, 1991. Address before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
January 28, 1992. Address before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
April 9, 1992. Remarks to the American Society of Newspaper Editors. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
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February 17, 1993. Address before a Joint Session of Congress on Administration Goals. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
September 27, 1993. Remarks to the 48th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
October 10, 1994. Address to the nation on Iraq. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL]
January 24, 1995. Address before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
November 27, 1995. Address to the nation on implementation of the peace agreement in Bosnia-Herzegovia. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL]
August 5, 1996. Remarks on international security issues at George Washington University. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL]
October 22, 1996. Remarks to the community in Detroit. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
January 20, 1997. Inaugural Address. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
February 4, 1997. Address before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
January 29, 1998. Remarks at the National Defense University. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
December 16, 1998. Address to the Nation Announcing Military Strikes on Iraq. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
February 26, 1999. Remarks on United States foreign policy in San Francisco. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
January 27, 2000. Address before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project. [URL].
Lake, Anthony September 21, 1993. From Containment to Enlargement. Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies Washington, D.C. Online: [URL].
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Dunmire, Patricia L.
2019. ‘America’s most precious resource’: The future in American national identity and foreign policy. Futures 112 ► pp. 102435 ff. DOI logo

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