Winds of War: Epistemic and effective control in political discourse on war

This paper explores two key domains of speaker’s stance in discourse: epistemic and effective stance (Marín-Arrese 2011, 2015, 2021). The framework draws on Langacker’s (2009, 2013) distinction between the effective and the epistemic level in the grammar, and the systematic opposition thereof between striving for control of relations at the level of reality and control of conceptions of reality. Epistemic strategies pertain to the epistemic legitimisation of assertions, by providing epistemic support and epistemic justification for the proposition (Boye 2012). Effective control is aimed at the legitimisation of actions and plans of action. The joint deployment of epistemic and effective stance acts effects a strategy of combined control over hearers/readers’ acceptance of conceptions of reality and of plans of action. This paper studies the strategic use of these resources in the discourse of war and presents a case study on their use by two politicians, President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, in political speeches and statements during the build-up to the second Iraq war. Results indicate significant qualitative and quantitative differences in the preferred stance strategies in the discourse of the two politicians.

El rol de los jueces en relación con los derechos económicos y sociales

Los jueces son hoy actores políticos importantísimos. Esto es efectivo tanto en Chile como en el mundo entero. El Brexit, por ejemplo, fue publicitado, entre otras cosas, como una forma de librarse de una buena vez del enorme poder de la Corte Europea de Justicia, la cual supuestamente tenía a los Británicos subyugados de modo que debían, en palabras de Theresa May, “retomar el control”. En los EEUU, las recientes elecciones tenían a todos pendientes de lo que harían los tribunales, recordando que el año 2000, cuando compitió George Bush contra Al Gore, fue la Corte Suprema la que finalmente decidió quien ocuparía el sillón presidencial estadounidense. En este trabajo entregaremos algunas nociones básicas sobre el rol político que cumplen hoy los jueces, y en especial en relación con los DESC. Podemos adelantar que en el tema existen defensores y detractores, todos con fuertes argumentos. Dividiremos el ensayo en tres partes distintas. Una primera de introducción al tema, donde fijaremos algunos conceptos básicos. La segunda, en que analizaremos los argumentos de quienes defienden y quienes condenan la actividad del juez en relación con los DESC. En la tercera parte veremos algunos ejemplos sacados de la realidad chilena que ilustran lo planteado en las secciones uno y dos del presente trabajo.

The Role of AFRICOM in Solving Security Problems on the African Continent (2001-2020)

The article analyzes the US’s security relations with Africa, including the “war on terror”, as well as the role of the US African Military Command (AFRICOM) in resolving regional conflicts. After the end of the Cold War and a failed mission in Somalia, the United States ended major military operations in Africa. However, in the past few years, the strategic interests of the United States in the region have increased due to the threats of the activities of international terrorist groups. The article reveals the goals of Presidents George Bush, Jr., Barack Obama, and Donald Trump in relation to Africa in the context of regional security challenges and the main results of US foreign policy under three administrations.

Transformation of the U. S. National Strategy for Counterterrorism during the presidency of Barack Obama

Tracing the evolution of Barack Obama's National Strategy for Counterterrorism is relevant for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, foreign policy and globalist trends were the reason for coming to power of the next president-isolationist Donald Trump. Secondly, many experts believe that the current administration of the White House pursues a successive foreign policy course namely in relation to the concept of B. Obama. And ultimately, consideration of the factors that affect the transformation of foreign policy strategy, and its counterterrorism component in particular, may contribute to forecasting similar processes under other administrations. The conclusion is made that Barack Obama preferred multilateral cooperation over unilateral coercive course; and the vector towards harmonization of relations with the Muslim world triggered the revision of the “struggle against terrorism” paradigm of George Bush Jr. B. Obama’s administration declared the transition from the concept of preventive strikes towards the concept of “smart power” and “leading from behind”, which manifested in the course of anti-terrorist operation in Syria. The author notes that the activity of Barack Obama in countering international terrorism is characterized by the departure from the tactics of conducting large-scale and costly wars of George Bush Jr. to joint targeted counterterrorism operations.

Dehumanizing to Demonizing: Critical Discourse Analysis of George Bush’s Speeches for Exploring the Influence of Dehumanizing Metaphor in Political Discourse

To legitimize US invasion of Iraq, Bush fabricated fake intelligence reports, and depended solely on propaganda; he manipulated language in a well-calculated manner; most particularly, the metaphors chosen and devised for his speeches were such that convinced the US citizens about the legitimacy of the invasion, elicited financial support of the European allies and moral support of the majority of the world community. This research work used discourse analysis to study the metaphors that were used by George Bush in the speeches he made on 8 different occasions, and the theoretical framework used in it is the combination of critical discourse analysis CDA with postcolonial theory concept of orientalism.It utilized both qualitative and quantitative data collection tools.It found that most of the task was accomplished through the linguistic manipulation in the shape of metaphor used to dehumanize the enemy, which first made the US citizens feel as victims to the jealousy of rogue Muslim states for intending to completely annihilate them; then, it made appeal to their sense of justice, sense of security, and right to self-defense. By grouping the world citizens into Us and Them groups, the innocent, peace-loving and the war-mongers, the angels and the devils, and then by placing themselves and the rest of the world among the first group and placing the powerfulMuslims states among the second group, the US exploited the feelings and thoughts of all. Despite the UN and the rest of the world having come to know the sheer lies of the US now, the US still has managed to flog a dead horse and blind-fold majority of the world through this linguistic manipulation in the form of using dehumanizing metaphors

Epilogue

The epilogue discusses the enormous power of recent presidential administrations to mold sex education through federal funding initiatives. Since 1996, the country has seen the pendulum in full swing, from the increase in abstinence-only support under President George Bush, to advancement of comprehensive sexuality education under President Barack Obama, to serious efforts to shift funds toward abstinence-only programs under current President Donald Trump. The legacies of religious sex educators established select terms of these discussions, especially in portrayals of what is at stake. Throughout this history, religious people have proven that the concept of morality could be used to expand discourses of sexuality beyond physical considerations, to limit these discussions to the restriction of sexual activity, or, in most cases, both. Contrary to narratives that pit secular sex education against religious actors, religious influence has been and continues to be both multidimensional and pervasive in the development of sex education.

THE EVOLUTION OF THE US STRATEGY TOWARD THE NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION AFTER THE COLD WAR

The article analyzes the US strategy in the nonproliferation field during three decades (in 1990s – 2018) and during the presidency of four US presidents (Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump). The author considers the key guidelines of US nonproliferation strategy that are described in four Nuclear Posture Reviews (NPR) issued by each post-Cold War presidential administration. These documents describe the US nuclear policy in general, but the author focused on analysis of those their sections that were devoted to dealing with the risks of proliferation of nuclear weapons. The National Security Strategies of 1996 and 2002 were also analyzed in the article to clarify the nonproliferation aspects of US strategy that were not explained well in the published excerpts of the first two Nuclear Posture Reviews of presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush. As George Bush faced with the new challenges that required developing updated nonproliferation strategy like he terroristic acts on 11 September 2001, war in Iraq - the nonproliferation policy had to change too and focus more on preventing the terrorists from acquiring the nuclear bomb and nuclear materials. The last two NPRs of 2010 and 2018 were published fully and considered in the article as the primary source for understanding the nonproliferation policy of presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. All four post-Cold War presidential administrations faced with the new proliferation challenges, and the author examines how these new challenges were described in the US strategic documents and how the US nonproliferation strategy evolves. In addition, the article studies the practical implementation of the proclaimed nonproliferation strategies of four presidents and compares the efficiency of this implementation by each presidential administration. The author also assesses the consequences of realizing the US nonproliferation strategy for the international security and its influence of the future development of the global nonproliferation regime.