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A call to arms : hero-villain narratives in US security discourse
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Homolar, Alexandra (2022) A call to arms : hero-villain narratives in US security discourse. Security Dialogue, 53 (4). pp. 324-341. doi:10.1177/09670106211005897 ISSN 0967-0106.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1177/09670106211005897
Abstract
The rhetoric leaders use to speak to domestic audiences about security is not simply bluster. Political agents rely upon stories of enmity and threat to represent what is happening in the international arena, to whom and why, in order to push national and international security policy agendas. They do so for the simple reason that a good story is a powerful political device. This article examines historical ‘calls to arms’ in the United States, based on insights from archival research at US presidential libraries and the United States National Archives. Drawing on narrative theory and political psychology, the article develops a new analytic framework to explain the political currency and staying power of hero–villain security narratives, which divide the world into opposing spheres of ‘good’ and ‘evil’. Shifting the conceptual focus away from speakers and settings towards audience and affect, it argues that the resonance of hero–villain security narratives lies in the way their plot structure keeps the audience in suspense. Because they are consequential rhetorical tools that shape security policy practices, the stories political agents tell about security demand greater attention in the broader field of international security studies.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | E History America > E151 United States (General) J Political Science > JZ International relations P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Security, International -- United States, Narration (Rhetoric) -- Political aspects, National security -- United States, United States -- Foreign relations, Discourse analysis, Narrative -- United States | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Security Dialogue | ||||||||
Publisher: | Sage Publications Ltd. | ||||||||
ISSN: | 0967-0106 | ||||||||
Official Date: | August 2022 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 53 | ||||||||
Number: | 4 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 324-341 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1177/09670106211005897 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 22 February 2021 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 23 February 2021 | ||||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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