Commanding the post-Cold War world: President Clinton's rhetoric as Commander in Chief, 1993 to 1995

President Bill Clinton became the first president to lead the country after the transition to the post-Cold War world. This study examined Clinton's war rhetoric from 1993 to 1995 as it pertained to military involvement in Iraq, Somalia and Haiti. This study further examined the grounds of argument used by Clinton in justifying the military actions he had ordered. Using Burke's concepts of perspective, motivation, and scene-purpose ratios, the study examined Clinton's war rhetoric to reveal his perspective on the use of military in the conduct of foreign policy in the post-Cold War world. The study argues that Clinton's perspective favored principled intervention as the alternative to unchecked intervention or isolationism. Clinton's rhetoric also indicated that the primary goal of post-Cold War foreign policy is democracy promotion. Finally, Clinton's war rhetoric indicated that the justifications for action were grounded in the situation itself and how the elements of the situation constituted a threat to democracy in the world. This study concludes that Clinton's reliance on democracy promotion as the underlying ideal of post-Cold War foreign policy is an attempt to capture the accepted grounds of argument used during the Cold War and refashion them to fit the new context of international relations.