Security Discourse And America's Image:A Cultural-Rhetorical Approach To Trump's National Security Strategy

The national image is an essential part of a nation's soft power.It is the basic impression and comprehensive perception of a nation by the international community.The construction and communication of national image are closely related to discourse,as it is an essential carrier of action and policy.The pursuit of power,wealth or other goals of a state need to be expressed,conveyed and understood through language.According to Cultural Discourse Studies,discourse refers to a social event in which people use linguistic or other symbols to communicate in specific cultural and historical contexts.National Security Strategy is the result of a specific American cultural background.The establishment,implement,reform and the corresponding effect of the document can be regarded as a process of a discursive event.As one of the most important unclassified documents,it not only has a great impact on the American government's international security,military affairs,and foreign policy making but also plays an important role in shaping America's image.Taking Cultural Discourse Studies as the core theory,this thesis focuses on American security policy and understands the Trump administration's National Security Strategy as a communicative activity.In this communicative activity,America interacts and competes with the world,its allies and enemies.As an essential part of the discourse,“rhetoric” is understood as a kind of discursive strategy for particular communicative purposes.It is not only an effective means used in language but an important tool to solve social problems.The thesis begins a discussion of how the American image is constructed through national security discourse.It aims to discover the characteristics and cultural connotations of American security discourse that the national image is shaped and to reveal the influence of discourse on the construction of the American image.Through an in-depth analysis of discursive agents,contents,channels of communication and relevant cultural and historical relations of discourse,the thesis finds that the discursive agents mainly consist of the President,the President's national security advisor and the National Security Council(NSC),all of which cooperate in an interagency process.The communicative channels of American national discourse are diversified and dynamic,communicating and transmitting the information through multi-media and multi-platforms.In terms of the discursive content,it demonstrates that America intends to unfold an image of a “world model” in three aspects: a global leader,an upholder of world peace and an advocate of international justice.In addition,American traditional values such as American exceptionalism,American ideas of the mission,the ideas of promoting liberty and democracy provide strong support for the construction of American national image.