Presidential Power Rhetoric And The Terror Wars

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Presidential Power, Rhetoric, and the Terror Wars

Author : Alexander Hiland
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN 13 : 1498598269
Total Pages : 255 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (985 download)

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Book Synopsis Presidential Power, Rhetoric, and the Terror Wars by : Alexander Hiland

Download or read book Presidential Power, Rhetoric, and the Terror Wars written by Alexander Hiland and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2019-10-21 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presidential Power, Rhetoric, and the Terror Wars: The Sovereign Presidency argues that the War on Terror provided an opportunity to fundamentally change the presidency. Alexander Hiland analyzes the documents used to exercise presidential powers, including executive orders, signing statements, and presidential policy directives. Treating these documents as genres of speech-act that are ideologically motivated, Hiland provides a rhetorical criticism that illuminates the values and political convictions at play in these documents. This book reveals how both President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama wielded the personal power of the office to dramatically expand the power of the executive branch. During the War on Terror, the presidency shifted from an imperial form that avoided checks and balances, to a sovereign presidency where the executive branch had the ability to decide whether those checks and balances existed. As a result, Hiland argues that this shift to the sovereign presidency enabled the violation of human rights, myriad policy mistakes, and the degradation of democracy within the United States.

Selling War, Selling Hope

Author : Anthony R. DiMaggio
Publisher : SUNY Press
ISBN 13 : 1438457952
Total Pages : 433 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (384 download)

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Book Synopsis Selling War, Selling Hope by : Anthony R. DiMaggio

Download or read book Selling War, Selling Hope written by Anthony R. DiMaggio and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2015-09-21 with total page 433 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Details how presidents utilize mass media to justify foreign policy objectives in the aftermath of 9/11. Modern presidents have considerable power in selling U.S. foreign policy objectives to the public. In Selling War, Selling Hope, Anthony R. DiMaggio documents how presidents often make use of the media to create a positive informational environment that, at least in the short term, successfully builds public support for policy proposals. Using timely case studies with a focus on the Arab Spring and the U.S. War on Terror in the Middle East and surrounding regions, DiMaggio explains how official spin is employed to construct narratives that are sympathetic to U.S. officialdom. The mass media, rather than exhibiting independence when it comes to reporting foreign policy issues, is regularly utilized as a political tool for selling official proposals. The marginalization of alternative, critical viewpoints poses a significant obstacle to informed public deliberations on foreign policy issues. In the long run, however, the packaging of official narrative and its delivery by the media begins to unravel as citizens are able to make use of alternative sources of information and assert their independence from official viewpoints. Selling War, Selling Hope is an innovative project that pushes the fields of political science, political communication, public opinion, and presidential rhetoric into new and exciting directions. This book is essential reading. Mark Major, author of The Unilateral Presidency and the News Media: The Politics of Framing Executive Power This eye-opening exposition offers a radical new conclusion to the debate over why Americans oppose wars: Americans oppose particular wars for moral reasons. By capturing the wide range of presidential rhetoric from fear to hope, DiMaggio documents the depths plumbed by political and other elites to manipulate the American public to support the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In order to counteract American citizens moral opposition to war, political elites manipulate citizens fears into support for war by giving them hope, but the policies they choose, more often than not, lead to more war and reason for fear which creates a vicious cycle: fearhopewar. The challenge we face is to break through the noise and the manipulation of political, economic, and military elites. DiMaggio offers us a way to see clearly. Amentahru Wahlrab, University of Texas at Tyler

Presidential Rhetoric on Terrorism under Bush, Obama and Trump

Author : Gabriel Rubin
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030301672
Total Pages : 151 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (33 download)

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Book Synopsis Presidential Rhetoric on Terrorism under Bush, Obama and Trump by : Gabriel Rubin

Download or read book Presidential Rhetoric on Terrorism under Bush, Obama and Trump written by Gabriel Rubin and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-03-21 with total page 151 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through the analysis of eighteen years of presidential data, this book shows how Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump have conducted and framed the war on terror since its inception in 2001. Examining all presidential speeches about terrorism from George W. Bush’s two terms as President, Barack Obama’s two terms as President, and Donald Trump’s first year as President, this book is the first to compare the three post-9/11 presidents in how they have dealt with the terror threat. Presidential Rhetoric on Terrorism under Bush, Obama, and Trump argues that when policies need to be “sold” to the public and Congress, presidents make their pertinent issues seem urgent through frequent speech-making and threat inflation. It further illustrates how after policies are sold, a new President’s reticence may signify quiet acceptance of the old regime’s approach. After examining the conduct of the war on terror to date, it concludes by posing policy suggestions for the future.

Imagining the Enemy

Author : Jason C. Flanagan
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781930053601
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (536 download)

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Book Synopsis Imagining the Enemy by : Jason C. Flanagan

Download or read book Imagining the Enemy written by Jason C. Flanagan and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The American public has an appetite for presidential leadership, and is often critical of presidents who are slow to offer such leadership. Moreover, the leadership they expect is not merely the fulfillment of the president's constitutional role, but also a form of popular rhetorical leadership. The American public does not make comparable demands for leadership of any other public official, thus giving the president tremendous power to shape social and political reality. This power is even greater in times of international crisis or war, when a number of factors combine to augment the power of presidential rhetoric and thus ensure that such rhetoric defines American political reality. Presidential definitions of the enemy become, at least initially, how the enemy actually "is" for the American people." "Given the central role of enemy images in the development, evolution and resolution of international conflicts, understanding presidential images of the enemy is vital to understanding international relations and American foreign policy. This study examines the genesis and evolution of enemy images in the presidential rhetoric that defined the conflicts which have in turn shaped the modern world, including World War I, World War II, the early Cold War, the Vietnam War, the first Gulf War, the so-called Global War on Terrorism and the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It explores the rhetorical continuities that cut across these very different conflicts and presidencies, and the interconnections between presidential images of the enemy and prevailing images of the American self." --Book Jacket.

Resowing the Seeds of War

Author : Stephen J. Heidt
Publisher : MSU Press
ISBN 13 : 1628954183
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (289 download)

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Book Synopsis Resowing the Seeds of War by : Stephen J. Heidt

Download or read book Resowing the Seeds of War written by Stephen J. Heidt and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 2021-03-01 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ending a war, as Fred Charles Iklé wrote, poses a much greater challenge than beginning one. In addition to issues related to battle tactics, prisoners of war, diplomatic relations, and cease-fire negotiations, ending war involves domestic political calculations. Balancing the tides of public opinion versus policy needs poses a deep and enduring problem for presidents. In a first-of-its-kind study, Resowing the Seeds of War explains how Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Nixon, and Obama managed the political, policy, and bureaucratic challenges that arise at the end of war via a series of rhetorical choices that reframe, modify, or unravel depictions of national enemies, the cause of the conflict, and the stakes for the nation and world. This end-of-war rhetoric justifies ending hostilities, rationalizes postwar national policy, argues for the construction of postwar security arrangements, and often sustains public support for massive financial investment in reconstruction. By tracking presidential manipulations of savage imagery from World War II to the War on Terror, this book concludes that even as metaphoric reframing facilitates exit from conflict, it incurs unexpected consequences that make national involvement in the next conflict more likely.

American Presidential Power and the War on Terror: Does the Constitution Matter?

Author : Justin DePlato
Publisher : Springer
ISBN 13 : 1137539623
Total Pages : 107 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (375 download)

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Book Synopsis American Presidential Power and the War on Terror: Does the Constitution Matter? by : Justin DePlato

Download or read book American Presidential Power and the War on Terror: Does the Constitution Matter? written by Justin DePlato and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-09-01 with total page 107 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the use of presidential power during the War on Terror. Justin DePlato joins the debate on whether the Constitution matters in determining how each branch of the federal government should use its power to combat the War on Terror. The actions and words of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama are examined. DePlato's findings support the theory that executives use their own prerogative in determining what emergency powers are and how to use them. According to DePlato, the Presidents argue that their powers are implied in Article II of the Constitution, not expressed. This conclusion renders the Constitution meaningless in times of crisis. The author reveals that Presidents are becoming increasingly cavalier and that the nation should consider adopting an amendment to the Constitution to proffer expressed executive emergency powers.

Unchecked and Unbalanced

Author : Frederick August Otto Schwarz
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (91 download)

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Book Synopsis Unchecked and Unbalanced by : Frederick August Otto Schwarz

Download or read book Unchecked and Unbalanced written by Frederick August Otto Schwarz and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A scathing portrait of contemporary executive power run amok, by the author of the original 1976 Church Committee report on executive abuse.

Power Without Constraint

Author : Chris Edelson
Publisher : University of Wisconsin Pres
ISBN 13 : 0299307409
Total Pages : 250 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (993 download)

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Book Synopsis Power Without Constraint by : Chris Edelson

Download or read book Power Without Constraint written by Chris Edelson and published by University of Wisconsin Pres. This book was released on 2016-05-11 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite rhetorical differences, the administrations of George W. Bush and Barack Obama have both claimed broadly unrestrained presidential power in matters of military force, surveillance, and the state secrets privilege.

Rush to Judgment

Author : Stephen F. Knott
Publisher : University Press of Kansas
ISBN 13 : 0700620222
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (6 download)

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Book Synopsis Rush to Judgment by : Stephen F. Knott

Download or read book Rush to Judgment written by Stephen F. Knott and published by University Press of Kansas. This book was released on 2014-08-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: George W. Bush has been branded the worst president in history and forced to endure accusations that he abused his power while presiding over a "lawless" administration. Stephen Knott, however, contends that Bush has been treated unfairly, especially by presidential historians and the media. He argues that from the beginning scholars abandoned any pretense at objectivity in their critiques and seemed unwilling to place Bush's actions into a broader historical context. In this provocative book, Knott offers a measured critique of the professoriate for its misuse of scholarship for partisan political purposes, a defense of the Hamiltonian perspective on the extent and use of executive power, and a rehabilitation of Bush's reputation from a national security viewpoint. He argues that Bush's conduct as chief executive was rooted in a tradition extending as far back as George Washington-not an "imperial presidency" but rather an activist one that energetically executed its constitutional prerogatives. Given that one of the main indictments of Bush focuses on his alleged abuse of presidential war power, Knott takes on academic critics like Sean Wilentz and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. and journalists like Charlie Savage to argue instead that Bush conducted the War on Terror in a manner faithful to the Framers' intent-that in situations involving national security he rightly assumed powers that neither Congress nor the courts can properly restrain. Knott further challenges Bush's detractors for having applied a relatively recent, revisionist understanding of the Constitution in arguing that Bush's actions were out of bounds. Ultimately, Knott makes a worthy case that, while Bush was not necessarily a great president, his national security policies were in keeping with the practices of America's most revered presidents and, for that reason alone, he deserves a second look by those who have condemned him to the ash heap of history. All readers interested in the presidency and in American history writ large will find Rush to Judgment a deftly argued, perhaps deeply unsettling, yet balanced account of the Bush presidency-and a clarion call for a reexamination of how scholars determine presidential greatness and failure.

Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency After 9/11

Author : Jack Goldsmith
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 0393083519
Total Pages : 337 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (93 download)

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Book Synopsis Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency After 9/11 by : Jack Goldsmith

Download or read book Power and Constraint: The Accountable Presidency After 9/11 written by Jack Goldsmith and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2012-03-12 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The surprising truth behind Barack Obama's decision to continue many of his predecessor's counterterrorism policies. Conventional wisdom holds that 9/11 sounded the death knell for presidential accountability. In fact, the opposite is true. The novel powers that our post-9/11 commanders in chief assumed—endless detentions, military commissions, state secrets, broad surveillance, and more—are the culmination of a two-century expansion of presidential authority. But these new powers have been met with thousands of barely visible legal and political constraints—enforced by congressional committees, government lawyers, courts, and the media—that have transformed our unprecedentedly powerful presidency into one that is also unprecedentedly accountable. These constraints are the key to understanding why Obama continued the Bush counterterrorism program, and in this light, the events of the last decade should be seen as a victory, not a failure, of American constitutional government. We have actually preserved the framers’ original idea of a balanced constitution, despite the vast increase in presidential power made necessary by this age of permanent emergency.

Navigating the Post-Cold War World

Author : Jason A. Edwards
Publisher : Lexington Books
ISBN 13 : 0739131311
Total Pages : 221 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (391 download)

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Book Synopsis Navigating the Post-Cold War World by : Jason A. Edwards

Download or read book Navigating the Post-Cold War World written by Jason A. Edwards and published by Lexington Books. This book was released on 2008-12-16 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Jason A. Edwards explores the various rhetorical choices and strategies employed by former President Bill Clinton to discuss foreign policy issues in a new, post-Cold War era. Edwards argues that each American president has situated himself within the same foreign policy paradigm, drawing upon the same set of ideas and utilizing the same basic vernacular to discuss foreign policy. He describes how former presidents-and President Clinton, in particular-made modifications to this paradigm, leaving a rhetorical signature that tells us as much about the nature of their presidency as it does about the international environment they faced. With the end of the Cold War came the end of a relatively stable international order. This end sparked intense debates about the new direction of American foreign policy. As Bill Clinton took office, he developed a new lexicon of words in order to discuss America's changing role in the world and other major international issues of the time without being able to fall into Cold War-era rhetoric. By examining the nuances and unique contributions President Clinton made to American foreign policy rhetoric, Edwards shows how his distinct rhetorical signature will influence future administrations.

Presidential Power Meets the Art of the Deal

Author : Todd M. Schaefer
Publisher : Springer Nature
ISBN 13 : 3030560295
Total Pages : 148 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (35 download)

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Book Synopsis Presidential Power Meets the Art of the Deal by : Todd M. Schaefer

Download or read book Presidential Power Meets the Art of the Deal written by Todd M. Schaefer and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-12-10 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work attempts to understand the chaotic and enigmatic presidency of Donald Trump through Neustadt’s iconic work on presidential power and bargaining. Neustadt’s model explains much of Trump’s difficulties in office, but not his relative success. It argues he defies expectation due to new political realities such as party polarization, a transformed media, and the administrative presidency.

Can It Happen Here?

Author : Cass R. Sunstein
Publisher : HarperCollins
ISBN 13 : 0062696211
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (626 download)

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Book Synopsis Can It Happen Here? by : Cass R. Sunstein

Download or read book Can It Happen Here? written by Cass R. Sunstein and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2018-03-06 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “What makes Trump immune is that he is not a president within the context of a healthy Republican government. He is a cult leader of a movement that has taken over a political party – and he specifically campaigned on a platform of one-man rule. This fact permeates “Can It Happen Here? . . . which concludes, if you read between the lines, that “it” already has.” – New York Times Book Review From New York Times bestselling author Cass R. Sunstein, a compelling collection of essays by the brightest minds in America on authoritarianism. With the election of Donald J. Trump, many people on both the left and right feared that America’s 240-year-old grand experiment in democracy was coming to an end, and that Sinclair Lewis’ satirical novel, It Can’t Happen Here, written during the dark days of the 1930s, could finally be coming true. Is the democratic freedom that the United States symbolizes really secure? Can authoritarianism happen in America? Acclaimed legal scholar, Harvard Professor, and New York Times bestselling author Cass R. Sunstein queried a number of the nation’s leading thinkers. In this thought-provoking collection of essays, these distinguished thinkers and theorists explore the lessons of history, how democracies crumble, how propaganda works, and the role of the media, courts, elections, and "fake news" in the modern political landscape—and what the future of the United States may hold. Contributors include: Martha Minow, dean of Harvard Law School Eric Posner, law professor at the University of Chicago Law School Tyler Cowen, economics professor at George Mason University Timur Kuran, economics and political science professor at Duke University Noah Feldman, professor of law at Harvard Law School Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University’s Stern School of Business Jack Goldsmith, Professor at Harvard Law School, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and co-founder of Lawfare Stephen Holmes, Professor of Law at New York University Jon Elster, Professor of the Social Sciences at Columbia University Thomas Ginsburg, Professor of International Law and Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Cass R. Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor, Harvard University Duncan Watts, sociologist and principal researcher at Microsoft Research Geoffrey R. Stone, University of Chicago Law school professor and noted First Amendment scholar

Reign of Terror

Author : Spencer Ackerman
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1984879790
Total Pages : 449 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (848 download)

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Book Synopsis Reign of Terror by : Spencer Ackerman

Download or read book Reign of Terror written by Spencer Ackerman and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-08-09 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Critics’ Top Book of 2021 "An impressive combination of diligence and verve, deploying Ackerman’s deep stores of knowledge as a national security journalist to full effect. The result is a narrative of the last 20 years that is upsetting, discerning and brilliantly argued." —The New York Times "One of the most illuminating books to come out of the Trump era." —New York Magazine An examination of the profound impact that the War on Terror had in pushing American politics and society in an authoritarian direction For an entire generation, at home and abroad, the United States has waged an endless conflict known as the War on Terror. In addition to multiple ground wars, the era pioneered drone strikes and industrial-scale digital surveillance; weakened the rule of law through indefinite detentions; sanctioned torture; and manipulated the truth about it all. These conflicts have yielded neither peace nor victory, but they have transformed America. What began as the persecution of Muslims and immigrants has become a normalized feature of American politics and national security, expanding the possibilities for applying similar or worse measures against other targets at home, as the summer of 2020 showed. A politically divided and economically destabilized country turned the War on Terror into a cultural—and then a tribal—struggle. It began on the ideological frontiers of the Republican Party before expanding to conquer the GOP, often with the acquiescence of the Democratic Party. Today’s nativist resurgence walked through a door opened by the 9/11 era. And that door remains open. Reign of Terror shows how these developments created an opportunity for American authoritarianism and gave rise to Donald Trump. It shows that Barack Obama squandered an opportunity to dismantle the War on Terror after killing Osama bin Laden. By the end of his tenure, the war had metastasized into a bitter, broader cultural struggle in search of a demagogue like Trump to lead it. Reign of Terror is a pathbreaking and definitive union of journalism and intellectual history with the power to transform how America understands its national security policies and their catastrophic impact on civic life.

Kill or Capture

Author : Daniel Klaidman
Publisher : HMH
ISBN 13 : 0547547781
Total Pages : 309 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (475 download)

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Book Synopsis Kill or Capture by : Daniel Klaidman

Download or read book Kill or Capture written by Daniel Klaidman and published by HMH. This book was released on 2012-06-05 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Divulge[s] the details of top-level deliberations—details that were almost certainly known only to the administration’s inner circle” (The Wall Street Journal). When he was elected in 2008, Barack Obama had vowed to close Guantánamo, put an end to coercive interrogation and military tribunals, and restore American principles of justice. Yet by the end of his first term he had backtracked on each of these promises, ramping up the secret war of drone strikes and covert operations. Behind the scenes, wrenching debates between hawks and doves—those who would kill versus those who would capture—repeatedly tested the very core of the president’s identity, leading many to wonder whether he was at heart an idealist or a ruthless pragmatist. Digging deep into this period of recent history, investigative reporter Daniel Klaidman spoke to dozens of sources to piece together a riveting Washington story packed with revelations. As the president’s inner circle debated secret programs, new legal frontiers, and the disjuncture between principles and down-and-dirty politics, Obama vacillated, sometimes lashed out, and spoke in lofty tones while approving a mounting toll of assassinations and kinetic-war operations. Klaidman’s fly-on-the-wall reporting reveals who had his ear, how key national security decisions are really made, and whether or not President Obama lived up to the promise of candidate Obama. “Fascinating . . . Lays bare the human dimension of the wrenching national security decisions that have to be made.” —Tina Brown, NPR “An important book.” —Steve Coll, The New Yorker

Power, Discourse and Victimage Ritual in the War on Terror

Author : Professor Michael Blain
Publisher : Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
ISBN 13 : 1409461505
Total Pages : 266 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (94 download)

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Book Synopsis Power, Discourse and Victimage Ritual in the War on Terror by : Professor Michael Blain

Download or read book Power, Discourse and Victimage Ritual in the War on Terror written by Professor Michael Blain and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blending concepts from 'dramatism' such as 'victimage ritual' with Foucault's approach to modern power and knowledge regimes, this book presents a novel and illuminating perspective on political power and domination resulting from the global war on terrorism. With attention to media sources and political discourse within the context of the global war on terror, the author draws attention to the manner in which power elites construct scapegoats by way of a victimage ritual, thus providing themselves with a political pretext for extending their power and authority over new territories and populations, as well as legitimating an intensification of domestic surveillance and social control. A compelling analysis of ritual rhetoric and political violence, Power, Discourse and Victimage Ritual in the War on Terror will be of interest to sociologists, political theorists and scholars of media and communication concerned with questions of surveillance and social control, political communication, hegemony, foreign policy and the war on terror.

War Powers

Author : Peter Irons
Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 9780805080179
Total Pages : 328 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (81 download)

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Book Synopsis War Powers by : Peter Irons

Download or read book War Powers written by Peter Irons and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2006-05-02 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines a fundamental question in the development of the American empire: What constraints does the Constitution place on our territorial expansion, military intervention, occupation of foreign countries, and on the power the president may exercise over American foreign policy? Worried about the dangers of unchecked executive power, the Founding Fathers deliberately assigned Congress the sole authority to make war. But the last time Congress declared war was on December 8, 1941, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Since then, every president from Harry Truman to George W. Bush has used military force in pursuit of imperial objectives, while Congress and the Supreme Court have virtually abdicated their responsibilities to check presidential power. Legal historian Irons recounts this story of subversion from above, tracing presidents' increasing willingness to ignore congressional authority and even suspend civil liberties.--From publisher description.