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Foreign Policy Rhetoric For The Post-Cold War World: Bill Clinton And America's Foreign Policy Vocabulary, Jason Allen Edwards

Communication Dissertations

This project examines the foreign policy rhetoric of Bill Clinton in the post-Cold War world. My reading of Clinton’s rhetoric reveals that a change/order binary underwrote his oratory. Clinton defined change as being the underlying guidepost of the post-Cold War international setting. Order was defined through how he could guide, shape, direct, and manage American foreign policy in a sea of change, represented through his use of what I call America’s foreign policy vocabulary. This lexicon is based on three rhetorical components—the definitions of America’s role in the world, identification of the enemies we face, and the grand strategy we …