Critical Perspectives on Practices of US Foreign Policy and American Identity Construction in World Politics

Abstract

Since taking office in 2009, President Barack Obama has been forced to deal with growing number of pressures and difficulties, such as the development of the controversial Iranian nuclear program, the normalization of US-Europe relations, the insurgency wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, detention camps in Guantanamo Bay, and the aftermath of the 2009 economic crisis. However, one may argue that any key political decision faced by Obama today when dealing with said pressures and difficulties, most notably those regarding the consolidation of free markets, democracy promotion, and strengthening of international institutions, could be interpreted as the result of complex processes of American (inter)national identity construction. In this case, American identity may be understood as the product of U.S. foreign policy discursive practices which attempt to write as permanent and legitimate a set of meanings and representations pertaining the very idea of what should be understood as ‘American’ in opposition to ‘non-American’. Hence U.S. foreign policy decisions help to construct and legitimate American hegemony in world politics by engaging in discursive practices of differentiation, exclusion and containment of any threats perceived to be ‘non-American’ or ‘anti-American’, such as rogue states, terrorist networks and religious extremists. This panel aims to discuss how discursive practices of U.S. foreign policy help constructing, shaping and constraining American identity and interests in world politics and thus act in order to consolidate American hegemony in economic, political, cultural and military affairs. At the same time, this panel wishes to make a contribution to the understanding of how discursive practices produce, reinforce, reproduce, transform and disseminate American values, principles, representations and narratives through U.S. foreign policy. In a way, we wish to critically reflect upon the nexus between U.S. foreign policy decision-making and the construction of American national identity, power and interests in world affairs.

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