The war/crime narrative and fear content in leader rhetoric about terrorism

Abstract

The current chapter considers fear arousing content in the terrorism-related rhetoric of former American President George W. Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Australian Prime Minister John Howard. We begin by discussing the specific military and political problem that terrorism presents to Western leaders in the 21st century, before examining how elements from what can be termed a war and a crime narrative have come to shape leader rhetoric in the War on Terror. In the second half of this chapter we examine the evidence for fear arousing content in leader rhetoric as well as how it differs between speakers and over time. This is supplemented with a textual analysis of key speeches by Bush, Blair and Osama Bin Laden. Finally, we consider alternatives to the War/Crime narrative and the ways in which leaders could actually seek to reduce unnecessary fear of terrorism. Show more