The Discourse of the New World Order ─ Global Governance and the War on Terror

Much has been written about the events of 9/11 and its aftermath as constituting a rupture in US and world history. This book, however, proposes that while the attacks on US homeland were unprecedented, the ensuing discourse of President G.W. Bush and his ‘war on terror’ campaign cannot be said to constitute a radical departure. The book aims to show that President Bush’s statements and actions since 9/11 belong within a broader unfolding discourse of the ‘New World Order', which has been underway since the end of the Cold War. To make their case, Lazar and Lazar adapt and develop Foucault’s notion of ‘discourse formation’ for a critical discourse analysis of almost two decades of post-Cold War presidential texts and talk, including speeches, press conferences, radio addresses, policy documents, and interviews. This book is the first to be jointly written by a linguist and a political scientist, allowing for the marriage of theoretical and analytical insights from international relations, international security studies, strategic studies, political discourse analysis and critical discourse studies.

Annita Lazar received her Ph.D in Politics from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. She teaches International Politics, and Defense and Security at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. Her research interests are in International Security, International Politics of the Middle East, U.S. Foreign Policy and Third World Security, in which she has published. She is currently writing a book entitled The Gulf Security Problematique.

Michelle M. Lazar received her Ph.D in Linguistics from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, and the Academic Convenor of the Gender Studies Programme at the National University of Singapore. Her research interests are in Critical Discourse Analysis, Political Discourse, Multimodality, Media and Gender/Feminism and has widely published in these areas. She is the editor of Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis: Gender, Ideology and Power in Discourse (Palgrave, 2005, 2007).