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100 1 _aHOMOLAR Alexandra
245 _aA call to arms:
_bhero-villain narratives in US security discourse/
_cAlexandra Homolar
260 _c2022
520 _aThe rhetoric leaders use to speak to domestic audiences about security is not simply bluster. Political agents rely upon stories of enmity and threat to represent what is happening in the international arena, to whom and why, in order to push national and international security policy agendas. They do so for the simple reason that a good story is a powerful political device. This article examines historical 'calls to arms' in the United States, based on insights from archival research at US presidential libraries and the United States National Archives. Drawing on narrative theory and political psychology, the article develops a new analytic framework to explain the political currency and staying power of hero-villain security narratives, which divide the world into opposing spheres of 'good' and 'evil'. Shifting the conceptual focus away from speakers and settings towards audience and affect, it argues that the resonance of hero-villain security narratives lies in the way their plot structure keeps the audience in suspense. Because they are consequential rhetorical tools that shape security policy practices, the stories political agents tell about security demand greater attention in the broader field of international security studies.
650 _aEMOTION
650 _aINTERNATIONAL SECURITY
650 _aMICRO-MOVES
650 _aNARRATIVE ANALYSIS
650 _aUNITED STATES
773 _aSecurity Dialogue :
_gVol.53, No.4, August 2022. pp. 324-341(47)
598 _aSECURITY, USA
856 _uhttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/09670106211005897
_zClick here for full text
945 _i67757.1001
_rY
_sY
999 _c41756
_d41756