CONSTRUCTING GLOBAL ‘WARS WITHOUT END’: Vocabularies of Motive and the Structure of Permanent War

My purpose in this paper is to link the larger social context that structurally necessitates „wars without end” perpetrated by the U.S. elite with the rhetoric that legitimizes them so as to sociologically situate the rhetoric, the vocabularies of motive within a historically formed war-centric social structure that reveals an easily discernible pattern in the use of language. I consider Franklin D. Roosevelt’s speech of December 8, 1941 announcing U.S. entry into World War II to be the rhetorical “Master Frame”, the blueprint in this regard that was subsequently incorporated by later presidents to justify all wars without end. I compared dissected components of this rhetorical Master Frame to war speeches made by different U.S. presidents in the pre- and post-World War II era to reveal the qualitative difference between war rhetoric of a peace-time social structure where war is an aberration and the permanent war based social structure of the post-World War II U.S., when war became the taken for granted norm.

Verbal Aggression Between Allies: Canada in Donald Trump’s Trade War Rhetoric

The article explores Donald Trump’s protectionist rhetoric relating to bilateral trade relations between Canada and the U.S. In particular, it presents how Trump’s isolationist economic platform evolved into trade war rhetoric and how this rhetoric affected Canada. To that end, the article analyzes President Trump’s statements and policies regarding the renegotiations of NAFTA, his administration’s tariff policies relating to imports of Canadian softwood lumber, steel and aluminum, and Trump’s opinions published in social media, mainly on Twitter. It also takes a comparative look on Donald Trump’s and Justin Trudeau’s ideological profiles to explain Trump’s lack of sympathy and hardline rhetoric against Canada.

Violence, Identity, and Alterity: Post-War Rhetoric of Sri Lanka’s Bodu Bala Sena

<p>The Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Strength Army) is a Sinhalese nationalist movement led by Buddhist monks that recently came to international prominence following a 2014 anti-Muslim rally that erupted into deadly violence. The Bodu Bala Sena is set apart from earlier nationalist movements in that its hostility is primarily directed towards Sri Lankan Muslims instead of Tamil separatists. Despite this difference I argue that the Bodu Bala Sena is best considered as a new development in this existing tradition of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism, and that the re-orientation of the Bodu Bala Sena’s hostility from Tamils to Muslims reveals the extent to which Sinhalese nationalist conceptions of their own identity are built around various interpretations of a particular “identity narrative.” This identity narrative, which has its genesis in anti-colonial interpretations of the Mahavamsa, casts the Sinhalese people as defenders of a sacred island (the dhammadipa) against impious foreign invaders who threaten its unity and sanctity. The case of the Bodu Bala Sena demonstrates both the ongoing relevance of this identity narrative in the post-war era and, importantly, the availability of the narrative for contextual re-interpretation. The identity narrative model, which incorporates both mythic origins and contextual interpretation, helps to bridge some of the existing debates on the nature and origins of Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka which tend to favour either one or the other.</p>

Violence, Identity, and Alterity: Post-War Rhetoric of Sri Lanka’s Bodu Bala Sena

<p>The Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Strength Army) is a Sinhalese nationalist movement led by Buddhist monks that recently came to international prominence following a 2014 anti-Muslim rally that erupted into deadly violence. The Bodu Bala Sena is set apart from earlier nationalist movements in that its hostility is primarily directed towards Sri Lankan Muslims instead of Tamil separatists. Despite this difference I argue that the Bodu Bala Sena is best considered as a new development in this existing tradition of Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism, and that the re-orientation of the Bodu Bala Sena’s hostility from Tamils to Muslims reveals the extent to which Sinhalese nationalist conceptions of their own identity are built around various interpretations of a particular “identity narrative.” This identity narrative, which has its genesis in anti-colonial interpretations of the Mahavamsa, casts the Sinhalese people as defenders of a sacred island (the dhammadipa) against impious foreign invaders who threaten its unity and sanctity. The case of the Bodu Bala Sena demonstrates both the ongoing relevance of this identity narrative in the post-war era and, importantly, the availability of the narrative for contextual re-interpretation. The identity narrative model, which incorporates both mythic origins and contextual interpretation, helps to bridge some of the existing debates on the nature and origins of Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka which tend to favour either one or the other.</p>

Les plaies de la Grande Guerre dans la Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung, un imaginaire de papier sous la République de Weimar

Auch nach dem Waffenstillstand wird der Erste Weltkrieg in der Berliner Illustrirten Zeitung (BIZ) – einem der ersten illustrierten Massenblätter – weiter thematisiert. Bei der Untersuchung dieses mediatisierten Krieges wird der Frage nachgegangen, was diese Bilderwelt über die fortschrittlichen Erwartungen, Ängste und Hoffnungen in der Weimarer Republik aussagt. Dabei geht hervor, dass die BIZ nach der anfänglichen Bekundung eines gewissen Wohlwollens gegenüber den ehemaligen Feinden zu Beginn des Jahres 1919 bald in einen bitteren Ton umschlägt, als die Friedensbedingungen bekannt gegeben werden. Diese enttäuschten Hoffnungen haben die kulturelle Demobilisierung der BIZ erschwert. Eine Zeit lang werden Themen der Kriegspropaganda weiter behandelt, bevor diese illustrierte Zeitschrift im Laufe der 1920er Jahre zum künstlerischen Ausdrucksort der Trauer um die Opfer des Krieges wird und dabei versucht, die Wunden des Krieges zu heilen. Letztlich zielt die BIZ aber weniger darauf ab, die Erinnerung an den Krieg wach zu halten, als vielmehr als Sprachrohr eines pazifistischen und republikanischen Diskurses zu fungieren. Après l’armistice, la Première Guerre mondiale continue à être traitée dans la revue illustrée d’actualité générale, politique et culturelle qu’est la Berliner Illustrirte Zeitung (BIZ). Sur la trace de cette médiatisation de la guerre, nous interrogeons ce que ces représentations « disent » des attentes, des peurs et des espoirs des contemporains progressistes de Weimar. Il ressort qu’après avoir diffusé une certaine bienveillance à l’égard des anciens ennemis début 1919, la BIZ s’aigrit à la suite de l’officialisation des conditions de paix. Sans doute ces espoirs déçus ont-ils compliqué la démobilisation culturelle de la BIZ, qui continue un temps à se faire le relais du discours de guerre, puis tente par l’expression artistique, tout au long des années 1920, de panser les plaies du deuil. Finalement, la BIZ ne cherche pas tant à entretenir la mémoire de la guerre qu’à promouvoir un discours pacifiste et républicain. After the armistice, World War One remained an important topic in the Berliner Ilustrirte Zeitung – an illustrated magazine devoted to general, political and cultural news. Analyzing its coverage of the war allows us to address what these representations have to say about the expectations, fears and hopes of Weimar progressives at the time. After showing some benevolence towards former enemies at the beginning of 1919, the BIZ grew more acrimonious when the terms of the peace treaty became official. These disappointed hopes certainly made the cultural demobilization of the BIZ more difficult. The magazine continued to relay the war rhetoric for some time, before trying to tend to the wounds and ease the mourning through artistic means. Eventually, the BIZ did not seek to preserve the memory of the war, but rather to promote a pacifist and republican way of thinking.

“An Unholy War of Conquest”

This chapter examines Turner’s war rhetoric by examining his rhetoric during the Civil War and contrasts it with his rhetoric during the Spanish-American and Cuban wars. Grounded in his prophetic pessimism, Turner’s rhetoric not only shifts, but in his critiques of the government and his outright denunciations of African Americans who support the war, the chapter argues that Turner creates his own anti-war rhetoric that anticipates the contemporary anti-war rhetoric of many African Americans.