Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
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Item Restricted Shaping Minds: A Critical Discourse Analysis of George W. Bush’s Use of Imagery in His Speeches Leading to the Iraq War(Saudi Digital Library, 2024-08) Alhamami, Tahani; Mazzola, FranciscoThis study investigates how the use of imagery in President George W. Bush’s speeches from the aftermath of 9/11 to the onset of the Iraq War had an impact on the public’s emotions and opinion, eventually leading them to support the military intervention. It argues that employing imagery in political discourse can create mental images in the mind of the audience which can stir their emotions and impair their critical thinking, and thus make them susceptible to manipulation. Through van Dijk’s framework of CDA and Le Bon’s theory of the crowd, the study identifies instances of imagery in six speeches by Bush and analyzes the mental images they evoke to assess the emotive effect on the audience. The research also uses secondary source polls to measure the public perception of the Iraq War. The findings reveal that Bush strategically employed imagery to revive past fears and traumas, reinforce preexisting ideologies, and warn of impending threats, thereby manipulating public perception to justify the war. Finally, the study discusses the ethical implications of using imagery in political discourse to manipulate people.10 0Item Restricted Shaping Minds: A Critical Discourse Analysis of George W. Bush’s Use of Imagery in His Speeches Leading to the Iraq War(King's College London, 2025) Alhamami, Tahani; Mazzola, FranciscoThis study investigates how the use of imagery in President George W. Bush’s speeches from the aftermath of 9/11 to the onset of the Iraq War had an impact on the public’s emotions and opinion, eventually leading them to support the military intervention. It argues that employing imagery in political discourse can create mental images in the mind of the audience which can stir their emotions and impair their critical thinking, and thus make them susceptible to manipulation. Through van Dijk’s framework of CDA and Le Bon’s theory of the crowd, the study identifies instances of imagery in six speeches by Bush and analyzes the mental images they evoke to assess the emotive effect on the audience. The research also uses secondary source polls to measure the public perception of the Iraq War. The findings reveal that Bush strategically employed imagery to revive past fears and traumas, reinforce preexisting ideologies, and warn of impending threats, thereby manipulating public perception to justify the war. Finally, the study discusses the ethical implications of using imagery in political discourse to manipulate people.20 0Item Restricted THE UNITED STATES-CHINA RELATIONSHIP AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF SECURITY POLICIES IN ASIA-PACIFIC: CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE(2023-05-26) Alrashidi, Zarea; Cohen, Michael DavidCultural values and norms are likely to play an important role in shaping national security policies, especially globally. This research aims to understand how fighting for cultural superiority between the United States and China impacts the development of arms and military-oriented policies in the Asia-Pacific region. The study employed an explanatory research methodology where four Asian-Pacific region case studies were selected for analysis. The four sub-objectives of the study included: To understand the impact of culture on the development of security policies in the Asia Pacific region, To explore and explain how the U.S and China's fight for cultural superiority affect the development of arms and military-oriented policies in Asia Pacific region; To explore and explain the reliability of the constructivist school of thought compared to the traditional security concepts in understanding the cultural conflict between the United States and China; To explain how China's growing military capacity in the Asia-pacific region affects the existing national security policies. The study was anchored on Katzenstein understanding constructivist school of thought understanding on international relations. The data from the four case studies were examined, and content analysis was employed. The findings and conclusion showed that, indeed, fighting for cultural superiority between the United States and China in pursuit of settling international conflicts has affected the development of policies in Asia-Pacific. China has been using different strategies, such as forming Female Associations in Taiwan and Using China Communist Party (CCP) to bring its culture into the limelight regarding military policies. The study recommends that there is still more to explore using a constructivist school of thought in understanding the nature of international relations, especially between the United States and China.87 0