The politics of subjectivity in American foreign policy discourses / Ty Solomon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Solomon, Ty, 1979- author.

Series:

Configurations (Ann Arbor, Mich.)

Configurations: critical studies of world politics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Political psychology.

United States--Foreign relations.

United States.

International relations.

Political psychology--United States.

International relations--Philosophy.

Subjectivity.

World politics.

Physical Description:

xi, 246 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2015]

Summary:

"Why are some discourses more politically efficacious than others? Seeking answers to this question, Ty Solomon develops a new theoretical approach to the study of affect, identity, and discourse--core phenomena whose mutual interweaving have yet to be fully analyzed in International Relations. Drawing upon Jacques Lacan's psychoanalytic theory and Ernesto Laclau's approach to hegemonic politics, Solomon argues that prevailing discourses offer subtle but powerfully appealing opportunities for affective investment on the part of audiences. Through empirical case studies of the affective resonances of the war on terror and the rise and fall of neoconservative influence in American foreign policy, Solomon offers a unique way to think about the politics of identity as the construction of "common sense" powerfully underpinned by affective investments. He provides both a fuller understanding of the emotional appeal of political rhetoric in general and, specifically, a provocative explanation of the reasons for the reception of particular U.S. foreign policy rhetoric that shifted Americans' attitudes toward neoconservative foreign policy in the 1990s and shaped the post-9/11 "war on terror.""-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

1. Desire, identification, and the politics of hegemony

2. Identification and hegemony in the war on terror

3. Desire, discourse, and the rise of neoconservatism

4. "From near death to resurrection": neoconservative resonance in the 1990s.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 223-242) and index.

ISBN:

9780472119462

047211946X

OCLC:

887977660