American Exceptionalism After 9/11: Dominant Narratives in Foreign and National Security Policy

Sarah Ihlenfeld*
Department of Political Science, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26505

Presentation No.: 121

Assigned Category (Presentation Format): Social & Behavioral Sciences (Poster Presentations)

Student’s Major: International Studies and Economics

After a decade of peace and prosperity following the end of the Cold War, the events of 9/11 challenged the dominance of US global leadership, uniquely positioning the Bush administration to cultivate a narrative of stability that Americans so desperately wanted. The administration was able to successfully establish a dominant narrative rooted in long-established American political tropes, which provided a strong sense of ontological security and promised material benefits. This narrative, American Exceptionalism, further specified three constituent tropes: leadership, hawkishness, and protectionism. These narratives were used to justify and build domestic support for American foreign and national security policy post-9/11. However, the events preceding and occurring during the invasion of Iraq weakened the ontological security argument and called into question any promised material benefits, challenging the administration with public resistance. I test this by hand coding speeches and statements from members of the Bush administration to identify the presence of the constituent tropes and supporting my findings with public opinion polling to illustrate the decline of support for the administration’s policies and the narrative’s collapse.

Funding:

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's SURE program (Rita Rio & Michelle Richards-Babb)