Abstract
This article examines the discourse of U.S. relief efforts after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and argues that exceptionalist rhetorics rely on citizen virtue to motivate state action. Examining speeches and interviews by U.S. presidents and newspaper articles and editorials from domestic news sources, themes of compassion, humanitarianism, and global leadership converge to form an exceptionalist rhetoric of compassionate generosity that legitimates U.S. global hegemony. This critique highlights how, in moments of international crisis, virtues are mobilized to buttress America's moral position and advances a rhetoric of humanitarian militarism.
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