Competing foreign policy visions: Rhetorical hybrids after the Cold War

Abstract

The Cold War provided an orientational metaphor that allowed American interests to be easily communicated to and understood by the mass public. In the absence of an orientational metaphor ordering political reality, foreign policy events are now interpreted individually rather than as part of a pattern. This essay examines the ways in which two very different political actors, George Bush and Bill Clinton, attempted to construct a new foreign policy consensus by blending the rhetorical forms of the Cold War with other foreign policy metaphors. These hybrids have not proven persuasive as justifications for American actions in foreign policy.