From “Axis of Evil” to “Iran Threat Network”: The Securitization discourse Constructed by the US. Elites Toward Iran

Abstract

The US government and political elites have long regarded Iran as a threat to US interests, Middle East peace and Israel’s national security. However, the Iranian government has never actively launched any war since its establishment in 1979. In order to explain the “Iran Threat” discourse constructed by the US political elite, the process of discourse formation and proliferation, this article combines security and threat framing theories, and specifically interprets the corresponding materials and documents through the path of description- interpretation- explanation. It points out that the discourse of the American political elites against Iran is not based on facts, rather, the topics are full of ideological attacks and highly subjective extreme judgments. Take Bush as an example, he portrayed Iran as a supporter of terrorism after the 9/11 incident; on this basis, the intelligence and policy consultant agencies of the US government provide corresponding intelligence materials to support the Iranian threat theory. Through the construction of the Iranian threat discourse by political elites, the U.S. political circle has completed the first round of securitization of Iran, and the political topics related to Iran are almost restricted to the discourse system of threat theory, forming a kind of “threat framing” effect. The entire set of political discourses used by the United States against Iran can promote the implementation of policies of the US., and facilitating its policies against Iran to obtain a legal basis, continuing to isolate Iran in the Middle East and eventually overthrow its current government; at the same time, maintain strong US intervention in the Middle East, making Saudi and other countries dependent on the US due to security needs and maintaining US interests in the Middle East.