From Rhetoric to Posture: a Comparative Study of George W. Bush, Barack H. Obama and Donald J. Trump’s Stances Towards DPRK Nuclear Issue

Abstract

This article explores the postures of the last three former US presidents towards North Korean nuclear issue. The study applies Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis (CDA) model as a new approach to examine this topic. By analyzing 17 speech corpuses, this study sheds light on the foreign policy adapted G. W. Bush, Obama, and Trump to address North Korea Nuclear issue. Theoretically, the study uses both Waltz’s foreign policy analysis model and Aristotle modes of persuasion to analyze the findings. It also clarifies the original foundations of each presidents’ foreign policy based on the four American IR school of thoughts. Results indicate that the legacy of the Cold War continues to shape and influence the stances of US presidents toward DPRK, despite the differences in their rhetorical and political strategies. While this study focuses individually on presidents as the main unit of analysis, future studies can further expand the use of CDA analysis to examine the stances of other key decision makers in the presidents’ administration to fully understand the relation between discourses and power structure.