American national identity at the start and end of the war in Afghanistan: A comparative narrative analysis of presidential speeches

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to investigate the production of American national identity at the start and end of America’s warfare in Afghanistan, and to reach an understanding how the identity-construction legitimatized America’s actions at those moments. Based on a post structural understanding of identity as constructed and reproduced through action and speech, this study examines and compares speeches held by presidents George Bush and Joe Biden in relation to the start and end of the war. With a multimodal approach and with the method narrative analysis, the identity-construction done by Bush and Biden has been investigated. Drawing upon theories of national identity, foreign policy and danger formulated by Rodney Barker and David Campbell, this study suggests that the presidents constructed an American national identity in relation to threats and hostile enemies. The results show that the same strategies were used at the start and the end of the warfare, but in different ways. The location of hostile threats in Afghanistan legitimatized the start of the warfare. At the end of the warfare however, the threats are narrated as located elsewhere. Thus, even though the same strategies were used, they legitimatized both starting and ending the warfare, while reproducing American national identity.