Contesting Security and the Binding Effect in the US and the UK Discourse and Policy of “War on Terror”: A Theoretical and Empirical Exploration through a Dialogical-Relational Framework Submitted by Tatevik Mnatsakanyan To the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Politics October 2014 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signature: ………………………………………………………….. Table of Contents Abstract .............................................................................................................. 5 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................ 6 Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................... 8 1.1. Rationale and Purpose of the Thesis ................................................... 8 1.2. The Hypothesis .................................................................................. 16 1.3. Bakhtin in the New Framework........................................................... 20 1.4. The Scope of the Empirical Research, Chapter Outline and Findings 24 1.5. Intended Contributions ....................................................................... 29 Chapter 2: From the Linguistic Turn in IR to Discourse-Analytical Studies on “War on Terror”: The Case for a New Discourse-Analytical Framework ........... 31 2.1. Introduction ........................................................................................... 31 2.2. The Philosophical Beginnings and Post-Structuralist IR: Identity, Representation and Foreign/Security Policy ................................................ 34 2.2.1. Relationality and Contestation in Laclau and Mouffe’s Discourse Theory ..................................................................................................... 51 2.3. Critical Review of Discourse-Analytical Studies on “War on Terror” ... 55 2.3.1. Limitations of the Representational Model in “War on Terror” Literature .................................................................................................. 56 2.3.2. Contestations: Lack of Dissent, and the Absence of Relationality 61 2.3.3. Continuity, (Lack of) Change and Implicit Conceptions of “Constraint” .............................................................................................. 65 2.4. Critical Concerns on Contestation, Constraint and Security .................. 68 2.4.1. Contesting Security...................................................................... 69 2.4.2. Reconceiving Speech-Act and Performativity .............................. 70 2.4.3. Discourse as Causal-Constitutive? .............................................. 71 2.4.4. Discursive Constraints on Policy Change? .................................. 73 2.4.5. Philosophically Realist? ............................................................... 74 2.5. Conclusion: The Case for a New Discourse-Analytical Framework ....... 77 Chapter 3: Towards a Discourse Theory through Bakhtinian Dialogism ........... 79 3.1. Introduction ........................................................................................... 79 3.2. Bakhtinian Dialogism as an Opportunity ............................................... 83 3.3. Introducing the Dialogical Speech-act ................................................... 94 3.4. Intertextuality and Speech-Act .............................................................106 3.5. Conclusions: Performativity and Contestation through the Dialogical Speech-Act .................................................................................................118 2 Chapter 4: A Dialogical-Relational Framework for Analysing Foreign/Security Discourse ....................................................................................................... 123 4.1. Introduction ..........................................................................................123 4.2. Dialogical-Relational Framework for Foreign/Security Discourse .........126 4.2.1. Temporal Separability, and the Discursive vis-à-vis the Non-/Supra- Discursive ...............................................................................................127 4.2.2. Foreign/Security Policy in the Age of Late Modernity ..................131 4.2.3. Answerability and Audiences-Turned-Speakers ..........................140 4.3. Analytical Tools for the Dialogical-Relational Model ..........................144 4.3.1. Narrative-Normative Chronotopes ..............................................145 4.3.2. Relational Performatives .............................................................149 4.3.2.1. Destabilising vis-à-vis Deliberative Performances ...................150 4.3.2.2. Silencing Performances ...........................................................153 4.4. Methodological Implications for the Empirical Study ..........................155 4.5. Conclusion ........................................................................................162 Chapter 5: Pre-9/11 Discursive Foundations, and the Chronotopicity of Early Post-9/11 Official “War on Terror” Discourses in the US and the UK .............. 165 5.1. Introduction ..........................................................................................165 5.2. The Pre-9/11 Discursive Foundations of “War on Terror” and “Rupture” vis-à-vis “Continuity” in Early Post-9/11 Narratives .....................................167 5.2.1. The Early Discursive Foundations of the Bush Doctrine .............168 5.2.2. The Blair Doctrine, and its post-9/11 Revisions...........................177 5.3. Weaving the Official “War on Terror” Narrative: Narrative-Normative Chronotopes ...............................................................................................184 5.3.1. Imagining the Nation: “Cyclical Triumph” vis-à-vis “Agent of Change” ..................................................................................................187 5.4. Conclusion ........................................................................................199 Chapter 6: Challenges to the Dominant Discourse, and the Making and Un- making of National Identity ............................................................................. 203 6.1. Introduction ..........................................................................................203 6.2. Early Dissent: Emergent Trends in the Immediate Aftermath of 9/11 ...206 6.3. Destabilising vis-à-vis Deliberative Performatives ................................212 6.3.1. Destabilising “Evil” and “Freedom” ................................................217 6.3.2. Deliberating on a “Mistaken” War................................................222 6.4. Dislocating the Official Chronotope and the Making and Unmaking of National Identity: A Deficit of “Future”? .......................................................228 6.5. Conclusion ........................................................................................237 3 Chapter 7: Staying Committed? Answerability, Restorative Performatives and Silencing ........................................................................................................ 240 7.1. Introduction ..........................................................................................240 7.2. Restoratives in Action: Re-inscribing the “Future” ................................242 7.2.1. Colonising Critique; and Re-narrativisation/ Deflection ...............249 7.2.2. Reclaiming Positive Belongingness and “Future” ........................252 7.3. Silencing and the Re-affirmation of “Threat” ......................................255 7.3.1. Silencing while Restoring ............................................................257 7.4. Conclusion ........................................................................................262 Chapter 8: Binding through the Case of Obama’s Failed Attempts to Close Guantánamo Bay Prison ................................................................................ 265 8.1. Introduction ..........................................................................................265 8.2. “Freedom” as “Rule of Law” .................................................................267 8.3. Semiotic Dissonance, and the Failure to Close Guantánamo ..............270 8.3. Public and Political Opposition to Closure .........................................278 8.4. Conclusion ........................................................................................285 Chapter 9: Conclusions and Implications ....................................................... 288 9.1. Introduction .......................................................................................288 9.2. Main Empirical Findings ....................................................................288 9.3. Re-articulated Hypothesis; Further Reflections and Questions ..........297 9.4. Limitations, Contributions and Future Research ................................303 Appendix A: List of Data Sources – US and UK Official Pronouncements, Documents, Parliamentary Debates ............................................................... 307 Appendix