Abstract
Following on from the previous Chapter’s discussion of the theoretical and methodological use of discourse theory and analysis, this chapter offers a practical demonstration. Here, I demonstrate the role which American exceptionalism played in informing the foreign policy formation process. I examine how exceptionalism has worked as a frame of reference which institutionalizes a consistent set of themes or representations within US foreign policy discourse which assist with the construction and reproduction of identity and difference along with the maintenance of foreign policy consistency. This chapter will end by offering an analysis of how the Clinton administration utilized major themes from American exceptionalism in order to reproduce a specific American identity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsBibliography
Ansari, M.H. (2012). Travelling Through Conflict: Essays on Politics of West Asia. New Delhi: Pearson Education India.
Ball, T (2003). Hamilton, Madison, and Jay: The Federalist with Letters of “Brutus”. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Bercovitch, S. (1978). The American Jeremiad. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Campbell, D. (1998). Writing Security: US Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Chomsky, N. (1999). The Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians. Boston: South End Press.
Christison, K. (2001). Perceptions of Palestine: Their Influence on U.S. Middle East Policy. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
Greene, J. P. (1993). The Intellectual Construction of America: Exceptionalism and Identity from 1492–1800. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
Howarth, D.R. & Torfing, J. (2005). Discourse Theory in European Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ikenberry, G. J. (2001). After Victory. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Ikenberry, G. J. (2006). Liberal Order and Imperial Ambition. Malden, MA: Polity.
Jervis, R. (1976). Perception and Misperception in International Politics. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Jorgensen, M. W. & Phillips, L.J. (2002). Discourse Analysis as Theory and Method. New York: Sage Publications.
Laclau, E. & Mouffe, C. (1985). Hegemony and Socialist Strategy. London: Verso.
Little, D. (2004). American Orientalism: The United States and the Middle East Since 1945. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press.
Lockman, Z. (2004). Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lutz, C. & Collins, J. (1993). Reading National Geographic. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Madsen, D. (1998). American Exceptionalism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Milton-Edwards, B. & Hincliffe, P. (2001). Conflicts in the Middle East Since 1945. London: Routledge.
Nau, H.R. (2002). At Home Abroad: Identity and Power in American Foreign Policy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Novak, M. and Novak, J. (2006). Washington’s God: Religion, Liberty and The Father of Our Country. New York: Basic Books.
Patrick, S. (2009). The Best Laid Plans: The Origins of American Multilateralism and the Dawn of the Cold War. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield.
Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books/Random House.
Smith, A. D. (2003). Chosen Peoples. New York: Oxford University Press.
Stephanson, A. (1995). Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right. New York: Hill & Wang.
Thomas, M. (2007). American Policy Toward Israel: The Power and Limits of Beliefs. New York: Routledge.
Bozeman, T. D. (1986). ‘“Errand into the Wilderness” Reconsidered’, New England Quarterly, Vol. 59, No. 2, pp. 231–251.
Davidson, L. (1994). “Press, State Department and Popular Perceptions of Palestine in the 1920s”. Paper Presented at annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association.
Doty, R. L. (1993). ‘Foreign Policy as Social Construction: A Post-Positivist Analysis of U.S. Counterinsurgency Policy in the Philippines’, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 37, pp. 297–320.
Hadar, L.T. (1993). ‘Clinton’s Tilt’, Journal of Palestinian Studies, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Summer), pp. 62–72.
Kammen, M. (1993). ‘The Problem of American Exceptionalism: A Reconsideration’, American Quarterly, Vol. 45, No. 1, (March), pp. 1–43.
Kessler, S. (1992). ‘Tocqueville’s Puritans: Christianity and the American Founding’, The Journal of Politics, Vol. 54, No. 3, pp. 776–92.
Leffler, Melvyn P. 2005. ‘9/11 and American Foreign Policy’, Diplomatic History, Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 395–413.
Restad, Hilde E. (2012). ‘Old Paradigms in History Die Hard in Political Science: US Foreign Policy and American Exceptionalism’, American Political Thought, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 2012, pp. 53–76.
Ruggie, J. G. (1997). ‘The Past as Prologue? Interests, Identity, and American Foreign Policy’, International Security, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp. 89–125.
McCrisken, T. B. (2002). ‘Exceptionalism’, in A. Deconde and R.D. Burns (eds.), Encyclopedia of American Foreign Policy 2. Charles Scribner’s Sons: New York.
Clinton, W. J. (1993). Clinton’s Inaugural Speech. January 20, 1993. Accessed at: http://clinton6.nara.gov/1993/01/1993-01-20-president-clinton-inaugural-speech.html on 30/07/2013.
Clinton, W. J. (1993). Remarks by President at Prayer Breakfast. February 4, 1993. Accessed at: http://clinton6.nara.gov/1993/02/1993-02-04-remarks-by-the-president-at-prayer-breakfast.html on 30/07/2013.
Clinton, W. J. (1993). Remarks of the President at American University Centennial Celebration. February 26, 1993. Accessed at: http://clinton6.nara.gov/1993/02/1993-02-26-corrected-remarks-by-the-president-at-american-university.html on 30/07/2013.
Clinton, W. J. (1993). Remarks by the President at Ceremony Honoring 250 th Anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson. April 13, 1993. Accessed at: http://clinton6.nara.gov/1993/04/1993-04-13-presidents-remarks-at-jefferson-memorial.html on 30/07/2013.
Clinton, W. J. (1993). Proclamation on Time for Observance of the Fiftieth Anniversary of World War II, 1993. May 31, 1993. Accessed at: http://clinton6.nara.gov/1993/05/1993-05-31-presidents-memorial-day-proclamation.html on 31/07/2013.
Clinton, W. J. (1993). Proclamation by the President on Older Americans Month. 25 May, 1993. Accessed at: http://clinton6.nara.gov/1993/05/1993-05-25-older-americans-month.html on 31/07/2013.
Clinton, W. J. (1997). Statement by the President on Israel-Palestinian Agreement. January 14, 1997. Accessed at: http://clinton6.nara.gov/1997/01/1997-01-14-president-statement-israel-palestinian-agreement.html on 02/09/2013.
Doty, R. L. (1996). Imperial Encounters: The Politics of Representation in North-South Relations. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press.
Legro, J. (2005). Rethinking the World: Great Power Strategies and International Order. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Greene, J. P. (1967). Landon Carter: An Inquiry into the Personal Values and Social Imperatives of the Eighteenth-Century Virginia Gentry. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia.
Morgan, E. (1967). Roger Williams: The Church and the State. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Elazar, D. J. (1988). The American Constitutional Tradition. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Bellah, R. (1970). Beyond Belief: Essats on Religion in a Post-Traditional World. New York: Harper & Row.
Grose, P. (1983). Israel in the Mind of America. New York: Knopf.
Tocqueville, A. de. (1835). Democracy in America, trans. and eds, Harvey C. Mansfield and Delba Winthrop, University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Bell, D. (1991). ‘The ‘Hegelian Secret’: Civil Society and American Exceptionalism’, in Byron E. Shafer (ed.), Is America Different, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Meacham, J. (2006). American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation. New York: Random House.
Lipset, Seymour M. (1996). American Exceptionalism: A Double-Edged Sword. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Lawrence, T.E. (1927). Revolt in the Desert. Leonaur: London.
Chugh, D. (2007). quoted in R. J. Pauly (ed.), Ashgate Research Companion to US Foreign Policy. Farnham, Surrey, UK: Ashgate Publishing, pp. 88–89.
Clinton, W.J. (1994). ‘Remarks at the signing ceremony for the Israel-Jordan peace treaty at the border between Israel and Jordan.’ The public papers of the president, vol. 2 (pp. 1877–1878). October 24, 1994. Washington, D.C.: The United States Government Printing Office.
Hudson, W. E. (2006) American Democracy in Peril: Eight Challenges to America’s Future. Washington D.C.: CQ Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kiely, K.P. (2017). The Ideological Myth: American Exceptionalism, Identity and Difference. In: U.S. Foreign Policy Discourse and the Israel Lobby . Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52986-8_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52986-8_4
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-52985-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-52986-8
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)