Discourse of global governance: American hegemony in the post-Cold War era

This article is based on the view that in the post-Cold War period, a US-defined New World Order discourse has been in formation. Adopting a critical discourse analytical perspective, the paper examines the deployment of American liberal democratic political ideology, which forms the basis of the New World Order discourse. American liberal democracy is construed vis--vis the articulation of illiberal global threats (namely, Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein); through international consensus-building based on universalized American principles of freedom and democracy; and through Americas self-election to global leadership. While the primary focus of the study is on the speeches of President George W. Bush since the 11 September 2001 attacks, the analysis also includes speeches by the former post-Cold War presidents, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush, in the context of earlier historic events. An intertextual analysis of the speeches shows the hegemonic form(ul)ation of American liberal democratic internationalism in the post-Cold War environment.