From the American Century to the End of History

Abstract

Abstract This final analytic chapter examines the foreign policy discourse of George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton. Both of these presidents oversaw the ending of the Cold War and the inception of the post–Cold War era. This discourse is situated within the genre of the American jeremiad that has served historically to articulate and sustain the nation’s identity and geopolitical purpose. The chapter identifies the linguistic and rhetorical means by which the nation’s exceptionalist identity was asserted and reaffirmed and how that identity was used to sanction an activist foreign policy aimed at shaping a post–Cold War future amenable to the nation’s interests and goals. The chapter argues that foreign policy discourse in the early years of the post–Cold War era drew on key elements of the jeremiad in order to reaffirm and sustain the nation’s identity as “the great nation of futurity.”