An ‘existential threat’ or a ‘past pariah’: Securitisation of Iran and disagreements among American press

Abstract

The goal I pursue in this study is to explain the constitutive function of the newspapers’ opinion discourses from the perspective of securitisation theory. I discuss how the opinion articles and editorial collected from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and New York Post constructed the social reality (the Iran nuclear programme and deal) differently, as a result of their differing political ideologies, and sought to influence American foreign policy in line with their interests. Integrating securitisation theory with CDS, I investigated three types of discursive strategies ( representational, dialogical and argumentative strategies) employed by these articles and discussed their contribution to the construction of elements of securitisation. The findings showed that American newspapers’ commentary articles systematically securitised Iran (but sometimes desecuritised its nuclear programme).1