Part I: 1. Introduction -- 2. State of the Art and Key Concepts -- 3. Political Discourse theory and Rhetorical Analysis: Fundamental Premises and Key Terms -- Part II: 4. The US Congressional Discourse on Japan and China -- 5. Nomination and Predication: Initial Articulations of Self and Other -- 6. Argumentation on the Main Topics: The Trade Deficit and the Challenge to US World Leadership -- 7. Perspectivation on Japan and China: The USA as a Victim of 'Unfair' and 'Illiberal' Policies -- 8. Intensification and Mitigation: Economic Warfare Versus Engagement -- 9. Conclusions.
Summary:
This book has four main objectives: to bring the thus far almost entirely neglected historical case of 'the rise of Japan into the literature on power shifts in general and 'the rise of China in particular; to propose a discourse-based conceptualization of identity for the study of economic policy that engages theoretical and methodological debates on how to overcome the dichotomy between 'ideational (identity) and 'material (economic) factors; to address the tendency to focus on the 'radical Other in poststructuralist IR scholarship, by highlighting how heterogeneity disturbs exclusive and binary articulations of identity and difference; and to propose a method for putting political discourse theory (PDT) into practice in empirical research by drawing on rhetorical political analysis (RPA). US congressional debates on economic policy on Japan and China in 1985-2008 are analysed as examples of official US elite public discourse. The book shows that the 'new era in US-Chinese relations that scholars and policymakers have been announcing since the beginning of the Trump presidency was long in the making, as it rests on longstanding discourses on the USAs main economic competitor.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.