New Cold War? A comparison of Russian and US foreign policy discourses in the time of deteriorating relations

Kokina, Lāsma (2023) New Cold War? A comparison of Russian and US foreign policy discourses in the time of deteriorating relations. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This thesis examines the role that the Cold War discourse themes play in informing and structuring the American and Russian newspaper narratives in the time period of 2014-2017. It uncovers whether the portrayal of the contemporary relationship between Russia and the US in newspaper discourse can be traced back to the historical roots of Cold War struggles.

Using Critical Discourse Analysis, the thesis seeks to identify the contexts interwoven in newspaper narratives examined in this study, and how their interactions with themes of the Cold War discourse work to create meanings for these newspapers’ audiences. The study does a qualitative textual analysis of newspaper discourse within the frame of two case studies: the 2014 conflict in Ukraine and the 2016–2017-time frame that is associated with the U.S. presidential election pre-election period and the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency.

This thesis fills a gap in the New Cold War discourse where no thematic comparative U.S.-Russia newspaper discourse study has been done thus far.

The findings indicate that particular elements of the Cold War discourse continue structuring the narratives that different Russian and American newspapers produce while reporting events occurring in the post-Cold War time, raising critical questions about the persistence of powerful historical discourses, and about the ability of media in Russia and in the US to rearticulate and regenerate discourses of global politics in the post-Cold War world.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Subjects: D History General and Old World > DK Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics; E History America > E151 United States (General); J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Central and East European Studies
• Supervisor's Name: Cheskin, Dr. Ammon and Solomon, Professor Ty
• Date of Award: 2023
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2023-83940
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 14 Nov 2023 11:31
• Last Modified: 14 Nov 2023 11:32
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.83940
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/83940