Representation, Attribution and Perspectivation in EU Diplomatic Discourse Addressed to Iraq

Abstract

Internationally, politicians, practice power, spread ideology, and effect changes in the world through language. World events are prompted by the words and actions of State leaders and politicians. Diplomats normally manipulate symbolism in diplomatic practice to convey various massages. This paper aims at uncovering how foreign policy objectives, identities and ideologies are communicated in the EU discourse. Drawing on Ruth Wodak’s (2001) Discourse Historical Approach (DHA) which is an interdisciplinary eclectic approach, the researchers focus on the discursive skills of persuasion and convincing a diplomat enjoys. The study answers a set of empirical questions: 1) how have individuals, objects, events, processes and actions been named and referred to linguistically in the selected data? 2) What traits and features have been attributed to them? 3) From what perspective have these nominations and attributes been expressed? This study fills a gap in scholarship in using speeches to study the diplomatic relationships between the EU and Iraq from a critical discourse analysis perspective. The study concludes that EU actors perceived of Iraq as a partner, an immediate neighbor and a peer. Meantime, they attempt to construct an identity for EU as an actor to establish peace, democracy and human rights. Being demographically diverse, EU tries to influence Iraq’s perception to follow the suit. Some of the aforementioned perspectives were expressed through narration, quoting or metaphors.