'A Critique of Hegemonic Cultural Stereotypes and Value Universalisation in Clash of Civilisations and United States Foreign Policy'

Résumé du livre

The Bush administration’s interventionist foreign policy is underpinned by cultural stereotypes and misrepresentations of Islam and a universalisation of U.S values that can be categorised as what Edward Said calls Orientalist discourses. The Middle-East is characterised as hostile, indifferent, prone to corruption and anarchical in its nature, to legitimise imperial aggression by the U.S and its allies, and to impose a caricature of democracy and liberty in the Middle-East. Through this process the U.S suggests that the Middle-East has been denied universal rights such as democracy and freedom, which only the U.S and a few other Anglo-western nations can provide. Orientalist discourses apply cultural stereotypes and misrepresentations of ethnic groups for political purposes. Binaries are used to portray and present a notion of ‘otherness’ or opposition to the current status quo.