Language of Threat : A Discourse Study of the US Presidential Speeches of Donald Trump and Joe Biden on the Iranian Nuclear Program

Sammanfattning

Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the relationship between Iran and America has been characterized by periods of hostility and occasional diplomatic engagement, with the issue of Iran’s nuclear program adding more contention to the relationship. This issue was addressed by successive US presidents, most recently by presidents Trump and Biden, who sought to resolve the issue. However, previous studies on US-Iran relations have mainly focused on the differing attitudes of U.S. presidents towards the issue, and even studies surrounding the US discourse on Iran, including US presidential discourse, are limited to the field of linguistics, without using theories relevant to international relations. This thesis aims to fill the gap in the literature by examining the degree of securitization and/or desecuritization of the Iranian nuclear program in presidential discourses of Trump and Biden. The study is conducted by utilizing the theoretical concepts of securitization and desecuritization, as well as the method of structured focused comparison along with discourse analysis. Comparing both discourses, the result of the study showed a higher degree of securitization of the Iranian nuclear program in Trump’s discourse and a higher degree of desecuritizing the issue in Biden’s discourse. Taken together, these results add to the body of research on US-Iran relations and US discourse on Iran, deepening our understanding of the shifts in U.S. policy towards Iran's nuclear ambitions across different administrations.