Presidential Doctrines and Foreign Affairs Magazine: The Articulation of Anti Communist Discourse in Foreign Policy Opinion of the American Elite from Kennan to Kissinger

Abstract

Poststructuralist IR theory argues that knowledge constitutes an important aspect in legitimization of foreign policy-making. Consequently, legitimization is based upon production of knowledge through intellectual practices. Moreover, legitimization becomes an important aspect in the process of production due to the need for justification of state actions concerning security issues by any means necessary. Therefore, in accordance with poststructuralist approach towards international relations, main argument of this study is that there is a relationship between foreign policy-making in the United States and production of knowledge by American elite under the framework of anti communist discursive practices. Anti communist discursive practices constitute the ground of this production since communist ideology is the anti-thesis of American ideology and consequently, it is the primary security concern for the United States in post-war years. As for communist ideology’s entity as primary security concern, it derives from both domestic structure of the United States, which based upon its ideology and its attributed entitlement as the defender and promoter of American ideology on behalf of Western values in international scale. Thus, this study aims to examine articulation of anti communism in American foreign policy in accordance with American ideology and its relation with foreign policy opinion of American elites. On this basis, in this study, intertextual analysis will be conducted upon presidential doctrines from 1947 to 1979 and articles in Foreign Affairs magazine within the period from beginning of the Cold War until the end of Détente Period of the Cold War.