Examining U.S. propaganda on the perception of terrorism in international relations after 9/11 within the context of fear appeals

ABSTRACT This thesis examines how the United States (U.S.), following the September 11, 2001 attacks, shaped the perception of terrorism in international relations through discourse, and how it utilized propaganda based on fear appeal within this context. The focus of the study is the speeches delivered by U.S. President George W. Bush at the United Nations General Assembly — the primary platform through which he addressed the global public. The first and second chapters address the historical development and definitions of the concepts of propaganda and terrorism. The third chapter analyzes the concept of fear appeal and its principal theoretical models — the Drive Reduction Model, Parallel Response Model, Protection Motivation Theory, Extended Parallel Process Model, and the Stage Model. Subsequently, the methodology of the study — critical discourse analysis — is explained, followed by an analysis of Bush's United Nations General Assembly speeches using this method. In these speeches, Bush aimed to persuade other nations to adopt the "War on Terror" doctrine and to legitimize the military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq. The analysis indicates that the fear appeal strategies employed in his discourse were relatively effective in the short term; however, when not grounded in solid theoretical and ethical foundations, they tended to generate legitimacy challenges in the long term. Keywords: Fear Appeal, Propaganda, Critical Discourse Analysis, George W. Bush, Legitimacy, War on Terror, September 11, United Nations, Terrorism, Afghanistan and Iraq Interventions, International Relations.