The Concept of Freedom in the Context of the War on Terror: A Comparative Study of the European Union and the United States Rhetoric

Abstract: Language is a powerful tool in the creation of social identities. This work analyses the security policy discourses of two major actors in world politics: the European Union and the United States. The material is composed of security documents of both actors ranging from the time before the 9/11 terrorist attacks to present day. Discourse analysis, especially its Foucauldian strand emphasising the structural power of language, is used to analyse the material. The work places its main focus on the analysis of the term freedom; its occurrence, significance and evolution in the security policy discourse. The contemporary security discourse of the U.S. emerges from the politico-ideological frames of liberalism and neo-liberalism. In the EU, freedom has traditionally been understood as the freedom of movement. Since the beginning of the War on Terror in 2001, the EU and the U.S. have used an increasingly offensive language in their security rhetoric. The discourses of both actors converge over the period of study and rely increasingly on the self / other opposition whereby freedom is conceptually opposed to terrorism.