The Serendipitous Sail Along the Hegemonic Trail: Discerning American Exceptionalism in U.S. Foreign Policy by Studying the Political Use of the Concept of Freedom

Abstract: The primacy of hegemonic structures that shape political processes is relevant to purvey an extensive grasp of which central power dynamic is in effect. The United States has a significant role in the international context and frequently incurs the attention of the world when dealing with issues of global nature. This paper studies how American Exceptionalism, a tendency on the U.S. part to view international norms of restriction as superfluous to its engagements, is circumscribed when analyzing how the political concept of freedom is used in publicly conveyed foreign policy. Freedom is studied from the point of explanatory idea approach and critical discourse analysis to elucidate the hegemonic precepts that function as a instructional preamble to propel American Exceptionalism on the international stage. The paper disassembles freedom on a formal level and structural level to unveil the interplay between the material and discursive spheres, and finds that American Exceptionalism encompasses a normative arrangement that zealously ensures that the hegemonic determinants are not precluded. The political vying for public support exerts attrition upon the masses that are rendered disenchanted and passive, and transfers functional control to a minority regime serving special interests.