Geopolitical Role Construction Through Language. A Critical Discourse Analysis of EU and US Policy Statements towards Venezuela (2017-2019)

Abstract

How can language be used to construct roles through foreign policy statements? Authors have long used discourse analysis as a method to study foreign policy. This analysis takes a social constructivist approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) to study the roles constructed by the EU and US through their policy statements towards Venezuela from 2017 to 2019. First, a literature review addresses the historical power dynamics and relations between the EU, US, and Venezuela using a triangular approach. Then, the recent relations the EU and US have had with Venezuela are layed out, particularly the policies enacted in response to the rise of Hugo Chavez and the regime of his successor, Nicolás Maduro. Twenty-one Council and twenty-three US Department of State statements released between 2017 to 2019 were chosen and analyzed using Norman Fairclough’s three-leveled approach to CDA: description (textual analysis), interpretation (processing analysis), and explanation (social analysis) in two stages. In Stage I, the EU and US statements are analyzed independently on Fairclough's first two levels. Stage II consists of a comparative social analysis on the third level, and conclusions are drawn on the roles which the EU and US have constructed through language as they relate to each other and to Venezuela. Using the discourse analysis, I present four alternative theoretical models to illustrate new interpretations of the relationships between the three.