Discourses of War and Peace

The goal of this volume is to explore and make sense of the overall scope, implications and consequences of shifting discourses of war, peace and neutrality across time and space, in relation to conflict-ridden geopolitical environments characterized by power struggles, political polarizations, divergent goal settings and ideological confrontations (from the Russo-Japanese war, 1904–1905, to Russia’s war against Ukraine, 2022-present). Through a broad range of cutting-edge case studies (Finland, Germany, India, Japan, Poland, Romania, Russia/Soviet Union/Russian Federation, Slovakia, Sweden, The Netherlands, Ukraine, USA), the authors go beyond mainstream studies on war and peace by challenging existing paradigms and undergoing in-depth scrutiny of discourse argumentation strategies, historical metanarratives, reflective storytelling and visual mediatization. Readers are called upon to reflect on, evaluate and discuss issues raised by questions like the following: To what extent are dogmatic and power-based discourse practices consequential in the evolution of political language and the language of international diplomacy regarding processes of war, peace and neutrality? In what ways have the mainstream and alternative news media changed the war reporting style, the audience-oriented verbal and visual communication strategies, and the emotion-triggering narratives?Reaching beyond the boundaries of pragmatics and discourse analysis, this book should be a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners of rhetoric, argumentation, media studies, history, social and political sciences.