ORIENTALISM IN HENRY KISSINGER’S FOREIGN POLICY DISCOURSE DURING THE 1973 ARAB-ISRAELI WAR

Yıl 2022, Cilt: 23 Sayı: 4, 386 - 403, 31.12.2022

Oğuzhan Yanarışık Sabit İbrahim Akca

https://doi.org/10.53443/anadoluibfd.1134264

Öz

This article examines Henry Kissinger’s foreign policy discourse during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War through a Critical Discourse Analysis. The central theme of the article is whether Henry Kissinger had Orientalist conceptions as a decision maker in U.S. foreign policy during this event in 1973. In order to provide a theoretical framework, Critical Discourse Analysis and Edward Said’s definition of Orientalism are discussed in the first and second parts. In the last part, a Critical Discourse Analysis is utilized to uncover the ideas that Henry Kissinger, who was the main figure in the conduct of U.S. foreign policy during the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, has not expressed openly. For this purpose, official historical documents such as policy documents, memorandum of conversations, transcripts of telephone calls, meeting minutes and anecdotes regarding U.S. foreign policy decisions in the relevant period are used. As the 1973 Arab-Israeli War emerged, derogatory terms, acts of dehumanization and miscalculations are found to exist with Henry Kissinger in the decision-making processes. Thus, it is concluded that Kissinger had indeed preconceived ideas that fit Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Henry Kissinger, Orientalism, Foreign Policy Discourse, 1973 Arab-Israeli War

HENRY KISSINGER’IN 1973 ARAP-İSRAİL SAVAŞI ESNASINDAKİ DIŞ POLİTİKA SÖYLEMİNDE ORYANTALİZM

Öz

Bu makale, Henry Kissinger’ın 1973 Arap-İsrail Savaşı sırasındaki dış politika söylemini eleştirel bir söylem analizi üzerinden incelemektedir. Makalenin ana teması, 1973’teki bu olay sırasında ABD dış politikasında bir karar verici olarak Henry Kissinger’ın Oryantalist anlayışlara sahip olup olmadığıdır. Kuramsal bir çerçeve sağlamak amacıyla, birinci ve ikinci bölümlerde Eleştirel Söylem Analizi ve Edward Said’in Oryantalizm tanımı ele alınmıştır. Son bölümde ise 1973 Arap-İsrail Savaşı sırasında ABD dış politikasının yürütülmesinde ana figür olan Henry Kissinger’ın dillendirmediği fikirlerini ortaya çıkarmak amacıyla eleştirel söylem analizi kullanılmıştır. Bu amaçla ilgili dönemde ABD dış politika kararlarına ilişkin politika belgeleri, görüşme muhtıraları, telefon görüşmelerinin tutanakları, toplantı tutanakları ve anekdotlar gibi resmi tarihi belgelerden yararlanılmıştır 1973 Arap-İsrail Savaşı ortaya çıkarken karar alma süreçlerinde aşağılayıcı terimlerin, insandışılaştırmanın ve yanlış hesaplamaların Henry Kissinger ile var olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Böylelikle Kissinger’ın, Edward Said’in Oryantalizm kavramına uyan önyargılı fikirlere sahip olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Henry Kissinger, Oryantalizm, Dış Politika Söylemi, 1973 Arap-İsrail Savaşı

Kaynakça

• Bass, G. J. (2020, September). The terrible cost of presidential racism. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/03/opinion/nixon-racism-india.html.
• Blanga, U. Y. (2018). Full effort to avoid peace: the failure of the First Rogers Plan. Middle Eastern Studies, 54(6), 981–999.
• Broad, M., & Daddow, O. (2010). Half-remembered quotations from mostly forgotten speeches: The limits of Labour’s European Policy Discourse. The British Journal of Politics and International Relations, 12(2), 205–222.
• Colby, E., Cohen, A., McCants, W., Morris, B., & Rosenau, W. (2013). The Israeli “nuclear alert” of 1973: Deterrence and signaling in crisis. Virginia: Defense Technical Information Center.
• Cristante, N. (2016). How about reconstructing Orientalism? A summary and overview of Edward Said’s saturated criticism. İstanbul Üniversitesi Siyasal Bilgiler Fakültesi Dergisi, 54, 103–127.
• Dijk, T. (1999). Critical discourse analysis and conversation analysis. Discourse & Society, 10(4), 459-460. Vol. 10. No. 4. 459–460.
• Dijk, T. (2006). Politics, ideology, and discourse. In Keith Brown (Ed.), Encyclopedia of language & linguistics (p. 728-740). Boston: Elsevier.
• Dijk, T. (2015). Critical discourse analysis. In Hamilton, H., Schiffrin, D., & Tannen, D. (Eds.). The handbook of discourse analysis (p. 466-485). New York: John Wiley & Sons.
• D., Aaron. (2009). The birth and death of a Tar Baby: Henry Kissinger and Southern Africa (Unpublished master’s thesis). Faculty of the Graduate School, University of Missouri, Columbia.
• Fairclough, N., & Wodak, R. (1997). Critical discourse analysis. In T. van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse studies: A multidisciplinary introduction (Vol. 2) (p. 258-284). London: SAGE Publications.
• Ghaderinezhad, B. (2016). On the relationship between language and ideology represented in the CDA texts. International Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 1, 878-889.
• Güven, F. (2019). Criticism to Edward W. Said’s Orientalism. RumeliDE Journal of Language and Literature Studies, 15, 418-430.
• Hafez, S. (2004). Edward Said’s intellectual legacy in the Arab world. Journal of Palestine Studies, 33(3), 76-90.
• Isaacson, W. (2015). Kissinger: A biography. New York: Simon & Schuster.
• Jørgensen, M., & Phillips, L. (2002). Discourse analysis as theory and method. London: SAGE Publications.
• Kalın, İ. (2016). İslâm ve Batı. Ankara: Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı.
• Kissinger, H. (2011). White House Years. New York: Simon & Schuster.
• Larsen, H. (2013). Discourses of state identity and post-Lisbon national foreign policy: The case of Denmark. Cooperation and Conflict, 49(3), 368-385.
• Little, D. (2008). American orientalism: The United States and the Middle East since 1945. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
• Office of The Historian. (2011). Foreign relations of the United States: 1969-1976, Vol. XXV: Arab-Israeli Crisis and war, 1973. Washington: Government Printing Office.
• Ribak, G. (2010). A Jew for all seasons: Henry Kissinger, Jewish expectations, and the Yom Kippur War. Israel Studies Forum, 25(1), 1-25.
• Said, E. W. (1980). The question of Palestine. New York: Vintage Books.
• Said, E. W. (2003). Orientalism. London: Penguin Books.
• Spinder, S. (2016). The intelligence failure of the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History, 6(1), 36-54.
• Suri, J. (2008). Henry Kissinger, the American dream, and the Jewish immigrant experience in the Cold War. Diplomatic History, 32(5), 719-747.
• Tal, D. (2014). A tested alliance: The American airlift to Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Israel Studies, 19(3), 29-54.
• Utych, S. (2018). How dehumanization influences attitudes toward immigrants. Political Research Quarterly, 71(2), 440-452.
• Zeidan, S. (1984). The other Sadat. Africa Today, 31(3), 57-59.