Political Prioritization: American-Iranian Discourse Leading Up to the Nuclear Deal
Abstract
On July 14, 2015, Iran, the European Union, and the P5 +1, the five permanent members of the United Nations’ Security Council—Paris, the United Kingdom, the United States, Russia, and China—plus Germany, agreed on and signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The JCPA, a nuclear deal, agreed to lift economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for strict monitoring of Iran’s nuclear program. This research conducts a qualitative discourse analysis by using UN General Assembly Debate speeches from 2001 to 2015, and illustrates which key elements within these speeches made way for this negotiation to take place. More specifically, the use of Iran’s religious rhetoric—exemplified through Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—and the U.S.’s hostile language—exemplified through George Bush—both had implications on U.S.-Iran nuclear relations; similarly, language within these speeches revealed Barack Obama’s approach to diplomacy and prioritization of the nuclear deal and Iran, along with Hassan Rouhani’s willingness to emphasize the economic sanctions’ negative impact on everyday Iranians. Therefore, through the use of these speeches, this research reveals the implications of language on Iranian-American relations and how these implications have varied in accordance with specific presidential worldviews.
