The Great Nation of Futurity

Book excerpt: The Great Nation of Futurity is situated within the discourse and ideology of American exceptionalism which has undergirded the nation's identity throughout its history. It draws out the temporal dimension of the exceptionalist ideology, namely the construal of America as the "great nation of futurity," and examines how this identity manifests linguistically and functions rhetorically in Cold War foreign policy discourse. Working within a critical discourse analytic framework, Patricia L. Dunmire examines the space-times construed within foreign policy discourse and demonstrates that these consistently position the United States in a privileged position vis-à-vis the future. This positioning, in turn, sanction a foreign policy approach focused on global future design.