Comparison of the America Object in the Two Iranian Presidents (Hashmi Rafsanjani and Khatami) Discourses

Subject Areas : Iranian Sociological Review

Mehrdad Navabakhsh ¹ , Ibrahim Motaghi ² , Maryam Jamshidi ³

1 - Professor of Sociology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 - Professor of Political Sciences, University of Tehran, Iran
3 - Ph.D. in Sociology, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2022-08-15 Accepted : 2022-10-15 Published : 2022-09-01

Keywords: America (U.S.), Iran, anti-Westernism, Western phobia, discourse, discourse analysis, President, Hashemi Rafsanjani, Seyed Mohammad Khatami,

Abstract :

In the post-colonial years and during years America becoming a superpower, the anti-Americanism approach compared to the Americanism approach, became more intense in the world. After the victory of the Islamic Revolution, also Iran and the United States’ relations completely changed from Americanism to anti-Americanism due to the events happened between the two countries. In this article, according to the anti-American approach of the Islamic Revolution of Iran discourse, the two presidents of Iran’s dialogue, namely Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mr. Khatami, have been analyzed in the face of America, after the imposed war. The research method used in this article is Lacla and Mofe‘s discourse analysis. According to the results of this research, Khatami's priority in his foreign policy was to seek better relations with the West, but based on mutual respect and interests. For this reason, the level of hostility of Khatami's political discourse in the face of America, like Hashemi's, was competition. Yet, the difference was that, unlike Hashemi, Khatami did not address the US government, and his main audience in this regard was the US people instead of the US government.