President George Herbert Walker Bush’s Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the Nation

President George Herbert Walker Bush’s Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the Nation, (‘Toward a New World Order’), 11 September, 1990.

Access: http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/war/bushsr.htm

The Document Commentary provides you with an opportunity to deconstruct/analyse a key speech. Political leaders and experts use discourse to influence various groups and thereby construct a very specific approach to foreign policy making. This is often in conjunction with a major global event or international crisis. Students should aim to achieve the following:

• Provide a brief content outline

• Identify the context(s) from which the speech originates

• Analyse the speech in terms of its objectives while identifying its target audience(s)

• Consider/evaluate whether events validated the central message presented

• Demonstrate a sufficient use of academic sources to enhance the analysis

• Write in a suitably academic manner

• Be able to reference to an acceptable level using the Harvard APA system