Classic texts stay relevant. They’re ability to appeal to a wide range of audiences gives the text a dominant and famous position in society. To be intellectually and fundamentally captivating is what most texts in International Relations aim to achieve once published but only the intellectual landmark texts are recognised and acknowledged. Barack Obama, the new president at the time, delivered a speech at Cairo University in Egypt in some fashion. Undoubtedly, Obama’s linguistic use is very tasteful and versatile in which it could be said that his speeches will be, more than likely, captivating. However, in this essay I will be analysing if this speech can be considered a classic text in the International Relations society. In the first section
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Out of the five types of classic named by Bliddal, Sylvest and Wilson, ‘A New Beginning’ can be classified as the ‘classic in the making’ because Obama’s speech shows signs of ‘disciplinary impact’ (Bliddal, Sylvest and Wilson, 2013, pg. 5). What I can draw from this phrase is that the speech provides a concern for the International Relations world. The speech can engage with the discipline, which causes the ideas of many to ask questions and create room for debate. Consequently, Obama checks off another characteristic of the ‘classic’ text checklist by starting to become and stay relevant with the issue at hand; the broken relationship between America and the Muslim world. Moreover, the president goes on to acknowledge the influence of the Muslim people on the Western world, “as a student of history, I also know civilisations debt to Islam.” Obama touches on the history of the Muslim people to remind them and the American people of their contribution to developing “learning, navigation and algebra.” Ultimately, this is another theme exposed in Obama’s speech and this is how the Muslim people enrich America. The objective of this speech is to rejuvenate the people of Islam and America, to end their feud and reunite together. Effectively, Obama is softening up the Muslim people by promoting and acknowledging their influences that have …show more content…
Using the personal pronoun “we” repeatedly in his speech, Obama is emphasising one of the themes in this speech, which is unity. However, those he refers to as ‘we’ are those who rebuke the killing of innocent men, women and children. As stated in Bliddal, Sylvest and Wilson’s critique of classics in IR (2013), the book goes on to say that “a number of classic works also aspire to bring different mainstream approaches.” #in relation to Obama’s speech, the mainstream approaches could be America and Islam coming together to stop al-Qaeda. Obama is aspiring to bring peace and trust between the American and Muslim people. This arguably makes Obama’s speech a step closer to becoming a ‘classic’ because now the speech starts to consider what the audience thinks and what the IR spectrum think also. Political peace arguably is something most people in the IR community deem to be important when attempting to make a ‘classic’ text. By doing so, this leads Obama into stressing the responsibility al-Qaeda had for 9/11, “let us be clear, al-Qaeda killed 3,000 people on that day” this is to ensure the Muslim people are not fooled by the rumours that were circulating in the political world that the US government planned 9/11 to frame al-Qaeda. On the other hand, Obama wants to clarify that “America is not and never will be at war with
Out of the five types of classic named by Bliddal, Sylvest and Wilson, ‘A New Beginning’ can be classified as the ‘classic in the making’ because Obama’s speech shows signs of ‘disciplinary impact’ (Bliddal, Sylvest and Wilson, 2013, pg. 5). What I can draw from this phrase is that the speech provides a concern for the International Relations world. The speech can engage with the discipline, which causes the ideas of many to ask questions and create room for debate. Consequently, Obama checks off another characteristic of the ‘classic’ text checklist by starting to become and stay relevant with the issue at hand; the broken relationship between America and the Muslim world. Moreover, the president goes on to acknowledge the influence of the Muslim people on the Western world, “as a student of history, I also know civilisations debt to Islam.” Obama touches on the history of the Muslim people to remind them and the American people of their contribution to developing “learning, navigation and algebra.” Ultimately, this is another theme exposed in Obama’s speech and this is how the Muslim people enrich America. The objective of this speech is to rejuvenate the people of Islam and America, to end their feud and reunite together. Effectively, Obama is softening up the Muslim people by promoting and acknowledging their influences that have …show more content…
Using the personal pronoun “we” repeatedly in his speech, Obama is emphasising one of the themes in this speech, which is unity. However, those he refers to as ‘we’ are those who rebuke the killing of innocent men, women and children. As stated in Bliddal, Sylvest and Wilson’s critique of classics in IR (2013), the book goes on to say that “a number of classic works also aspire to bring different mainstream approaches.” #in relation to Obama’s speech, the mainstream approaches could be America and Islam coming together to stop al-Qaeda. Obama is aspiring to bring peace and trust between the American and Muslim people. This arguably makes Obama’s speech a step closer to becoming a ‘classic’ because now the speech starts to consider what the audience thinks and what the IR spectrum think also. Political peace arguably is something most people in the IR community deem to be important when attempting to make a ‘classic’ text. By doing so, this leads Obama into stressing the responsibility al-Qaeda had for 9/11, “let us be clear, al-Qaeda killed 3,000 people on that day” this is to ensure the Muslim people are not fooled by the rumours that were circulating in the political world that the US government planned 9/11 to frame al-Qaeda. On the other hand, Obama wants to clarify that “America is not and never will be at war with