TY - JOUR
T1 - The ‘War on Terror’ frame and Washington Post’s linking of the Sierra Leone Civil War to 9/11 and al-Qaeda: Implications for US foreign policy in Africa
AU - Shaw, Ibrahim
PY - 2012/4
Y1 - 2012/4
N2 - The Washington Post's linking of the `blood diamond trade' carried out by Sierra Leone's rebel movement, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), to al-Qaeda published after the 9/11 terrorist attacks signalled a major shift in US foreign policy from that of withdrawal from to engagement in African crises, albeit because of geo-strategic national security interests rather than for global justice. Using quantitative content and critical discourse analyses, this article aims to demonstrate the resonance between this `War on Terror' frame and the subsequent summoning of the author of the article, Douglas Farrah, to testify before Congress, and how this served as a wake-up call for the United States not to abandon Africa since its `ill-fated sortie' in the wake of the failure of `Operation Restore Hope' in Somalia in 1992. The article concludes with a brief critical reflection on the implications of this `War on Terror' frame that contributed to a shift from withdrawal from to engagement with Africa for the mediation of conflict and global justice.
AB - The Washington Post's linking of the `blood diamond trade' carried out by Sierra Leone's rebel movement, the Revolutionary United Front (RUF), to al-Qaeda published after the 9/11 terrorist attacks signalled a major shift in US foreign policy from that of withdrawal from to engagement in African crises, albeit because of geo-strategic national security interests rather than for global justice. Using quantitative content and critical discourse analyses, this article aims to demonstrate the resonance between this `War on Terror' frame and the subsequent summoning of the author of the article, Douglas Farrah, to testify before Congress, and how this served as a wake-up call for the United States not to abandon Africa since its `ill-fated sortie' in the wake of the failure of `Operation Restore Hope' in Somalia in 1992. The article concludes with a brief critical reflection on the implications of this `War on Terror' frame that contributed to a shift from withdrawal from to engagement with Africa for the mediation of conflict and global justice.
KW - `War on Terror' frame
KW - Sierra Leone
KW - United States
KW - blood diamonds
KW - al-Qaeda
KW - war
KW - terrorism
U2 - 10.1386/jams.4.1.27_1
DO - 10.1386/jams.4.1.27_1
M3 - Article
VL - 4
SP - 27
EP - 44
JO - Journal of African Media Studies
JF - Journal of African Media Studies
SN - 2040-199X
IS - 1
ER -