ABSTRACT
This chapter examines how dominant understandings of a (gendered and racialised) US 'Self' have been constructed in examples of dominant international intervention discourses in twentieth century international politics, to uncover the discursive antecedents that function to make 'War on Terror' discourse itself intelligible. The analysis begins with an examination of the concept of liberalism and its intersection with imperialism, framing the subsequent analysis of the configuration of the international system before the Cold War. Tracing the foundations of the 'liberal internationalism' that developed during and after the world wars, the chapter identifies various US approaches to intervention as (re)productive of gendered and racist presuppositions and identity predications, which discursively pre/proscribe of certain possibilities and actions. The chapter ends with an analysis of recent discourses of intervention centered on development, humanitarianism, and democratisation, focusing specifically on the first Gulf War to illustrate how long-standing constructions of 'Self' and 'Other' have been deployed in pre-'War on Terror' interventions in 'the East'.
