ABSTRACT
This chapter examines political discourse intended specifically for foreign audiences, with the goal of comparing domestic and foreign discourse and examining the dialectic tensions between the two. The chapter first explains how competing demands on behalf of domestic and foreign audiences impact political discourse. We then analyze a number of examples of political discourse intended for foreign audiences, illustrating that political leaders do not tend to diverge from the discourse they have cultivated for domestic audiences, even when speaking with foreign media outlets or in foreign settings. Finally, we provide an example in which an incumbent prime minister makes an occupation normalization statement that contradicts a previous commitment made to the international community. We describe the diplomatic fallout of this message, as the resonance of the statement forces him to create a message gap and partially retract the statement.
