ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the French media and Internet communications are in the process of producing a particular geopolitical perspective on the US through the interconnection of various motifs. Some of these motifs, including Divided America, Tough Campaign, and Big Difference, emphasize the internal division of the US. These motifs help defuse anti-Americanism by invalidating general comments about America or Americans. The study of geopolitical discourses therefore reveals the fault lines and points of growing tension in the world system. The tension between various groups of motifs indicates, as well, the linkage between geopolitical and topographic scales, or stated more simply, the global and the local. Jurgen Habermasian public sphere at the global scale could resurrect the elements of Kantian peace that are being erased by the emergence of a hyperpower. It would bring together diverse nationalities in a single space of citizenship.
