Performing Prudence: Barack Obama’s Defense of NSA Surveillance Programs

Advances in the History of Rhetoric Jan 2017

Performing Prudence: Barack Obama’s Defense of NSA Surveillance Programs

Svilen Veselinov Trifonov

Abstract

ABSTRACT With this essay, I present an argument about the performative and perceptual nature of prudence. I support my argument through a case study in which I examine Barack Obama’s response to Edward Snowden’s unauthorized disclosures about NSA surveillance programs as a way to observe prudence in practice. In my analysis, I identify three ways in which Obama performed prudence. First, he established his image as a prudent and informed leader. Second, he established surveillance as a prudent and historically effective practice ensuring national security. Third, he established the contemporary policy of surveillance as a prudent and deliberate choice reached through discussion and participation by all citizens.

Journal: Advances in the History of Rhetoric
Published: 2017-01-02
DOI: 10.1080/15362426.2016.1271752
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Topics: qualitative research multimodality

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Cites in this index (1)

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Rhetoric Society Quarterly

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Inventing Authority: Bill Clinton, Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Orchestration of Rheto…

Quarterly Journal of Speech ↗
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The Contested Space of Prudence in the 1874–1875 Civil Rights Debate

Quarterly Journal of Speech ↗

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