Leiden University Student Repository

Torrente, Carola (2018)

Did He Walk The Talk? Analysing Barack Obama’s Rhetoric and Practice on Energy and Climate Change

Bachelor thesis | International Studies (BA)

The 2008 US presidential election was notable for many reasons. Concerning environmental issues, both candidates, Barack Obama for the Democrats, and John McCain for the Republicans, took distance from the Bush administration. Obama’s victory more than ever brought a sparkle of hope for change. Environmentalists both in the United States and worldwide were pleased from his first actions as president, that looked up to what he campaigned the months before. This thesis analyses Obama’s rhetoric and practice on energy and climate change from his first presidential campaign trail in 2008 until the end of his second mandate in 2016, in order to assess whether he ‘walked the talk’ on environmental matters. Moreover, it considers Obama’s position as an environmentalist, by looking at the energy security discourse and at its implications for climate change and global security.

Obama

environmental policy

climate change

securitization

green energy

Author

Torrente, Carola

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Specialisation

North America

Supervisors

Thakur, Vineet

ECTS Credits

15

Language

en