This thesis aims at assessing the US rhetorical response in terms of democracy promotion to the events of the Arab Uprising, with a particular focus on the political transitions started in Egypt...Show moreThis thesis aims at assessing the US rhetorical response in terms of democracy promotion to the events of the Arab Uprising, with a particular focus on the political transitions started in Egypt after 2011. Given the long history the mutual interests between the US and Egypt, the study conducts a throughout discourse analysis on the US statements and speeches delivered in the period 2011-2014, using the method of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). The analysis identifies three major narratives displayed by the US narrative, namely democracy promotion, regional stability/US-Egypt partnership and security interests, in order to understand how the discourses came together in the US rhetoric. More specifically, the thesis contends that, after an initial cautious support for the Egyptian democratization, the Obama administration increased the narrative on democracy promotion in 2011 and 2012, while associating it to the regional stability discourse. However, after the initial democracy euphoria displayed in the first two years after the revolution, the exam of the documents seems to reveal a notable prioritization of the security narrative in 2013 and 2014, especially with reference to counterterrorism practices and regional security. Finally, the thesis underlines the presence of a tension between the democracy promotion and the fostering of security objectives which worsened after the ouster of Morsi in July 2013.Show less