Making War and Peace with Metaphor
‘Metaphors can kill,’ wrote linguist George Lakoff, referring to the way in which political leaders employ a range of tropes to legitimate the declaration and conduct of war. They slip and slide amongst metaphors evoking the domains of: personal assault (‘the rape of Kuwait’), domestic life (‘homeland security’), sport and other pastimes (the ‘arms race’ and the ‘domino effect’), economics (‘the cost in human lives’), medicine (‘surgical strikes’) etc etc.
With the use of such metaphors, national leaders frame situations, events and policies, however briefly, not only for home and international audiences, but even for themselves. (George W. Bush’s use of the term ‘crusade’ for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, though quickly withdrawn, doubtless revealed much about one facet of his motivation in seeking war.) As Kenneth Burke pointed out long ago, in the process of illuminating certain features, metaphor will always tend to conceal or suppress others.
International relations experts may unwittingly collude in the propagation of simplistic metaphorical frames, from such domains as physics (‘balance of power,’ which promotes a mechanistic vision of international affairs) , and drama (political ‘actors,’ a ‘theatre of war,’ metaphors which imply the unreality of the suffering experienced by all those caught up in a military conflict).
Recently, international relations scholars bringing feminist, peace studies, and mediation perspectives to the field have insisted on the need for more critical analysis of the use of metaphor in both the practice and the theory of international relations, with attention both to uncovering the concealed meanings in conventional conflict metaphors and the creative potential offered by fresh metaphors.
This paper employs techniques deriving from literary studies to contribute to this endeavour.
Co-ordinator of Comparative Literature Programme, University of Auckland. Author of 'The Power of the Story: Fiction and Political Change' (Providence and Oxford: Berghahn, 1995), and editor of a book and accompanying DVD, 'Creativity in Exile' (New York and Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2004), of papers and creative works from an international conference at Auckland.