Re-imagining a European Public Sphere: Discursive Constructions of the 'war on Terrorism' in Britain and Germany 2001-2002

This study examines the concept and nature of public space in the European Union in the domain of foreign policy. It seeks to establish criteria for identifying the presence of a common European public sphere and assess to what extent it is possible to observe one among EU member states. Adapting ideal type conceptualisations and using insights from social theory and discourse analysis, the thesis focuses on the role and nature of communicative actors, their discursive relationships and the structural settings within which their discourses occur, in order to show whether a convergence of foreign policy discourses is occurring across national borders, and whether this convergence constitutes a locus for foreign policy debate which challenges the traditional paradigm of the nation state as the arena for public argumentation. The proposition it elaborates is that discursive convergence across national borders is a necessary but insufficient indicator of a post-national sphere: an authentic European public sphere requires in addition institutions, identity narratives and leadership rhetoric. The work presents three case studies from the 'War on Terrorism'.