A un anno dal sogno. Politica e comunicazione dell'amministrazione Obama. a cura di Elena Acuti e Debora Spini

  Mario Del Pero, Obama's foreign politics: one year after the elections.

The essay examines the first year of the foreign policy of the Obama administration. It concentrates in particular on Obama’s attempt to confront some of the limits of the hegemony of the United States for how it has been redefined and reasserted in the past thirty years. The essay discusses the peculiarities and contradictions of this hegemony, and the necessity for the United States to rethink some of the basic axioms of its foreign policy.

Martina De Siervo, Barack Obama’s rethorical strategies – some speeches on foreign policy

The essay attempts to highlight President Obama’s principal international political strategies, inferred from a few foreign policy speeches delivered during his trips to Europe and Africa. In addition, the essay discusses the communicative strategies used on these occasions.
At the same time, these speeches have been analyzed according to the theories of American linguist George Lakoff. Lakoff affirms that in Us political jargon, a metaphor of “nation as family” is largely used. Even taking into consideration that these models represent an evident simplification of reality, the essay identifies many factors that point to a connection between President Obama’s language and the model of the “caring parent”.

Margherita Fontanella, Obama’s political communication: strategies and rhetorics from electoral campaign to presidency

A wide distance separates Obama as the candidate of a tough election campaign and Obama as the president of the United States, close to his first year of mandate. Deep changes in his communicative manner became evident immediately after the election, both on his oratory - the accents and forms of his inauguration speech - and his approach to the citizens.

This essay focuses upon this first phase of Obama's mandate and the models of political communication which the new president has adopted.