What Did They Say? What Did They Mean? Interpreting US Policies through Presidents’ Discourses at Historical Landmarks in Europe: A Study of Democracy Attributes

This study investigates how US Presidents addressed the attributes of democracy in their speeches at critical European sites and historical breakpoints. The aim is to analyze the content of the speeches and determine whether there is a change in the emphasis on attributes related to the use of force. By examining projections related to force use, the study seeks to identify traces of US policies for the future of the Russian-Ukrainian War. Three speeches were selected for analysis: Reagan’s (1987) and Clinton’s (1994) Brandenburg’s speeches, and Biden’s (2022) Warsaw speech. They were analyzed using the attributes of global democracy indices through the Maxqda program. The findings indicate that the focused attributes of democracy and the overall comprehensiveness of attributes have changed over time. In summary, the analysis reveals that the frequency of the code ‘force’ in Clinton’s and Reagan’s speeches has shifted to the code ‘power’ in Biden’s speech. This suggests that the potential military power for deterrence may be strengthened, yet it is not intended for physical deployment in the Russian-Ukrainian war as a means of force.