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The subject of this bachelor thesis in political science has been to study how populistic rhetoric has evolved as a political phenomenon. The study has more specifically researched how presidential candidates have used populism in presidential debates. The bachelor thesis also studied if populistic rhetoric has changed over a time period between 1960 to 2016. To be able to study this, the essay has used critical discourse analysis to develop and understand how populism works. Ernesto Laclau’s On Populist Reason has also been used to create three models of understanding populism to develop the essays framework.  Through this the study has found that populistic rhetoric has come to be used more frequently in presidential debates. The study has also found that populistic rhetoric has changed form into a more aggressive style of rhetoric targeting the opponent’s character instead of the individual’s style of politics.

The thesis analyzes how the administrations of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush used force in response to incidents of international terrorism. Key players in each administration and whether they advocated a law enforcement approach or a war paradigm approach to counterterrorism are examined. In addition, Koh's pattern of executive initiative, congressional acquiescence, and judicial tolerance forms a theoretical lens through which to compare and contrast administrations. An assessment of the role of Congress in making the administrations' counterterrorism policies confirms the vitality of this pattern, and suggests future administrations will adhere to it. During the George W. Bush administration, Koh's pattern of executive initiative (led by personalities like Vice President Cheney), congressional acquiescence, and judicial tolerance combined with the 9/11 tragedy and pervasive fears of another attack to create a 'perfect storm' known as the 'war on terror'. The research also analyzes to what extent the four administrations were constrained by international legal norms on the use of force, i.e. articles 2(4) and 51 of the UN Charter. On the domestic side, the thesis analyzes the extent to which American legal norms on the use of force constrained the administrations. Although the lack of compelling constraints on the use of force is present in all four administrations, the thesis indicates that the George W. Bush administration embodied an extreme example of this trend.

This diplomatic and military history offers a new interpretation of the origins of the three fighting fronts during the final phase of the Cold War in Angola, Central America, and Afghanistan. Vaguely remembered today as proxy wars on the periphery, in fact, these were protracted revolutionary civil wars and regional contests for the balance of power in which millions died, while at the same time they were central to global superpower confrontation. Analysis focuses on the strategy and policy of the United States. The chronology from 1975 to 1982 covers the Ford administration's covert action intervention in the Angolan Civil War, which came to grief at the hands of Cuban troops; Jimmy Carter's effort to conduct foreign policy based on principles, which ran foul of power considerations in Angola, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Afghanistan; and Ronald Reagan's embrace of these wars early in his first term as part of the revival of U.S. strength in its competition with the Soviet Union. The principal argument is that, while generally undervalued as controversial small wars of dubious significance, these wars were in fact integral to U.S. experience of limited war during the Cold War following victory in World War II. In strategic terms, the main conclusion is that the U.S. restricted itself to conducting economy of force contingency operations in Angola, Central America, and Afghanistan as a result of its costly struggles in Korea and Vietnam. Despite declaring these peripheral wars to be central to the Cold War, avoiding the costs of involving U.S forces directly in Third World conflicts and minimizing the risks of escalation with the Soviet Union were overriding political and military imperatives.

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<p>Splatterpunk was a short-lived, but explosive horror literary movement birthed in the 1980’s that utilized graphic depictions of violence in its prose. Drawing parallels to other subversive and radical art movements like Dada and Hardcore Punk, this paper examines through a Marxist lens how Splatterpunk, influenced by the destructive nature of 1980’s neoliberalism, reflected the violence, categorized as direct and structural, of its period of creation and used extreme vulgarity as an act of rebellion against traditional horror canon.</p>

This thesis explores the social criticism expressed in the two films Gremlins (Joe Dante, USA,1984) and Gremlins 2: The New Batch (Joe Dante, USA, 1990) and how the films criticizeUS-consumer culture in the Reagan Era, addressing the wide-spread economic problems.To find an answer I have asked the following questions; in what way do the Gremlins filmsexpress social criticism, what are the threats and what functions do they have and has socialcriticism developed between the films and if so how? My hypothesis is that through anallegorical story, Dante attacks the capitalist society, and he does so by letting gremlins,monsters that previously attacked the machines of the allied forces during World War II,destroy the safe society that the Reagan advocated. The home, the finances and even SantaClaus himself, no one is safe from Dante's criticism.The films also reflect the fear of the unknown, such as the Soviet Union, the Asian market andthe African American population. In this thesis I arguethat the films, rather than perpetuatingthis fear, criticize it in the hope that some form of consensus can be created. I have alsodiscovered that the creatures in the movies reflect desire, greed and violence, and I believethat Dante may well want to tell us that the very thing that separates us from becomingGremlins which will lead to our total destruction is our desire to be better than them. If thatwill doesn’t exist inside us, consumption and fear will not disappear, but instead increase. Ihope my analysis of Gremlins and Gremlins 2: The New Batch will provide a broaderperspective on the genre. Because if two simple monster movies have been shown to criticizeseveral major societal problems in American society, what more overlooked horror movieshave done the same thing and deserve to be discussed?

In master thesis "U.S. Foreign Policy under Ronald Reagan: Strategic Defense Initiative and disarmament process" is analysed development of the Strategic Defense Initiative and consequent disarmament process in the second half of 1980's. At the beginning of the thesis it is mentioned a stadium of disarmament by the end of 1970's, but the main attention focuses on the Ronald Reagan's presidential administration, when the development of the SDI started. Master thesis also analyses disarmament dialogue among representatives of the United States and the Soviet Union, which started in Geneva in 1985, and continued in Reykjavik, Washington, and Moscow.

Costa Rica embodies many of the characteristics which the United States would like to foster in Central America and elsewhere. In recent years, however, misunderstandings have often been present in the development of relations between both nations, and leaders. These differences have been particularly visible between Presidents Reagan and Arias when carrying out their foreign policies towards Central America. Recent developments in warfare, social and political unrest and economic crises in the region added to the emergence of a Central American political leadership--independent of U.S. decision making-have increased international misunderstandings between both political speakers. These misunderstandings are shown by Reagan and Arias' through their public discourses which have revealed deterioration in communication and cooperation between them. Since Reagan and Arias come from different cultures, their values are different, making it difficult for the two men to communicate effectively. Towards discovering the differences m cultural values underlying arguments between them, this study uses the Toulmin model to provide a critical and interpretative analysis of the exchange of political arguments from both leaders concerning Central America. Data were collected from public discourses by Reagan and Arias. An intercultural communication perspective is then used to assess the effects of the arguments on international understanding. This research was successful in isolating a number of political arguments concerning Reagan and Arias' respective policies toward Central America, it revealed consistently different underlying cultural values. These differences in cultural values may affect the mutual understanding between the two political leaders, since their discourses did not acknowledge each other's cultural values or patterns of thinking. At the core of Reagan and Arias' disagreements is the ethnocentric assumption that each is similar to the other. This assumption is not a recommended strategy for intercultural interaction. Because of the novelty of this type of interdisciplinary interpretative research, the results can not be compared adequately with previous research on values in public discourse. Further investigation in this area should support the worth of studying political argumentation from the combines approaches of rhetorical analysis and intercultural communication.