THE IDEOLOGY OF POWER IN UNEQUAL TREATIES

Abstract

This paper is a critical discourse analysis of the ideology of power in unequal treaties of peace. It investigates the system of ideas which expresses the interests of the powerful states with the aim discovering the ideological strategies of discourse , and the way such strategies are utilized for their interests. For this end, the study analyzes some treaties(bilateral and multilateral) drawing upon an eclectic model adopted from Fairclough's (1989) and Van Dijk's (2006). It appears that treaty participants' interests involve presenting the strategies of consensus, and reasonable justifications for concluding such agreement, as well as presupposing what the powerful participants require to achieve as something taken for granted. However, all are practiced for the purpose of power sustaining .