Missionaries of Peace: The Creation of the Italian Identity in the Representation of the Political Discussion in Favor of Italy's Participation in the Iraq War in Il Corriere della Sera

Linguistics is not a traditional method used in the security studies. However, today’s world, and the information society are ever more based on texts and images. Also, both the sense of security and a threat are produced with language at the first place. For this reason, the study of a discourse used in a conflict is of vital importance. The present paper will deal with the political debate in favour of Italy’s participation in the Iraq war in the spring of 2003, as it is represented in one of Italy’s most important newspapers, Il Corriere della Sera. In using the term ‘representation’ I mean the interpretation of a given phenomenon with language. According to the method of critical linguistics elaborated by Roger Fowler, Robert Hodge and Gunther Kress, and based on the functional grammar of M.A.K. Halliday, I shall analyse the vocabulary and naming of different elements related to warfare, and transitivity; I will examine the choice of agents and affected participants and types of predicates to which they are related, as well as the argumentation strategies. In conclusion, I shall show how the representation of the Iraq war contributes to the creation of and/or emphasis on a specific national Italian identity.