The Islamic World and the Myth of American Ideal in the U.S. Foreign Policy

Following the September 11 attacks and its subsequent developments, concentration on fundamentalism in the U.S. foreign policy has become more evident and the Manichean Polarization of the world into good and evil has formed the basis of the agenda for the fight against terrorism. In this agenda, the Islamic world is constructed as the fundamentalist "other" and with the assumption of the existence of a fundamentalist agent threatening the U.S. interests and identity, political positions are oriented against it. Given the central role of identity in determining the patterns of friendship and animosity or "self" and "other", the main question of this article is that how American ideal myth can influence the construction of the fundamentalist "other". The authors claim that "American ideal" as a mythical symbol in the identity of the U.S. foreign policy can construct national identity and representation of identity and difference, on the one hand, and inspire foreign policies or represent an event on the other. In this framework, the fundamentalist "other" and American ideal can help preserve identity and status quo, become the axis of discursive procedures, or construct the processes of inclusion and exclusion on the basis of the U.S. identity and national interests