Date of Award:

5-2015

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Political Science

Committee Chair(s)

Colin Flint

Committee

Colin Flint

Committee

Robert Nalbandov

Committee

Jennifer Peeples

Abstract

The significance of Pakistan as an international state cannot be downplayed. Not only is Pakistan the first Islamic state to develop its nuclear power, but Pakistan has served as an important geostrategic state to the US on several occasions. The US-Pakistan geopolitical relationship was most vividly highlighted during the final years of the Cold War; and has reemerged again in the Global War on Terror. This thesis will examine Pakistani-English political cartoons to examine the way US extra-territoriality is represented visually. Approximately 2940 political cartoons are collected from four Pakistani-English newspapers: Dawn, The Express Tribune, The Nation, and The News. A combination of content analysis and social semiotic analysis methodologies was applied to examine the visual rhetoric of extra-territoriality. Content analysis reveals a total of 323 US-related political cartoons, which are then classified into themes of economic, cultural, military, and political/diplomatic. A visual social semiotic analysis deconstructs the way extra-territoriality appears in the political cartoons. The outcome of these two methodologies provides a holistic illustration of the ways US extra-territoriality in a sovereign but periphery state like Pakistan is viewed.

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91dc9acd891ce0dff918cebb73609c67

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