First Advisor

Safia Farole

Term of Graduation

Summer 2025

Date of Publication

7-30-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (M.S.) in Political Science

Department

Political Science

Language

English

Subjects

Communication Studies, Historical Analysis, International Conflict Studies, Propaganda Studies, Public Relations Studies

Physical Description

1 online resource (iv, 133 pages)

Abstract

In the build-up to war, national governments utilize propaganda to gather public support for the war effort. In some instances, propaganda campaigns are conducted but war does not occur. This begs the question as to why war follows propaganda campaigns in some cases, but not in others. I argue that propaganda efforts that lead to war can be generally characterized through three major strategies based on a patriotic participatory social structure, a claim to moral authority, and the blending of individual concepts of the state, government and nation. In this study, I analyze the major historical case studies of the Spanish-American war, Imperial Japan, the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, the U.S-Soviet Union Cold War confrontation, and the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan to study the relationship between propaganda and war. I use a qualitative content analysis methodology to analyze pro-war statements from politicians, military officials and media leaders to determine the similarities and differences in the language, ideology and framing strategies used in various cases of international conflict. In cases where propaganda campaigns lead to war, I find that appeals based on moral authority, citizen-state participation and the merging of independent notions of statehood, cultural heritage and shared national history are employed by national governments and reiterated by mainstream media. In cases where war did not occur, such as the Cold War and the Kashmir dispute between Indian and Pakistan, the introduction of nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction influenced propaganda messaging in a particular manner that discouraged direct intense hostilities in favor of promoting lower intensity conflicts. The findings from this study show that propaganda campaigns continue to have relevance in shaping global conflicts.

Rights

© 2025 Ike Sugitani

In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

Persistent Identifier

https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/44105

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