Trauma, Memory, And Rhetorical Construction In The War Declaration Speeches of Putin, Zelenskyy, Netanyahu, Abbas, And Haniyeh: A Caruthian Reading

The twenty-first century has witnessed several geopolitical conflicts characterised by extensive media coverage and strategic political communication. Yet scholarly attention focuses on collective memory and its role in shaping national identities, with limited attention to trauma as a rhetorical strategy within contemporary war speeches. This study, therefore, examines the rhetorical deployment of trauma in five war declaration speeches each delivered by Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Benjamin Netanyahu, Mahmoud Abbas, and Ismail Haniyeh. Drawing on Caruth’s Trauma Theory, the study investigated how traumatic experiences, and narratives of victimhood are strategically articulated to construct political identities, and justify military actions. Using 15 excerpts drawn from the purposively selected contemporary war speeches which were retrieved from the internet, the research explores victimisation narratives through qualitative and quantitative approaches to reveal how trauma functions not merely as a record of suffering but as a rhetorical resource through which political leaders legitimise resistance and reinforce ideological positions. The speeches recurrently invoke historical wounds, national insecurity, and existential threats to cultivate solidarity and sustain political action. The study concludes that trauma discourse occupies a central position in contemporary war rhetoric, serving as a powerful mechanism for negotiating identity, memory, power, and legitimacy within conflict situations.