Imagining Conflict Through Discourse: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Hypothetical Narratives in a Projected Iran–Israel War

Abstract

This article develops a scenario-based application of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) by constructing a hypothetical case study of a projected Iran–Israel war. Rather than analyzing historical data, the study creates a fictional but plausible corpus modeled on political speeches, media reports, and international statements to examine how discourse might legitimize or delegitimize military action in such a scenario. Drawing on Fairclough’s three-dimensional CDA model, the analysis illustrates how discourses of “terrorism,” “existential threat,” and “defense” would likely dominate Western narratives, while counter-discourses of “resistance,” “occupation,” and “anti-imperialism” would characterize regional and Global South framings. By explicitly treating this as a constructed scenario, the study demonstrates the value of CDA in anticipating discursive strategies of war-making before conflicts occur. It proposes “Scenario-Based Discourse Analysis (SBDA)” as a methodological extension of CDA that enables scholars to interrogate not only how wars are represented after the fact, but also how they might be discursively framed in possible futures.