Beyond the Cold War: Presidential Rhetoric in Central and Eastern Europe(50 Frontiers in Political Communication)

Shortlisted for The International Journal of Press/Politics Hazel Gaudet-Erskine Best Book Award (2025) Most books about presidential rhetoric focus on the United States. Few American communication scholars concentrate on Central and Eastern Europe. Media pundits and scholars alike framed this region as a place used for the United States’ or Russia’s Cold War ends—even after the Cold War ended. Beyond the Cold War: Presidential Rhetoric in Central and Eastern Europe brings scholars from Central and Eastern Europe and the United States together to study presidential rhetoric to make a compelling case for treating the leaders of the region with their own agency, rather than as agents of others. As postcolonial agents, leaders in the region have taken contrasting positions, avoiding the influence of post-Soviet politics and the pull toward westernization. Chapters offer insight into the connections and influence of presidential rhetoric in Central and Eastern Europe to contextualize and better understand how the rhetoric has either helped or hindered the development of democratic principles in the region many decades past the period of the "transition." This book contributes to the understanding of international rhetoric by studying leaders and exchanges in which they meet—in state visits or as candidates debating. This book will be an invaluable resource for students of rhetoric and scholars interested in the communication of presidents in Central and Eastern Europe. "Beyond the Cold War lives up to its title. This collection of smart, insightful, and liberatory studies of Eastern Europe in the rhetorical imaginary of assorted presidents dispenses with outdated frameworks and, instead, takes these nations on their own terms. As these nations assert an ever more important role in international affairs, this book will become indispensable to those who want to understand their history and discourse." — John M. Murphy, Professor, Dept. of Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Table of Contents:
List of Figures – List of Tables – Acknowledgments – Rebecca M. Townsend: Introduction: Centering Conversations on Presidential Rhetoric in Central and Eastern Europe – Cezar M. Ornatowski: Reinventing the Polish Presidency: Lech Wałęsa and the Political Imaginary of Post–1989 Poland – Agnieszka Kampka/Ewa Modrzejewska: Sources of National Pride: Ceremonial Rhetoric of Polish Presidents – Svilen V. Trifonov/Nadezhda Sotirova: Political Prudence in Times of Protest: The Rhetoric of Bulgaria’s President Rumen Radev – Marta Natalia Lukacovic: President Zuzana Čaputová and Her Discourse Surrounding Contemporary Security Threats – Andrew C. Jones: Locating Lithuania in President Dalia Grybauskaitė’s Annual State of the Nation Addresses 2010–2014 – Adriana Cordali: Ceaus,escu’s Cult of Personality and the Visual Rhetoric of the Presidential Portrait – Gábor Pál: From Archetypes to Prototypes, from Prototypes to Strategic Public Identity: Constructing the Persona of a Proper Political Leader – Anna Bendrat/Agnieszka Budzyńska-Daca: Closing Statements as Rhetorical Subgenre in Pre-election Debates in Poland and the United States – Alena L. Vasilyeva: Affordances and Constraints of Election Debate Formats – Ralph Frasca/Mary L. Kahl: Constructive Cooperation between "Men of Good Will": Richard Nixon’s 1969 Romanian Rhetoric and Press Reaction at Home and Abroad – Rebecca M. Townsend: Trump Addressing Warsaw and the Wider "West" – Menno H. Reijven: "Serving as an Example": Democracy as a Key Symbol in Obama’s Presidential Speeches in Poland – Timothy Barney: The Post-Cold War American Presidency and the Rhetorical Life of Václav Havel – Agnieszka Budzyńska-Daca/Anna Bendrat/Marta Natalia Lukacovic, Agnieszka Kampka/Adriana Cordali/Andrew C. Jones/Rebecca M. Townsend: Epilogue: A Reflection Forward on President Zelenskyy and Ukraine – Notes on Contributors – Index.

About the Author :
Rebecca M. Townsend (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, M.A., Indiana University) is an associate professor of communication at the University of Hartford and a scholar of rhetoric and ethnography.

Review :
“The emergence of the institution of the presidency, albeit in different constitutional forms, has marked Central and Eastern Europe’s detachment from the legacies of communist rule. This edited collection puts scholars rooted in the region in a productive conversation with the Western tradition of presidential rhetorical studies. The essays bring forth novel and nuanced insights into the role of presidential rhetoric in the region’s transformation, demonstrating its renewed relevance on the global political stage.” —Zornitsa Keremidchieva, Assistant Professor of Communication Studies, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities “A comprehensive set of perspectives on presidential rhetoric on and from Eastern and Central Europe that creates an important collection of historic public discourse in the area. Well documented, providing well-rounded scholarship, the book makes a major contribution to the study of presidential rhetoric and its complex constructs of political style in communist and post-communist contexts.” —Noemi Marin, Professor of Rhetoric, Florida Atlantic University, USA “Beyond the Cold War lives up to its title. This collection of smart, insightful, and liberatory studies of Eastern Europe in the rhetorical imaginary of assorted presidents dispenses with outdated frameworks and, instead, takes these nations on their own terms. As these nations assert an ever more important role in international affairs, this book will become indispensable to those who want to understand their history and discourse.” —John M. Murphy, Professor, Dept. of Communication, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign “This edited volume on presidential rhetoric in post-Soviet Central and Eastern Europe features a set of clearly and crisply written chapters that provide theoretically informed analyses and critiques of political discourse in Poland, Romania, Belarus, Lithuania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovakia—places beyond the reach of rhetorical scholarship not so long ago. It examines presidential rhetoric building national identity, modeling prudential leadership, and more. We also witness Trump in Warsaw abetting a racist right-wing nationalism and end with Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s emergence as a heroic symbol of democracy.” —Robert L. Ivie, Professor Emeritus, English (Rhetoric) and American Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington