Feasibility
of Studying the State of Israel’s Nuclear Ambiguity
The
Lacanian “Other,” Sensationalized Reporting, and Antisemitic Rhetoric
Sage
Maysun McCarty, Chapman University
Abstract: The
State of Israel refuses to confirm or deny whether it possesses
nuclear weapons; this apparent policy is described as “nuclear ambiguity.” Israeli nuclear ambiguity makes it difficult
to study the state’s alleged nuclear arsenal, which the international community
tends to affirm the existence of. This
project analyzes how antisemitic bias and sensationalized reporting, as
conveyed through rhetoric, influences the feasibility of accurately studying
Israeli nuclear policy. This research
pushes innovation within media analysis by drawing the ideas of multiple
theorists—Jacques Lacan, Mark Fisher, and Slavoj Žižek—into collaboration with
each other on the subject of Israeli nuclear
policy. Specifically, this project uses
Lacan’s ideas of the Symbolic, the Imaginary, and the Real, as read through Fisher and Žižek, to develop a framework to
understand media’s role in influencing collective beliefs about Israeli nuclear
policy. This venture is largely semiotic in nature, and it is interdisciplinary
through drawing on political science, media studies, peace studies, philosophy,
and Lacanian psychoanalysis. Finally,
this project develops conclusions on how researchers can study Israeli nuclear
policy, and whether it is possible to do so, given the role of media,
sensationalized reporting, and antisemitic rhetoric in the context of this
topic.
Author’s Bio: Sage
Maysun McCarty is a student in the University Honors Program at Chapman
University. She is a senior pursuing a
Bachelor of Arts in Peace Studies and Political Science. Furthermore, she is in her first year
studying military history at the graduate level in the MA in War, Diplomacy,
and Society program as an Integrated BA/MA student. She will graduate from Chapman University
with a B.A. in May 2026 and an M.A. in May 2027. You may contact her at samccarty@chapman.edu.
RESEARCH QUESTION
· How
might the insights of Lacanian psychoanalysis influence how we study Israel’s
nuclear ambiguity?[i]
THESIS
· The
idea of the Other reveals that researchers
should analyze the media that policymakers use to understand this topic.
IMPORTANCE
· Concern
for nuclear proliferation in Middle East[ii]
· Alleged
arsenal since 1960s[iii]
· Not
a signatory and/or party to main treaties on nuclear weapons[iv]
· October
2023: Hamas (funded by Iran) commits 10/07 terrorist attack
· October
2023–October 2025: Israel-Hamas War
· June
2025: USA bombs Iran
· October
2025: Ceasefire
· Below:
Iranian nuclear facility, bombed[v]
ANTISEMITIC RHETORIC[vi]
· Antisemitism
disguised as genuine criticism[vii]
· Genuine
criticism conflated with antisemitism[viii]
· Conspiracy
theories
· Implying
that non-Israeli Jews are more loyal to the Israel than to their home
governments[ix]
SENSATIONALIZED REPORTING
· Rhetoric
focused on spies and secrecy
THE REAL
· Cannot
be directly communicated or portrayed; only filtered
through symbols
· Things
that exist in physical reality[x]
· The nuclear weapons themselves
THE IMAGINARY
· Collective
understandings of the world; “the domain of appearing, of how things
· appear
to us” (Žižek, Event)[xi]
· Emerges
from collective demands to know[xii]
· Collective understandings of Israeli nuclear
policy
THE SYMBOLIC ORDER / THE
OTHER
· Also
called the big Other[xiii]
· Contains
all symbols (words and phrases)[xiv]
· Cannot
interact with the Other, but can only interact with those representing
it[xv]
· Enables
symbols to have meanings and attachments to metanarratives[xvi]
· Invoking the name of “the Mossad” invokes
metanarratives of secrecy
UNDERSTANDING THE
OTHER-IMAGINARY RELATIONSHIP
· Cybernetic process: Every output is
an input[xvii]
· Cyclical process: Collective
imaginations inform the metanarratives attached to the symbols we
use, and the use of these symbols (laden with metanarratives) influences
our collective imaginations[xviii]
· Graph
is a new contribution to Lacanian psychoanalysis and media studies
APPLICATION
· Can
only understand Israeli nuclear policy through the Other, which shapes beliefs
in the Imaginary yet is directly unreachable
· Researchers
can only interact with representatives of the Other: Journalists,
activists, PR officials—including Israeli political officials acting in a PR capacity[xix]
· Information
is twice-mediated/twice-mediatized/twice-distorted (first via officials, then
via journalists) by the time it reaches researchers[xx]
· Each
distortion adds connotations to information (conveyed through symbols)[xxi]
· Distortions
can cause sensationalized and antisemitic ideas to enter the Imaginary,
especially when they are regurgitated by researchers
CONCLUSION: CAN WE STUDY
ISRAELI NUCLEAR POLICY?
· Yes;
focus on rhetoric and how it justifies military and political power[xxii]
· To
understand how to disrupt the cycle, use dynamical systems theory[xxiii]
· Focus
on what media non-Israeli policymakers use to understand the topic
For references, please
visit https://smm-academic.neocities.org