Randall Fowler Wins the National Communication Association's Roderick P. Hart Outstanding Book Award

November 12, 2026 | by uscpress

The National Communication Association’s Political Communication Division selected Securing the Prize: Presidential Metaphor and US Intervention in the Persian Gulf by Randall Fowler for the 2026 Roderick P. Hart Outstanding Book Award.

From the 1970s to the 1990s American presidents and their advisers introduced four metaphors into foreign-policy discourse that taught Americans to view the Persian Gulf as a vulnerable region and site of US responsibility on the world stage. In Securing the Prize, Randall Fowler argues that, for half a century, metaphor has been central to defining America's role in the Middle East. Metaphors served as shorthand for presidents to promote their policies, filtering through the judgments of officials, journalists, experts, and critics to mediate American perceptions of the Gulf War. Tracing the use of security metaphors from President Richard Nixon to President George W. Bush, Fowler revises mainstream understandings regarding the origins of the War on Terror and explains the disconnect between skeptical public attitudes toward US involvement in the Gulf War and the heavy American military footprint in the region.

Fowler will be honored at NCA’s annual convention November 19-22, 2026, in New Orleans, LA.