Pro-war rhetoric

Territorial appeals threaten the audience's "sense of territoriality" (Reid 260). The audience is more likely to support entering the war on the defensive rather than offensive side because of an actual or threatened invasion.

Ethnocentric appeals create a dichotomy between the audience and the enemy. Ethnocentrism should be evoked to a "high level of emotional intensity" in attempt to complete two goals: hate the "inferior alien" and depict threats to cultural values (Reid 267).

The most common method of evoking ethnocentric appeals come in the form of Barbarism vs. Gallantry (Reid 269). It depicts the enemy's cultural values with evil characteristics, and the audience's as angelic.

The optimistic appeal assures the audience that victory is inevitable should they enter into war.(Reid 282).

This tactic portrays to the audience that they are entering war to provide freedom, and the opponent to force their values upon others (Ivie 284). This is accomplished by implying that the opponent is violent, while the audience's nation is willing to negotiate (Ivie 284).

This topos holds that the enemy is portrayed as irrational, responding "more to animalistic drives than principles of law" (Ivie 288). The enemy has an unenlightened intellect, not based on reason. Rhetors use this argument to prove that when an enemy such as this threatens the well-being of the world, even for a nation committed to neutrality and peace, war is the only choice (Ivie 289).

This idea portrays the enemy as the voluntary aggressor and the nation of the audience as the passive victims of aggression, only entering into war to ensure security (Ivie 290). "While the savage has acted against order, the victim has been forced to respond in its defense" (Ivie 290). Ivie describes the actions as either "voluntary" and "initial" or "involuntary" and "defensive" (Ivie 290). The purpose of this topos is to lay the blame on the enemy and justify reasons for the victimized nation to engage in action.