Abstract
<jats:p>The paper presents a diachronic analysis of inaugural speeches delivered by the leaders of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Russia over the period 2000–2025, aiming to identify the evolution of lexical dominants in political discourse under the influence of global socio-political transformations. The relevance of the study is determined by the need to understand changes in the verbalization of state identity and speech strategies in the context of 21st-century global crises, including economic instability, the COVID-19 pandemic, and increasing international tensions. Political discourse is considered as a tool for constructing social reality and shaping collective values in conditions of global turbulence. The research material comprises a corpus of 20 inaugural speeches by leading political figures of the three countries, selected according to genre specificity, temporal framework, and political-discursive significance. The main method applied is corpus analysis using Voyant Tools, which enabled the identification of frequent lexical units, their dynamics, and contextual relationships. Additionally, semantic grouping methods and qualitative interpretation within the framework of critical discourse analysis were employed. The results demonstrate the presence of stable national models of political rhetoric alongside a convergence of discursive strategies during crisis periods. It is established that American discourse retains an ideological orientation, British discourse is characterized by pragmatism and institutional focus, while Russian discourse demonstrates a state-centered and solidaristic model. Crisis events contribute to a shift from ideological concepts toward pragmatism, sustainability, and collective unity. The paper concludes that inaugural speeches function not only as reflections of political reality but also as active instruments of its construction, capturing transformations in cognitive models of power in the context of global challenges and an emerging multipolar world.</jats:p>