Strategic Narratives and Alliances: The Cases of Intervention in Libya (2011) and Economic Sanctions against Russia (2014)

Abstract

Scholars of international communication recognize that strategic narratives are important for policymaking (Miskimmon, O’Loughlin, & Roselle, 2013) and scholars studying alliances suggest that communication is central to the formation and maintenance of alliances (Weitsman, 2010). This essay addresses how strategic narratives affect US alliance behavior—and hence international order—in two specific ways. First, alliance behavior can be affected by other allies’ narratives as demonstrated in the case of military intervention in Libya in 2011. Here the evidence suggests that the UK and France were able to use strategic narratives to influence the decision of the US to agree to military intervention in Libya by using narratives that could evoke a fear of abandonment. Second, alliance cohesion can be affected by narrative contestation by non-allies as demonstrated in the case of the Ukrainian crisis in 2014. Russia has used strategic narratives in a new media environment in an attempt to elicit a fear of entrapment to counter the US attempts to coordinate alliance support for economic sanctions. In both cases, distinguishing between system, identity, and policy narratives give us a deeper understanding of narrative contestation today. This analysis adds to our understanding of the factors that affect alliances set within a new media environment characterized by a proliferation of sources and outlets and thus a more horizontal structure of information exchange.

On the use of pride, hope and fear in China’s international artificial intelligence narratives on CGTN

“…The communication of strategic narratives plays an ever-greater role in the dynamic forces of international relations because of the potential power of communication to influence behaviors and perception of others. Scholarship has particularly dedicated attention to the communication of strategic narratives in areas such as war and security to bolster domestic and international support (Dimitriu and De Graaf 2016;Swimelar 2018;Coticchia and De Simone 2016;Roselle 2017). Strategic narratives are also deployed to give meaning to more peaceful objectives such as infrastructure cooperation (van Noort 2020).…”

Narrating Global Order and Disorder

“…Laura Roselle's (2017) article analyzes how strategic narratives may foster or undermine cooperation in alliances. She examines Snyder's (1984) notion of an alliance security dilemma which suggests that fears of abandonment or entrapment shape alliance behavior in certain patterned ways and argues that strategic narratives play a central role in constructing these fears.…”

“…The papers chosen for inclusion address the dynamics of strategic narrative construction and their role in policymaking in alliances (Roselle, 2017), how Russian strategic narratives clash with Western European narratives of global order , what factors undermine BRICS strategic narrative (van Noort, 2017), how characteristics of genocide discourses shape strategic responses (Irvin-Erickson, 2017), and the implications of strategic narratives associated with "normalization" for decisions concerning international intervention or non-intervention in civil wars and transnational conflicts (Lemay-Hébert & Visoka, 2017). Strikingly, we did not receive any submissions that examined narrative strategies to enhance international cooperation or to address pressing global challenges.…”

Sharing a Playbook?: The Convergence of Russian and U.S. Narratives about Joe Biden

“…Russia also has engaged in border and internal conflicts, including in Ukraine, Georgia, and Chechnya. Several scholars, including Hinck et al (2018),Orttung and Nelson (2019),Ramsay and Robertshaw (2019),Roselle (2017), Schafer (2018), and Szostek (2017 have studied Russian narratives. It is useful to think of the creation of Russian strategic narratives not as the output of a particular group or agency within Russia, but as an organic construction framework in which many public-facing actors on many levels of the Russian government and media work together to construct narratives along strategic goals as well as in response to current events.Vilmer et al refer to Russian narrative building efforts as a…”