Roselle publishes on strategic narratives

Professor Laura Roselle of the Department of Political Science and Policy Studies has co-edited a special issue of Politics and Governance on “Narratives of Global Order”.

The issue was co-authored with Matthew Levinger of The George Washington University. Roselle also contributed an article to the volume entitled “Strategic Narratives and Alliances: The Cases of Intervention in Libya (2011) and Economic Sanctions against Russia (2014).” 

Roselle’s essay addresses how strategic narratives affect U.S. 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 U.S. 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 U.S. attempts to coordinate alliance support for economic sanctions.