Description
This article analyses the ‘value added’ of narratology for constructivism in International Relations. In doing so it develops two contributions to critical IR literatures. First, we argue that narrative analysis can help constructivist and discourse analytic research to move beyond a propensity for identity binaries. More nuanced relational identities are formed in the web of characters that populate stories. The opening analytical move underpinning this argument is key – the figure of the protagonist looms large in foreign policy narratives and that character is not necessarily the Self, as author. Second, narratology adds to constructivism the analytical leverage of narrative power which helps to explain how stories propel forwards and inspire (in)action. This, then, in combination with the agency of the author, speaks to the structural force of stories, which arises from audience expectations of narrative closure – we already know how a story will end from its opening scenes and the introduction of our protagonist. To illustrate this argument in context, we interrogate US foreign policy during the opening chapters of the Syrian Civil War, with a focus on the storying of the conflict and characterisation of the protagonist, the Syrian people. As well as shedding light on narrative power and the importance of identity and character construction beyond binaries, we are the first to locate America’s debilitating ends-means gap (a policy of regime change in lieu of a commitment to undertake military intervention) as emerging specifically from the writing of Syria’s protagonist and the narrative power this characterisation engendered.
