Description
This paper looks at the relationship between geopolitical narratives and conflict in an evolving world order. As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, a popular narrative has crystallised emphasising a supposed transition from the unipolar world order of the immediate post-Cold War period to an increasingly multipolar world. This narrative, in turn, has produced political imaginaries centred around perceived antagonisms and enemies. In the US, for instance, against narratives of decline and waning influence, the perceived threat of China and Russia stand in sharp relief. The paper analyses the production and reproduction of these narratives and their role, on the one hand, in shielding the continued overwhelming and unchallenged military power of the US from critical scrutiny and, on the other hand, in narrowing or even foreclosing alternative political imaginaries such as those premised on a multipower world structured by cooperation and not riven with antagonism and enmity. The paper argues that these narratives are not simply discursive, but are productive of concrete foreign policy and geopolitical conflict, the war in Ukraine both symptom and product of the performativity of geopolitical imaginaries.
