Description
The concept of narrative is increasingly used in the analysis of the foreign policy decisions and behaviour of states and political actors. While what narratives are, how they function, and how political actors communicate them to their target audience is addressed in the existing literature, the question of why political actors articulate specific narratives in their foreign policy discourse remains underexamined. I address this question by drawing from the poststructuralist discourse theory and connect the articulation of narratives within the foreign policy discourses to the socio-political conditions and domestic hegemonic struggles over shaping domestic identity and social order that different political forces within a state participate. To illustrate the argument, I discuss the articulation of narratives within the Justice and Development Party (AKP) governments’ foreign policy discourse in Turkey, paying special attention to the construction and use of the ‘Turkish Resurgence’ narrative since 2015.
