Narratology and US foreign policy in Syria: Beyond identity binaries, towards narrative power

Narrative approaches have recently gained popularity in International Relations (IR), albeit often with a focus on instrumentality. This article analyzes the “value added” of narratology, complementing IR’s existing focus on strategic narratives, by focusing on what it is that sets stories apart from other linguistic features. The article develops three contributions. First, we demonstrate that narratology contributes to efforts in IR to move beyond a propensity for identity binaries, analyzing the more nuanced relational identities that are formed within the web of characters that populate stories. Second, we theorize (structural) narrative power, conceptualizing how stories project and propel forward through time to guide policy. Our take on (structural) narrative power emphasizes audience expectations of narrative closure as creating a teleological impulse. This is narrative power—the life of stories. We mobilize this conceptual framework, analyzing US foreign policy during the early Syrian Civil War, with a focus on the war’s storying and the writing of its characters across 600+ policy and media texts. Third, our article locates (the flaws and paradoxes of) US policy within the narrative power of its story, established in the war’s opening chapters.