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Dilemma: We can “call out” actors projecting false narratives for malevolent purposes, but narrative itself need not be true in politics. Snyder (2024) argues: ‘a liberal has to tell a hundred stories … A communist has one story, which might not turn out to be true. A fascist has just to be a storyteller’. The purpose of a storyteller’s narrative is to convince, mobilise, affirm. Their audience does not seek empirical verification of the narrative because they do not need it. The ontological status of narrative is unrelated to its truth-content. Koschorke (2018: 4) argues this is a wider pattern: ‘As in a vortex, mixed within [a narrative] are elements of truth, semblance, hearsay, ignorance, error, lies.’ This presentation shows precisely this is Trump on foreign policy. It doesn’t matter that the EU was not created to destroy the US. That is not his point. Ben positions this dilemma in the ‘narrative turn’ of International Relations.

This builds on ongoing work by Ben and Alister Miskimmon. Thanks to Oliver Turner for organising the event and the School of Social and Political Science and the Centre for Security Research for hosting.