Alexander Spencer

Telling stories of failure: narrative constructions of foreign policy fiascos

ABSTRACT The contribution introduces narrative analysis as a discourse analytical method for investigating the social construction of foreign policy fiascos. Based on insights from literary studies and narratology it shows that stories of failure include a number of key elements, including a particular setting which defines appropriate behaviour; the negative characterization of agents; as well as an emplotment of the ‘fiasco’ through the attribution of cause and responsibility. The contribution illustrates this method through a narrative analysis of German media reporting on Germanys abstention in the United Nations Security Council vote on Resolution 1973 in March 2011 regarding the military intervention in Libya.

Sic[k] of the ‘new terrorism’ debate? A response to our critics

Apart from the great debates on the definition of terrorism or its causes, the discussion about whether ‘new terrorism’ can really be considered new or not has become one of the central disagreements in terrorism research. This article will respond to the criticism voiced by some of the proponents of the ‘new terrorism’ idea and reflect on the merits of their arguments. It will emphasis the importance of words and the implication of small predicates such as ‘new’ for the construction of terrorism and our reaction to it.

Contested stories of commercial security: self- and media narratives of private military and security companies

The article illustrates the potential of narrative analysis as a transdisciplinary method for Critical Security Studies by investigating self-legitimizing narratives of private military and security companies (PMSCs) and contrasting them to the narratives on PMSCs found in the news media. Employing narrative analysis and focusing on the websites of 55 PMSCs and 4 quality US and British newspapers, we reconstruct how PMSCs and the media establish 4 conflicting narratives characterizing PMSCs as technical and military experts vs. incompetent cowboys, professional businessmen vs. exploiting war profiteers, noble humanitarians vs. uncontrolled abusers and proud patriots vs. dirty mercenaries. Our analysis shows that the self-narratives of the PMSCs largely fail to arrive in the public media narratives, although some self-characterizations such as the expert or the businessman resonate somewhat better than others, in particular the strongly romanticizing images of the humanitarian or the patriot. We propose the concept of ‘intertextual narratability’ to suggest that the media reception of PMSCs’ self-narratives is shaped by their (lack of) connectability to existing culturally embedded narratives on PMSCs.

Studying fiascos: bringing public and foreign policy together

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Terrorism and the News Media: Symbiosis, Control and Framing

It has become widely accepted that there is an almost symbiotic relationship between terrorism and the news media as terrorism provides for exciting and violent stories which help sell the news product and the media provides terrorist groups with a means of spreading their message and creating fear among the general public. This chapter will address two interrelated questions: (1) What role does western news media play in carrying the terrorist message? (2) Can governments limit the news media’s reporting on terrorism?

De-antagonising the Other: Changing Constructions of the Taliban and the Possibility of Reconciliation

Shortly after 9/11 any kind of engagement, let alone reconciliation, with the Taliban was considered absurd. Recently, however, Afghan as well as Western elites have announced that they are now willing to talk to parts of the Taliban in an attempt to begin a reconciliation process in Afghanistan. This article focuses on the discourse theoretical framework developed by Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe and illustrates the merits of such an approach for explaining how such a shift became possible. It argues that the turn to reconciliation with the Taliban was enabled by a transformation of the discursive construction of the Taliban. The article focuses on the discursive dynamics of the (de)coupling and differentiation of signifiers as a central mechanism of meaning production. It argues that antagonistic identity constructions in the context of the global war on terror formed the discursive background against which the Taliban were first articulated as part of the terrorist “Other”, which made any engagement impossible. From 2009 onwards, however, it can be observed how the signifier “Taliban” was decoupled from the identity of the “terrorist”, how it transcended the antagonistic frontier and came to be seen as an entity worthy of engagement.

Terrorismus und internationale Politik

Terrorismus gilt als eine der grosten sicherheitspolitischen Herausforderungen des 21. Jahrhunderts. Zugleich zahlen Terrorismus und seine Bekampfung zu den am heftigsten umstrittenen (politischen) Phanomenen unserer Zeit. Der Beitrag gibt einen Uberblick des Forschungsstandes und diskutiert Begriffe, Ursachen und Gegenstrategien sowie aktuelle Entwicklungen von Terrorismus. Traditionellen Ansatzen werden hierbei Konzepte der kritischen Terrorismusforschung gegenubergestellt, um prinzipielle Probleme des Forschungsgegenstandes und deren Uberwindung zu illustrieren.

Romantic narratives in international politics

By developing a new analytical method of narrative discourse analysis, this study introduces new insights from literary studies and narratology into International Relations. This method examines the romantic narratives of pirates in Somalia, rebels in Libya and private military and security companies in Iraq and argues that these best resonate with an audience if they are able to connect to culturally embedded narratives found in literature, media and pop-culture. Dominant romantic narratives marginalise other, less flattering, stories about these actors, in which they are constituted as terrorists and held responsible for human rights violations. Focusing on the three narrative elements of setting, characterization and employment, the book argues that narratives are of fundamental importance for human cognition and identity construction. They help us understand the social and political world in which we live. The book emphasises the idea of intertextual narratability which holds that for narratives to become dominant they have to link themselves to previously existing stories.

Stand und Perspektiven der politikwissenschaftlichen Terrorismusforschung

Dieser Beitrag mochte eine kurze Einfuhrung in den Stand und die Perspektiven der politikwissenschaftlichen Terrorismusforschung bieten. In der Politikwissenschaft sind vor allem drei Fragestellungen immer wieder im Mittelpunkt der Forschung zu finden: Was ist Terrorismus? Was verursacht Terrorismus? Welche Gegenmasnahmen konnen gegen den Terrorismus eingesetzt werden? Der Artikel tragt die jeweils einschlagigen Forschungsergebnisse zusammen und bietet so einen Uberblick uber den derzeitigen Erkenntnisstand bezuglich dieser policy-relevanten Fragen. Daruber hinaus mochte der Beitrag einige der Problematiken der Terrorismusforschung aufzeigen und uber neuere Entwicklungen wie der Kritischen Terrorismusforschung reflektieren. Im Ergebnis wird festgestellt, dass sowohl traditionelle als auch kritische Herangehensweisen haufig um dieselben Probleme kreisen und substanzielle Fortschritte so erschwert werden.

Don't mention the war or the World Cup. A report on a British German IR conference

In the past, German IR has been compared to a Mercedes: »The technical standard is high, the results are solid, its arguments are smooth, and what would be loud hysterical debates in other parts of the world are reduced to softly growling grumbles« (Goetze 2005: 4f). And, members of that community are content Mercedes drivers who speed along the autobahn without taking notice of what is going on around them. Although some of that criticism does have a point, the car metaphor holds badly if we apply it to the British IR community. British IR would then have to be compared to a Rover, one of the last British car manufacturers and one that has a reputation for producing fairly average cars and which in fact went bankrupt in 2005. Maybe sport provides a better metaphor for the state of the individual disciplines. From a British perspective German IR is a bit like German football: it used to be rather dull and uninspiring, then it started to innovate and to perform in a more appealing way. There is now more cutting-edge theory behind it, but one cannot escape the feeling that the theory is in danger of restricting and compromising the attractiveness of the game. From a German perspective British IR would have to be cricket, as nobody other than those involved actually knows what is going on and what the rules are.