Breadcrumbs Section. Click here to navigate to respective pages.
Book

Book
Strategic Narratives, Public Opinion and War
DOI link for Strategic Narratives, Public Opinion and War
Strategic Narratives, Public Opinion and War book
Strategic Narratives, Public Opinion and War
DOI link for Strategic Narratives, Public Opinion and War
Strategic Narratives, Public Opinion and War book
Get Citation
ABSTRACT
This volume explores the way governments endeavoured to build and maintain public support for the war in Afghanistan, combining new insights on the effects of strategic narratives with an exhaustive series of case studies.
In contemporary wars, with public opinion impacting heavily on outcomes, strategic narratives provide a grid for interpreting the why, what and how of the conflict. This book asks how public support for the deployment of military troops to Afghanistan was garnered, sustained or lost in thirteen contributing nations. Public attitudes in the US, Canada, Australia and Europe towards the use of military force were greatly shaped by the cohesiveness and content of the strategic narratives employed by national policy-makers. Assessing the ability of countries to craft a successful strategic narrative, the book addresses the following key areas: 1) how governments employ strategic narratives to gain public support; 2) how strategic narratives develop during the course of the conflict; 3) how these narratives are disseminated, framed and perceived through various media outlets; 4) how domestic audiences respond to strategic narratives; 5) how this interplay is conditioned by both events on the ground, in Afghanistan, and by structural elements of the domestic political systems.
This book will be of much interest to students of international intervention, foreign policy, political communication, international security, strategic studies and IR in general.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |2 pages
Part I Introduction
chapter 1|12 pages
Introduction: shaping societies for war: strategic narratives and public opinion
part |2 pages
Part II Theoretical part
chapter 3|20 pages
Searching for El Dorado: the legendary golden narrative of the Afghanistan War
chapter 4|22 pages
Great power politics and strategic narratives of war
part |2 pages
Part III Case studies
chapter 6|20 pages
Elite consensus and ineffective strategic narratives: the domestic politics behind Canada’s commitment to Afghanistan
chapter 7|20 pages
Czech strategic narrative on Afghanistan: ideological reactiveness and domestic political contestation
chapter 8|19 pages
“For our own security and for the sake of the Afghans”: how the Danish public was persuaded to support an unprecedented costly military endeavour in Afghanistan
chapter 9|20 pages
French strategic narratives, public opinion, and the war in Afghanistan
chapter 10|22 pages
“War- like circumstances”: Germany’s unforeseen combat mission in Afghanistan and its strategic narratives
chapter 11|20 pages
Hungary in Afghanistan: a default narrative for a particularly prudent public
chapter 12|22 pages
The winter of our consent? Framing Italy’s “peace mission” in Afghanistan
chapter 13|22 pages
“Fighting” versus “reconstructing”: framing the Dutch mission in Afghanistan
chapter 14|19 pages
Poland’s strategic narrative on Afghanistan: getting the best of both worlds
chapter 15|18 pages
A catch- all strategic narrative: target audiences and Swedish troop contribution to ISAF in Afghanistan
chapter 16|18 pages
Communicating Afghanistan: strategic narratives and the case of UK public opinion
part |2 pages
Part IV Conclusion