ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Hungary’s strategic communication related to the Afghanistan mission revolved for several years, through changes of government and complex developments on the ground, around the denial of a directly war-related role and an accordingly formulated role conception. From this one can unpack variations of a simple narrative that was, when the occasion demanded it, largely consistently communicated to key target audiences, especially toward allies and the domestic public. Hungary played a major role in Afghanistan since October 2006, the official launch of the Hungarian-led Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Baghlan province, up till the spring of 2013 when the PRT’s mission ended. The chapter is interested in this period, and uses as its analytical framework an interactionist approach to understand processes of “role-making” and “alter-casting” as these were manifest in the generally scarce communication of the Hungarian contingent’s mission. As what was used was a default narrative which was told only in times of crises, the chapter inevitably needs to focus especially on such moments. Thus the interactionist approach seems to be the most fruitful potentially. Additionally, it is a framework that has much to offer to make something more of research on strategic narratives. We will, nevertheless, complement the discussion with what evidence we can offer as to why the scarce provision of strategic communication was the approach adopted by Hungary.
