Narrative Misdirection? UK Strategic Communication for Afghanistan and Beyond
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7737364 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Thomas W Cawkwell (Independent Researcher, UK, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 45 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 379-392 |
| Publication date | 2019-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Critical Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0896-9205 • E-ISSN: 1569-1632 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/0896920517748455 |
| OpenAlex | W2790660403 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 14 |
Britain’s war in Afghanistan – specifically its latter stages, where the UK’s role and casualties sustained in the conflict rose dramatically – coincided with the institutional emergence of Ministry of Defence-led ‘Strategic Communication’. This article examines the circumstances through which domestic strategic communication developed within the UK state and the manner in which the ‘narratives’ supporting Britain’s role in Afghanistan were altered, streamlined and ‘securitised’. I argue that securitising the Afghanistan narrative was undertaken with the intention of misdirecting an increasingly sceptical UK public from the failure of certain aspects of UK counter-insurgency strategy – specifically its counter-narcotics and stabilisation efforts – by focusing on counter-terrorism, and of avoiding difficult questions about the UK’s transnational foreign and defence policy outlook vis-à-vis the United States by asserting that Afghanistan was primarily a ‘national security’ issue. I conclude this article by arguing that the UK’s domestic strategic communication approach of emphasising ‘national security interests’ may have created the conditions for institutionalised confusion by reinforcing a narrow, self-interested narrative of Britain’s role in the world that runs counter to its ongoing, ‘transnationalised’ commitments to collective security through the United States and NATO
Foreign policy · Narrative · National security · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Skepticism · Sociology · Strategic Communication · Terrorism · Global Security and Public Health · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Law · Military History and Strategy · Public Administration
The Utility of Force
The Discourse Trap and the US Military
The Idea of Grand Strategy
Productive War
Iraq, Afghanistan and British Strategy
Searching for a Theory of Public Diplomacy
The uncertain merger of values and interests in UK foreign policy
Complexity, strategy and the national interest
Strategizing Britain's role in the world
Military command in the last decade
The dynamics of British military transformation
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,25 |
| Citation span | 2022 - 2022 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |