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Strategic Narratives, Ontological Security and Global Policy

Responses to China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Palgrave Macmillan
  • Provides a compelling explanation of how strategic narratives can help achieve global policy coordination
  • Presents a pathbreaking account of why some states successfully convince others to join their policy initiatives
  • Is applicable to many global policy issues, including international trade, climate change and pandemics

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in International Relations (PSIR)

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Table of contents (9 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxi
  2. Introduction: Strategic Narratives and Global Policy Initiatives

    • Thomas Colley, Carolijn van Noort
    Pages 1-17
  3. Strategic Narratives, Ontological Security and Policy Change

    • Thomas Colley, Carolijn van Noort
    Pages 19-45
  4. Accepting the Belt and Road Initiative: Kazakhstan and Italy

    • Thomas Colley, Carolijn van Noort
    Pages 69-99
  5. Rejecting the Belt and Road Initiative: The US and India

    • Thomas Colley, Carolijn van Noort
    Pages 135-171
  6. Conclusion

    • Thomas Colley, Carolijn van Noort
    Pages 265-294
  7. Back Matter

    Pages 295-352

About this book

Strategic Narratives, Ontological Security and Global Policy provides a pathbreaking account of why some states successfully convince others to join their policy initiatives, and why others fail. Examining China’s Belt and Road Initiative and COVID-19, Thomas Colley and Carolijn van Noort argue that strategic narratives can help persuade states to join global policy initiatives if they convincingly promise audiences material gain while avoiding undermining their ontological security. They make their case by analysing eight diverse countries: India, Italy, Kazakhstan, Mexico, the Maldives, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. 

Theoretically novel and global in scope, this book provides a compelling explanation of how strategic narratives can help achieve the global policy coordination needed to confront vital challenges in contemporary international relations. The proposed strategic narrative buy-in framework is applicable to many global policy issues, be itpromoting trade and infrastructure projects, mitigating climate change or managing pandemics.

Reviews

“Strategic narratives, ontological security and global policy, Thomas Colley and Carolijn van Noort make an exciting contribution to this field. … This is a fascinating contribution that speaks to several different theoretical literatures in IR and knits them closer together. The empirical puzzle of uneven commitment to the BRI is tackled well throughout the book. It is remarkably forward-looking and opens many doors for further research on ontological security, strategic narratives and foreign policy change.” (Lauren Rogers, International Affairs, Vol. 98 (6), 2022)

“In this fascinating book, Thomas Colley and Carolijn van Noort make a compelling case for why we must take narrative seriously in understanding policy change. By connecting strategic narratives, material interests and ontological security, Colley and van Noort deftly show how countries choose to engage or reject global policy initiatives. As well as presenting a detailed study of the Belt and Road Initiative, they make a valuable contribution to understanding influence in international affairs, which will be of great interest to scholars of politics, international relations and political communication.”

Alister Miskimmon, Professor of International Relations, Queen’s University Belfast, UK

“State are more likely to join global policy initiatives that involve the prospects of material gain and sustaining their identities. This argument is demonstrated in a knowledgeable, comparative exploration of responses to Chinese narratives among political elites worldwide.The book offers a highly useful analytical framework that combines strategic narrative theory with international relations theories on ontological security. The book will be read with profit by readers interested in soft power, foreign policy change, Chinese global influence and the power of strategic narratives in international relations.”

Charlotte Wagnsson, Professor of Political Science, the Swedish Defence University, Sweden

“This vivid, organized, theoretically and empirically rich book by Colley and van Noort is the first of its kind to examine how strategic narratives vary across time. It is one of the first works to utilize, in tandem, both research fields of ontological security studies and strategic narratives. The result is a rare trifecta of contributions: a research monograph that will revolutionize scholarship, a text required for courses in International Relations, Foreign Policy, and Security Studies, and a policy analysis text to be consultedby practitioners.”

Brent Steele, Professor of Political Science, University of Utah, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  • Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, Camberley, UK

    Thomas Colley

  • Independent Researcher, Oxford, UK

    Carolijn van Noort

About the authors

Thomas Colley is Senior Lecturer in Defence and International Affairs at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, UK.


Carolijn van Noort is an independent scholar, with four years of experience as Lecturer in Politics and Public Policy at the University of the West of Scotland, UK.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Strategic Narratives, Ontological Security and Global Policy

  • Book Subtitle: Responses to China’s Belt and Road Initiative

  • Authors: Thomas Colley, Carolijn van Noort

  • Series Title: Palgrave Studies in International Relations

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-00852-8

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Political Science and International Studies, Political Science and International Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-00851-1Published: 15 May 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-00854-2Published: 16 May 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-00852-8Published: 14 May 2022

  • Series ISSN: 2946-2673

  • Series E-ISSN: 2946-2681

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXI, 352

  • Number of Illustrations: 8 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: International Relations, Public Policy

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access