Myth and Narrative in International Politics

This book systematically explores how different theoretical concepts of myth can be utilised to interpretively explore contemporary international politics. From the international community to warlords, from participation to effectiveness – international politics is replete with powerful narratives and commonly held beliefs that qualify as myths. Rebutting the understanding of myth-as-lie, this collection of essays unearths the ideological, naturalising, and depoliticising effect of myths.

Myth and Narrative in International Politics:  Interpretive Approaches to the Study of IR offers conceptual and methodological guidance on how to make sense of different myth theories and how to employ them in order to explore the powerful collective imaginations and ambiguities that underpin international politics today. Further, it assembles case studies of specific myths in different fields of International Relations, including warfare, global governance, interventionism, development aid, and statebuilding. The findings challenge conventional assumptions in International Relations, encouraging  academics  in IR and across a range of different fields and disciplines, including development studies, global governance studies, strategic and military studies, intervention and statebuilding studies, and peace and conflict studies, to rethink ideas that are widely unquestioned by policy and academic communities. 

Notes on Contributors.- Foreword: Myths < > Silences; Dvora Yanow.- Introduction: Myth and Narrative in International Politics; Berit Bliesemann de Guevara.- PART I – THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS.- 1. Myth in International Politics: Ideological Delusion and Necessary Fiction; Berit Bliesemann de Guevara.- 2. Beyond National Policy-Making: Conceptions of Myth in Interpretive Policy Analysis and Their Value for IR; Sybille Münch.- 3. The Precipice of Myth: Mythology/Epistemology; Robert Cooke.- 4. Bringing Claude Lévi-Strauss and Pierre Bourdieu Together for a Post-structuralist Methodology to Analyse Myths; Catherine Goetze.- 5. How to Study Myths: Methodological Demands and Discoveries; Franziska Müller.- PART II – EMPIRICAL EXPLORATIONS.- 6. Warlords and States: A Contemporary Myth of the International System; Catherine Goetze.- 7. Afghanistan and the ‘Graveyard of Empires’: Blumenberg, Under-complex Analogy and Basic Myths in International Politics; Florian P. Kühn.- 8. Mutually Implicated Myths: The Democratic Control of the Armed Forces and Militarism; Katharine Millar.- 9. Tales and Images of the Battlefield in Contemporary Warfare; Alastair Finlan.- 10. The Powerful Myth of International Community and the Imperative to Build States; Katarzyna Kaczmarska.- 11. Global Governance and the Myth of Civil Society Participation; Charlotte Dany and Katja Freistein.- 12. Myths of the Near Future: Paris, Busan and Tales of Aid Effectiveness; Franziska Müller and Elena Sondermann.- 13. Organising Babylon: the Coordination of Intervention and the Denial of Politics; Stephan Hensell.- PART III – REFLECTIONS.- 14. Mythography: No Exit, No Conclusion?; MichaelLoriaux and Cecelia Lynch