In this thesis I have conducted an interpretivist narrative study on the correlation between strategic narratives and political myths. The strategics narratives were found by analyzing articles written by Sputnik, and the political myths are identified in previous research. This was done against the theoretical background that when strategic narratives and political myths share similarities the narratives and the myths are more powerful than when told on their own. This study found that the Russian strategic narratives and the political myths in Swedish Democrats share multiple similarities. The two actors tell the story of anti-immigration, how the liberal left is failing the people, and how Sweden have gone from a once wonderful country to a state in decline. Additionally, the two actors portray Sweden Democrats as the saviors that can save the common man from its enemies, i.e., the liberal left and the migrants. This relationship between the narratives and the myths indicates that they have a lot in common and thus the myths should be more powerful and be able to target and convince a larger audience according to the theoretical assumption of this thesis.

This thesis compares the projection of strategic narratives in Chinese and Russian state media narratives in their pursuit of spheres of influence. Previous research about spheres of influence have sought to explain why and how spheres of influence are maintained and under what circumstances one’s sphere is accepted or rejected by external great powers. Arguing that China and Russia seek power projection through various means, the aim of this thesis is to broaden the constructivist understanding of how spheres of influence are pursued by authoritarian states. This is done by bridging the concept of spheres of influence with research on strategic narratives, accounting for the communicative power used by Russia and China to legitimize each other’s spheres. Using a framework inspired by Somers (1994), news articles published by Chinese Global Times in 2014 and 2022 and by Russian Sputnik and RT in 2020-2022 are analyzed. The study found that Chinese and Russian state media project narratives that might strengthen each other’s and, by extension, their own sphere of influence. This is primarily done by narrating a new international order and by deploying antagonistic narratives.

This thesis contributes to the literature on strategic narratives by investigating how China navigates tensions between its projected identities in Belt and Road Initiative narratives relatingto Italy, the United Kingdom, and India aimed at domestic and international audiences. Usinga modified version of Colley’s (2019) method of narrative analysis, the thesis traces how Chinese state identity is emplotted in narratives aimed at domestic and international audiences, respectively. It proceeds to discuss how tension can arise from the distinct choices of inclusionand omission of events as a result of the differing aims and contexts of the two categories of narratives. Finally, it evaluates how the emplotment mechanisms of omission/silencing, linking, sharpening, clarifying, and flattening can be used to ease these tensions through selective deemphasising of narrative elements.

‘Narrative’ has become such a pervasive term in media and political jargon that its theoretical backbone has become harder to trace. With this in mind, this thesis seeks to contribute to the theoretical understanding of narratives in international relations research, with a focus on the European Union. This thesis begins with a discussion on narratives in the international system, what kinds of power they exert, and how they provide structure. This will lead into the conceptual debate of narratives as tools vs narratives as identity, which will in turn raise questions about how actors use narratives to maintain ontological security. Within the context of the EU, these questions are of particular relevance, as the struggle to create a narrative for the EU is well documented. Moreover, there remains a struggle to convince member states of the importance of an EU narrative identity. This thesis will examine the area of common foreign and security policy (CFSP) through the lens of narrative analysis. The case study of the formation and projection of the EU narrative on the Iran Nuclear Deal has been selected to determine whether or not member states in the EU are faithful to EU foreign policy narratives. An analytical framework has been developed based on strategic narrative theory and will be used to test narrative output from the EU, Germany, and France on the subject of the Iran Nuclear Deal. The results of this analysis will be considered using a reflexive approach. The goal of this research is not to implicate EU member states or to imply a lack of commitment to EU CFSP. Rather, this thesis seeks to demonstrate how deep-seated narratives affect even the closest of alliances. This thesis also seeks to encourage policy makers and scholars to consider the importance of narrative integration in EU research.

Strategic narrative is a communicative tool for political elites to construct a shared meaning to the international politics, to articulate state's interests, to change the discursive environment, and to shape the behaviour of other actors. It has three different dynamics, which proceed simultaneously and reinforce each other: formation of the narrative within the given state, its projection in the international arena, and its reception in other states. Theory of strategic narratives fits well into the framework of new regionalism, which tries to analyse relations between the processes of globalization, globalism, regionalization, and regionalism. Until recently, such analyses were conducted from state-level and positivist perspective. As a result, the dimension of reception remained understudied. The presented thesis is an attempt to fill this gap. It analyses global political economy from the interpretivist constructivist perspective: it uses the leading local newspaper as a data sources and analyses media (news) discourse as one form of a broad societal discourse. Such an analysis can help us to analyse how local society assesses and reacts to strategic narratives and their internalization or rejection by local elites. In my thesis, I focus on narratives of the three superpowers (the US, the EU,...

This dissertation uses Critical Discourse Analysis to examine China's strategic use of desecuritised language in its 16/17+1 foreign policy targeting the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region. Through the lens of securitisation theory and strategic narratives, the analysis suggests that China's foreign policy narrative targeting the CEE countries is strategic in nature and is a representation of China's ambition to form a new global order. As such, the desecuritisation strategies are used instrumentally to alleviate 'China threat' perception, increase the attractiveness of China in the region, and to further achieve its economic and geopolitical goals. Among political elites in the Visegrád 4 countries, namely Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, the level of reception of China's strategic narratives varies. The pro-China attitude at the governmental level is mainly motivated by economic incentives promised in the Chinese narrative as well as the governments' own political agendas. In a parallel process, converse anti-China sentiments and re-securitisation of China in the countries are largely connected to the primacy of the trans-Atlantic relationship with the US as well as the importance attached to European values. Keywords Chinese foreign policy, Central and Eastern European Countries,...