"I mean, let’s be honest. The European Union was formed to screw the United States."
Trump and the relevance of truth in world politics
Dilemma: We can “call out” actors projecting false narratives for malevolent purposes, but narrative itself need not be true in politics. Snyder (2024) argues: ‘a liberal has to tell a hundred stories … A communist has one story, which might not turn out to be true. A fascist has just to be a storyteller’. The purpose of a storyteller’s narrative is to convince, mobilise, affirm. Their audience does not seek empirical verification of the narrative because they do not need it. The ontological status of narrative is unrelated to its truth-content. Koschorke (2018: 4) argues this is a wider pattern: ‘As in a vortex, mixed within [a narrative] are elements of truth, semblance, hearsay, ignorance, error, lies.’ My analysis shows precisely this is Trump on foreign policy. It doesn’t matter that the EU was not created to destroy the US. That is not his point. I position this dilemma in the ‘narrative turn’ of International Relations.
Ben O'Loughlin is Professor of International Relations and Director of the New Political Communication Unit at Royal Holloway, University of London. He advises many states and international organisation about effective communication.
This event is sponsored by the Centre for Security Research and Edinburgh Futures Institute, University of Edinburgh.
