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Storytelling in international relations
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Storytelling in international relations

Thinktanks connect to the public because they tell stories. Scholars behind academic paywalls don’t.

Apr 29, 2025
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Storytelling in international relations
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International relations (IR) prides itself on complexity. Theorists build elaborate models. Graduate students master obscure jargon. Journals publish 30-page articles that few outside the discipline will ever read. It’s all very serious. But if the goal is to actually change policy — if the hope is to influence the people who make decisions about war, peace, and everything in between — then the whole enterprise starts to look like exhaustive and pointless wankery.

Because policymakers, as it turns out, don’t want your multi-level models or epistemological debates. They want something simple. They want a story. One that tells them who’s good, who’s bad, what went wrong, and how to fix it. And they’re not wrong. Stories stick. Data doesn’t. Narrative wins. Every time.

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