%0 Journal Article
%T Narrative Misdirection? UK Strategic Communication for Afghanistan and Beyond
%A Thomas W. Cawkwell
%J Critical Sociology
%@ 1569-1632
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/0896920517748455
%X Britain¡¯s war in Afghanistan ¨C specifically its latter stages, where the UK¡¯s role and casualties sustained in the conflict rose dramatically ¨C coincided with the institutional emergence of Ministry of Defence-led ¡®Strategic Communication¡¯. This article examines the circumstances through which domestic strategic communication developed within the UK state and the manner in which the ¡®narratives¡¯ supporting Britain¡¯s role in Afghanistan were altered, streamlined and ¡®securitised¡¯. I argue that securitising the Afghanistan narrative was undertaken with the intention of misdirecting an increasingly sceptical UK public from the failure of certain aspects of UK counter-insurgency strategy ¨C specifically its counter-narcotics and stabilisation efforts ¨C by focusing on counter-terrorism, and of avoiding difficult questions about the UK¡¯s transnational foreign and defence policy outlook vis-¨¤-vis the United States by asserting that Afghanistan was primarily a ¡®national security¡¯ issue. I conclude this article by arguing that the UK¡¯s domestic strategic communication approach of emphasising ¡®national security interests¡¯ may have created the conditions for institutionalised confusion by reinforcing a narrow, self-interested narrative of Britain¡¯s role in the world that runs counter to its ongoing, ¡®transnationalised¡¯ commitments to collective security through the United States and NATO
%K communication
%K interventionism
%K mass media
%K politics
%K public opinion
%K terrorism
%K transnationalism
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0896920517748455