Complex effects of international relations

Donald Trump US narratives towards the region have been characterized by both continuity and change. ‘Lacking a distinct foreign policy narrative’ the European Union projects its ‘internal meta-narrative of peaceful integration’ towards the MENA region, (p. 175) especially through its institutionalized Euro-Mediterranean frameworks of cooperation, which is widely perceived as normative. Without any prospect of accession and any willingness among Arab states to pursue EU reforms, however, the EU’s narrative of regional order has limited impact. Political Narratives in the Middle East and North Africa. Conceptions of Order and Perceptions of Instability, editors Wolfgang Mühlberger and Toni Alaranta, is an important addition to the relatively understudied topic of narratives, both theoretically and empirically. Though the selection of regional countries can be questioned – in fact there are no states from North Africa in spite of the fact that Tunisia, Libya, Egypt have all had their 2011 uprising, or Algeria in 2018 -, the research may, and certainly will, go on by expanding to cover further case studies.