July 10, 2012

Numbers as Narratives: Review of World Economics Website

By . Filed Under: Decision making, International Politics, Narrative forms, National Security, Politics and Policy, Strategic Leadership.
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In popular imagination, narratives and numbers are opposites; the nebulous and imaginative versus the precise and factual. In public policy, narratives our political leaders often rest on numbers in the form of statistics, indices, averages, probabilities. Numbers are so compact, so easily legible, that it is easy to forget they are themselves stories: shorthand renderings of someone’s point of view about which facts are important and how to interpret them.

The World Economics website promises to put an end to any such complacency. The site, whose editor Brian Sturgess I met recently in Baku, has compiled a small mountain of counterintuitive and thought provoking challenges to clichéd uses of numbers to narrate what’s happening in the world.

Among a few of the site’s provocations: Continue reading

Posted in: Decision making, International Politics, Narrative forms, National Security, Politics and Policy, Strategic Leadership Tags: , , ,
May 11, 2012

Hacker Narrative: Next Chapter in History of Civil Rights?

By . Filed Under: Information Systems, International Politics, Legal Issues, National Security, Politics and Policy, Popular Culture.

Peter Fein, self described Hacktivist, recently revealed he is a member of the group Anonymous,  a self-organized group that targets institutions that stand in the way of their vision of Internet freedom with Distributed Denial of Service(DDOS) attacks.  DDOS attacks are a way of effectively shutting down websites by  overwhelming them with traffic.

The hacktivist group Anonymous: the next chapter in the story of American civil liberties?

For much of the U.S. security and legal community, hacktivists are criminals and security threats.  In another popular image, hacktivists are anarchists dedicated to total liberty.

Peter Fein doesn’t see it either way, for him, his activities place him at the center of a uniquely American history of ever progressing civil rights. Continue reading

Posted in: Information Systems, International Politics, Legal Issues, National Security, Politics and Policy, Popular Culture Tags: , , , , , ,
April 23, 2012

Measuring National Power

By . Filed Under: Crisis Management, Decision making, International Politics, Marketing & Branding, National Security, Politics and Policy, Public Diplomacy, Public Relations.

Has the Eurozone crisis led to a loss of European Union power?

Washington D.C. was even more full of diplomatic cars and dark suited men than usual this weekend, as the the World Bank and International Monetary Fund held their annual spring meetings. Historically dedicated to shoring up ‘developing’ regions, this year’s focus was on the Eurozone crisis, that ongoing ripple of effects from the near financial collapse of several EU countries.

Some policy makers think that the EU’s loss of economic power will reduce its power on other issues, as the New York Times has reported: Continue reading

Posted in: Crisis Management, Decision making, International Politics, Marketing & Branding, National Security, Politics and Policy, Public Diplomacy, Public Relations Tags: , , , , , ,
April 16, 2012

“Stand your Ground” Laws Validate Stories of Lethal Force, Silence Others

By . Filed Under: Legal Issues, Narrative forms, Narrative Research, News and Journalism, Politics and Policy.

Yale Law School professor Adam Cohen, advocating the repeal of the Stand Your Ground law that permitted George Zimmerman to claim he killed Trayvon Martin in self defense, wrote in Time Magazine last week that:

If Zimmerman does go to trial, there will no doubt be enormous debates over his guilt or innocence. It is difficult to sort out motives and right and wrong in cases of this sort — especially when one of the critical witnesses, young Mr. Martin, cannot testify about what happened.

There is a direct link between Stand Your Ground laws, which permit those with access to deadly force to use it if they feel threatened, and Martin’s inability to tell his story.

Spirit of JusticeSpirit of Justice, cropped from photograph: Two sculptures "Spirit of Justice," and "Majesty of Justice," Great Hall, 2nd floor, Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

It is a truism when talking about narrative and public life to assert that some stories are sanctioned, and others silenced. Sometimes it is difficult to identify the mechanism through which such sanction takes place, because it lies in community tradition or social discourse.  Stand Your Ground laws press into relief how law can shape which accounts will be viewed as legitimate before they are evaluated by judges and juries. Under the Stand your Ground premise, might makes right. Your ability to lethally harm someone is converted into the credible motivation for doing so, while the victim of a killing is doubly silenced, in court and in life.

When I consider the reported details of the case in the press–the accounts of Zimmerman and his father, the 911 call transcripts,  the reports of the neighbors and Martin’s girlfriend, who overheard the encounter by cell phone,  I hear a story of two young men who each experienced sensations of threat and fear in the presence of the other.  Continue reading

Posted in: Legal Issues, Narrative forms, Narrative Research, News and Journalism, Politics and Policy Tags: , , , , , , ,
March 19, 2012

The Definition of Strategic Narrative: an Evolving Concept in International Affairs

By . Filed Under: International Politics, Middle East, Narrative Research, National Security, Politics and Policy, War and Violent Conflict.

In an earlier post, I outlined ways in which the term strategic narrative is used in current practice,  in public relations—as an element of marketing—and in the academic field of international relations.  This post returns to the evolution of the term as an applied concept in foreign affairs.

According to International Relations professor Alister Miskimmon (who I asked by email), the first published use of the term “strategic narrative”  was by Lawrence Freedman, a professor of War Studies at King’s College, London.  In 2006, Freedman wrote a paper called The Transformation of Strategic Affairs.   Many of the insights in Freedman’s work stem from the Western experience of war in the post-9/11 years, and the discovery—the hard way, through experience—that the era of large scale land warfare may be decisively over. In its place, the future promises smaller wars, waged by insurgents as well as governments, in which human factors such as behavior, culture and communication play meaningful roles.

In this context, Freedman identifies “strategic narratives” as a kind of secret weapon of networked combatants fighting irregular wars.  In Freedman’s view, a story that connects people emotionally to an identity and a mission “helps dispersed groups to cohere and guides its strategy.  Individuals know the sort of action expected of them and the message to be conveyed.”

Thus, in Freedman’s definition, narrative is a function of strategy in the most traditional sense related to the science of war.  In that vein, he argues that: Continue reading

Posted in: International Politics, Middle East, Narrative Research, National Security, Politics and Policy, War and Violent Conflict Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
February 3, 2012

Behavioral Economics Go to War

By . Filed Under: Books & Films, Decision making, Intercultural Communication, International Politics, Narrative Research, National Security, Politics and Policy, Strategic Leadership, War and Violent Conflict.

Review of Behavioural Conflict, Why Understanding People and their Motivations Will Prove Decisive in Future Conflict, by Andrew Mackey and Steve Tatham

I cannot think of any books about warfare’s future that come across as hard-hitting, full of actionable pragmatism, and deeply humane all at the same time.  But Behavioral Conflict: Why Understanding People and their Motivations will Prove Decisive in Future Conflict is all three.  The authors, both career members of the British military, Major General Andres Mackey (Ret) and Royal Navy Commander Steve Tatham (who I count as a friend, having met him in Ankara a few years ago), make their case by drawing on a combination of their own experience, case studies and close analysis of how communication actually factors in war.

Hard-hitting and pragmatic:  Mackey and Tatham are precise and lucid about what they mean by “behavior” and how to make use of it to gain advantage in conflict. They, and behavioral psychologist Lee Rowland, who adds a chapter on the science of influence, are not putting forth any of the following: A call for greater “cultural awareness,” a mushy program about how to change others’ attitudes, or a repeat of the last decade’s focus on consumer marketing as the key to public diplomacy.   They offer instead this thesis based on a simple chain of claims:

  • The world of human motivation and perception is inevitably complex.
  • It is more important to try to shape behavior than it is to change people’s attitudes.
  • Behavior shaping begins with a discrete grasp of the circumstances under which people already behave in ways that are desirable, and extends to efforts to replicate those or similar circumstances. Continue reading

Posted in: Books & Films, Decision making, Intercultural Communication, International Politics, Narrative Research, National Security, Politics and Policy, Strategic Leadership, War and Violent Conflict Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
January 21, 2012

The Form of National Myths

By . Filed Under: Narrative Research, Popular Culture.

Storytelling pole of the Haida nation

I was reminded of the tremendous elasticity of narrative forms when I recently visited the Denver Art Museum’s amazing American Indian art collection for the first time, by the  Haida storytelling pole near the entrance of the collection. The Haida is a native tribe of the Northwest coast of the United States and Canada and, like other tribes of the coast, are known for the immense carved poles through which tribal myths are told.

The story told in this pole is about a man who was almost captured by otters when his canoe capsized.  The figures at the very top of the pole are watchmen.  Next lowest is the man who escaped the otters, holding an otter by the tail. The figure in the middle represents the cave where the otters live and at the very bottom is a cave spirit, who holds a stingray.

My own inclination was to try to “read” the pole in a linear direction, from top to bottom, to find in it the action part of the story, in which the man escapes the otters. But the real story may lie less in the pole itself than in the interaction between community members and the symbolic item, Continue reading

Posted in: Narrative Research, Popular Culture Tags: , , ,
December 28, 2011

2011: Year of the Protest Narrative

By . Filed Under: Intercultural Communication, International Politics, Middle East, Politics and Policy, Popular Culture.

E.M. Forster famously distinguished events that are yoked only by their temporal order from those that we would consider a narrative (which he called “plot”), in which events are causally linked, with this pithy comparison:

1. The King died and then the Queen died (2 events tied only by temporal order)

2. The King died and then the Queen died of grief (the second event is caused by the first)

I’ve had this distinction on my mind as year-end wrap-ups circulate in the media.

photographer: David Shankbone

Protestors on Wall Street, September 30, 2011

The global scope of economic crisis and dramatic protests give commentators a lot of latitude to tell the story of this year in a variety of ways.  Did Mohamed Bouazizi’s galvanizing protest by fire, and the subsequent fall of the Tunisian government cause Egyptian protests? And did these, in some way cause Occupy Wall Street? Do the protests in Chile, Tel Aviv and Russia have anything to do with each other, or with others? Continue reading

Posted in: Intercultural Communication, International Politics, Middle East, Politics and Policy, Popular Culture Tags: , , , ,
November 27, 2011

High Powered Collaboration, a New Narrative for Leaders: an Interview with Kare Anderson

By . Filed Under: Crisis Management, Decision making, Intercultural Communication, Narrative and Cognition, Public Relations, Strategic Leadership.

Kare Anderson Coaches Leaders to Get from "Me to We"

Kare Anderson has been a leader in communication in virtually every medium there is for over 30 years. She is an Emmy-winning former Wall Street Journal and NBC reporter, the author of a number of books about conflict resolution and collaboration in business, and publishes the online newsletters Moving from Me to We and Say it Better.

Kare’s most powerful communications though, come through in her coaching. She has led issue teams for the Obama 2008 campaign, advised CEOs, professional athletes, and cause advocates. All seek to have their story heard in highly competitive environments.

When we met recently, I immediately knew I’d like to interview Kare about how she uses narrative in her practice. In our few minutes on the phone last week, she offered concise wisdom and specific strategies for using collaborative techniques to achieve preferred outcomes—no small feat in a complex, noisy world.

AZ: How does storytelling and narrative play a role in your coaching?

KA: For me one of the most difficult things is that people instinctively talk about themselves. When they’re standing on the stage talking to their employees, they talk about their company; they don’t talk about what’s in it for the employees. Many times when people are trying to tell their story they miss the biggest part, which is to construct it so it’s a purposeful narrative–so that the listener can see a role for themselves, want to jump in, retell it and play a role in it. When I think about storytelling, it is to understand what a person most stands for, what they want to get across and how they can authentically discuss it with someone elsewhere that person wants to jump in. The instinct is for people to ask a question and revert it back to themselves. Even when they want something from someone else. Continue reading

Posted in: Crisis Management, Decision making, Intercultural Communication, Narrative and Cognition, Public Relations, Strategic Leadership Tags: , , , , , ,
November 19, 2011

Announcement: U.S. State Department Strategic Narratives Public Meeting

By . Filed Under: Conferences, Narrative Research, National Security, Politics and Policy, Public Diplomacy, War and Violent Conflict.

At the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica, CA, November 29

From the State Department Announcement:

The U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy will hold a public meeting on the topic of strategic narratives November 29, 2011, in Santa Monica, CA, in partnership with the RAND Corporation. The meeting will take place at the RAND offices at 1776 Main Street in Santa Monica, CA, in the Forum Auditorium. It will begin at 9:00 am and end at 3:00 p.m. with doors open for registration and continental breakfast at 8:30 a.m. The event will be webcast live and will emphasize open-forum question and response periods with the audience.

To attend, contact the RAND Corporation no later than November 21 by phone at (412)683-2300 ext 4906 or email to maria_falvo@rand.org and provide your full name, citizenship (U.S. citizenship is not required to attend), and institutional/organizational affiliation. Continue reading

Posted in: Conferences, Narrative Research, National Security, Politics and Policy, Public Diplomacy, War and Violent Conflict Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
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