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Strategic narratives shaping global affairs
21 positions · 26 actors
A strategic narrative is the story a state, a government or a movement tells about a dispute: what is at stake, who is responsible, what should follow. Narratives are not facts and not our view. They are the claims that recur in an actor's own statements and in the outlets that carry them, and this page exists to show them side by side.
Each entry below is a position: one claim, attributed to the actor that voices it, with the disputes it appears in and the outlets that promote it. Where two actors argue the same dispute, their positions face each other on that dispute's page. A position page explains the claim, the reasoning the position offers and what the recent events show.
Tags group positions by what they are about (security, trade, sovereignty and so on) and by the worldview they rest on. A tag is a reading aid, not a verdict.
The positions are written and merged by hand, each from claims that recur in an actor's statements. Events are matched to them by keyword rules with a model check. The counts and timelines come from the headlines gathered since January 2026, and a claim enters the list only once it has recurred long enough to deserve an entry.
The best place to see a narrative is the actor's own channel. For the four largest voices on this page:
Reading them side by side is the quickest way to see where the stories part.
Multiple legitimate centers of power, values, and systems coexist without a single dominant hegemon. Plural (Multipolar) World Order →
The war is a US/NATO proxy war; Western aid prolongs it; freeze/settle
Russia's war is a defensive special military operation; Ukraine strikes are terror
NATO encirclement/provocation is the aggressor; Russia responds defensively
The war is a US/NATO proxy war; Western aid prolongs it; freeze/settle
Sanctions on Russia are ineffective and backfire on the West
Events vindicate Russia, and Washington negotiates in bad faith
Intra-Western disputes expose Western hypocrisy, disunity and decline
US democracy and institutions are decaying (adversarial state-media reading)
North Korea's deterrent and its Russia/China partnerships are legitimate
The Zelensky government is corrupt and illegitimate
Arctic resource development and shipping are normal opportunity
US alliances on the peninsula are a containment instrument
Sanctions/pressure are conditional; the Global South asserts buyer autonomy
A multipolar order is the legitimate alternative to US hegemony
China's trade/tech measures are lawful and normal; the US is the aggressor
Intra-Western disputes expose Western hypocrisy, disunity and decline
US democracy and institutions are decaying (adversarial state-media reading)
North Korea's deterrent and its Russia/China partnerships are legitimate
Arctic resource development and shipping are normal opportunity
The Thailand-Cambodia clash as an occasion for great-power mediation
US alliances on the peninsula are a containment instrument