Can US think tanks put the battle of narratives with China to rest?

This initiative speaks to an overriding US imperative to re-engage a battle of the narratives that can credibly unify as many as possible of its key allies in explaining exactly why China’s rise constitutes an existential threat to the globally benign status quo.

Winning the narrative battle has been pivotal to governments justifying their rule throughout recorded history, and today is no different. That is why victors always write the history books: the story is often more important than the truth.

This Council on Foreign Relations initiative is likely to be important, partly because some inconvenient truths are undermining the credibility of the US narrative. The unifying narrative that has lent authority to the US claim to global leadership since World War II seems increasingly threadbare.

“Overall, the [rules-based order] origin story is one of peace, stability and prosperity”, they wrote. It provided what they call “a unifying story for the maintenance of formal security alliances” that has been “dividing the world into those who belong to the community of righteous actors and those situated outside”.

He framed China as an aggressive and expansive one-party state whose “vision would move us away from the universal values that have sustained so much of the world’s progress over the past 75 years”.

While all of these claims are underpinned by dubiously concocted facts, and often no facts at all, this does not matter. In the battle for narrative control, the quality of the narrative counts more than the facts.

Over recent years, the US has masterfully created, fuelled and nurtured such narratives, served by think tanks, often based in Washington and well-funded by a wide range of interest groups. Some are more independent