A War of Narratives

This chapter recounts how the U.S. effort to counter violent extremism in the War on Terror unfolded in the arena of the Afghan War and the rise of ISIS. The war is framed as a conflict between competing narratives, as the U.S. military sought to enlist local populations in the fight against extremism by “winning hearts and minds” away from the violent extremists’ narrative of the U.S. as a foreign oppressor. This chapter establishes narrative as the crux of the War on Terror, as the war’s resolution depends on the adoption of a reconciliatory narrative that integrates American and Muslim interests. If reconciliatory narrative is the key to resolving the war, then Islamophobic narratives directly exacerbate and perpetuate the war. The chapter concludes by describing the current peace process, which hinges on a resolution of the animosity fomented by Islamophobia.