Introduction

This chapter outlines the empirical and conceptual argument of the book. We outline the concept of strategic narrative which underpins the empirical analysis in each chapter. We define strategic narrative as, ‘a means by which political actors attempt to construct a shared meaning of the past, present, and future of international politics to shape the behaviour of domestic and international actors’ (Miskimmon et al. in Forging the World: Strategic Narratives and International Relations. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor, p. 6, 2017). We take a narrative approach to understanding the EU–China relationship as a means to highlight how scholars in the EU and China interpret the narrativization of EU–China bilateral relations and to how this bilateral relationship is refracted through relations with third parties, for instance countries in Africa and in central Asia.