How can EU and member state officials build a more durable narrative of global governance, and do it before positions harden?
This manual is a practical companion to ENSURED's research on EU strategic narratives. Where that work diagnosed why the EU's story of global governance is fragmenting, this guide turns this into a method: a step-by-step process for EU and member state officials and communications practitioners to build narratives that hold up in front of sceptical, well-informed audiences.
Its central premise is that narrative work is most powerful when it is proactive rather than reactive. The manual is designed to be used at the start of a policy cycle — not after positions have hardened and the framing has already been set by someone else. Rather than offering ready-made messages, it walks teams through the analytical groundwork that credible communication depends on: naming the problem, understanding the audience, and building an argument that can survive contact with the counter-arguments it will face.
The guide is organised around five steps:
1. Reading the room — Map the narrative environment and define what change is realistically achievable.
2. Knowing who matters — Narrow a wide field of stakeholders to the few audiences whose perception actually needs to shift, and build concrete personas for each.
3. Building your narrative's case — Develop the core argument and stress-test it against countering evidence, competing framings, and the institution's own internal divisions.
4. Tailoring your narrative's messages — Translate the argument into audience-specific messages without losing coherence across them.
5. Stress-testing the narrative — Anticipate how the story could be misread or weaponised, prepare mitigation strategies, and set up ways to monitor whether it is working.
Throughout, the manual applies the three qualities that ENSURED's research identifies as central to durable narratives — coherence, credibility, and context-sensitivity — and operationalises the report's argument for "narrative realism:" the idea that a story built on honest acknowledgement of constraints is far more difficult to destabilise than one that claims more than an institution can deliver. Acknowledging tensions is a sign of credibility, not weakness.
Citation Recommendation: Kröner, Karla, Melissa Li, and Amanda Pridmore. 2026. "Building Narratives: A Guide for Strategic Communications in Global Governance." ENSURED Guide, no 1.: 1-24 (September): https://www.ensuredeurope.eu.
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