Narrative War: The fourth grammar of war -- with Dr. Brian Steed

Hosts Major Carlen Vician and Major Evelyn Payne sit down with Brian Steed—historian, retired Army foreign area officer, and author of Narrative War: The Philosophy of Social Conflict—about how narrative shapes modern conflict and planning in the information domain. Steed explains four “grammars” of war (positional, maneuver, firepower, and narrative), tracing shifts from defeating army wings to armies, states, and attempts to paralyze systems, arguing narrative is dominant in 2025 while other philosophies still appear (e.g., positional warfare in Ukraine). He describes narrative as an organizing framework for identity and interpretation, emphasizes aligning “words, deeds, and images,” and offers planning questions about desired narrative end states and the effort required to change narrative terrain. He outlines narrative strategies of disruption, displacement, and exhaustion, critiques Western difficulty with exhaustion campaigns, and closes with “rules of social conflict,” including that actors act and publish according to their narratives and cannot be changed by money unless already corrupt.00:00 Welcome to Operational Arch01:13 Meet Dr Brian Steed02:15 Four Philosophies of War02:37 From Forts to Systems06:35 Why Narrative War Now10:27 Narrative Across Five Rings11:28 Planning Narrative Objectives13:23 Deception and Downhill Stories16:21 Types of Narrative Conflict20:50 Defining Narrative for Leaders24:10 Societal Narratives and Pitfalls27:06 Lessons from Jordan and Iraq28:49 Lawrence of Arabia Influence32:23 Disruption, Displacement, Exhaustion37:16 Exhaustion Campaigns and Gaza43:09 Rules of Social Conflict46:43 Closing