Narratives of War Origins and Endings: A Note on the End of the Cold War

Rejecting both the covering-law model of explanation and the dichotomous view of knowledge, which sharply separates 'explanation' from 'understanding', this article offers a model of explanation as an 'intelligibilifying' narrative. It argues that narratives of war origins would cohere with those of war endings, and demonstrates this with respect to the end of the Cold War. The article suggests that the primary function of narrative is to help us make sense of past events, rather than to predict the future, and draws attention to the linkages between narrative and practice in world politics.