This paper assesses the interplay of narratives as an interpretative method for role theory located in the symbolic interactionist tradition in the field of foreign policy analysis. While foreign policy role theory is rich in conceptualization, it still suffers from overt structuralism as well as from methodological underdevelopment. We attempt to address this problem by going beyond studies of national role conceptions that present foreign policy behavior as determined by the national role, thus making it impossible to understand processes of role-change and new orientations of states’ foreign policy. In fact, some national role conceptions studies tend to neglect the fact that roles are always a social phenomenon of interaction between a Self (Ego) and an Other (Alter). A social interactionist role theoretical approach includes the agency capacity of leaders and the elites ‘who speak’ on behalf of the state to articulate narratives of continuity (traditions) and change, altering the process of role conception, location and play of the actor on the international scene. Symbolic interaction highlights that social interactions occurring at all possible levels of foreign policy analysis are an interpretative process. Thus, the paper links narratives as a method for use with role theory, and it illustrates the possibilities and limitations of this connection to the study cases of Chile, Mexico and Peru. The foreign policy elites of these Latin American countries have articulated narratives to face the dilemmas of becoming part of the Asia-Pacific region, when no previous story-telling of an Asia-Pacific vocation existed in these countries. Specifically, the paper chooses three moments for the role conception, location and play of these three countries; that is, the intention to be part of APEC, the accession to APEC, and the performance once accepted into APEC.
