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In an increasingly contested international order, discourse has become a strategic terrain of competition. Rising powers—alongside established ones undergoing authoritarian consolidation—are deploying narratives, framings, and strategic communication actions not merely to legitimize domestic governance, but to reshape global norms, contest liberal-democratic hegemony, and project alternative visions of world order. This panel investigates the "weaponization of discourse" as a distinct dimension of contemporary political competition at the international level, examining how state, para-state, and non-state actors mobilize language, media, and knowledge production to advance strategic narratives amid democratic backsliding and authoritarian resurgence worldwide. We invite papers exploring how states and their political elites construct and export competing narratives on sovereignty, development, security, and global governance, and how these narratives interact with, challenge, or co-opt existing international discourses. Attention will be given to the mechanisms of 'dissemination'—propaganda, public diplomacy, disinformation, think tank production, and digital influence operations—as well as to the implications of discursive competition for international order and democratic resilience. The panel welcomes diverse theoretical and methodological approaches, including critical discourse analysis, narrative theory, comparative authoritarianism, and international relations theory.