Employing strategic narrative theory, (A. Miskimmon, B. O’Loughlin & L. Roselle, Strategic Narratives: Communication Power and the New World Order (Routledge 2013)) the article compares the EU’s and the US’s strategic narratives of their Southern neighbourhoods, forged after the simultaneous migration crises at their Southern borders in 2013-2015. By this comparison, the article tests the claims that the EU and the US have different preferences for (regional) orders and explores the region’s role in their strategic narratives. Exploring three levels in the circulation of the narratives – system, identity and issue – this article concludes that both powers share the idea of desired regional order. At the same time, the place of the ‘region’ in the strategic narratives is different, demonstrating the EU’s deeper engagement in the region and its identity as a regional power.