Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2010
Did Britain reinvade the Falklands because of its ‘identity’? Or was reinvasion instead required by its ‘role’ in international politics? In this article I show that a complete constructivist explanation of Britain's response must consider both its identity affirmation, which constructivist International Relations (IR) theory would certainly draw attention to, but also the role it played on the world stage at the beginning of the 1980s, which would very likely be overlooked. I show that a solely identity-based explanation is incomplete and ultimately unpersuasive since identities are affirmed by playing social roles, which give identity meaning. In 1982, a number of roles could have fulfilled this function for Britain; it is important then that Britain chose and was able to play the role of a status quo oriented power rather than that of a colonial power. Beyond offering a more complete interpretation of the events, the article clarifies the links between roles, identity, and action in international politics, and the type of theory appropriate to such analysis.
1 Bukovansky, Mlada, ‘American Identity and Neutral Rights from Independence to the War of 1812’, International Organization, 51 (1997), pp. 209–243CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
2 Mitzen, Jennifer, ‘Anchoring Europe's Civilizing Identity: Habits, Capabilities and Ontological Security’, Journal of European Public Policy, 13 (2006), pp. 270–285CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Steele, Brent, ‘Ontological Security and the Power of Self-identity: British Neutrality and the American Civil War’, Review of International Studies, 31 (2005), pp. 519–540CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
3 Hymans, Jacques, The Psychology of Nuclear Proliferation: Identity, Emotions, and Foreign Policy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
4 Femenia, Nora, National Identity in Times of Crisis: The Scripts of the Falklands-Malvinas War (Lommack: Nova Science Publishers, 1996)Google Scholar ; Sharp, Paul, Thatcher's Diplomacy: The Revival of British Foreign Policy (Houndmills: Macmillan, 1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
5 Kratochwil, Friedrich, Rohrlich, Paul and Mahajan, Harpeet, Peace and Disputed Sovereignty (Lanham: University Press of America, 1985)Google Scholar .
6 Natanson, Maurice, The Journeying Self: A Study in Philosophy and Social Role (Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1970)Google Scholar .
7 Wendt, Alexander, Social Theory of International Politics (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999), p. 227CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
8 Bukovansky, ‘American Identity and Neutral Rights’, p. 210.
9 Wendt, , Social Theory, pp. 257–258Google Scholar .
10 Also social norms, see Gurowitz, Amy, ‘The Diffusion of International Norms: Why Identity Matters’, International Politics, 43 (2006), pp. 305–341CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
11 Morgenthau, Hans J., Politics Among Nations (Boston, Mass.: McGraw Hill, 1993)Google Scholar .
12 This is a common theme in the constructivist literature. For a good discussion, see Finnemore, Martha, National Interests in International Society (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996)Google Scholar .
13 Freedman, Lawrence, The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, Volume I: The Origins of the Falklands War (London: Routledge, 2005), pp. 22–23Google Scholar .
14 See, as exemplary, Freedman, Lawrence and Stonehouse-Gamba, Virginia, Signals of War: The Falklands Crisis, 1982 (London: Faber and Faber)CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
15 Ibid.
16 Finnemore, , National Interests, p. 2Google Scholar . See also Wendt, Social Theory of International Politics.
17 Charlton, Michael, The Little Platoon: Diplomacy and the Falklands Dispute (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1989), p. 158Google Scholar .
18 Freedman, and Stonehouse-Gamba, , Signals of War, pp. 65–83Google Scholar .
19 Freedman, , Official History, Volume I, pp. 20–21Google Scholar .
20 See Ellerby, Clive, ‘The Role of the Falkland Lobby, 1968–1990’, in Danchev, Alex (ed.), International Perspectives on the Falklands Conflict (Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan, 1992)Google Scholar .
21 Freedman, and Stonehouse-Gamba, , Signals of War, pp. 7–11Google Scholar .
22 Freedman, , Official History, Volume II, p. 16Google Scholar .
23 On the military aspects of the war, see ibid. and Middlebrook, Martin, Operation Corporate (London: Viking, 1985)Google Scholar .
24 Dillon, G. M., The Falklands, Politics and War (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1989)CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Clarke, Harold D., Mishler, William and Whiteley, Paul, ‘Recapturing the Falklands: Models of Conservative Popularity, 1979–83’, British Journal of Political Science, 20 (1990), pp. 63–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Sanders, David, Ward, Hugh, Marsh, David and Fletcher, Tony, ‘Government Popularity and the Falklands War: A Reassessment’, British Journal of Political Science, 17 (1987), pp. 281–313CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
25 See his contribution to Elman, Mirium Fendius (ed.), Paths to Peace: Is Democracy the Answer? (Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 1997), pp. 235–266Google Scholar .
26 Thompson, E. P., ‘The War of Thatcher's Face’, The Times (29 April 1982)Google Scholar .
27 Katzenstein, Peter J., The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996)Google Scholar ; Lapid, Yosef and Kratochwil, Friedrich V., ‘Revisiting the “National”: Toward an Identity Agenda in Neorealism?’, in Lapid, Yosef and Kratochwil, Friedrich V. (eds), The Return of Culture and Identity in IR Theory (Boulder: Lynne Reiner, 1996), pp. 104–126Google Scholar .
28 See Hall, Rodney Bruce, National Collective Identity: Social Constructs and International Systems (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999)Google Scholar ; Mattern, Janice Bially, ‘The Power Politics of Identity’, European Journal of International Relations, 7 (2001), pp. 349–397CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Reus-Smit, Christian, The Moral Purpose of the State (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999)Google Scholar ; Hopf, Ted, Social Construction of International Politics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002)Google Scholar ; Ruggie, John Gerard, ‘The Past as Prologue? Interests, Identity, and American Foreign Policy’, International Security, 21 (1997)Google Scholar .
29 Onuf, Nicholas, ‘The Politics of Constructivism’, in Fierke, Karin M. and Jorgensen, Knud Erik (eds), Constructing International Relations (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2001), pp. 236–254Google Scholar .
30 Brubaker, Rogers and Cooper, Frederick, ‘Beyond “Identity”’, Theory and Society, 29 (2000), pp. 1–47CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
31 For a discussion of the various ‘constructivisms’, see Hopf, , Social Construction of International Politics, pp. 278–294Google Scholar . What I call mainstream constructivism would be characterised by him as systemic constructivism.
32 Jepperson, Ronald L., Wendt, Alexander and Katzenstein, Peter J., ‘Norms, Identity, and Culture in National Security’, in Katzenstein, , Culture of National Security, pp. 33–34Google Scholar .
33 Legro, ‘Plasticity of Identity’, p. 40.
34 Wendt, , Social Theory, p. 224Google Scholar .
35 Legro, Jeffrey W., ‘Culture and Preferences in the International Cooperation Two-Step’, American Political Science Review, 90 (1996), pp. 118–137CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
36 Mitzen, ‘Anchoring Europe's Civilizing Identity’; Steele, ‘Ontological Security’.
37 Legro, ‘Plasticity of Identity’.
38 Steele, Brent, Defacing Power: The Aesthetics of Insecurity in Global Politics (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010)CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
39 Grandson of Britain's wartime PM.
40 Hansard Digest (7 April 1982), p. 56Google Scholar .
41 Onuf, Nicholas, ‘Parsing Personal Identity: Self, Other, Agent’, in Debrix, François (ed.), Language, Agency, and Politics in a Constructed World (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2003)Google Scholar .
42 Legro, ‘Culture and Preferences in the International Cooperation Two-Step’.
43 Ringmar, Identity, Interests, and Action.
44 Wendt, Social Theory of International Politics.
45 Legro, ‘Plasticity of Identity’.
46 Ibid., pp. 41–2.
47 Hopf, Social Construction.
48 Wendt, , Social Theory, pp. 246–312Google Scholar .
49 It should be noted here that Wendt's approach is purposefully restrictive: his project is a social theory of international politics, one that places culture, including roles and identity, as its core, unlike that of its chief target, Kenneth Waltz, while also remaining relatively parsimonious. My development of a wider conceptualisation of roles in international politics therefore builds on this useful beginning.
50 Barnett, Michael, ‘Institutions, Roles, and Disorder: The Case of the Arab States System’, International Studies Quarterly, 37 (1993), pp. 271–296CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
51 Holsti, Kal, ‘National Role Conceptions in the Study of Foreign Policy’, International Studies Quarterly, 14 (1970), pp. 233–309CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
52 See Walker, Stephen G., Role Theory and Foreign Policy Analysis (Durham: Duke University Press, 1987)Google Scholar for an overview of this literature. See also, Le Prestre, Phiippe G., Role Quests in the Post-Cold War Era (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1997)Google Scholar for a set of empirical applications.
53 Wendt, Alexander, ‘Anarchy is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics’, International Organization, 46 (1992), pp. 391–425CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
54 By this term I mean to distinguish symbolic interactionists from the different research traditions in sociology that invoke the concept of role. See, for example, Biddle, Bruce and Thomas, Edwin, Role Theory: Concepts and Research (New York: Wiley, 1966)Google Scholar ; Banton, Michael, Roles: An Introduction to the Study of Social Relations (London: Tavistock, 1965)Google Scholar .
55 Hewitt, John, Self and Society: A Symbolic Interactionist Social Psychology (Needham Heights, Mass.: Allyn and Bacon, 1997), pp. 59–63Google Scholar .
56 Mead, George Herbert, Mind, Self, and Society: From the Standpoint of a Social Behaviorist (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1934)Google Scholar .
57 Ibid., pp. 152–63.
58 Turner, Ralph H., ‘Role-Taking, Role Standpoint, and Reference-Group Behavior’, The American Journal of Sociology, 61 (1956), p. 317CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
59 See Weinstein, Eugene A. and Deutschberger, Paul, ‘Some Dimensions of Altercasting’, Sociometry, 26 (1963), pp. 454–466CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
60 Mead, , Mind, Self, and Society, pp. 174–178Google Scholar .
61 See Hopf, , Social Construction, pp. 10–12Google Scholar .
62 Bleiker, Roland and Hutchison, Emma, ‘Fear No More: Emotion and World Politics’, Review of International Studies, 34 (2008), pp. 115–135CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Mercer, Jonathan, ‘Emotional Beliefs’, International Organization, 64 (2010), pp. 1–31CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
63 For a discussion, see Bicheno, Hugh, Razor's Edge: The Unofficial History of the Falkland's War (London: Phoenix, 2006)Google Scholar .
64 See, Rousseau, David L., Identifying Threats and Threatening Identities: The Social Construction of Realism and Liberalism (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2006)Google Scholar .
65 See their chapter ‘Roles and Reasons’, in Hollis, Martin and Smith, Steve (eds), Explaining and Understanding in International Relations (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991), pp. 142–170Google Scholar .
66 Legro, ‘Plasticity of Identity’, p. 41.
67 Bull, Hedley, The Anarchical Society (Houndmills: Macmillan, 1977), pp. 194–222CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
68 Freedman, , Official History, Volume II, pp. 39–47Google Scholar .
69 See the reply of Eduardo Roca, Argentina's UN Ambassador, to Parsons during the debate in the UN Security Council, ibid., p. 44.
70 ‘Galtieri pledges no disruption’, The Times (3 April 1982), p. 1Google Scholar .
71 Freedman, and Stonehouse-Gamba, , Signals of War, p. 205Google Scholar .
72 Ibid.
73 Central Office of Information (hereafter COI) Reference Pamphlet (1982), p. 24,
74 Freedman, , Official History II, p. 41Google Scholar .
75 Hansard Digest (3 April 1982), p. 8Google Scholar .
76 de Cuellar, Javier Pérez, Pilgrimage for Peace: A Secretary General's Memoir (Houndmills: Macmillan, 1997), p. 381Google Scholar .
77 COI Reference Pamphlet (1982), p. 34.
78 Freedman, and Stonehouse-Gamba, , Signals of War, p. 151Google Scholar .
79 On the European dimension, see Martin, Lisa, ‘Institutions and Cooperation: Sanctions during the Falkland Islands Conflict’, International Security, 16 (1992), pp. 143–178CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Stavridis, Stelios and Hill, Christopher, Domestic Sources of Foreign Policy: Western European Reactions to the Falklands Conflict (Oxford: Berg, 1996)Google Scholar ; and Bicheno, , Razor's Edge, pp. 81–82Google Scholar .
80 Nott, John, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow (London: Politico's, 2002), p. 305Google Scholar .
81 Freedman, , Official History II, p. 520Google Scholar .
82 Freedman, and Stonehouse-Gamba, , Signals of War, p. 154Google Scholar .
83 Ibid.
84 On French opinions, see Stravridis, Stelios and Regelsberger, Elfriede, ‘The Converging National Reactions (I): The Big States – France and Germany’, in Stavridis, and Hill, , Domestic Sources, pp. 57–78Google Scholar .
85 Geoffrey Edwards, ‘Europe and the Falklands Islands Conflict’, in ibid., p. 41.
86 Ibid., p. 42.
87 Donatella Savignoni, ‘The Internal Dissenter (I): Italy’, in ibid., pp. 114–31.
88 Ben Tonra, ‘The Internal Dissenter II: Ireland’, in ibid., pp. 132–50.
89 See, among others who make this argument, Bicheno, Razor's Edge.
90 Henderson, Nicholas, Channels and Tunnels: Reflections on Britain and Abroad (London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1987), p. 86Google Scholar .
91 See Dumbrell, John, A Special Relationship: Anglo-American Relations in the Cold War and After (Houndmills: Macmillan, 2001)Google Scholar .
92 Freedman, , Official History II, p. 165Google Scholar .
93 See Windsor, Philip, ‘Diplomatic Dimensions of the Falklands Crisis’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 12 (1983), p. 92CrossRefGoogle Scholar . On US-Argentine relations, see Freedman, and Stonehouse-Gamba, , Signals of War, pp. 32–33Google Scholar .
94 Ibid., p. 151.
95 Freedman, and Stonehouse-Gamba, , Signals of War, pp. 238–239Google Scholar .
96 See Freedman, , Official History, Volume II, pp. 379–389Google Scholar .
97 Weinberger, Caspar, Fighting for Peace: Seven Critical Years at the Pentagon (London: Michael Joseph, 1990), p. 144Google Scholar .
98 Ibid.
99 Ibid., p. 179. See also Thatcher, , Downing Street Years, p. 188Google Scholar .
100 ‘US imposes economic and military curbs on Argentina’, The Times (1 May 1982), p. 1Google Scholar .
101 Haig, Alexander, Caveat: Realism, Reagan, and Foreign Policy (New York: Macmillan, 1984), p. 293Google Scholar .
102 See Richardson, Louise, When Allies Differ: Anglo-American Relations During the Suez and Falklands Crises (Houndmills: Macmillan, 1996)CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
103 See Sharp, , Thatcher's Diplomacy, pp. 74–78Google Scholar .
104 Hansard Digest (7 April 1982), p. 57Google Scholar .
105 Ibid., p. 29.
106 Hansard Digest (29 April 1982), p. 193Google Scholar .
107 Freedman, and Stonehouse-Gamba, , Signals of War, p. 152Google Scholar .
108 See, for example, ‘The Death of the Belgrano’, and the special section of The Sunday Times (9 May 1982), pp. 15–19Google Scholar .
109 ‘Sympathy for Britain Wanes’, The Times (5 May 1982), p. 2Google Scholar .
110 Freedman, and Stonehouse-Gamba, , Signals of War, pp. 272–291Google Scholar .
111 Freedman, , Official History, Volume II, pp. 687–702Google Scholar .
112 CIO Pamphlet (1982), p. 34.
113 Nott, John, ‘A View from the Centre’, in Badsey, Stephen, Havers, Rob and Grove, Mark (eds), The Falklands Conflic Twenty Years On: Lessons for the Future (London: Frank Cass, 2005), p. 57Google Scholar .
114 Haig, , Caveat, p. 297Google Scholar .
115 Thatcher, , Downing Street Years, p. 173Google Scholar .
116 Sharp, , Thatcher's Diplomacy, p. 68Google Scholar .
117 Clark, Alan, Diaries: Into Politics, 1972–1982 (London: Phoenix, 2001), p. 310Google Scholar .
118 Hansard Digest (3 April 1982), p. 9Google Scholar .
119 Bicheno, , Razor's Edge, p. 87Google Scholar .
120 Hastings, Max and Jenkins, Simon, The Battle for the Falklands (London: Book Club Associates, 1983), p. 84Google Scholar .
121 Hansard Digest (7 April 1982), p. 61Google Scholar .
122 Bicheno, , Razor's Edge, p. 95Google Scholar .
123 On the importance of reputation and prestige in international relations, see Mercer, Jonathan, Reputation and International Politics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996)Google Scholar , and the work of Gilpin, Robert, War and Change in World Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), pp. 31–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar . For an interesting recent discussion of the notion of ‘moral prestige’, see Löwenheim, Oded, ‘ “Do Ourselves Credit and Render a Lasting Service to Mankind”: British Moral Prestige, Humanitarian Intervention, and the Barbary Pirates’, International Studies Quarterly, 47 (2003), pp. 23–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
124 Hennessy, Peter, The Prime Minister (London: Penguin, 2000), p. 416Google Scholar .
125 Hansard Digest, p. 27.
126 Ibid. (8 April 1982), p. 70.
127 Thatcher, , Downing Street Years, p. 181Google Scholar .
128 Hansard Digest (7 April 1982), p. 43Google Scholar .
129 Ibid., p. 63.
130 Bicheno, , Razor's Edge, pp. 84–97Google Scholar .
131 On the relationship between honour and identity, see Steele, Brent J., ‘“Ideals that Were Really Never in Our Possession”: Torture, Honor, and US Identity’, International Relations, 22 (2008), pp. 243–261CrossRefGoogle Scholar . See also his Ontological Security in International Relations (New York: Routledge, 2008)Google Scholar for more discussion of the themes of honour, shame and guilt.
132 Haig, , Caveat, p. 296Google Scholar .
133 Ibid., p. 318.
134 In addition to Bull, The Anarchical Society, see Waltz, Kenneth, Theory of International Politics (Reading: Addison-Wesley, 1979), pp. 72–73Google Scholar .
135 See Watson, Adam and Bull, Hedley (eds), The Expansion of International Society (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984)Google Scholar , and Watson, Adam, The Evolution of International Society: A Comparative Historical Analysis (London: Routledge, 1992)Google Scholar .
136 In addition to Steele (2010), see the special editions of Millennium: Journal of International Studies on the sublime (2006), and aesthetics (2001), and of this journal on art (October 2009).
137 See, in relation to the Falklands case, Adams, Valerie, The Media and the Falklands Campaign (Houndmills: Macmillan, 1986)CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
138 Goffman, Erving, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (London: Penguin, 1990)Google Scholar .
139 On the importance of practical knowledge, see Kratochwil, Friedrich, Rules, Norms, and Decisions: On the Conditions of Practical and Legal Reasoning in International Relations and Domestic Affairs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989)CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Kratochwil, , ‘History, Action, and Identity: Revisiting the “Second” Great Debate and Assessing its Importance for Social Theory’, European Journal of International Relations, 12 (2006), pp. 5–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar .
140 See, Taylor, Charles, The Sources of the Self (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1989)Google Scholar .