The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Vulnerability and nationalism: the support for the war against Iraq in five established states

På svenska

Author

Summary, in English

This essay attempts to shed light on why aggressive ideas gain support within established western states. To do that it attempts to answer the question why the armed conflict against Iraq received such varied support during the first four months of 2003 within the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, France and Spain. A comparative study indicates that the justifications for the armed conflict must be endorsed in the national identities of the particular states. If not, either the justifications or national identities have to be modified. The dominant elite emerge as essential to this process, as does the public experience of vulnerability. It appears that the war against Iraq received such varied support because the initial definitions of national identities endorsed the justifications for the war to different degrees, the dominant elites promoted different opinions and the people experienced different degrees of vulnerability.

Department/s

Publishing year

2009

Language

English

Pages

340-360

Publication/Series

Nations and Nationalism

Volume

15

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Other Civil Engineering
  • Building Technologies
  • Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Keywords

  • elite
  • armed conflict
  • Iraq
  • nationalism
  • national identity
  • vulnerability

Status

Published

Research group

  • LUCRAM (Lund University Center for Risk Analysis and Management

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 1469-8129