Ordering International Politics: Identity, Crisis, and Representational Force

Extract

Ordering International Politics: Identity, Crisis, and Representational Force. By Janice Bially Mattern. New York and London: Routledge, 2005. 303p. $25.95.

Janice Bially Mattern's impressive first book comes with all barrels loaded. Although her subtitle suggests that she will take on the usual suspects, realist power-politics and neoliberal common-interest approaches, she also includes a critique of the approach closest to her own, namely, constructivism. The book can be read for the strength of its theoretical arguments alone; although the author labels this view a “post-constructivist” approach, it is perhaps better understood as a “linguistic turn.” Theoretical arguments are “tested” against the Suez crisis of 1956, in particular the breakdown and reconstitution of the so-called Special Relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.