O'Dwyer, Emma, Wilson, Oliver, Cohrs, J.Christopher and Lyons, Evanthia (2014) Identity and support for military intervention: data from two qualitative studies in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. In: 37th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology: Ideologies and Ideological Conflict - The Political Psychology of Belief Systems; 4-7 Jul 2014, Rome, Italy. (Unpublished)

Abstract

The role of identities, such as national and religious identity, in shaping individual and group positions towards military intervention, has been relatively underexplored. Study 1 (O’Dwyer, Lyons & Cohrs) explored the relationship between national identity and support for military intervention in the Republic of Ireland by elaborating on the social representation of the foreign policy orientation of Irish neutrality. 22 people participated in four focus groups, in which participants were asked to three vignettes in which hypothetical conflict events were described. A thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2001) revealed the existence of four themes: constraint versus agency, universal versus conditional acceptance, moral ambivalence and projecting national identity. In Study 2 (Lyons & Wilson), the role of religious identity and socio-political beliefs on support for military intervention was examined. 32 students (16 Muslim and 16 Christian) in the UK participated in four focus groups. As in Study 1, the discussions centred around three vignettes and participants’ views about involvement in the hypothetical conflicts. Focus group data were analysed using Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Corbin & Strauss, 2007). The analysis revealed the anchoring role of religious identity and socio-political beliefs in individual and group positions’ towards military intervention. Implications for research on foreign policy orientations are discussed.

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