Description
One of the major issues in International Relations (IR) theory is the extent to which groups of states are held together. Differing national interests and viewpoints make it difficult to find consensus and hold considerable potential for conflict. Some IR scholars have long pointed at the need for a better understanding of the relationship between identity and difference in the formation and maintenance of security communities. Building on micro-sociology, I argue that social cohesion in a security community rests on international official ritual. Official rituals are extraordinary and emotionally charged high-level meetings or ceremonial events that relate to an international organization and serve the renewal and reproduction of “we-feeling”. Employing the case of the transatlantic security community, I develop a framework that explains how official ritual generates social cohesion among NATO member states. I introduce four types of official ritual and briefly illustrate how they can be made empirically useful through the case of US president Trump’s disruption of NATO’s official ritual.
