Description
Emerging IR scholarship on vicarious identity argues that, in the context of anxieties around contemporary wars and national identity, nations often attempt to rally national support by promoting vicarious identification with military sacrifice. In Britain, this has entailed appeals to past military glories and commemorative symbols, with citizens being encouraged to live through the nation’s military past as well as their own ancestral connections to it to experience belonging and ontological security. While scholars have recognised that corporate entities are important intermediaries and beneficiaries (both financial and reputational) of such trends, in this paper I argue that such entities have engaged in 'vicarious militarism' in deeper ways than have been hitherto recognised. Firstly, the paper shows how sports clubs, supermarkets, and train operators have increasingly vicariously appropriated historical corporate legacies that are inherently nostalgic and designed to authenticate their specific patriotic credentials. Importantly, while such efforts often aim to activate consumers’ desires for vicarious national belonging, they are also seen as conferring internal performance-enhancing benefits. Secondly, the paper explores the politics of corporate vicarious military subjectivity, noting that while some corporate identifications ‘pass’ without notice, others generate anxieties regarding the erosion of military subjectivities and prompt considerations of authenticity.
