Ordering International Politics

Through the example of the 1956 Suez Crisis, Mattern demonstrates that, in crisis times, member-states can (and do) use representational force to stabilise international identity and in turn international order.
How do states sustain international order during crises? Drawing on the political philosophy of Lyotard and through an empirical examination of the Anglo-American international order during the 1956 Suez Crisis, Bially Mattern demonstrates that states can (and do) use representational force--a forceful but non-physical form of power exercised through language--to stabilize international identity and in turn international order.