This paper examines how far individual British citizens tell similar stories about Britain’s military and when it should be used. Rather than using quantitative methods and binary classifications such as isolationist or internationalist, it adopts an interpretive narrative approach, interrogating how similarly individual citizens construct narratives about Britain’s military role. This approach offers a fresh perspective on British attitudes at a time when strategic narratives are considered integral to persuading publics to support wars.
The paper argues that while the range of individual narrative interpretations is theoretically infinite, British citizens tell strikingly similar stories about Britain’s military role. Specifically, for both supporters and opponents of contemporary military interventions, British exceptionalism, be it military, technological, democratic, educational or experiential, strongly pervades public narratives that explain the country’s military role. Also, perhaps surprisingly, British citizens separate the symbolic importance of military strength from their views on whether they should actually be deployed.
