Habitus, Field Theory and the ‘Bridge’: Using a Bourdieusian Approach to Examine and Explain Cold War Continuities in Britain’s Post-Cold War Foreign Policy
Journal: PRISM (University of Calgary)
Year: 2016

This thesis examines the Anglo-American ‘special relationship’ and the ‘bridge’ role the United Kingdom has played within it since 1945, with the British seeing it as an important part of what Tate calls the post-war Anglo-American “hegemonic division of labour.” Playing this ‘bridge’ role made sense given the logic of Cold War bipolarity, but the post-Cold War shift to unipolarity has significantly decreased the need for ‘bridges’ in the international system, yet successive post-Cold War Britis