Multiple Identities, Interfacing Games: The Social Construction of Western Action in Bosnia

This article explores an alternative approach to the analysis of patterns
in International Relations. These patterns are not to be found in
recurring cause-effect sequences) but in shared rules, drawn from the
past, by which actions are constituted. The theoretical approach
builds on the later work of Wittgenstein, and particularly his use of
'language games'. The approach is applied to a cursory analysis of the
war in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The exercise is less explanatory in the
complete sense than illustrative of the approach. The choice of context
did, however, result from a number of questions that arose during the
dramatic events of the summer of 1995.