ABSTRACT

In 1956, the Anglo-American international order broke down into international disorder. On both sides of the Atlantic, leadership and bureaucrats were at a loss about what to expect from the other. However, over the course of the Suez Crisis, Anglo-American disorder was molded back into a security community; back into an order of stable expectations for nonviolent behavior between the U.S. and Britain. The question-the Suez Puzzle-is how uncertainty and confusion was replaced with reliable shared AngloAmerican expectations and behaviors. The answer, I have argued, rests with AngloAmerican we-ness identity. Whereas neither power politics nor common interests were sufficient to impose order on the relationship between the U.S. and Britain from within the context of the Suez disorder, shared Anglo-American self-other understandings of common values, trust, and security fate were. We-ness gave the two states directions about what to expect from each other and how to behave.