ABSTRACT
Norms contained in British strategic culture are conducive to short, rather swift and clear-cut securitisation processes resulting in robust and decisive action domestically as well as internationally. The first decision to be analysed is the British decision to use force in Afghanistan. The largely positive parliamentary resonance indicates that a strategic culture carrying norms conducive to far-reaching coercive domestic powers of the state underlay the securitisation process. The package of counterterrorist legislation, the UK government sought to prevent the occurrence of terrorist acts and to fight terrorist activities in the UK. The UK government's decision to go to war with Iraq alongside the US cannot be broken down to one particular point in time but it proceeded rather like a sequence of events operating like a funnel of choices. The UN Security Council sanctioned the policy, which rested on regular UN weapons inspections, sanctions and a no-fly zone enforced by UK through air force.
