Feminist security studies. A narrative approach

of two-level games. Here the formulation of ‘new national interests’ has some traction especially as it relates to traditional realist and intergovernmental scholarship. Governments need domestic support in order to pursue their interests and these interests are conditioned by new international considerations. This tension gives rise to the dilemma of matching capacity with ambition, a circle that can only rationally be squared by deeper and broader defence cooperation, most especially between Britain and France. The text goes on to provide a convincing archaeology of the evolution of these Franco-British interests, how they have been differentially impacted by domestic politics and how their reconciliation has been pursued in a European context. In short, a snap shot of how these two states have conspired to create a policy condominium at the heart of the CSDP. This book is a useful corrective to both lazy theorising about the socialisation of European elites and to an unthinking disregard of the EU as an international actor. It properly points to the centrality of member states in the construction and execution of the CSDP and foregrounds the role of domestic opinion in the construction of member-state policy within that process. It arguably falls short, however, in addressing the deeper cognitive roots of change in what are presented as ‘national interests’. In sum, it vividly illustrates why movement towards a more credible, effective and coherent foreign, security and defence policy on the part of the Union has been so qualified to date.