Rational Illusions

Abstract

Abstract This chapter tackles head-on the puzzle of why states exert resources competing for international status when international recognition is seldom forthcoming and the gains from status are seemingly so ephemeral. To do so, it revisits a key case in IR’s status research: Britain’s tragic war with the Boer (1899–1902). The war has become a prime example of why the rewards from status-seeking are illusionary: the government treated victory as glorious even as the rest of the world remained unimpressed. Yet, by tracing the government’s evolving status theories across three episodes prior to, during, and after the Boer War, the chapter illuminates how, rather than resulting from psychological illusion that duped Britain’s leaders, the government’s status narrative is better described as a sociological and above all political construction that the government had considerable interest in fostering.