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Neutrality is a foreign policy orientation which denotes non-aggression and impartiality in war and the inviolability of neutral territory (Salmon, 1989). Despite its enduring popularity among Irish citizens, it occupies a unique position, variously perceived as an expression of sovereignty or pacifism, or as a symptom of moral ambivalence and self-interest. This thesis provides a mixed-methods examination of the meanings which Irish citizens, pro-neutrality activists and the media attach to neutrality, drawing on social representations theory (Moscovici, 1961/76), identity process theory (Breakwell, 1993; Breakwell, 1986) and rhetorical approaches to social psychology (Billig, Condor, Edwards, Gane, Middleton, & Radley, 1988; Billig, 1993). It examines neutrality’s relationship with national identity, often posited as a reason for its endurance (e.g. Devine, 2008b). It explores social representational change from two angles – in terms of change in social representational content and the consideration of how social representational change might be achieved in terms of resisting dominant representations. Four empirical enquiries were conducted to investigate Irish neutrality. Study 1 examines the change in social representations of neutrality using an ALCESTE analysis (Reinert, 1990) of media data from four events considered key for understanding Irish neutrality –WorldWar II (1939-45), Ireland’s membership of the European Union (1973), the invasion of Iraq (2003) and the Lisbon Treaty referenda (2008,2009). This study shows that the social representational field is context-dependent and marked by stability and flux; Irish neutrality during World War II has assumed an iconic and enduring quality, while representations have more recently begun to encompass Irish involvement in peace-keeping. This study also reveals the value tensions which neutrality signifies and its potential to problematise the relationship between national identity and neutrality, specifically in terms of the Northern Ireland conflict. Study 2 presents a quantitative analysis of the 2001/02 Irish Social and Political Attitudes data (Garry, Hardiman, & Payne, 2006). This study examines the content of representations of neutrality, how such representations were anchored in values, and the importance of group differences for how such representations were objectified. It reveals four dominant definitions of neutrality – independence, non-aggression, impartiality and peace-keeping - and shows that older people were more likely to use the definition of independence over any other, indicating possible intergenerational differences in objectification. Social representational content was found to moderate the relationship between values and support for neutrality. Study 3 examines the content of social representations of neutrality and its relationship with national identity. Four focus groups were conducted with Irish citizens of different ages and levels of educational attainment. From discussions of vignettes detailing hypothetical conflict events, a thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) of the relationship between social representations of neutrality and Irish national identity was undertaken. Study 4 comprises of a thematic analysis of focus group data with three groups of pro-neutrality activists; two included Sinn Fein members and one Green Party members. The anchoring of social representations of neutrality in ideology and the strategies of resisting dominant social representations were investigated. Overall, the findings show that social representations of neutrality are dilemmatic and polyphasic; they are characterised by competing arguments, tensions, ambiguity and ambivalence, which need to be negotiated. The thesis also posits that the relationship between neutrality and national identity is dynamic and that representations are functional for identity. In terms of process, social representations of neutrality may be anchored in values and ideology and age seems relevant to the process of objectification. Implications for research on foreign policy orientations as well as the benefits of using a social representations approach are advanced. Taken as a whole, this thesis underscores the need to study foreign policy orientations using a theoretical framework which prioritises the issues of content, context, conflict and identity, that is, what foreign policy orientations mean to people, if and how these meanings change and are contested, and how they are related to identity.

Evidence indicates that US partisan and ideological identities shape political outcomes including the recent increase in affective political polarisation. As predicted by social identity theory, self-placement as a US liberal or conservative, or as a Democrat or Republican, is associated with favouritism toward the ideological in-group and negative attitudes and behaviours toward the outgroup. The theory also holds that the link between self-categorisation and behaviour is mediated by the content of that identity, by what an individual believes it means to be a member of that group (Huddy, 2001). This thesis employs a mixed methods sequential design to investigate the meanings of US political identities and the relationship of these meanings to affective political polarisation. It builds on social identity theory work by drawing on the social representations approach (Elcheroth et al., 2011), conceptualising social representations as the building blocks of social identity content (Breakwell, 1993b). Four empirical studies comprise this investigation. Study 1 is a qualitative analysis of lay representations of US liberal and conservative identities. A number of asymmetries were identified, including a difference in national attachment which contrasted a conservative group-centric, symbolic attachment (named national reverence) with a liberal individual-centric, instrumental attachment (named individual support). These organising principles of national reverence and individual support identified in Study 1 were then operationalised in Studies 2a and 2b through exploratory and confirmatory analyses. The principles were found to be significant and substantive descriptors of ideological identity and predictors of political outcomes including voting behaviour and affective political polarisation. In addition, national reverence and individual support were superior predictors of these variables as compared to right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and nationalism. Study 3 examined national identity attachment on the political left through a qualitative analysis of Democratic candidate speeches during the 2019/2020 primary season. This work revealed a fractured representation of national attachment across the Democratic ideological spectrum with tensions between individual-centric and group-centric representations of the nation. Finally, Study 4 explored the causal role of the principles in affective political polarisation in the presence of issue positions and group demographic information. The study pointed to the substantive role of the principles in affective political polarisation, but noted that the contribution of the principles, issue positions, and demographic information varied by party. Overall, the studies suggest that the meanings of US national and ideological identities are highly intertwined and that these meanings are predictive of political outcomes, including affective political polarisation. This programme of investigation contributes new measures (national reverence and individual support) that are not only useful descriptors of US political identities, but also strong predictors of political outcomes. In addition, this thesis contributes theoretically and methodologically to the study of political identity and affective political polarisation. By framing social representations as elements of identity content, the political identities that drive outcomes are conceptualised as dynamic, contextual, and changeable. The implications of this framing, and of the findings related to the dominance of conservative representations of national identity, are discussed. Overall, this thesis underscores the need to study political outcomes using a theoretical framework that prioritises the issues of identity content and context-what political identities mean to people in particular socio-political environments.