Bands of Brothers: Institutionalising Fraternal Communities – BOBIFC

This research in Historical International Relations (IR) examines how nations became the dominant political communities shaping the international order. While Benedict Anderson’s concept of the nation as an ‘imagined community’ has been influential, he did not provide a framework for imagination, imaginaries, or images, nor explain how specific images contribute to forming political orders. This project addresses these gaps by studying fraternal images across time, space, and ideological imaginaries, shaping and challenging the nationalist ordering. It completes the History of Political Thought with a History of Political Images.
Despite extensive research on nationalism, IR scholars have traditionally focused on states rather than nations (Griffiths & Sullivan 1997; Pettman 1998; Heiskanen 2021). Historical IR has similarly prioritised state-building over nation-building (Mayall 2023). This project shifts focus to the emergence of nationalist ordering, its resistance, and how social actors imagined national and alternative communities. It also contributes to conceptual debates on imagination, imaginaries, and images by bridging Philosophy (Castoriadis 1975; Blumenberg 2010; Taylor 2004) and History (Duby 1978; Corbin 1982), taking an innovative approach by tracing a single image, the fraternal one, across multiple imaginaries.
This project explores the role of fraternal images in both nationalist and anti-nationalist discourses. While kinship has been studied in IR (Haugevik & Neumann 2018), fraternity has primarily been analysed in historical contexts (Brahami & Roynette 2009; Bertrand, Brice & Montègre 2012; Brice 2017). Prior research has focused on revolutionary moments, but this study adopts a longue durée approach, tracing fraternal images from 1789 to the 1970s, including their institutionalisation beyond crises.
The project has two objectives: first, refining the conceptualisation of imagination, imaginaries, and images. Anderson argued that communities require images to be imaginable, yet he overlooked how specific images shape defined communities. Building on political theory, this research clarifies how images function across multiple imaginaries. Second, it investigates the use and impact of fraternal images through archival sources, employing Armitage’s ‘serial contextualism’ (2012) to integrate synchronic and diachronic perspectives. This is the first longue durée history of a single political image.
The ERC Starting Grant application will focus on three key periods: (1) the emergence of French fraternity within nationalist imaginaries (1789–1848); (2) its reinterpretation in socialism and far-right nationalism to institutionalise international and national communities (1848–1945); and (3) its adaptation in colonial contexts, particularly pan-Africanism (1920–1970s). These analyses will provide an original reading of how nations became central political entities.
During the two-year fellowship, the project will concentrate on fraternal images in socialism (1848–1945), offering a more manageable scope while demonstrating the conceptual framework’s broader applications. Lexicometric analysis will map how fraternal images evolved across time, space, languages, ideologies, and discourse genres. This case study will extend the study of fraternity beyond its traditional focus on 1789 and 1848.
This ambitious, interdisciplinary project contributes to Historical IR, engaging with Politics, History, and Philosophy while addressing contemporary issues. With nationalism resurgent, it traces the historical roots of nationalist ordering. Additionally, while fraternity has been recognised as a constitutional principle by the French Conseil constitutionnel (2018), with the legal and political consequences of this decision remaining unclear, this project is particularly timely. Lastly, the resurgence of 'sisterhood' in feminist movements invites us to pay attention to these fraternal and sororal images.