Competing national roles: Domestic role contestation and foreign policy in Spain and Portugal during the Iraq war

This article asks: how did domestic political contestation shape Spain’s and Portugal’s foreign policy roles during the Iraq War, and what does this reveal about the interaction between domestic agency and structural pressures in small and medium-sized states? Drawing on role theory, it examines parliamentary debates to analyse how governing parties, opposition groups, and civil society actors advanced competing national role conceptions. In Spain, Prime Minister José María Aznar’s Atlanticist alignment with the United States faced strong opposition from the PSOE and smaller parties, who framed dissent in terms of multilateralism, EU cohesion, and respect for international law. In Portugal, Prime Minister José Manuel Durão Barroso’s support for the intervention, although less contested, faced opposition that highlighted tensions between transatlantic solidarity and domestic accountability. By comparing these cases, the article demonstrates that domestic contestation has a significant influence on the enactment of foreign policy in small and medium-sized states, mediating the structural pressures of alliances and international expectations. The study contributes to role theory by foregrounding horizontal contestation and illustrating how domestic actors actively negotiate and redefine national roles in response to international crises.