Identifying Threats and Threatening Identities also contains some minor infractions and questionable aspects that will induce skepticism. Rousseau’s use of experimentation, subject pools of college undergraduates, and computer simulations to test the model will raise the usual concerns about validity. Moreover, as a study of public attitudes, its relevance depends on the significance of public opinion to foreign policymaking, a highly debatable assertion. Finally, as an idetional theory of subjectivity, it is not clear what role material factors might play, and what is or is not interpretation. At one point, Rousseau concedes that ‘‘threatening behavior by the other state,’’ which he operationalizes in terms of such statements as ‘‘it attacks common neighbors’’ and ‘‘it attacks you,’’ can ‘‘lead to an erosion of the sense of shared identity’’ (p. 65). However, this lan- guage belies his thesis because it suggests that the use of force is obviously and universally ‘‘threatening behavior.’’ The point appears to be that what an attack is depends on theoretical assumptions. Some actors may welcome an attack on neighbors (after all, what if you hate your neighbor?) or even on their own country (what if you hate your present government the argument that invaders will be ‘‘greeted as liberators’’). The conundrum of the relationship of ideas to mate- rial factors is not resolved satisfactorily in this volume.