Emotional Turn in International Relations: Emotional Diplomacy
https://doi.org/10.24833/2782-7062-2025-4-1-69-76
Abstract
The article examines the “emotional turn” in the study of world politics and international relations. The main goal of the article is to systematize and summarize existing research related to the study of emotions in political usage. Using the example of content analysis of Pope Francis’s January 2025 speech, a conclusion is made about the use of the term “diplomacy of hope” in the international arena. The overall result is that emotions can influence nation states in forming political strategies. The spread of the concept of “soft” power and public diplomacy emphasizes the need to focus on attraction rather than coercion in modern international relations. However, negative feelings and emotions currently prevail in foreign policy rhetoric, since it is “easier” to unite communities with the help of feelings of fear, anger, hatred than with the help of hope and empathy, despite the fact that the latter actively function in diplomatic and political usage.
About the Author
K. M. Tabarintseva-RomanovaRussian Federation
Ksenia M. Tabarintseva-Romanova, PhD (Philological Sciences), Associate Professor of the Department of Theory and History of International Relations
Lenin Ave., 51, 620083 Yekaterinburg
References
1. Caron, E.G. (2020). The Politics of Hope: Privilege, Despair and Political Theology. International Affairs, 96(2), 365–382. DOI: /10.1093/ia/iiaa011
2. Hall, T.H. (2016). Emotional Diplomacy: Official Emotion on the International Stage. International Affairs, 92(1), 198–199. DOI:10.1111/1468-2346.12518
3. Hutchison, E. (2010). Trauma and the Politics of Emotions: Constituting Identity, Security and Community after the Bali Bombing. International Relations, 24(1), 65–86.
4. Hutchison, E. (2014). A Global Politics of Pity? Disaster Imagery and the Emotional Construction of Solidarity after the 2004 Asian Tsunami. International Political Sociology, 8 (1), 1–19.
5. Hutchison, E. (2014). Affective Communities in World Politics: Collective Emotions after Trauma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 378 p.
6. Hutchison, E. (2019). Emotions, Bodies, and the Un/Making of International Relations. Millennium, 47(2), 284–298.
7. Hutchison, E. & Bleiker, R. (2014). Theorizing Emotions in World Politics. International Theory, 6(3), 491–514.
8. Hutchison, E. & Bleiker, R. (2017). Emotions, Discourse and Power in World Politics. International Studies Review, 19(3), 501–508.
9. Koschut, S. (2014). Emotional (Security) Communities: The Significance of Emotion Norms in Inter-Allied Conflict Management. Review of International Studies, 3, 533–558.
10. Lacatus, C. & Blanc, E. (2023). Diplomacy of Hope: Transatlantic Relations in the Transition from Trump to Biden. Foreign Policy Analysis, 19(4). DOI:10.1093/fpa/orad026
11. Avanskaya, V.A. (2018). Metodologiya izucheniya emotsiy v mezhdunarodnykh otnosheniyakh [Methodology for Studying Emotions in International Relations]. Vestnik RGGU. Seriya «Politologiya. Istoriya. Mezhdunarodnyye otnosheniya, 3(13), 43–60. DOI: 10.28995/2073-6339-2018-3-43-60
12. Kotsur, G. (2021). Emotsii i mezhdunarodnyye otnosheniya [Emotions and International Relations]. Mezhdunarodnyye protsessy, 19(3), 43–67. DOI:10.17994/IT.2021.19.3.66.2
13. Nagornykh, O.V. & Kerimov, A.A. (2018). Evolyutsiya vzglyadov na rol’ emotsiy v politike v zarubezhnoy sotsiopoliticheskoy nauke [Evolution of Views on the Role of Emotions in Politics in Foreign Sociopolitical Science]. Politicheskaya lingvistika, 4, 125–129.
14. Strezhneva, M. (2024). Emotsii i affekt v mirovoy politike [Emotions and Affect in World Politics]. Mirovaya ekonomika i mezhdunarodnyye otnosheniya, 1, 127–136. DOI: 10.20542/0131-2227-2024-68-1-127-136
Review
For citations:
Tabarintseva-Romanova K.M. Emotional Turn in International Relations: Emotional Diplomacy. Governance and Politics. 2025;4(1):69-76. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.24833/2782-7062-2025-4-1-69-76