Emotions in EU foreign policy–when and how do they matter?

Seda Gürkan*, Özlem Terzi

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Despite the increasing importance of emotions in explaining political behaviour, the study of emotions in EU policies and politics remains still very limited. The core objective of this special issue is to fill this gap by shedding light on the role of ‘emotions’ in EU foreign policy and to launch a call to EU foreign policy scholars for taking emotions seriously. By analysing multiple foreign policy cases across different geographies and by elucidating the plurality of emotions expressed by the EU, the contributions to this special issue show how and when emotions bear an impact on the EU’s foreign policy decisions and actions in the cases of international norm violations by external actors. The introduction sets the framework for analysing different roles that emotions might play in EU foreign policy by introducing enabling and constraining mechanisms, whereby the EU’s emotional expressions lead to action/inaction through its institutionalised appraisal process.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)575-596
Number of pages22
JournalJournal of European Integration
Volume46
Issue number5
Early online date11 Jul 2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024

Bibliographical note

This article belongs to the Special Issue: The role of emotions in EU foreign policy.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Funding

For Seda G\u00FCrkan, this research was supported by the Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap [Starters Grant]. The guest editors would like to express their gratitude to Ana Juncos, Thomas Christiansen and Alessandra Carraro for their endless support, meticulous guidance and valuable comments during the preparation of this special issue. We would like to thank all external reviewers as well as five anonymous reviewers of this Introduction for their constructive feedback and suggestions, which allowed us as guest editors to enhance our contribution, and guided our contributors. The earlier versions of this article and several of these contributing articles were presented at the \u2018Emotions and norms in EU crisis diplomacy\u2019 panel at the ECPR Joint Sessions on 21-22 April 2022; \u2018Emotions in the European Union\u2019s security policy\u2019 workshop, organised at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) on 19 January 2023; and at the European Union in International Affairs (EUIA) Conference organised in Brussels on 3-5 May 2023. We would like to thank the audiences at these panels for their suggestions, comments and interest in emotions research in EU foreign policy, in particular, Antoaneta Dimitrova and Wolfgang Wagner for their comments during the authors\u2019 workshop held on 5-6 June 2023. Last but not least, we would like to thank Antonio Ballesta Angelaki and George Soliman for their assistance in preparing the manuscript for publication. For Seda G\u00FCrkan, this research has been made possible by a Starters Grant from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and it was undertaken within the framework of the research project EUMOTIONS (The Role of Emotions in EU Foreign Policy).

FundersFunder number
Ministerie Van Onderwijs
Cultuur en Wetenschap
European Union in International Affairs
Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap
Universiteit van Amsterdam

    Keywords

    • affect
    • appraisal process
    • emotions in foreign policy
    • emotions in IR
    • EU decision-making
    • EU foreign policy
    • EU institutions
    • feelings
    • norm violation

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