The Politics of Emotions in IR: Who Gets to Feel What, Whose Emotions Matter, and the “History Problem” in Sino-Japanese Relations

About this event

A large literature within the field of international relations has now explored both how emotions can shape political perceptions and behavior and how international actors may seek to manipulate, harness, or deploy emotions and emotional displays for political ends. Less attention, however, has been paid to how political struggles can also center upon issues of who can or should feel what emotion and whose feelings matter. Precisely, we theorize a distributive politics of emotion that can manifest in three general forms, all of which have their own properties and logics of contestation. The first centers on emotional obligations, understood as an actor's duties to feel and express specific emotions. The second concerns emotional entitlements, or the rights an actor enjoys to either feel or not feel certain emotions. And the third involves hierarchies of emotional deference, that is, the varying degrees of priority accorded to different actors’ feelings. We illustrate how the politics of emotions can unfold on the international stage by looking at developments in the so-called history problem within Sino-Japanese relations.

*Please note that this paper is co-authored with Karl Gustafsson, Stockholm University.

Todd H. Hall is a Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford’s Department of Politics and International Relations and Tutor in Politics at St Anne’s College. He is currently Director of the University of Oxford’s China Centre. He earned his PhD from the University of Chicago in 2008 and has held postdoctoral fellowships at Princeton and Harvard, as well as visiting scholar appointments at the Free University of Berlin, Tsinghua University in Beijing, and the University of Tokyo. Prior to joining the University of Oxford, he held the position of Assistant Professor in Political Science at the University of Toronto (2010-2013). His research interests extend to the areas of international relations theory; the intersection of emotion, affect, and foreign policy; and Chinese foreign policy. His recent publications include articles in International Organization, International Security, International Studies Quarterly, International Studies Review, Political Psychology, Political Science Quarterly, and Security Studies. Prof Hall has also published a book with Cornell University Press, titled Emotional Diplomacy: Official Emotion on the International Stage, which was recently named co-recipient of the International Studies Association's 2016 Diplomatic Studies Section Book Award.