Emotional Diplomacy: Official Emotion on the International Stage - Hardcover

Hall, Todd H.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801453011 ISBN 13: 9780801453014

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2015

Synopsis

Emotional Diplomacy explores the politics of expressed emotion on the international stage, looking at the ways state actors strategically deploy emotional behavior to manipulate the perceptions of others. By examining diverse instances of emotional behavior, Todd H. Hall reveals that official emotional displays play an integral role in the strategies and interactions of state actors. Emotional diplomacy is more than rhetoric; as this book demonstrates, its implications extend to the provision of economic and military aid, great-power cooperation, and the use of armed force.

Hall investigates three strands of emotional diplomacy: those rooted in anger, sympathy, and guilt. His research, drawn on sources and interviews in five different languages, provides new insights into the 1995–1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, the post-9/11 reactions of China and Russia, and relations between West Germany and Israel after World War II. Emotional Diplomacy offers a unique take on the intersection of strategic action and emotional display, a means for understanding why states behave emotionally. Hall provides the theoretical tools necessary for understanding the nature and significance of state-level emotional behavior through new observations of how states seek reconciliation, strategically respond to unforeseen crises, and demonstrate resolve in the face of perceived provocations.

About this title

About the Author:

Todd H. Hall is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and International Relations and Tutorial Fellow in Politics, Saint Anne’s College, at the University of Oxford.

Review:

"Hall offers an innovative theoretical lens.... to explain interstate relations that seemingly belie the logic of rational choice. The volume offers an original approach to explain political crises, demonstrating the power of emotional diplomacy as a significant driver of statecraft."

(International Affairs)

"Supplementing a rich theoretical framework with a set of compelling case studies and an in-depth conceptual exploration, Hall's work is an important contribution to the study of international relations.... He provides persuasive evidence in support of his thesis that contemporary analyses must be extended to non-material state aspirations."

(Journal of East Asian Studies)

"With a study that is rife with political lessons and rich with analytic achievements, Hall has done more than one profession a great service. Combining rationalist and constructivist political science with contemporary history, he defines emotional diplomacy as 'coordinated state-level behavior that explicitly and officially projects the image of a particular emotional response toward other states.' Hall's concept expands the study of state-level encounters, specifically among heads of state, by focusing on the premises, expressions and consequences of emotional practice as an element of political competence."

(New Diplomatic History)

"Hall paints a fascinating picture of emotionalism as both diplomatic theater and rational calculation."

(Foreign Affairs)

About this edition

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0801453011
• ISBN 13: 9780801453014
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 264