Emotional Diplomacy: Official Emotion on the International Stage

Abstract

The study of emotion in global affairs is a thriving subfield in international relations. But states do not experience emotion, so how does emotion influence state-to-state relations? Some scholars point to the ways emotion in the public sphere influences policy makers. Others argue that emotion felt by policy makers shapes perceptions and decision making. In his innovative study the political scientist Todd H. Hall suggests that emotion matters in another way. He argues that state actors sometimes engage in deliberate, prolonged performance of an emotional stance as a strategic tool to manage how their state is perceived. Hall calls such performances “emotional diplomacy.” As Hall sees it, state actors using this type of diplomacy inflect their behavior with the characteristics of a specific emotion to achieve the same outcomes evoked by interpersonal emotional displays. Diplomats act out anger, for example, to elicit contrition and restitution. They deliberately choose this strategy because they believe it will achieve specific goals; when done properly, it can be effective. Emotional diplomacy includes not only rhetoric and gestures, such as apologies, but also substantive actions: use of force, provision of economic and military aid, and payment of reparations. In Hall's model, real emotion is not necessarily present in emotional diplomacy, but because the displays must appear sincere to be effective, diplomatic actors must perform emotion in sustained and convincing ways; they need to act as though they feel it.