Citation

Coen Leep M. Coop. Confl. 2010; 45(3): 331-352.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Nordic Committee for the Study of International Politics, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0010836710378617

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

International Relations scholars have recently turned to emotions to understand and explain events in world politics. Although this turn is appealing, most scholars have failed to critically examine the relationships between emotion, language, identity and foreign policy. This article aims to unpack these relationships. Drawing upon Sara Ahmed’s notion of the ‘emotionality of texts’, this article explores how foreign policy may be an affective practice, which can be defined as a ritualized practice of discursively binding emotions to Others’ identities and legitimating foreign policy through a discursive logic of feeling. In this way, identities are produced and policies are legitimated affectively. Neglecting the emotional narratives that constitute Self/Other relations leads to an insufficient understanding of emotion in global politics, an incomplete understanding of how identities emerge and matter as they do, and forecloses new alternatives of apprehending transformative ruptures and enduring patterns of Self/Other interaction. Through an analysis of United States policy towards the Israeli—Palestinian conflict, this article highlights the importance of emotion and affective practices in world politics.