Hierarchies, emotions, and memory in international relations
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This chapter has two goals. First, it aims to conceptualize how emotions intersect with status hierarchies. Despite the simultaneous growth of the research programs on emotions and hierarchies in IR, these research strands have mostly remained unconnected. In previous work, we raised the possibility that emotions may be underwritten by the structural positions of the actors. In this chapter, we further develop that theoretical suggestion by building on recent scholarship on hierarchies and extending insights into a new substantive research area. The chapter’s second goal is to explore the relationship between history, memory, and emotions. We argue that taking international hierarchies seriously can shed light on the relationship between (collective) memory and emotions. The chapter delineates the ways emotional historical narratives and symbols structured by hierarchy impact and constrain foreign policy choices of states. We illustrate these arguments with examples of contested – and highly emotionally charged – Holocaust remembrance practices in post-communist Europe. Specifically, we demonstrate how the European narrative of the Holocaust has developed as a “feeling rule” of guilt at the European level, but was resisted and contested in East European countries where it never matured into a “feeling rule” – not during the communist period, nor in its aftermath.
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9780367347222
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Link to book (paywalled), Hierarchies, emotions, and memory in international relations
Bibliographic Information
Hierarchies, emotions, and memory in international relations. . 2020: https://archive.jpr.org.uk/object-4637
