Political psychology of emotions in European Union foreign policy in times of ontological (in)security and crisis

ABSTRACT

The article argues that understanding when and how emotions matter in times of crisis requires simultaneous contextualisation through setting out three different approaches to the political psychology of emotions in EU foreign policy in times of ontological (in)security and crisis. Firstly, through a longitudinal survey of emotional anxieties and fears in the EU from the 1990s to the 2020s drawing on the introduction of ontological security studies by Kinnvall, Manners, and Mitzen. Secondly the article analyses the SI contributions empirically in terms of the way in which the EU’s discrete crises are part of a wider planetary organic crisis. Thirdly, using the contributions as examples of theoretical contributions to the field of political psychology of EU, ranging from individual cognitive psychology to social psychology, social construction, psychoanalysis, and critical political psychology.

KEYWORDS:

• Political psychology
• emotions
• European Union
• foreign policy
• ontological (in)security
• planetary organic crisis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. I am very grateful to Seda Gürkan and Özlem Terzi, Christie Nicoson, Elsa Hedling, Isabel Bramsen, Catarina Kinnvall, Lisa Strömbom, and the reviewers for their thoughtful reflections on this article. I would especially like to thank the contributors to this special issue – Simon Koschut; Karen Smith; Seda Gürkan; Maxine David and L.D.; Emmanuelle Blanc; Tereza Novotná; Özlem Terzi; Erman Ermihan and Sinem Akgül Açıkmeşe; Völkel; Hedi Maurer and Marianna Lovato – for their valuable research on emotions in EU foreign policy.