Emotional Diplomacy

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Jonathan Mercer, University of Washington, author of Reputation and International Politics:

Todd H. Hall's groundbreaking book on 'emotional diplomacy’ explains the nature, significance, and consequences of the strategic use of emotion in international politics. It exploits the best work on rational signaling, intersubjective meanings, and psychology to create a theory of emotional diplomacy backed with rigorous empirical cases. This is a creative and important book.

Natasha Hamilton-Hart, The University of Auckland, author of Hard Interests, Soft Illusions: Southeast Asia and American Power:

Todd H. Hall argues credibly in Emotional Diplomacy that, when conveying emotions, states engage in action that cannot otherwise be readily explained and finds that such emotional diplomacy sometimes has unexpected consequences. I found Hall's empirical accounts—of China's anger in the Taiwan Straits, Russian and Chinese sympathy for the United States in the wake of 9/11, and guilt shown by West Germany in its support for Israel—convincing, and they provide strong evidence that emotional diplomacy can sometimes be effective.

Clark McCauley, Bryn Mawr College, co-author of Why Not Kill Them All? The Logic and Prevention of Mass Political Murder:

In Emotional Diplomacy, Todd H. Hall explicitly recognizes that official emotion is not just the aggregation of individual emotions but is used strategically to achieve political goals. He provides engaging historical cases in which official emotion is salient and interprets these cases to challenge standard rational-choice models of diplomacy.