Publication
Constructing an ‘emotional community’ in times of crisis: the EU’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022
Emotions play a key role in EU politics and policy analysis. Additionally, emotion norms serve to construct emotional experience and collective identity of the EU. This article explores how emotions are employed in the EU’s response to international crises arising from norm violations.
- Author
- Seda Gürkan
- Date
- 11 July 2024
- Links
- Read the full article here
How does the EU use emotions in its response to international crises arising from norm violations? In order to answer this question, the article focuses on Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, and theoretically, it draws on the sociology of emotions literature. The article argues that EU institutional actors use emotions to construct an emotional community through their discourses during major crises. More specifically, the article shows that emotions matter in the EU's crisis response in three ways: First, emotions serve to construct and endure a community of values. Second, emotions frame policy options for determining the EU's reaction to the crisis. Third, emotions construct emotional boundaries between the European emotional community (norm followers/the EU) and norm violators at the international level. By applying emotional community concept to a new territory, i.e. the EU, the article aims to broaden our understanding of the EU's international identity construction in times of crisis.