In Emotional Diplomacy, Todd H. Hall explores the politics of officially expressed emotion on the international stage, looking at the ways in which state actors strategically deploy emotional behavior to shape the perceptions of others. Examining diverse instances of emotional behavior, Hall reveals that official emotional displays are not simply cheap talk but rather play an important 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 even the use of armed force.Emotional Diplomacy provides the theoretical tools necessary for understanding the nature and significance of state-level emotional behavior and offers new observations of how states seek reconciliation, strategically respond to unforeseen crises, and demonstrate resolve in the face of perceived provocations. Hall investigates three specific strands of emotional diplomacy: those rooted in anger, sympathy, and guilt. Presenting original research drawing on interviews and sources in five different languages, Hall 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. He also demonstrates how his arguments can be extended to further cases ranging from Sino-Japanese relations to diplomatic interactions in Latin America. Emotional Diplomacy offers a unique take on the intersection of strategic action and emotional display, offering a means for making sense of why states appear to behave emotionally.

About the Author

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.

Reviews

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

* Foreign Affairs *

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.

* International Affairs *

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.

* Journal of East Asian Studies *

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.

* New Diplomatic History *


Awards
Winner of Cowinner, DPLST Book Prize (Diplomatic Studies Sec.



Book Information
ISBN 9780801453014
Author Todd H. Hall
Format Hardback
Page Count 264
Imprint Cornell University Press
Publisher Cornell University Press
Weight(grams) 907g