Norms of belonging: emotion discourse as a factor in determining future “Europeans”

Abstract

This article searches for the existence of emotion norms in the enlargement process of the EU. It argues that there is an appropriate emotion that needs to be expressed through the coordination and communication discourses of the European Commission and of the (European) Council. The article displays these norms through a critical discourse analysis of the enlargement strategy papers of the European Commission and the European Council conclusions in the 1997-2002 round of enlargement towards the Central and Eastern European countries. This analysis identifies the topoi that collectively form these emotion norms of enlargement. Afterwards the article analyses the same type of documents on the Western Balkans between 2014 and 2020 through periods of stalling and reinvigoration to demonstrate the resonance between these institutional discourses. It concludes that progress in the enlargement process takes place if both types of discourses conform to the emotion norms of enlargement.

Shame, Exasperation and Institutional Design: The African Union as an Emotional Security Community

“…Drawing attention to the role that collectively felt emotions played in the creation of APSA and the changes that occurred in the affective connections between community members makes a number of contributions. Firstly, it add to the discussion initiated by Koschut (2014) on the value of considering international security institutions as emotional communities, and to the work of those who have called for serious consideration of emotions in international politics (Mercer, 2010, Terzi, 2021, Bleiker and Hutchison, 2008. Where Koschut saw negative emotions between members prompting shame in the offender and ultimately stabilising the community, the APSA case study demonstrates that inward-facing shame felt by the entire community can result in more fundamental changes to its emotion norms, valued behaviours and identity.…”

“…The past decade or so has seen significant growth in scholarship that cites emotions as a significant factor in institutional processes as diverse as EU enlargement (Terzi, 2021), NATO's intervention in Libya (Koschut, 2014), and Brexit (Manners, 2018). Though there is some variation in this literature on how to define emotions, a very commonly shared assumption is the idea that emotions are necessary to understand the significance of the type of factors highlighted in the previous section, such as power capabilities, vital interests or norms.…”

“…The theory is developed from an analysis of APSA's creation that centres intra-organisational norms guiding the expression of emotions in the OAU/AU. As such, it fills a considerable gap in the growing field of scholarship that theorises emotions in IR, which has paid scant attention to international institutions in the Global South and none at all to the AU (Terzi, 2021, Grossi, 2015.…”