ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that emotional representation is closely related to international interactions. It suggests methodology emphasizes three main methods: discourse analysis, process tracing, and the use of counterfactuals. Emotional representation, therefore, is the process “through which individual emotions become collective and political”. The chapter suggests that the theory can be developed to acknowledge the mechanisms through which dynamics of emotional representation affect international interactions. A pluralistic methodology seems necessary in studying how emotional representations affect international interactions. Integral to the study of emotions in International Relations is acknowledging that emotions can be studied at the collective level. A number of scholars have started to acknowledge the importance of studying how emotions affect actors’ interactions. Some scholars connect emotions and interactions in the micro level. The emotional representation may reflect more than one emotion, for example anxiety, humiliation, and revenge, or trust and sympathy, or many other possible combinations.
