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Theorising Emotions in IR: A Maghrebi Perspective on the Concept of Rivalry

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Non-Western Global Theories of International Relations

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Abstract

This chapter investigates the role of emotions in the interstate rivalry between Morocco and Algeria. The two states’ relations have consistently strained efforts for regional unification and the establishment of the Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) as a mechanism to foster economic, social and political integration. The disputes’ origin lays in the issue of borders, emerging after the states gained independence from French colonialism. In this, the Sand War of 1963 was the first open armed conflict between both countries and an early illustrative case of the nature of the interstate relations during the post-independence period. The first section explores the oft used realist framework and which gives primacy to the race for natural resources and material gains. The second section highlights how the Maghrebi context is normally examined either through the wider regional framework or as an analysis of bandwagoning states in international conflicts and crises with potential spill over.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Yasmine Zarhloule

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  1. Yasmine Zarhloule
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Correspondence to Yasmine Zarhloule .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Natural and Social Sciences, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, UK

    Samantha Cooke

Classroom Activities

Classroom Activities

Classroom Exercise 1

Choose one foreign policy event of your choice. Make a list of the different emotions that are invoked in the discourses around it, and the ways in which these emotions are expressed and by whom. Compare this list with the explanations given in mainstream International Relations analyses. Think of the following questions for discussion:

  • How do they differ? What can we attribute this difference to?

  • What does the identification of emotions add to your understanding of the conflict?

  • What does an emotion-based analysis tell us about the leadership and the discipline of IR more broadly?

Classroom Exercise 2

Take a moment to reflect on the emotions and images that come into your mind when you think of a key historical or contemporary event in the West. Note these down, and repeat the same exercise imagining a contextually comparable event in the non-West. Compare these two accounts and reflect on the differences and similarities that are enacted between these two categories. Discuss in the classroom the causes that could explain this separation between West and non-West as well as the emotions associated with these categories. What are their implications for the study of emotions in international relations? Can you identify other areas where these narratives are reinforced in everyday life? (i.e., the media; popular culture; language; etc.).

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Zarhloule, Y. (2022). Theorising Emotions in IR: A Maghrebi Perspective on the Concept of Rivalry. In: Cooke, S. (eds) Non-Western Global Theories of International Relations. Palgrave Studies in International Relations. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84938-2_8

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