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evocative political discourse. Where collective emotions are not fully explained by Critiques of the “ancient hatreds” hypothesis have successfully shown that hatreds
the linguistic content of political discourse, I construct plausible inferences about are socially constructed rather than primordial. I take these arguments a step fur-
the paralinguistic elements also present. The result is an account that begins not ther, positing the category “hatred” as an abstraction that obscures the complex
with settled identities but with the dynamic emotions that make global politics emotional processes involved in violent conflict. I show how political speeches,
both multiscalar and unpredictable. crowd activities, and reburial rituals created environments in which diverse senti-
Chapter 3 investigates the powerful emotions associated with terrorist violence ments and memories were creatively blended into the emotional politics of vio-
after September 11. By tracing the emotional expressions circulating through pop- lence. These cases involved wide-reaching and multidimensional processes of
ular media and political speeches, I show that familiar emotions such as fear and mobilization that theories of identity construction, elite manipulation, and sym-
anger were not generic responses but adaptive ones—affected by prior normative bolic politics have yet to appreciate. Because so much of the existing scholarship
commitments, evolving social practices, and available memories. Rather than pur- on ethnic conflict proceeds with a simplistic image of emotion, the accounts we
port to offer a comprehensive theory of how emotions prepared elites and ordinary have of recent conflicts remain one-sided, with many focused on the guiding role
Americans for war, the chapter concentrates on specific emotional processes, of identity. And so this chapter returns to cases well rehearsed in IR but whose
especially those contributing to the social construction of the terrorist enemy. emotional aspects remain poorly understood.
Drawing from research in cultural studies and evidence gathered by public interest Misunderstanding the emotional genesis of conflict has concrete implications
groups, I show that government-sponsored acts of racial profiling helped to invent for the way we approach security, peace, and justice in conflicted societies. Those
the terrorist enemy as a racialized synthesis of Arab, Muslim, and Middle Eastern who expect endemic “cycles of hatred” worry about the re-emergence of repetitive
phenotypic and cultural stereotypes. The resulting constructions had, I argue, a emotional expressions and consequently miss the originality of emotional re-
subtle but important impact on public tolerance for the use of force. The chapter sponses to violent conflict—and their potential to fuel innovative solutions to it. In
also uses a comparison to the Madrid bombings of March 2004 to sharpen the chapter 5 I turn to the emotional politics of justice, reconciliation, and social repair.
contention the emotions evoked by terrorist violence are shaped by the normative With an empirical focus on Rwanda and, to a lesser extent, South Africa, I examine
commitments, social practices, and emotional sensitivities present in a given con- the role of emotions in juridical and quasi-juridical institutions. My concern is not
text. Amplified by public acts of protest, popular emotions adapted to evolving to offer new institutional solutions to ethnic conflict but to show how existing ap-
political developments: initially mixed reactions developed into anger directed at proaches to transitional justice—tribunals, truth commissions, communitybased
the governing party, seen as having provoked the attack by supporting the US war courts, and grassroots initiatives—can benefit from increased concern for the
in Iraq. Whereas the attacks of 9/11 mobilized popular support for war, the 3/11 emotional contexts in which they operate. I show that quasi-juridical institutions
bombings reactivated antiwar sentiment and sparked anger toward the Spanish such as truth commissions have permitted an emotionally engaged form of justice,
government. The chapter shows that emotions such as fear and anger are not fixed but have often also limited this through insistence on “forgiveness,” “national
psychological responses but shifting composites of contagious affect. unity,” and other forms of identity-based reconciliation. Rwanda’s experiment with
Chapter 4 studies the circulations of affect involved in ethnic conflict, focusing local courts illustrates both the potential and fragility of participatory models of
on the early stages of nationalist mobilization in Serbia and Kosovo between 1987 justice. The process of lived participation can generate trust among coparticipants,
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