The first book to expose and investigate the far-reaching emotional impact of globalization.

In his celebrated 1993 book The Clash of Civilizations, political scientist Samuel Huntington argued that the fundamental source of conflict in the post–Cold War world would not be primarily ideological or economic, but cultural. In The Geopolitics of Emotion Dominique Moïsi, a leading authority on international affairs, demonstrates that our post-9/11 world has become divided by more than cultural fault lines between nations and civilizations. Moïsi brilliantly chronicles how the geopolitics of today is characterized by a “clash of emotions,” and how cultures of fear, humiliation, and hope are reshaping the world.

Moïsi contends that both the United States and Europe have been dominated by fears of the “other” and of their loss of a national identity and purpose. Instead of being united by their fears, the twin pillars of the West are more often divided by them—or, rather, by bitter debates over how best to confront or transcend them. For Muslims and Arabs, the combination of historical grievances, exclusion from the economic boon of globalization, and civil and religious conflicts extending from their homelands to the Muslim diaspora have created a culture of humiliation that is quickly devolving into a culture of hatred. Meanwhile, Asia has been able to concentrate on building a better future and seizing the economic initiative from the American-dominated West and so creating a new culture of hope.

Do these emotions represent underlying cultural tendencies characteristic of particular regions and populations today? How will these varying emotions influence the political, social, and cultural conflicts that roil our world? How can the West transcend its fear and avoid sliding into protectionism or militarism? What can the Muslim world do to overcome is legacy of humiliation? Will China and India manage to maintain their status as the cultures of hope? And what will the effect of the world economic crisis be? By delineating the necessity of confronting emotions to understand our changing world and deciphering the driving emotions behind our cultural differences, The Geopolitics of Emotion presents a provocative new perspective on globalization.

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Praise for The Geopolitics of Emotion

“An astonishingly creative response to Samuel Huntington’s The Clash of Civilizations…[a] groundbreaking analysis…This elegant thesis presents the very real consequences of the “Clash of Emotions” and concludes with well-reasoned if tentative conjecture about how these currents will shift in years to come.” --Publisher’s Weekly, starred review

“This is a book rich in intelligence and insight. Today's reflex is to strive for simplicity. Dominique Moisi performs the infinitely more valuable task of making sense of the cacophony of complexities that shape our world.” Philip Stephens, Financial Times

“This is Moisi at his best: original, challenging and full of elegance.  This little book shows how globalization has forged a new world disorder defined as much by clashes of emotions, as divisions over interests and power.” Mark Leonard, author of What Does China Think?

“Human beings are not automata concerned solely with maximising wealth or power. They are bundles of emotions. In this scintillating essay, the French analyst, Dominique Moisi, explores the role of three potent emotions - hope, humiliation and fear - in shaping the world we live in today and might live in tomorrow.” Martin Wolf, author of Fixing Global Finance

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Preface to the American Edition

Introduction
THE CLASH OF EMOTIONS

Chapter One
GLOBALIZATION, IDENTITY, AND EMOTIONS

Chapter Two
THE CULTURE OF HOPE

Chapter Three
THE CULTURE OF HUMILIATION

Chapter Four
THE CULTURE OF FEAR

Chapter Five
HARD CASES

Chapter Six
THE WORLD IN 2025


Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index

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DOMINIQUE MOÏSI is a founder and now a senior adviser to the French Institute of International Affairs, (IFRI) in Paris. He writes a column for the Financial Times and contributes to Foreign Affairs. In the spring of 2009 Moïsi will be a visiting professor at the Department of Government, and Pierre Keller Visiting Professor at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, at Harvard University.

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