Affective values in international relations: Theorizing emotional actions and the value of resilience

This article critically examines the interrelationship of values and emotions in international relations. It focuses on the different meaning of affects and emotions, and theorizes about the affective qualities of values in world politics. It defines affective values as values that arise from the ceaseless, unconscious striving(s) to contest the outside control over one’s life. In doing so, it distinguishes between negative affective values, which represent the evocation of fear, shame, and distrust to shape and project the creative energies of resistance, and positive affective values that signify the material and practical strategies that convert these energies into an awareness of one’s insecurity in the world. The article argues that the tension between positive and negative affective values allows us to understand the transformative link between emotions and values. By focusing on the norm of humanitarian intervention, it contextualizes positive affective values in terms of the new resilience initiative of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P).