The Politics of Fear and Hate: Experience, (De)Legitimization, and (De)Mobilization

Critical security studies and emotion research in international relations have highlighted that the emotion of fear is a pivotal driver of material and psychological securitization processes and that political actors may attempt to instrumentalize fear to obtain their political objectives. This article suggests that complementing this focus on fear with closer attention to the emotion of hate provides significant analytical value and enhances our understanding of how actors invoke emotions and with what political implications. Specifically, the article argues that looking at invocations of fear and hate at the macro-level of public discourse generates a better understanding of how political actors can and do attempt to instrumentalize the label of these emotions to describe embodied affective experiences at the micro-level to (de)mobilize audiences and (de)legitimize certain positions and actions. The fact that fear and hate are difficult to differentiate by mere observation, possess similar capacities for mobilization, but have vastly different normative connotations renders them in particular useful in political discourse. To illustrate how the emotion of hate can facilitate a better understanding of the politics of emotions surrounding (de)securitization processes, the article uses the illustrative case study of Germany during the so-called migration crisis.