February 1, 2025 - January 31, 2028

This PhD project explores how emotions influence the European Union’s foreign policy, particularly in its relationships with key global actors such as Russia, China, and the United States. Traditionally seen as a 'normative power' promoting peace, security, and international law, the EU has faced increasing challenges in maintaining this identity amid geopolitical tensions. The project investigates how emotional rhetoric in EU foreign policy statements can reflect its deeper strategic motivations, especially when dealing with adversaries or navigating complex partnerships. 

To uncover these dynamics, the PhD project employs a mixed-method approach combining natural language processing tools with qualitative analyses. The project utilises the EmoRoBERTa model as a novel method of discourse analysis to identify emotional patterns in EU foreign policy statements. Insights are further enriched through historical analyses and interviews with EU officials, offering a comprehensive view of how emotional incentives shape the EU’s foreign policy decisions. Moreover, by bridging international relations conceptualisations with psychological and sociological practices, the project aims to provide a novel understanding of strategic communications in an evolving global landscape.

The project is expected to yield at least three scientific articles, two of which are currently in progress. The first article will utilise the case of EU foreign policy towards Russia after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine to exemplify when and how the EU utilises emotion rhetoric in their foreign policy statements. This article places emphasis on the theoretical contribution of analysing the EU as an ‘emotional community’, a community who holds ‘emotional incentives’ for responding in specific ways to events, especially when these events include the violation of norms. The results will be presented at the European International Studies Association’s Pan-European Conference (EISA PEC) in August 2025.

The second article will also utilise the case of EU-Russia relations but will instead focus on how EU foreign policy functions on an institutional level. Placing emphasis on the methodological contributions, EmoRoBERTa will be applied to analyse patterns and divergences in the statements towards Russia issued by the different EU institutions, such as the European Council, Commission, and Council of the EU. This will also open the discussion for the practicality of utilising large language models within humanities-based studies. The results will be presented at the Workshop on LLMs and the Study of International Relations in September 2025.