Dominque Moïsi writes a column for The Financial Times and is a contributor to Foreign Affairs. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Government at Harvard University.
Mr. Moïsi is both Jewish and French, and in this work brings a wonderful perspective to the imbroglio of geopolitics. His view is important to our purposes, since inspiration is more than a logical proposition — at the very least it generates emotion and it could well be that it emanates from an emotional base.
The author categorizes cultures, and thereby groups of nations, according to the dominant emotion that drives their relationships with the rest of the world. Hope, says Moïsi, characterizes China and India, the growing, optimistic nations of Asia. He posits that The United States and most of Europe are driven by fear, seeking to shore up power that has been diminished in recent decades as the world’s resources have become re-allocated toward more rapidly growing economies. He places Japan in this same realm, citing its long history of homogeneity and relative isolation.
He suggests that most of the Muslim world is driven by humiliation, given the history of what these nations see as American and to a lesser extent Israeli and European dominance.
Against these rather generalized cases, Moïsi comments on other more difficult examples — South America, Africa and Russia, suggesting that the dominant emotions of each of these civilizations will have more influence on their foreign policy than a more rational model of national self-interest.
Reading the work, I was struck, not only by the uniqueness of the model, but by my own intuitive agreement with his observations. (See entry on this blog, January 27, 2009) It seems that the emotional needs of nations are at least as important as their actual positions.
It’s also clear that in order to inspire, we have to get through a veil of mistrust. If our goal is to inspire the world’s population, regardless of belief, nationality or economic circumstances, then our first hurdle is to recognize and then acknowledging the emotional makeup of others. Only then can we be taken seriously enough to create common enthusiasm.
Toward this end, Mr. Moïsi’s work defines a fine first step.
As a final chapter, the author writes scenarios articulating the situation in 2025, each depicting a different result depending on which emotion has prevailed…..eye opening, sobering, and a cause for closer attention.
Let us know what you think of it.
Moïsi, Dominique. The Geopolitics of Emotion. New York: Doubleday, 2009.
One Comment
I found Moisi’s book a fascinating description of the emotional (energy, confidence)levels found in various regions of the globe. Using his large world geopolitical view, with the lenses of fear, humiliation and hope, enhanced by his descriptions of the exceptions (eg, Brazil, hopeful, in a Latin America less hopeful than Africa) helped me better understand the dangers of emotionally unbalanced regions.
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