"This provocative book takes the form of a dialogue between French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine and international relations expert Dominique Moisi. Vedrine expresses his frank views of the U.S. ""hyperpower,"" France's role in the world, Europe's future, the current structure of the international system, and the role of ethics in international affairs. Probing the historic, diplomatic and cultural issues that unite and divide two historical allies, the book give unique insights into French thinking about the world, and France and America's respective roles in it. ""Like the French satirical television show that twits the United States for being the 'World Company' that invades peoples lives around the globe, the French foreign minister, Hubert Vedrine, expresses frustration, and perhaps a little envy, at America's dominion.... ""Since becoming foreign minister three years ago, Mr. Vedrine, 53, a lawyer and previously the senior foreign policy advisor to Francois Mitterand when he was president, has made a priority of making distinctions between France and the United States. That has left senior American officials muttering more than usual about the French."" --New York Times "

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 Moisi, 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. Moisi 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.
Moisi 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.

Samuel Huntington's landmark book, The Clash of Civilizations, presented a vision of a world divided by cultural differences, national interests, and political ideologies. In The Geopolitics of Emotion, Dominique Moisi brilliantly demonstrates that the world is nowadays more likely to be shaped by the 'clash of emotions'. Moisi contends that both Europe and the United States are dominated by a fear of the 'other' and by the loss of their national identity and purpose. For Muslims and Arabs, the combination of historical grievances, exclusion from the economic boon of globalization, and civil and religious warfare has created a culture of humiliation that is quickly devolving into a culture of hatred. And as the West and the Muslim world lock horns, Asia, able to concentrate on building a better future, has come to embody 'the culture of hope'. By making clear the driving emotions behind today's headlines, Dominique Moisi offers a better understanding of the world we live in and perhaps a more constructive approach to the conflicts that plague us.