The Political Psychology of Conflict and Cooperation

Abstract

How do emotions shape the escalation and de-escalation of tensions in international politics? To what extent psychological variables explain processes of conflict and cooperation within and between states in global politics? How far are decision-makers influenced by affect and cognition in their foreign policy choices? How far do emotions resonate differently with agents in conflict predicaments? What are the motivational and emotional components of protest behaviour? How far dissidents’ perceptions influence protest behaviour? These are some of the questions that this panel seeks to explore. The panel will showcase three papers that use different approaches, methods, and research designs to look at political conflict and cooperation from a psychological perspective. Beauregard’s paper will study the motivational, emotional, and cognitive components of the German leadership’s cooperative efforts in recognising Slovenia and Croatia in the 1990s. Cervasio’s paper will use a process-tracing methodology to explore how empathy shaped Sino-India rapprochement after the Indian 1998 nuclear test. Dornschneider’s paper will advance an agent-based model of political protest, developed from ethnographic interviews, to explain dissidents’ behaviour in the repressive settings of Egypt and Morocco during the Arab Spring.

Title	Details
An Agent-Based Model of the State-Dissident Nexus	View Paper Details
The Nuanced Relationship Between Conflict Intensity, Threat Perceptions, and Hope for Peace: Evidence from Cyprus and Israel-Palestine	View Paper Details
Trust, Deception and Uncertainty in International Diplomatic Conflicts	View Paper Details
Caving in or Feeling It? A Cognitive and Emotional Explanation of German Leadership in Recognizing Slovenia and Croatia	View Paper Details
Exercising “Status Concern Sensibility” in International Diplomatic Crisis: Sino-India Relations in the Late 90s	View Paper Details