The anxious and resilient European Union: experiencing FOMO in the increasingly geopolitical world order

Abstract

In this paper, we draw on insights from the literature on social psychology and marketing in order to account for the emotional mechanism through which resilience became a key aspect of the EU’s strategy in world politics. We argue that faced with the deep uncertainty created by multiple and overlapping crises, the EU’s response was shaped by its experience of the ‘fear of missing out’ (FOMO). FOMO represents the intersubjective process through which actors compare their own experience with those of their peers, and experience anxiety due to the realisation that they are not benefitting from similar opportunities or managing risks and challenges as effectively as their peers in the context of limited windows of opportunity. The article presents a model for understanding FOMO as a cycle that occurs under conditions of uncertainty and can be used to study other settings.