[Our] age of anxiety: existentialism and the current state of international relations

Abstract

This article is based on the keynote address I delivered in June 2019 at the Central and Eastern European International Studies Association (CEEISA) conference in Belgrade. Drawing on existentialist thought, I first discuss the distinction between anxiety and fear and the relevance of this distinction for international relations (IR) theory. Then, building on the Heideggerian notion of mood and its recent applications to IR by Erik Ringmar (2017, 2018), I argue that anxiety impacts international relations as a public mood—‘a collective way of being attuned to the world’. Connecting existentialist thought on anxiety with contemporary IR and political science research on securitisation and populism, I discuss how, in periods and contexts where we are collectively attuned to the world in anxiety, the resonance of securitisation and the appeal of nativist and populist doctrines that offer ideological and moral certainty are enhanced.