A comparative perspective on two crises in the foreign policy discourse of the emotions of Miloš Zeman

The article examines Czech President Miloš Zeman's foreign policy stance on the 2015 EU migration crisis and 2022 Ukraine war, with an emphasis on emotions in comparative perspective. The migration crisis in the presidential discourse triggered criticism of the EU and NATO, emphasizing national sovereignty, while the Ukraine war shifted the focus to cooperation with them. Dominating emotions were anger, fear, and trust, but their proportions changed in the two crises. Anger dominated the 2015 migration crisis for the measures taken and the failure to address the situation efficiently. On the contrary, emotion of trust was prominent in the later crisis, where the collective solutions were considered the path forward. The findings show that observed crises triggered specific foreign policy attitudes expressed through emotions, with the identification of emotions facilitating the identification of foreign policy attitudes in the future.