Empathy is traditionally lauded as an asset in politics and international relations. By helping people to understand the perspectives and experiences of others, it is seen to help reconcile differences, cultivate interpersonal connections, and contribute to a more diverse and inclusive dialogue. Empathy has been championed by political leaders who use it to create a vision of a better and more secure society. However, it has a darker side. As psychologist Paul Bloom has noted, empathy can be used to foster greater ingroup identities at the expense of out-groups. Rather than doing good, it can be used by populist leaders to connect to sections of society as part of exclusionary identity politics, or mobilise popular support for conflict. These different applications of empathy reveal its multifaceted nature, and speak to a tension in the concept and how it is defined: If empathy can cause harm as well as help, what does that mean for its role in initiatives to foster security? No research examines these tensions or the implications for creating better policy. Empathy and International Security (EIS) addresses this gap. It asks: How can a more nuanced understanding of empathy inform more human-centric approaches to security?
This research is important for society because it is through understanding how different people experience, perceive, and give meaning to the world, and the contexts in which they operate, that we are better able to cultivate connections and build relationships, navigate challenges and reconcile differences. At a time of heightened tensions, and growing marginalisation and polarisation in society, empathy can be a means with which to create a more inclusive, nuanced, and iterative dialogue between citizens, policy-makers, politicians and each other. However, a critical challenge with empathy is that it takes hard work and courage. Practising empathy can be confronting, and so finding ways to incorporate it into policy or security thinkings requires us to embrace the discomfort and ambiguity it presents in order to identify creative and innovative solutions to the problems we face.
The overall objectives of this project have been to reveal the multifaceted and political nature of empathy. To show how it has many diverse applications and implications in order to construct a more nuanced, rich, and comprehensive theoretical and practical understanding of the concept. This project has taken an expansive view of security, reflecting on leadership at times of crisis, in conflict situations, in the design of strategy and diplomacy in international affairs, and in reducing sources of insecurity for people who find themselves in vulnerable situations. Over the course of the research, the findings have revealed that empathy, and the capacity to express it, is integral to international relations, security, and society, yet it is dependent on a series of factors including personalities, systems, structures, politics, and context. Despite its capacity for positive, normative change in international relations, and a desire to see it more widely used, it is also used to manipulate, to achieve personal gain, or to seek support for initiatives that can cause harm. By exploring these different facets, the project has demonstrated some of the conceptual complexity associated with empathy and its subjectivity, whilst also identifying core steps and practices that can be used by decision-makers, politicians, civil society, leaders, and society as a whole, to harness its potential more effectively.
