Photo of Eric Van Rythoven

Eric Van Rythoven

Degrees:B.SocS (University of Ottawa), MA & PhD (Carleton)
Email:EricVanRythoven@cmail.carleton.ca

My research examines the intersection between emotion, International Relations, and the politics of security. I am principally interested in what political emotions are, how they shape debates about security, and how they become sites of contestation in global politics. By drawing on diverse sources of data — including Parliamentary exchanges, committee hearings, journalistic reports, polling data, interviews, political cartoons, and beyond — I reconstruct collective emotional experiences in ways that highlight constraints and opportunities for claim-making in security discourse.

My work has been published in International Theory, International Political Sociology, Security Dialogue, European Journal of International Relations, Journal of Global Security Studies, Critical Studies on Security, as well as the European Review of International Studies. I am also the co-editor (with Mira Sucharov) of Methodology and Emotion in International Relations (Routledge, 2019).

I teach a range of courses including Introduction to International Relations, Canadian Foreign Policy, the Globalization of Human Rights, Advanced International Relations Theory, Emotion and Images in International Politics, and Frontiers of Emotional Diplomacy.

Selected Publications

Van Rythoven, Eric (2021) Walter Lippmann, Emotion, and the History of International Theory. International Theory. (First View): 1-25.

Van Rythoven, Eric. (2021) A Feeling of Unease: Distance, Emotion, and Securitizing Indigenous Protest in Canada. International Political Sociology. 15(2): 251-271.

Van Rythoven, Eric. (2020) The Securitization Dilemma. Journal of Global Security Studies 5(3): 478-493.

Van Rythoven, Eric and Mira Sucharov (Eds.) (2019) Methodology and Emotion in International Relations: Parsing the Passions. New York: Routledge.

Van Rythoven, Eric. (2018) On Backlash: Emotion and the Politicization of Security. European Review of International Studies. 5(3): 139-160.

Van Rythoven, Eric. (2018) Fear in the Crowd or Fear of the Crowd? The Dystopian Politics of Fear in International Relations. Critical Studies on Security 6(1): 33-49.

Van Rythoven, Eric (2016) The perils of realist advocacy and the promise of securitization theory: revisiting the tragedy of the Iraq War debate. European Journal of International Relations 22(3): 487-511.