Fear of Enemies and Collective Action

What makes individuals with divergent and often conflicting interests join together and act in unison? Drawing on the fear of external threats, this book develops a theory of \'negative association\' that examines the dynamics captured by the maxim \'The enemy of my enemy is my friend\'. It then traces its role from Greek and Roman political thought, through Machiavelli and the reason of state thinkers, and Hobbes and his emulators and critics, to the realists of the twentieth century. By focusing on the role of fear and enmity in the formation of individual and group identity, this book reveals an important tradition in the history of political thought and offers new insights into texts that are considered familiar. This book demonstrates that the fear of external threats is an essential element of the formation and preservation of political groups and that its absence renders political association unsustainable.

• Examines the role of fear in the formation and consolidation of political groups and alliances • Traces the history, in political thought, of the logic encapsulated in the dictum, ‘The enemy of my enemy is my friend’ • Studies the ways in which collective political identity formation affects individual identity

Prologue; Introduction; 1. Negative association; 2. ‘Carthage must be saved’; 3. Enemies at the gates: Machiavelli’s return to the beginnings of cities; 4. The enemy of my enemy is my friend: negative association and reason of state; 5. Survival through fear: Hobbes’s problem and solution; 6. Hobbism; 7. The politics of enmity; Epilogue.