The politics of friendship: Emotions, epistemic trust, and legitimacy in a fragmented world

Friendship and politics have long been intertwined, yet the notion of political friendship has only recently regained sustained analytical attention. In contemporary research, civic friendship captures bonds of mutual respect and moral equality among citizens, expressed through trust, solidarity, and recognition rather than intimacy. This revival coincides with broader debates about democracy’s affective and relational foundations, particularly under conditions of polarization and disinformation. In international relations, the language of friendship is increasingly applied to describe alliances, partnerships, and ‘special relationships’ between states, prompting questions about whether such relations are merely instrumental or embody distinct moral and affective commitments. Recent scholarship, influenced by the emotional and relational turns, reframes interstate friendship as a practice involving narratives, memories, and commitments that extend beyond rational interest convergence. Nevertheless, the erosion of epistemic trust, rising populisms, and the global crisis of public reason now challenge the durability of political friendship—whether among citizens, states, or transnational actors.This Research Topic aims to advance an interdisciplinary inquiry into political friendship as both concept and practice, revisiting its normative dimensions and empirical manifestations in domestic and international settings. It seeks to clarify the theoretical underpinnings of civic and international friendship by analysing the components of reciprocity, equality, recognition, trust, and affect. It also explores tensions inherent in these relationships—partiality, exclusion, and asymmetry of power—and their consequences for legitimacy and stability. By bridging political theory, moral philosophy, and international relations, this Research Topic aspires to connect conceptual innovation with empirical investigation of friendship as discourse, emotion, and institution. The goal is to understand how contemporary socio-political transformations—including polarization, misinformation, and shifting geopolitical alignments—reshape the conditions for sustaining or eroding trust-based relations among political actors.The scope of this Research Topic covers theoretical, normative, and empirical analyses of friendship in politics across scales—from civic relations and elite interactions to interstate and transnational networks. It welcomes contributions that examine how emotions, moral sentiments, and epistemic foundations sustain or undermine friendly relations in political life. To gather further insights in this domain, we welcome articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Conceptual and normative analyses of political friendship, amity, concord, fraternity, and the friend–enemy distinction• The role of emotions, trust, and recognition in sustaining political and diplomatic relations• Practices and rituals of friendship in diplomacy, alliances, and security communities• The epistemic conditions of trust and reciprocity under post-truth communication and disinformation• The emotional dynamics of betrayal, disillusionment, and repair in political relationships• Comparative and historical analyses of friendship in different political and regional contexts• Methodological approaches to studying friendship as discourse, affect, or institutional practice Topic editors: Ana Romero-Iribas, Andrea Oelsner Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/84486/the-politics-of-friendship-emotions-epistemic-trust-and-legitimacy-in-a-fragmented-world