The current COVID-19 pandemic has changed profoundly the ways in which we conceive of proximity and distance, with ‘social distancing’ being the omnipresent (and contested) buzzword.  This has sensitized us to the significance of proximity and distance for world politics, including affinities, alliances and boundaries between various collectives. Yet, IR theory still has very little to say about the political effects of distance and proximity. The Special Issue project seeks to fill this void by focusing on the crafting of emotions in the creation of proximity and, conversely, distance. The contributors will put specific emphasis on the analysis of various modes of crafting emotions, including film, photography, graffiti, fashion, and ritual. They combine a rich focus on narrative techniques, materiality, gender, and place in order to add nuances to the study of emotions in the creation of proximity and distance. They also take into account different perspectives on emotions research developed in non-Western/post-colonial/decolonial and feminist explorations of international politics.