Theories of International Politics and Zombies

Daniel Drezner

Summary

What would happen to international politics if the dead rose from the grave and started to eat the living? Daniel Drezner's groundbreaking book answers the question that other international relations scholars have been too scared to ask. Addressing timely issues with analytical bite, Drezner looks at how well-known theories from international relations might be applied to a war with zombies. Exploring the plots of popular zombie films, songs, and books, Theories of International Politics and Zombies predicts realistic scenarios for the political stage in the face of a zombie threat and considers how valid--or how rotten--such scenarios might be. Drezner boldly lurches into the breach and "stress tests" the ways that different approaches to world politics would explain policy responses to the living dead. He examines the most prominent international relations theories--including realism, liberalism, constructivism, neoconservatism, and bureaucratic politics--and decomposes their predictions. He digs into prominent zombie films and novels, such as Night of the Living Dead and World War Z, to see where essential theories hold up and where they would stumble and fall. Drezner argues that by thinking about outside-of-the-box threats we get a cognitive grip on what former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously referred to as the "unknown unknowns" in international security. Correcting the zombie gap in international relations thinking and addressing the genuine but publicly unacknowledged fear of the dead rising from the grave, Theories of International Politics and Zombies presents political tactics and strategies accessible enough for any zombie to digest.

Available since: 01/03/2011.

Other books that might interest you

Women and the White House -...

Justin S. Vaughn, Lilly J. Goren

As the first female vice president takes office, this volume explores gender perceptions and the executive role: “An important, impressive book” (Lane Crothers, author of Globalization and American Popular Culture).   The president of the United States has traditionally served as a symbol of power, virtue, ability, dominance, popularity, and patriarchy. In recent years, however, a number of high-profile female candidacies have provoked new interest in gendered popular culture and how it influences Americans’ perceptions of the country's highest political office.   In this timely volume, editors Justin S. Vaughn and Lilly J. Goren lead a team of scholars in examining how the president and the first lady exist as a function of public expectations and cultural gender roles. The authors investigate how the candidates’ messages are conveyed, altered, and interpreted in “hard” and “soft” media forums, from the nightly news to daytime talk shows, and from tabloids to the blogosphere. They also address the portrayal of the presidency in film and television productions such as 1964’s Kisses for My President and 2005’s Commander in Chief. With its strong, multidisciplinary approach, Women and the White House commences a wider discussion about the growing possibility of a female president in the United States, the ways in which popular perceptions of gender will impact her leadership, and the cultural challenges she will face.

Show book

SECRET POLICE OF RUSSIA THE -...

Marc Booth

In 1918, Paul Nazaroff was the ringleader of a desperate plot to overthrow the Bolsheviks in Central Asia. 
  
 He was betrayed by the Secret Police, who labeled him "the most dangerous counter-revolutionary at large in the Tashkent region." 
  
As he fled from Lenin's men, he was aided by the indigenous peoples of the region, the Kirghiz and the Sarts, and for months he was forced to live the life of a hunted animal. 
  
Marc Booth has written an intriguing introduction to this thrilling story of espionage and survival against all odds, as well as an epilogue that reveals Nazaroff's later fortunes. 
  
What are You Waiting for?... 
  
BUY NOW!!!

Show book

Programming The Future - A Look...

Edward Graham

Have you ever looked at movies depicting the future, both utopias and dystopias alike, and wondered, “Could that truly be our future?” 
In this book, we will be looking at how technology has progressed through the years to get a glimpse of the future. Here, you will learn how humans lived their lives in the past and how technology has influenced that way of life and transformed it into what it is today. We will also discuss certain turning points in human society that lead us to where we are now. 
Once we understand our past, we can begin to look at the present and see how technology is currently influencing our lives. As we discover the changes that are happening all around us, we will be able to construct an image of the future and, hopefully, catch a glimpse of what life in the future may be like. 
This book will explore the social implications of technology. Together, we will be answering the following questions: Do we bring about the changes in our society through the technology we develop? Or does technology bring about change through us?

Show book

Gaslighting America - Why We...

Amanda Carpenter

"Can you believe what Donald Trump said?" 
 
In Gaslighting America, Amanda Carpenter breaks down Trump's formula, showing why it's practically foolproof, playing his victims, the media, the Democrats, and the Republican fence-sitters perfectly. She traces how this tactic started with Nixon, gained traction with Bill Clinton, and exploded under Trump. 
 
Where some people see lies, Trump's fierce followers see something different. A commitment to winning at all costs; there is nothing he could say that would erode their support at long as it's in the name of taking down his political enemies. 
 
His opponents on the left and right continue to act as if his fake narratives and conspiracy theories will bring him down, when in fact, they are the ruses that raised him up. 
 
As a conservative former staffer to a competing presidential campaign, Amanda Carpenter witnessed her fellow Republicans fall in line behind Trump. As a political commentator, she was publicly smeared by one of his supporters on live television without a shred of evidence supporting the allegations. Slowly, she watched her entire party succumb to Trump and become defenders of his tactics, and Gaslighting America may be the only hope to bring them back to reality.

Show book

The Postcatastrophe Economy -...

Eric Janszen

How bad will the current recession get? According to Eric Janszen, we could be facing an unemployment rate of over 10 percent; half of all retail stores boarded up; skeletons of unfinished buildings in our cities; and tax revenues down by 30 percent, leading to big cuts in government services. Meanwhile, inflation will keep rising as the Fed is forced to devalue the dollar because foreign countries won't lend to us anymore.Sounds grim, but the good news is that this crisis will open the door to a saner economic future if we recognize the opportunity to correct decades of bad policy. America can wean itself from the debt-financed growth of the past thirty years and restructure to grow based on old-fashioned savings and investment.Janszen shows that the key is not more big government but deploying our unique capacity for innovation through private-public partnerships. He calls for a modern New Deal that develops twenty-first century industries such as biotechnology, alternative energy, and nanotechnology. And he shows how our financial markets can adapt to make it happen.This is an essential book for everyone who is struggling to understand our current predicament.

Show book

The Sickness is the System -...

Richard D. Wolff

The coronavirus pandemic, the deepening economic crash, dangerously divisive political responses, and exploding social tensions have thrown an already declining American capitalist system into a tailspin. The consequences of these mounting and intertwined crises will shape our future. In this unique collection of over fifty essays, The Sickness is the System: When Capitalism Fails to Save Us from Pandemics or Itself, Richard D. Wolff argues clearly that "returning to normal" no longer responds adequately to the accumulated problems of US capitalism. What is necessary, instead, is transition toward a new economic system that works for all of us.

Show book