After last night's game night turned economic and political discussion at itty bitty group (too few people to qualify as "small"), I thought this article fitting and somewhat hilarious. It is an educational and sobering look at international relations approaches in a zombie outbreak. The author, Daniel Drezner, selects a few choice theories (structural realism, neoconservatism, etc) and explores how a society, or leader of a society, from the chosen school of thought would approach dealing with, aligning, or attacking zombies.
If you were to ask me how a liberal institutionist differs from a neoconservatist, I would smile and quickly change the subject. Because that smile would be about the limit of my knowledge on the subject. However, I feel as outlandish as this zombie scenario may be, it is an excellent entry point for someone like me who wants to know more but feels any approach to these theories would be tantamount to climbing Mount Everest - possible, but arduous and potentially fatal. The zombies also allow for the discussion to be simpler than a discussion of US relations with Iran, for instance. By using zombies instead of a current country or people group, a person is able to step back and look at the whole picture and learn that maybe, just maybe, some of the things we thought our country, or other countries, were doing rightly in regard to international relations may not be as peachy keen as it seems.
So, if there were a zombie outbreak, what would you want your government to do in response?
1 comment:
That was interesting...I now realize I know very little about zombies and almost nothing about theories on international relations...
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