7766 COHA Report, Latin America and the Zombie Factor

The publication of Theories of International Politics and Zombies by Daniel Drezner, a highly regarded professor at Tufts University, is the first of what could become a long line of crossovers between academic research and fictional situations involving zombies. Surprisingly well-received, Drezner’s innovative public policy study discusses the repercussions of a zombie horde in international affairs; in his work, the author discusses how conservatives, idealists, realists and constructivists would combat masses of the undead attacking their countries. Drezner paraphrases former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s idea of being prepared for the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns. According to the former official, known unknowns are security threats (i.e. terrorist attacks) that are likely to occur, but it is difficult to predict when they will happen; while unknown unknowns are security threats that we don’t actually know exist until they appear, for example an alien invasion or, for the sake of our argument, a zombie epidemic.

Besides Drezner, other scholars have begun to apply international relations theories to fictive situations and scenarios. Another example is offered by Stephen Saideman, a professor at McGill University in Canada, who has blogged about applying the basics of IR theory to the HBO fictional series Game of Thrones. This TV show, based on books by George R.R. Martin, has become so popular that a recent article published by Foreign Policy featured the situations and characters of the series, while combing them with IR realpolitik theory.