Posts Tagged ‘Zombies’

There are many sources of fear in world politics — terrorist attacks, natural disasters, climate change, financial panic, nuclear proliferation, ethnic conflict, and so forth. Surveying the cultural zeitgeist, however, it is striking how an unnatural problem has become one of the fastest-growing concerns in international relations. I speak, of course, of zombies.

The best (and most hilarious) introduction to the theories of international relations I’ve ever read. Daniel W. Drezner on Zombies, Realists, Liberals and Neocons:

What follows is an attempt to satiate the ever-growing hunger for knowledge about how zombies will influence the future shape of the world. But this is a difficult exercise: Looking at the state of international relations theory, one quickly realizes the absence of consensus about the best way to think about global politics. There are multiple paradigms that attempt to explain international relations, and each has a different take on how political actors can be expected to respond to the living dead.

I. The No-Drama School of Zombie Realpolitik:

How would the introduction of flesh-eating ghouls affect world politics? The realist answer is simple if surprising: International relations would be largely unaffected. Although some would see in a zombie invasion a new existential threat to the human condition, realists would be unimpressed by the claim that the zombies’ arrival would lead to any radical change in human behavior. To them, a plague of the undead would merely echo older plagues, from the Black Death of the 14th century to the 1918 influenza pandemic. To paraphrase Thucydides, the realpolitik of zombies is that the strong will do what they can and the weak must suffer devouring by reanimated, ravenous corpses.

II. Unite-to-Fight-Zombie Liberals:

And what would liberals do after a ghoul invasion? Provided that the initial spread of zombies did not completely wipe out governments, the liberal expectation would be that an international counterzombie regime could make significant inroads into the problem. Given the considerable public-good benefits of wiping the undead from the face of the Earth, significant policy coordination seems a likely response.

The liberal paradigm would predict an outcome that would not be perfect and would be quite vulnerable to political criticism over time — much like the European Union. That said, the system would also be expected to function well enough to ward off a total zombie apocalypse. Zombie flare-ups would no doubt take place. Quasi-permanent humanitarian counterzombie missions, perhaps under United Nations auspices, would likely be necessary in failed states.

III. Neoconservatism and the Axis of Evil Dead:

The neoconservative policy response to an undead uprising would be simple and direct. To paraphrase Robert Kagan, humans are from Earth, and zombies are from hell. Neither accommodation nor recognition would be sustainable options in the face of the zombie threat. Instead, neocons would recommend an aggressive and militarized response to ensure human hegemony. Rather than wait for the ghouls to come to them, they would pursue offensive policy options that take the fight to the undead. A pre-emptive strike against zombies would, surely, be a war against evil itself.

A must read. Daniel W. Drezner at Foreign Policy: Night of the Living Wonks. Toward an international relations theory of zombies.

UPDATE: Marco Werman interviews Daniel W. Drezner on the Zombie Menace (Podcast/mp3): >Click<

UPDATE II: According to Daniel Nixon, the zombie wars will make the United States more powerful than ever. Foreign Policy: America’s Triumph Over the Zombie Horde

Oder: Ein Zombie kommt selten allein.

Im Cicero (via) stellt Wolfram Weimer eine Typologie der Finanzmarkthysteriker auf, die sich im wesentlichen auf drei Typen stützt: Verklemmte Linke, Amerikahasser und ungebildete Geldklemmis. Unbedingt lesenswert, als Vorgeschmack gibt es den Amerikahasser:

Aber auch den Typus zwei trifft man derzeit so häufig, als hätten grimmige Zombies plötzlich Gruppenreisen gebucht. Es ist der Amerikahasser. Er ist genauso links wie rechts, manchmal sehr links und sehr rechts. In seiner Welt gibt es eine dunkle, böse Macht, und die trägt einen Cowboyhut. Wahrscheinlich haben ihn seine Eltern als Kind immer nur Indianer spielen lassen. Er führt alles Übel der Welt auf George Bush, dessen Eltern, dessen Kinder, dessen Nachbarn, dessen Fußpilz, dessen Land zurück. Er klagt über dicke Ölrechnungen, dicke Kinder, dicke Autos, dicke Dollarkredite, dicke Klimaprobleme, dicke Banken – er muss sich mächtig schmächtig fühlen. Ob die Russen Georgien überfallen, die Iraner eine Atombombe bauen, eine deutsche Pfandbriefbank in die Knie geht – der Böse ist immer der Ami.