Otherworldly Politics: The International Relations of Star Trek, Game of Thrones, and Battlestar Galactica

by Stephen Benedict Dyson

Overview

A compelling look at the analogous political worlds of science fiction, fantasy, and international relations.

In Otherworldly Politics, Stephen Benedict Dyson examines the fictional but deeply political realities of three television shows: Star Trek, Game of Thrones, and Battlestar Galactica.

Dyson explains how these shows offer alternative histories and future possibilities for humanity. Fascinated by politics and history, science fiction and fantasy screenwriters and showrunners suffuse their scripts with real-world ideas of empire, war, civilization, and culture, lending episodes a compelling intricacy and contemporary resonance.

Dyson argues that science fiction and fantasy television creators share a fundamental kinship with great minds in international relations. Screenwriters like Gene Roddenberry, George R. R. Martin, and Ronald D. Moore are world-builders of no lesser creativity, Dyson argues, than theorists such as Woodrow Wilson, Kenneth Waltz, and Alexander Wendt. Each of these thinkers imagines a realm, specifies the rules of its operation, and by so doing shows us something about ourselves and how we interact with one another. Combining intellectual and real-world history with lucid theoretical analysis, the book is a vital challenge to scholars and a spur to creative thinking for fans of these three influential shows.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421417165
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	06/30/2015
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Stephen Benedict Dyson is an associate professor of political science at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of The Blair Identity: Leadership and Foreign Policy and Leaders in Conflict: Bush and Rumsfeld in Iraq.

Table of Contents

Preface: To Teach International Relations in China, Throw Out the Textbooks and Turn On Game of Thrones vii

1 The International Relations of Other Worlds 1

2 International Relations and Televised Science Fiction Come to Age 13

3 The Logical Approach to International Relations 34

4 Constructing International Relations 63

5 Homogenization and Difference on Global and Galactic Scales 86

6 International Crises in Our World and Other Worlds 102

7 Robot Wars 115

Afterword: The Five Most Political Episodes of Star Trek, Game of Thrones, and Battlestar Galactica 132

Notes 137

Bibliography 147

Index 159

What People are Saying About This

Patrick James

In Otherworldly Politics, Stephen Benedict Dyson draws upon insights from three highly regarded and deeply political television shows to convey the complexities of crisis management and other fundamental foreign policy issues. The scholarship is sound, and Dyson's insights into popular culture, along with subjects ranging from rational choice to robot wars, are appealing. This book will interest a wide range of readers.

Barry Buzan

I wish I had been introduced to International Relations through a book like this. Dyson does a great job of weaving together the classics of American IR and Science Fiction in a lucid and entertaining style.

From the Publisher

In Otherworldly Politics, Stephen Benedict Dyson draws upon insights from three highly regarded and deeply political television shows to convey the complexities of crisis management and other fundamental foreign policy issues. The scholarship is sound, and Dyson's insights into popular culture, along with subjects ranging from rational choice to robot wars, are appealing. This book will interest a wide range of readers.
—Patrick James, University of Southern California, coauthor of The International Relations of Middle-earth: Learning from The Lord of the Rings

I wish I had been introduced to international relations through a book like this. Dyson does a great job of weaving together the classics of American IR and science fiction in a lucid and entertaining style.
—Barry Buzan, The London School of Economics, coauthor of The Global Transformation: History, Modernity and the Making of International Relations

Editorial Reviews

. . . Otherworldly Politics is undeniably one of the most lively and ebullient books on IR theory on the market today. Its premise—that televised genre fiction can reveal truths about international relations just as easily as it does about character and plot—is well founded and expertly elaborated by Dyson’s spritely prose.
—H-Net Reviews

From the Publisher

. . . Otherworldly Politics is undeniably one of the most lively and ebullient books on IR theory on the market today. Its premise—that televised genre fiction can reveal truths about international relations just as easily as it does about character and plot—is well founded and expertly elaborated by Dyson’s spritely prose.

H-Net Reviews