Imagining Disarmament, Enchanting International Relations

This book explores the global politics of disarmament through emerging international relations (IR) theories of discourse and imagination. Each chapter reflects on an aspect of contemporary activism on weapons through an analogous story from literary tradition. Shahrazade, convenor of the 1001 Nights, offers a potent metaphor for the humanitarian advocacy seeking to moderate the behaviour of violent people. The author reads Don Quixote in Cambodia's minefields, reflects on Lysistrata at Greenham Common and considers how tropes in The Tempest were enrolled in both Pacific nuclear testing and efforts to resist it. The book draws on ethnographic fieldwork in communities affected by weapons and disarmament advocacy at the UN and calls for a re-enchantment of IR, alive to affect, ritual and myth. 

List of contents

1. Shahrazad: Disarming Charm.- 2. Quixote: Tilting at Landmines.- 3. Lysistrata: Meaningful Human Control.- 4. Caliban and the Nuclear Ban.

About the author

Matthew Breay Bolton is Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the International Disarmament Institute at Pace University, USA. Since 2014 he has worked on the UN advocacy of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN), recipient of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize.

Summary

This book explores the global politics of disarmament through emerging international relations (IR) theories of discourse and imagination. Each chapter reflects on an aspect of contemporary activism on weapons through an analogous story from literary tradition. Shahrazade, convenor of the 1001 Nights, offers a potent metaphor for the humanitarian advocacy seeking to moderate the behaviour of violent people. The author reads Don Quixote in Cambodia’s minefields, reflects on Lysistrata at Greenham Common and considers how tropes in The Tempest were enrolled in both Pacific nuclear testing and efforts to resist it. The book draws on ethnographic fieldwork in communities affected by weapons and disarmament advocacy at the UN and calls for a re-enchantment of IR, alive to affect, ritual and myth. 

Product details

• Authors: Matthew Breay Bolton
• Publisher: Springer, Berlin
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.01.2019
• EAN: 9783030177157
• ISBN: 978-3-0-3017715-7
• No. of pages: 133
• Dimensions: 157 mm x 219 mm x 15 mm
• Weight: 332 g
• Illustrations: XX, 133 p.
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Comparative and international political science; C, Literaturwissenschaft: Antike und Mittelalter, Literaturwissenschaft, allgemein, Krieg und Verteidigung, International Relations, Warfare & defence, Political Science and International Studies, Literary studies: general, International Relations Theory, International Security Studies, Security, International, Politics and war, Military and Defence Studies, Literary studies: ancient, classical & medieval, Classical literature, Classical and Antique Literature, Early Modern/Renaissance Literature, Early Modern and Renaissance Literature, Literature, Modern