Itโs our first โactualโ installment of Whiskey & IR Theory in Space! We discuss Star Trek: The Next Generationโs โgay rightsโ episode, โThe Outcast,โ which Dan uses to introduce his students to different modes of โreadingโ the politics of (and in) science fiction. PTJ and Dan summarize the episode (can you spoil an 30+ year-old TV show?), discuss their own reactions to it, and then Dan talks about how his students respond to it differently now than they did a 10-15 years ago. The two hosts conclude by descending into rambling geekery as they discuss what theyโll cover in the second installment of the series.รย
The answer, by the way, is the two short stories that PTJ opens his class with: Ursula K. Le Guinโs โThe Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas,โ and N.K. Jemisinโs โThose Who Stay and Fight.โรย
The Whisky: Port Charlotte CC:01
Patrick and Dan talk about the newest feature of the podcast: a series in which they combine their long-running seminars on (international) politics and science fiction.
In each episode of โWhiskey & IR Theoryโฆ in Space!โ Patrick and Dan will discuss a book, television episode, or film that theyโve assigned in classes past.รย Here, though, they introduce the series by talking about the good, the bad, and the ugly of using popular culture in general รขยย and science fiction in particular รขยย to explore social science and social theory.
Works discussed, inter alia, include Jutta Weldesโ To Seek Out New Worlds: Exploring Links between Science Fiction and World Politics and Iver Neumann & Daniel Nexonโs Harry Potter and International Relations.
PTJ and Dan discuss Cynthia Weberโs 1994 book, Simulating Sovereignty: Intervention, the State and Symbolic Exchange. Weber examines โthe justifications for intervention offered by the Concert of Europe, President Wilsonโs administration, and the Reagan-Bush administrationsโ and analyzes them via a combination of โcritical international relations theory and foreign policy analysis.โ
Topics include: why โsovereigntyโ was so important to critical and constructivist scholars in the 1990s, Jean Beuadriard and International Relations, and the Reagan presidency.
Also mentioned in this episode, inter alia, are Andrew Abbottโs Time Matters: On Theory and Method, R.BJ. Walkerโs Inside/Outside: International Relations as Political Theory, and Cynthia Weberโs โPerformative Statesโ (Millennium, 1998).
You can contact us via email, and follow us or DM us on Twitter. You can also buy Whiskey & IR Theory merch at our Zazzle store.
Thanks for listening, and if you like the show be sure to leave us a five-star review.