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IR Film Series

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Over the past several weeks, a number of international relations scholar-bloggers have set forth lists of films suitable for use in an IR course. Unfortunately, most of these lists have been riddled with fallacy and error. This is the correct list:

  1. The Third Man: Discussed here. Long story short, America meets the world, world fails to meet American expectations, hijinks ensue.
  2. Breaker Morant: Briefly discussed here. Law, war, morality, the confusion of order; it’s all things to all people.
  3. Grand Illusion: Also discussed here. Attachments to class and other non-state identities wilt in the face of war and modern nationalism.
  4. Dr. Strangelove: This is on pretty much all the lists, for obvious reasons. I’ll add that Dr. Strangelove is about more than just nuclear theory; it’s about the intersection between nuclear theory and conceptions of masculinity.
  5. Hero: Discussed here. It’s all about the Hobbes, baby; the transition between anarchy and hierarchy and the choices made therein.
  6. Downfall: Briefly discussed here. If the Fog of War is about the little decisions, Downfall is about the big ones. These are the institutions of the state at their breaking point, at the point in which a state transitions from sovereignty, however limited, to not-sovereignty.
  7. The Fog of War: Discussed here. I still believe that Morris let McNamara get away with far too much in terms of rehabilitating his reputation. In my experience, those who’ve lived through the Vietnam era like this movie much less than those who haven’t. It’s nevertheless critical, however, for its depiction of how wind themselves into decision trees that have no reasonable exit.
  8. Battle of Algiers: Discussed here. It’s about more than Algeria, or counter-insurgency; it’s about the state, violence, colonialism, and evil in the modern world.
  9. When We Were Kings: How many films set in Africa aren’t about a white guy who goes to Africa and goes crazy? In this case, Norman Mailer and George Plimpton effectively (if unknowingly) send up the entire white-centric Africa genre. It’s about Foreman, Ali, the African diaspora, and decolonization; white people are just along for the ride.
  10. Red Dawn: “Because we live here!”

It’s unsurprising that there are a lot of war movies on this list. States make war, and war makes states; it creates their institutions and helps bind them together. The international system cannot be understood without understanding the state, and the state cannot be understood without an appreciation for its particular forms of violence and coercion. The films above are only incidentally about war; they’re really about the state. I once showed the Ox Bow Incident in a Europe in World Politics course just to illustrate the limitations of state authority and the consequences of those limitations…

Next list: Name five television series that can be effectively used in the classroom to teach IR. Here are mine:

  1. Yes Minister
  2. Sandbaggers
  3. Battlestar Galactica
  4. Deadwood
  5. Star Trek: TOS
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