The New Standard in Political ScienceFollow

Three books by Daniel W. Drezner:

The Sanctions Paradox : Economic Statecraft and International Relations
"The conventional wisdom is that economic sanctions do not work in international affairs. If so, why do countries wield them so often? Daniel Drezner argues that, paradoxically, countries will be most eager to use sanctions under conditions where they will produce the feeblest results. States anticipate frequent conflicts with adversaries, and are therefore more willing to use sanctions. However, precisely because they anticipate more conflicts, sanctioned states will not concede, despite the cost. Economic sanctions are thus far less likely to be effective between adversaries than between allies."

All Politics Is Global: Explaining International Regulatory Regimes
"Has globalization diluted the power of national governments to regulate their own economies? Are international governmental and nongovernmental organizations weakening the hold of nation-states on global regulatory agendas? Many observers think so. But in All Politics Is Global, Daniel Drezner argues that this view is wrong. Despite globalization, states--especially the great powers--still dominate international regulatory regimes, and the regulatory goals of states are driven by their domestic interests."

Theories of International Politics and Zombies
"What would happen to international politics if the dead rose from the grave and started to eat the living? Daniel Drezner's groundbreaking book answers the question that other international relations scholars have been too scared to ask. Addressing timely issues with analytical bite, Drezner looks at how well-known theories from international relations might be applied to a war with zombies. Exploring the plots of popular zombie films, songs, and books, Theories of International Relations and Zombies predicts realistic scenarios for the political stage in the face of a zombie threat and considers how valid--or how rotten--such scenarios might be.

Drezner boldly lurches into the breach and "stress tests" the ways that different approaches to world politics would explain policy responses to the living dead. He examines the most prominent international relations theories--including realism, liberalism, constructivism, neoconservatism, and bureaucratic politics--and decomposes their predictions. He digs into prominent zombie films and novels, such as Night of the Living Dead and World War Z, to see where essential theories hold up and where they would stumble and fall. Drezner argues that by thinking about outside-of-the-box threats we get a cognitive grip on what former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously referred to as the "unknown unknowns" in international security."

I'm not kidding. I guess even political scientists & economists get bored.

That sounds awesome, I might buy that, seems like it would be an interesting read.

Edited, Jan 16th 2011 9:43am by Driftwood

I wonder if he would be interesting in coming to Balticon, as we have had some very interesting panels on
Zombies.

I may suggest him as a guest for maybe next year. It's Memorial Day weekend, 2012 and hopefully we still be around. Living next to a cemetery doesn't give me much of a chance of survival if they start popping out of the ground, while I'm home.

I disagree with his analysis of economic sanctions, they are effective tools, just not for the purpose he describes. If I might be so bold as to say that sanctions an early phase of aggression rather than a preventative measure. It's a tool built to deny resource access, much like a naval blockade or seige. In this, they are Incredibly effective, and the costs are subsidized globally by a reduction in demand arbitrage rather than by the aggressor, making it an attractive option.

In addition to needing more zombies, I also tend to think that the reason they're used where they are least likely to be effective is that states both desire to demonize states that they are in some kind of conflict with and want to be able to show that they are "doing something" about that bad state they've hyped up to their people. Economic sanctions are used exactly because they are progressively less toothless the less the two nations normally operate together. This allows the state to create an "enemy", and "fight them" without actually ever having to do anything at all. Which makes the people happy.

Yes. We really haven't evolved socially much since the Roman Empire. Same rules apply and for the same reasons.

Shame they banned reading books at work.

She drives a bus.


There were incidents.

They banned "texting" while driving.

No, I saw the change in pronoun gender.

I was expounding for a humorous, not explanatory, purpose.

You should clarify that only classical voodoo and magically created zombies follow orders well. Virus created zombies usually turn on their masters.

The reviews for it have been pretty lackluster. The NYT quipped that the author wanted to remain anonymous for a reason.

Only noob necromancer forget to memorize protection from evil 10' radius.