Max Brooks 'World War Z'

‘They’re bombing New Jersey” (Radio listeners in panic taking war drama as fact). In 1938 Orson Welles had created a drama at New Jersey and New York the drama was created for entertainment but ended up scaring many people. “The War Of The Worlds” radio play terrified over a million people who thought it was real because many people had missed the beginning. There was even a weather report that had sounded real. Finally the actors and actresses that Orson Welles used there acting and there emotions sounded real.

Daniel Drezner book addresses how the world would potentially react should the Zombie Apocalypse start while relating it to international relations. While discussing the anarchical nature of the world, in the realist argument, he addresses the fact that it is not likely that any one state would be able to gain complete control of the world. However, if the entire world is being overtaken by a zombie plague it is not outside the realm of possibility that survivors of various nations would come together and merge with whatever power still existed and divvy out more power to that group or individual. A good old fashioned military takeover would be just the thing to create an uneasy world-wide alliance with other militaristic organizations across the world against the zombie hordes. The military would easily be able to take charge in a global catastrophe of this nature relatively quickly and with little resistance from the common people. They are one of the most disciplined and structured organizations in regards to bureaucracy and other political organizations, and would not hesitate to change the protocols of war against an end-of-the-world type of threat such as a zombie takeover. Also, military tradition and codes of conduct cross borders with significantly more similarities than do political ideologies and governmental structures, which would result in there being a much easier and more unified alliance than could ever be achieved in any other global unification setting.

World War II is generally viewed to be a moral war, or, as Howard Zinn would put it, “a good war.” This conventional impression of World War II results from American propaganda, along with misinterpretations of related events. Quite the contrary, the United States’ foreign policy, especially during World War II, was driven by imperialist goals rather than humanitarian concern. These foreign interventions are usually justified using political ideologies that advocate the spread of democracy but the United States government fails to act in the interests of the common people in other countries; instead, the US government intervened in foreign countries to protect its own needs and those of its private corporations. In addition, the

When one can truly understand and uncover the meaning behind these articles and how they fit into one or more of the ‘boxes’ we call paradigms and perspectives. In order to dissect and analyze the case of the Cold War, especially its origins, one must not only skim through the text and uncover main ideas, but also must also relate the readings to these paradigms and establish one’s own ideals and opinions regarding the study of international relations. Personally, I believe the articles associated with the origins of the Cold War along with Professor Katzenstein’s lecture on the topic provide strong arguments for the use of a ‘middle fish’ perspective and a ‘big fish’ paradigm: domestic politics and realism, respectively. Through George Kennan’s personal accounts, experience and analysis at both the time of the Cold War’s inception and forty-plus years later after the fall of the Soviet Union, a point is made regarding the nature of Soviet expansion as an offensive maneuver, which he believed must be contained by a defensive strategy. This point of conflicting strategies by the U.S. and (especially) the Soviet Union provides the reader with a realist argument and perspective. Also, in his second piece, which details remarks made to the Council on Foreign Relations in 1994, Kennan explains that instead of whole-heartedly adopting

After earning his master’s degree and Ph. D from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Famous historian William Appleman Williams of Atlantic, Iowa, wrote the book, The Tragedy of American Diplomacy in response to the rampant changing things happening around him. Enraged, Williams’ addresses several points with foreign policy being the main one. He encompasses several themes throughout his book such as American capitalism, the failure of American liberalism, and the Open door notes. These themes help convey his view on the matters at hand, which for a lack of a better term was pissed. Quite frankly, Williams’ gets straight to the point without being around the bush with his extremely biased views by going into depth about America’s morbid foreign policy.

The way a president or world leader can affect their respective countries or others with one decision or action is intriguing. They often have to make difficult decisions that can be often become controversial depending on the beliefs and views of the country’s citizens. Although the president has advisors, congress and the rest of the government; I find the amount of consideration and pressure that they put into decisions to be interesting. The code and conduct of how a world leader should act and make decisions is extremely important; with the lives of their citizens on the line, each moral and ethical decision needs to be made clearly and effectively. “Because the presidency of the United States entails great power, the decisions of individual

The War of the Worlds starts out when the narrator starts talking about how martins attacked the earth and the people of the earth never expected it. Then, the martin’s cylinders come crashing down on earth revealing martins that appear to not move so well. Next, the martins build tripods and attack everything they see. The narrator grabs his wife and they run and hide. Then, the narrator decides to go back towards the martins for many reasons. Now, the British Army is fighting the martins and loosing terribly. The British destroyed one tripod and the martins have come to town in them. The narrator now notices how deadly the martins are so he runs and hides again. While he’s hiding

George H. W. Bush was a Visionary but not an Ethical Leader. In this paper, I will discuss how he used Inspirational Motivation to inspire troops to war, and Dispositional Flexibility to get the world through the chaotic collapse of the USSR. On the other hand, we will prove he was Not and Ethical Leader, because he fell into the trap of Worry over Image when he sent 2500 soldiers into Panama to increase his public image. His lack of depth as a critical thinker while dealing

It goes by many names: "The Crisis," "The Dark Years," "The Walking Plague," as well as newer and more "hip" Titles such as "World War Z" or "Z War One." I personally dislike this last moniker as it implies an inevitable "Z War Two." Max Brooks, WWZ. While World War Z and War of the Worlds are both science fiction novels, they are nowhere near the same. War World Z is a novel where zombies begin to wipe out the world. Empires rise and fall as the world struggles to overtake the zombies; While War of the worlds is a novel is a play written about an alien invasion in America and played over the radio. Though both showcases the world seems like its crashing in both books, only in War world Z is that actually true. In each book, different people

Throughout history, we observe a countless amount of leaders who implement a point of view in which that one person or a thousand people need to sacrificed in order to save a million others, then that is what is necessary. The idea of sacrificing a few for the greater good of mankind is an ideology that should be respected and followed, and we can see many real world implementations of sacrificing for the greater good in wars, history, books and movies. In a novel by Max Brooks, World War Z, the narrator retells the stories of numerous different characters who all have a different perspective on the zombie war. One of these characters, Paul Redeker, embodies this idea that when it comes to a zombie apocalypse, or what the people of this novel assume to be a form of rabies. During a zombie apocalypse, if there was a virus that possibly was threatening humanity, the approach of eradicating infected areas in order to save the majority is a solution that should be looked into. This ideology is often tied to a morality and philosophical standpoint in which it would be more difficult to assume a definite position on the topic due to numerous types of situational problems regarding extremely specific examples. Some of these examples revolved around what type of people are being used in the scenario and what they can contribute to society. This is done to develop theories on the morality of this idea. Putting morality aside and viewing the ideology

“Your strength is just an accident, arising from the weakness of others”, Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness.

be a compromise. However, in this instance, one dominant actor takes control of the meeting and influences others that the best decision to defeat the zombies is through the military power which is a realist approach to the conflict. Furthermore, from the constructivist perspective, they would argue that each ambassador of the countries norms, values, and interest are reflected in the compromise. However, the problem with this is that no other actor gave a suggestion of what would be the best for their countries interest, which happens frequently in small group decision making. For example, there could be an economic downfall for smaller countries if the war does not work out in their favor.

Realism has dominated international relations theory since emerging in the 1930’s. The era of state conflict lasting from the 1930’s to the end of the cold war in 1947, proved the perfect hostile environment to fit the largely pessimistic view of world politics. While many aspects of realism are still alive in International Relations today; including the dominant presence of states, intrinsic of war and the decentralised government. However, realism only reaches so far in explaining and creating a structure for international relations. Whilst the strengths of the theory lie in its pragmatic approach to power politics and conflict. However, the realist view is weakened by changes in the way that conflict is fought, the ineffectiveness of the balance of power model and the increasing global and interconnected world. Thus, using realism as a structure to explain international relations today is to some extent, a theory of the past.

Contemporary international relations is a complex field. Understanding events and attempting to make sense of them can be a daunting task. There are, however, tools available, which can assist in providing clarity to these complex issues. The first of these tools is historic knowledge. Without historic background of an issue, it is nearly impossible to understand the events driving that issue in modern times. A second tool, the one which will be the focus of this paper, is international relations theory. Theory can be defined as “a belief, policy, or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of action,” (Merriam-Webster) and can be used “in many cases as a basis of prediction.” (Mingst 56) There are three major theories which we

Realism, as a way of interpreting international relations has often been conceived to be closely tied to the Cold War. Realism, rooted in the experience of World War II and the Cold War, is said to be undergoing a crisis of confidence largely because the lessons adduced do not convincingly apply directly to the new realities of international relations in the twenty-first century (Clinton 2007:1) Worse still, if policymakers steadfastly adhere to realist precepts, they will have to navigate “the unchartered seas of the post-Cold War disorder with a Cold War cartography, and blind devotion to realism could compromise their ability to prescribe paths to a more orderly and just system.” (Kegley 1993:141). This paper will demonstrate that