Chatter: Science Fiction and International Relations with Stephen Dyson
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 27 July 2023
⏱️ 98 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Creators of science fiction movies and television shows often build worlds with at least some attention to governance systems and international (or interplanetary) political interactions. Sometimes, they develop central plot points out of national security matters, even if they play out in entirely different galaxies or dimensions. So it's not surprising that political scientist and author Stephen Dyson has spent years looking closely at how the genre influences--and, in turn, is influenced by--international relations theory and practice.
David Priess hosted Stephen for a conversation about the definitions of science fiction, fantasy, and speculative fiction; teaching international politics in China; how science fiction helps us to understand international relations and how IR inform our viewing of science fiction; politics in the Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica and Star Wars universes; and much more.
Among the works mentioned in this episode:
- The book Otherworldly Politics by Stephen Benedict Dyson
- The books Imagining Politics, The Blair Identity and Leaders in Conflict by Stephen Benedict Dyson
- The book Metamorphoses of Science Fiction by Darko Suvin
- The YouTube channel UConnPopCast
- The TV shows Star Trek (The Original Series), Star Trek: The Next Generation, Battlestar Galactica (2004-2009), Battlestar Galactica (1978-1979), and Game of Thrones
- The movies Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope and Rogue One
- The article "Images of International Politics in Chinese Science Fiction: Liu Cixin's Three-Body Problem," in New Political Science (2019), by Stephen Benedict Dyson
- The book Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
- The book Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
Chatter is a production of Lawfare and Goat Rodeo. This episode was produced and edited by Isabelle Kerby-McGowan and Cara Shillenn of Goat Rodeo. Podcast theme by David Priess, featuring music created using Groovepad.
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/lawfare.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
| 0:07.2 | podcast become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash LawFair, that's patreon.com slash |
| 0:16.9 | LawFair. Also check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, rational security, chatter, LawFair |
| 0:25.6 | no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:28.2 | Welcome to chatter. I'm David Priest. This week, political scientist and author Stephen |
| 0:40.6 | Dyson, on science fiction and international relations. What science fiction does is it says |
| 0:48.2 | imagine a world in which these things existed that was set up in this way. What can you now |
| 0:52.9 | deduce about the world of your experience and I would say international relations theory |
| 0:57.1 | at its best is doing the same thing. I was stunned when I was researching the original |
| 1:03.7 | production of Star Trek to find out that one of the major dramas they had in even getting |
| 1:08.4 | the first episode on screen had to do with Spock and Spock had pointed ears and the message |
| 1:14.5 | came back from some of the networks. Well, that's a devil then. This has been a classic |
| 1:22.4 | role that science fiction in particular has played in American culture and in other cultures |
| 1:27.2 | is to put on screen uncomfortable truths or moral dilemmas that are very, very difficult |
| 1:34.0 | to tackle head on. |
| 1:35.7 | Stephen, welcome to chatter. Thank you. Thanks for having me on. |
| 1:46.0 | This is a strange moment for me because I've been listening to you talk for some time |
| 1:52.0 | primarily through your YouTube channel that you do with Jeff Dutus also at University |
| 1:58.3 | of Connecticut, the Yukon Popcast where you talk about issues of primarily science fiction |
| 2:04.9 | and film and TV and how it crosses over into politics, but you've expanded that a bit |
| 2:09.7 | more recently. But also Taylor Swift, was it the Taylor Swift one that drew you in? |
| 2:14.5 | I wouldn't say it got me to click at all, but I understand that she's a popular singer, |
... |
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