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Harry Potter and International Relations. Edited by Daniel H.Nexon and Iver B.Neumann . Lanham, MD : Rowman and Littlefield Publishers , 2006 . 224 pp., $72.00 cloth ( ISBN: 0-7425-3958-X ), $26.95 paper ( ISBN: 0-7425-3959-8 ).

International relations theory inevitably arises within a particular context and setting, whether it is the aftermath of World War I, the middle of the Cold War, or the start of the twenty-first-century war against terrorism. From the Peloponnesian War and the armed conflicts of the European Middle Ages to the carnage of the twentieth century, seminal writers from Thucydides to Machiavelli and from Hobbes to Clausewitz have distilled enduring theoretical perspectives from the events of their time. What Harry Potter and International Relations does, however, is broaden the contextual basis for thinking about international relations theory to encompass popular culture as well as political experience. As editors Daniel Nexon and Iver Neumann point out in their introduction, in recent years there has been an increasing interest in the relationship between popular culture and international politics (see, for example, Lipschutz 2001; McAlister 2001). One has only to watch such television series as The West Wing or Law and Order to see fictional representations of political life that have been widely disseminated as part of popular culture. Where fiction and reality differ or converge, of course, is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. The “facts” of international politics constitute first-order representations of political life, whereas popular entertainment is a second-order or fictional representation. Through Harry Potter and International Relations, Nexon and Neumann hope to help bridge the chasm between these first- and second-order representations. International relations, of course, studies the interactions among states and other groups that constitute the global system. To the extent that popular culture influences these relationships or our understanding of them, it becomes an essential input for building international relations theory.

Popular culture, Nexon and Neumann contend, intersects with international politics in essentially four ways that are of direct interest to scholars: (1) as a cause or outcome in international relations; (2) as a mirror or medium that helps communicate ideas, for example, about how foreign policy decisions are made; (3) as data or evidence about dominant norms, ideas, identities, or beliefs; and (4) as a phenomenon that actually constitutes norms, values, identities, and ideas regarding collective behavior. If foreign policy is driven by national identity, popular culture can provide the basis for understanding the content of national identity. Thus, there is a basis for integrating popular culture as a second-order representation into first-order representations, that is actual foreign policy. Harry Potter and International Relations contributes to the literature that explore

s how popular culture molds national identity and how aspects of local culture may clash with the process of globalization. There is an extensive constructivist literature on local identity and culture as crucially important influences either hindering or reinforcing the development of the shared norms of identity (see, for example, Kubálková, Onuf, and Kowert 1998). By contributing to our understanding of how identity is constructed, Nexon, Neumann, and their contributors add to this constructivist literature in international relations theory.

Although there is no evidence that the Harry Potter book series has actually shaped foreign policy or international politics, the contributors to Harry Potter and International Relations (political scientists and international relations scholars for the most part) provide extensive evidence of how the Harry Potter series both adds to and arises from its cultural setting. Cultural globalization has enabled transnational media conglomerates such as Time Warner to market Harry Potter products, including more than 140 million DVDs in scores of countries around the world. Here we have the basis for extensive data about the globalization of culture. We also have the “marriage of content and delivery” (p. 37). The global success of Harry Potter is clearly the product of the global cultural setting of our times, although we cannot be certain that J.K. Rowling would not also have had great success in an earlier era. After all, as the works of Charles Dickens remind us, Rowling is not the first British author to enjoy international acclaim.

Nonetheless, cultural globalization has met with resistance, which is extensively discussed in at least two chapters of Harry Potter and International Relations. The twenty-first century world is characterized by contending forces, some of which lead to globalization and some of which appear determined to preserve local values and cultures. These forces represent a monumental clash between global cultural homogenization and local cultural differentiation. The Harry Potter series has been translated into sixty languages. Such translations may be literal or, more likely, designed to render the books easier to read or understand within a particular cultural setting—perhaps at the cost of obscuring aspects of the original. This process is described as “glocalization” (p. 46) and represents an effort to communicate across cultural boundaries. Glocalization can have one of two related but contrasting results. It can make the Harry Potter books more relevant to a specific cultural or societal setting. Alternatively, it can make them more understandable and thereby facilitate opposition to them “in the name of a more or less pure or unsullied traditional past” (p. 53).

Several chapters address the question of religious opposition to the Harry Potter series, especially among Muslims and the Christian right. This opposition is generally based on the main characters

’ obsession with magical themes, including witchcraft. Opposition to such themes, as pointed out, has a long history in Christianity, antedating even the notorious medieval Inquisition, which was designed to stamp out religiously deviant groups and their practices. Nevertheless, the seventh and final volume in the Harry Potter series contain references to what are unmistakably Christian themes, including life beyond death and joy as the reward of those who show mercy in life, as opposed to the fate awaiting those who are cruel.

From time to time the contributors make allusions to international relations theory as they attempt, usually successfully, to relate the Harry Potter series to the various schools of thought in international relations. We are reminded that, as in the international arena, characters and groups in the Harry Potter series sometimes form alliances in which the line between good and evil is not readily apparent. Although institutional arrangements emerge, as in liberal international theory, it is realist theory that is said to have the greatest resonance in relating the world of Harry Potter to international relations theory.

We are left with the fundamental question, addressed by more than one contributor, of how the Harry Potter books relate to international relations. Because the books are about life at a boarding school (and therefore about learning, but also about adventure and mystery), the world of Harry Potter contains danger and violence, friends and enemies. It resembles in many ways the world depicted in realist theory with its security dilemmas and territorial relationships. Of course, Harry Potter’s world is fantasy. It is a constructed world in which the appeal of Rowling’s characters is multicultural if not universal. Perhaps this is because all earthly societies contain people with the kinds of qualities that mark her characters. Moreover, those same characteristics mark the leaders of these societies, whose desires and conflicts are projected onto the international stage. In such a setting, the enduring task of statecraft is to preserve independence and freedom while enhancing security.

Harry Potter and International Relations will be of interest to students of international relations. If they have not already read the Harry Potter series, Nexon, Neumann, and their contributors give them an incentive to do so. Armed with this volume, scholars who study or teach international relations will be better able to mine the works of Rowling for insights, analogies, comparisons, and examples. Like Harry Potter, the world of international relations is filled with mysterious problems for which the solutions are not readily apparent, but behind which lurk dark dangers. Unlike international relations, however, we now know how the Harry Potter series ends.


References
Kubálková, Vendulka, Nicholas Onuf, and Paul Kowert eds . (1998) International Relations in a Constructed World. Armonk, NY: ME Sharpe.

Lipschutz, Ronnie. (2001) Cold War Fantasies: Film, Fiction, and Foreign Policy. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
McAlister, Melani. (2001) Epic Encounters: Culture, Media, and US Interests in the Middle East. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Author Information
The Fletcher School, Tufts University, and The Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis

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