Global Disorder in the Undead World: Teaching Geopolitics With Zombies

Zombies are in many ways the quintessential metaphor for contemporary security threats: They come seemingly out of nowhere, and assault and disperse without respect for national borders. This article details an undergraduate college course in geopolitics that combines a focus on popular geopolitics and international studies with zombies using Max Brooks’s bestselling horror novel World War Z. The global political order is becoming increasingly complex and rapid shifts in policy challenge students’ ability to connect theory with world events. Popular culture tropes, like zombies, can help explain theory and convoluted political relations in a way that students can understand and apply.