"Fido"

The independent filmmaker is far and away the preiminent purveyor of Zombie lore in global mass culture; we have raised them, shaped them, permanently imbedded them into the human psyche, and even kept them as pets.

As reliable as zombies have been for us, it’s now time to step-up our game beyond the small town zombie, beyond the contained 28-day UK outbreak — it’s time for zombies to take their place in the international political arena.

Here are two landmark studies of this global menace that continue to elevate the level of discourse on the mostly dead.  I encorage all indie filmmakers to familiarize themselves with these epic tombs…they could save your life (or career.)

It started last August with the publishing of the University of Ottowa’s landmark scientific paper, “When Zombies Attack!: Mathmatical Modeling of an Outbreak of Zombie Infection“, which was first picked up by the BBC. 

This caught the attention Foreign Policy magazine’s uber-wonk Daniel W. Drezner, whose seminal posting The Theory of International Politics and Zombies has gone on to become a must-read book of the same name (an excerpt of which can be found in the latest issue of Foreign Policy).

As society’s go-to metaphor for its Pandora’s “box o’ phobias” (genetic testing, big pharma, pandemics, rogue comits, religeon, communism, terrorism, and any other anti-Americanisms), zombies have, for decades, plagued the streets of small towns everywhere.  It was only a matter of time until they clawed their way out of such pedestrian constraints and stormed the halls of international relations theory. 

Here’s the table of contents:

INTRODUCTION…. TO THE UNDEAD                                                                          

THE ZOMBIE LITERATURE                                                                                             

DEFINING A ZOMBIE                                                                                                       

DISTRACTING DEBATES ABOUT FLESH-EATING GHOULS                                              

THE REALPOLITIK OF THE LIVING DEAD                                                                  

REGULATING THE UNDEAD IN A LIBERAL WORLD ORDER                              

NEOCONSERVATISM AND THE AXIS OF EVIL DEAD                                            

THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF ZOMBIES                                                              

THE SECOND IMAGE:  ARE ALL ZOMBIE POLITICS LOCAL?                               

BUREAUCRATIC POLITICS:  THE “PULLING AND HAULING” OF ZOMBIES    

WE’RE ONLY HUMAN:  PSYCHOLOGICAL RESPONSES TO THE UNDEAD       

CONCLUSION…. OR SO YOU THINK