The thermonuclear revolution and the politics of imagination

Realist radicalism in political theory and IR

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4445443
AutoresRens Van Munster (0000-0001-9630-7397, Danish Institute for International Studies), Casper Sylvest (0000-0001-7205-8920, University of Southern Denmark, autor correspondente)
Ano2018
Volume32
Fascículo3
Páginas255-274
Data de publicação2018-09-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoInternational Relations (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0047-1178 • E-ISSN: 1741-2862
EditoraSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0047117818789746
OpenAlexW2885953833
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas17

Both within political theory and International Relations (IR), recent scholarship has reflected on the nature and limits of political realism. In this article, we return to the thermonuclear revolution and the debates it spurred about what was real and possible in global politics. We argue that a strand of oppositional and countercultural thinking during this period, which we refer to as realist radicalism, has significant theoretical and practical relevance for current scholarship on political realism. Indeed, debates during the thermonuclear revolution speak to questions about the nature of realism and whether it is possible to develop a realism that is attuned to progressive or emancipatory ambitions. By focusing mainly on two radical American intellectuals - C. Wright Mills and Lewis Mumford - we show how their responses to the thermonuclear, superpower standoff challenged conventional understanding of realism and utopianism. By harnessing the concept of the imagination, they called into question pre-existing conceptions about politics and reality. The contribution of the article is twofold. First, we argue that realist political theory and IR should pay more attention to thinkers that are not conventionally regarded as canonical but whose writings and politics interrogated the limits and potential of political realism. Second, we demonstrate that the work of such public intellectuals and their calls for cultivating the imagination connect directly to current debates about political realism, including its statist bend and its (purported) conservatism

Nuclear physics · Physics · Plasma · Political radicalism · Political science · Politics · Thermonuclear Fusion · Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics · Law