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Playing geopolitics: utopian simulations and subversions of international relations

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“Shall we play a game?”—JOSHUA, the NORAD computer

Abstract

This article examines the implications of recent theorizations of media, space and time for international relations. The development of assemblage and complexity theory pushes us to think about space and time as always multiple and social outcomes as produced through the intersection of this multiplicity of space–times. This undermines the limited understanding of space associated with mainstream international relations theory and neoclassical geopolitics. Empirically, this paper examines two games, Model United Nations and Statecraft, which can be understood as virtual spaces of mediation co-productive of the assemblage of international relations. Ethnographic evidence of these games’ unfolding indicates that while they are coded to inculcate the limited vision of space associated with mainstream IR theory and neoclassical geopolitics, other spatialities are emergent. The article concludes by arguing for a greater appreciation of playfulness as a mode of being in the geopolitical world.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, University College London, Pearson Building, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK

    Jason Dittmer

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  1. Jason Dittmer
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Correspondence to Jason Dittmer.

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Dittmer, J. Playing geopolitics: utopian simulations and subversions of international relations. GeoJournal 80, 909–923 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-015-9655-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10708-015-9655-1

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