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Imagine the unthinkable: some sort of virus has swept the globe, causing massive numbers of previously dead humans to walk the earth in an unending search for brains, brains, and more brains. If you're the man (or woman) in the White House, sitting by the red phone when that fateful day occurs, what actions do you take? Seal the borders? Dispatch the military? Encourage civilians to stay home, congregate in evacuation centers, or flee? Bomb other countries suffering from zombie outbreaks back to the Stone Age?

These issues are cleverly examined by Daniel W. Drezner, a professor of international politics at Tufts University, in his new book Theories of International Politics and Zombies. A slim, quick read, Drezner takes the complex, often confusing field of international political studies and brings it to life by seeing how various political philosophies would tend to react to an onslaught of the undead. Using the classic George Romero films (Night of the Living Dead et. al.) as well as more recent hits including 28 Days/Weeks Later, the Resident Evil franchise, Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, and Max Brooks' bestselling books The Zombie Survival Guide and World War Z, Drezner has a substantial pool of source material to draw from.

Most of the major political philosophies are addressed in TIPZ: realism, liberalism, neoconservatism, and constructivism each get a chapter, along with sections on domestic politics, bureaucracy, and the psychosocial impact on individuals. Only communism and feminism are ignored, though Drezner explains in his introduction that TIPZ has a pro-human bias, and those particular philosophies would be more likely to side with the zombies.

While on its face, the subject matter of TIPZ could be dismissed as inconsequential or silly, a zombie outbreak is actually a reasonable parallel to two of the biggest threats today: global pandemics, and stateless terrorism. Substitute 'SARS' or 'H1N1' or 'al-Qaeda' for 'zombies,' and "ripped from the movies" quickly becomes "ripped from the headlines."

Drezner successfully maintains a careful balance between a serious introduction to the major geopolitical philosophies, and a tongue-in-cheek application of the "zombie canon" to said theories. I admire Drezner's ability to walk this tightrope; I know from my own experience as an undergraduate (my topic was an historical analysis of the James Bond films) that it isn't easy, but when done well, makes for clever, insightful reading. Drezner's analysis takes what could have been a dry exercise and makes it entertaining and appealing. I equally recommend this book to fans of the zombie genre, armchair geopolitical analysts looking for a fun read, and even students trying to find a way to relate to all that stuff their professors are lecturing about.