Weird IR

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • David Bell Mislan, Philip Streich

   Pages 1-13

3. To the Sea! Sealand and Other Wannabe States

   • David Bell Mislan, Philip Streich

   Pages 15-28

4. Beers at the Border Bar: No Shirt? No Passport? No Service!

   • David Bell Mislan, Philip Streich

   Pages 29-42

5. Stupid Things Our Leaders Say and Do

   • David Bell Mislan, Philip Streich

   Pages 43-57

6. DPRKLOL

   • David Bell Mislan, Philip Streich

   Pages 59-80

7. SCREAM (Soccer Rules Everything Around Me)

   • David Bell Mislan, Philip Streich

   Pages 81-98

8. Terra Nullius and the Neutral Zone: Not an Indie Band

   • David Bell Mislan, Philip Streich

   Pages 99-115

9. Island Living Ain’t Easy

   • David Bell Mislan, Philip Streich

   Pages 117-129

10. Gone to the Birds? Turkey Tails, Chicken Taxes, and the Global Economy

    • David Bell Mislan, Philip Streich

    Pages 131-145

11. Diplomatic Immunity…Revoked!

    • David Bell Mislan, Philip Streich

    Pages 147-159

12. What’s in a Name?

    • David Bell Mislan, Philip Streich

    Pages 161-174

13. Epilogue

    • David Bell Mislan, Philip Streich

    Pages 175-184

14. Back Matter

    Pages 185-197

    PDF

​The scholarly study of international relations tends to go over the same cases, issues, and themes. This book addresses this by challenging readers to think creatively about international politics. It highlights some of the strangest and rarest phenomena in diplomacy and world politics. Comprised of a series of vignettes and organized by common themes like nonsensical borders, quasi-countries, and diplomatic taboos, Weird IR encourages readers to think critically about the discipline without losing one's sense of humor completely.

• strange phenomena in diplomacy
• international relations and deviant case studies
• strange borders
• personal relationships between world leaders
• Sealand
• unusual international relations events
• weird facts about international relations
• international sports in international relations
• international relations and soccer
• island nations
• climate change

“Mislan and Streich take us down a rabbit hole of diplomatic oddities and deviant cases that strain credulity.  Welcome to the ‘Upside Down’ of IR—a parallel universe where you need a passport to walk out the back door of a tavern, a $2,000 winch ride to visit an arguably sovereign state fashioned from a seaborne anti-aircraft gun platform, and a sense of direction from an Escher drawing to determine whether you're in Bangladesh or India when in Dahala Khagrabari. But seeing the world from the other end of the looking glass is no mere sideshow, and this novel contribution is no novelty act. The authors guide us to new heights from which we can survey familiar landscapes with new perspective. Mislan and Streich are knowledgeable weirdos who breathe life into the otherwise-stuffy dinner party that IR can be.” (Jonathan DiCicco, Director, IR Program, Canisius College, USA)

“Mislan and Streich have long honed their skills as academic raconteurs, and this book is the happy result. Presented in witty, wry detail, they trace the weird outliers of International Relations theory that point to the blind spots in mainstream IR theories. More than an amusing exercise, this book offers an important epistemological intervention: in exploring ‘deviancy,’ we actually learn to question the ‘normal’ and shake the smug certainty of IR theory.” (Denise M. Horn, Chair, Political Science and International Relations, Simmons College, USA)

• American University, Washington, USA

  David Bell Mislan

• School of Human Sciences, Osaka University, Suita, Japan

  Philip Streich

David Bell Mislan is ​Assistant Professor of International Studies at American University, USA.

Philip Streich is Assistant Professor of Human Sciences at Osaka University, Japan.

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