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Orion Noda, Imagining disarmament, enchanting International Relations, International Affairs, Volume 96, Issue 3, May 2020, Pages 809–811, https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiaa070
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Extract
Does life imitate art? Can literary and theatrical canons shed any light on real-life, practical challenges? Depending on your epistemological preferences, you will consider Matthew Breay Bolton's Imagining disarmament, enchanting International Relations either revolutionary, daring and necessary, or ludicrous, fictional and far-fetched at best. Notwithstanding, Bolton's provocative work invites readers to challenge preconceived ideas and epistemologies by presenting new avenues of possibilities and triggering new modes of thinking.
Written as a collection of essays, the book is divided into four acts, each covering one analytical framework and drawing from literary works as well as a plethora of the author's personal experiences in disarmament campaigns and ethnographic work. Each act can be read on its own and provides an insightful reflection on a particular framework illustrated by a canonical tale. Nevertheless, the entire work adds strength to the idea that the ‘closed club’ world of arms control and disarmament is permeable to a wide range of actors.