Francis A. Beer

Francis A. Beer is Professor of Political Science, University of Colorado, Boulder. His most recent book is Meanings of War and Peace. Other works include Post Realism: The Rhetorical Turn in International Relations (with Robert H...

Christ’l De Landtsheer

Metaphorical World Politics

 Edited by

Francis A. Beer

Christ’l De Landtsheer

"...a level playing field...Mother of all wars...window of vulnerability...."

Metaphorical World Politics argues that language and metaphor are important parts of international political reality. Metaphors and world politics have appeared together many times in recent history. The blended space that results is metaphorical world politics, a real- world game for political and scientific actors. This collection picks up the challenge to unravel the game, to examine its rules, to clarify the mixture of images and facts that is so real in politics but so exceptional in science. Scholars have studied metaphor mostly from a linguistic or a literary point of view. This work forces those primarily interested in metaphors to think about applications and implications beyond the text. Others concerned mainly with world politics may consider how metaphors may help to energize and structure international political thought and action.
 
Scholars have most often studied world politics embedded in so-called "facts." Metaphorical World Politics shows that facts are misleading in their compactness, that facts are often meaningless, that metaphors in contrast are energetic processors of meaning, and that facts in world politics are nothing more than weak emulsions of metaphor. This work outlines the general place of metaphor on the map of politics and highlights the location of specific metaphors on the political terrain. 
 
"Metaphorical World Politics brings together a fascinating collection that illuminates the multiple roles of metaphors in framing problems, prescribing solutions, and persuading others to support the decisions of political leaders regarding issues of democracy, national security, and political economy. This volume should attract interest from a wide range of scholars in the disciplines of psychology, linguistics, communication, and political science. Students of democratic politics, war/peace processes, and globalization will also find rich sources of textual analysis regarding their respective areas of specialization.”-Stephen G. Walker, Arizona State University 

Rhetoric and Public Affairs Series