WATERLOO - A “zombie gap in international relations” must be addressed if humanity is to be safeguarded from the perils of the undead, Daniel W. Drezner has warned at a public lecture at The Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

The pre-Halloween lecture, with a satirical flavour, was entitled “Zombies, G20 and International Relations.” Drezner, professor of international politics at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, revived the concept behind his book, Theories of International Politics and Zombies.

Drezner outlined the public’s rising interest in zombies through popular culture, the transgressive threat zombies pose versus other paranormal phenomenon, and the public gravity of the matter —  highlighted byCentres for Disease Control and Prevention’s efforts on zombie preparedness.

Audience members were offered an analysis of how different international relations theories would hold up to an apocalypse of the living dead. Realists, for example, function on the premise that we interact in a zero-sum, anarchic reality, where the will to survive is a key driver. It’s a “man-eat-man kind of world,” Drezner said, and so the “Global War on Zombies” in a realist scenario would feature the realpolitik of dissention, disagreement and disorder among humans, as seen in George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead — inevitably jeopardizing our survival.

Followers of liberalism, however, are multilateralists and policy coordinators — still operating in a world of anarchy — who would pursue policies that could aid and abet zombies. Their efforts could give rise to “Zombies without Borders, Occupy Human Street and Zombies Rights Watch,” but any negotiations would be thwarted by the undead’s unrelenting and uncompromising desire for human brains.