An Offer You Can’t Refuse: On the Value of The Godfather Trilogy in Teaching Introduction to International Relations

Abstract

Films, like printed academic works, can capture and communicate compelling theoretical arguments pertaining to world politics and the way it operates. Moreover, the unique audiovisual features of the cinematographic medium can, from a pedagogic perspective, increase students’ understanding and internalization of some of the most elusive concepts in International Relations (IR) theory. This article utilizes The Godfather trilogy to demonstrate and elucidate the meaning and manifestation of international anarchy and self-help through the fictional travails of the Corleone Family.

Keywords:

• Active learning
• critical thinking
• film and International Relations
• learning styles
• political learning
• undergraduate education

Notes

Notes

1 On the shifting fortitude of the nation-state, see Van Creveld (1999).

2 On sovereignty as the monopoly over the use of force, see Weber (2004, 33).

3 On subsystems in world politics, see Thompson (1973).

4 For a more benign view of international institutions in alleviating international anarchy and enabling security, see Saltzman (2016).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ilai Z. Saltzman

Ilai Z. Saltzman is the Associate Director for Academic Program at the Israel Institute in Washington, DC. He received a PhD in Political Science from the University of Haifa (2010), MA in International Relations from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (magna cum laude, 2006), and a BA in International Relations and General Studies (2003) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard University, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs’ International Security Program between 2009 and 2010 and taught at Tel Aviv University (2010–2011) and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (2011–2012). He was a visiting assistant professor of government at Claremont McKenna College between (2012–2016). Dr. Saltzman is the author of Securitizing Balance of Power Theory: A Polymorphic Reconceptualization (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2012). His current research includes projects about leaders’ self-destructiveness, the role of emotions in foreign policy decision-making, and change and continuity in American grand strategy. Dr. Saltzman’s scholarly articles appeared in Foreign Policy Analysis, Orbis, Contemporary Security Policy, Israel Affairs, International Politics, Israel Studies, and International Studies Review.