Quale politica in un mondo post apocalittico? La rappresentazione della pace e della guerra nella serie TV The Walking Dead

A growing literature is emerging on the connection between Popular Culture and International Relations. Within the first camp, Zombies have experienced in the past decade a sort of renaissance, as witnessed by the burgeoning rise of Zombie-related artifacts, like movies, novels, videogames, social events, and TV shows. For the purposes of the current analysis, the main feature of the Zombie narrative is that most, if not all representations of the genre depict a post-apocalyptic scenario, where security is constantly endangered and political institutions have dissolved. In this world, issues of life and death are the main concern for any actor, both individually and collectively. As a result, the use of violence and the practice of conflict acquire a different meaning compared to real life. Such a difference gives us the opportunity to speculate on war and warfare as they are depicted in a counter-factual world. In this paper we will take AMC’s TV series The Walking Dead and its portrayal of war-like events with a view to spell out the social meanings of war and, equally relevant, how the practice of war changes accordingly.