Teaching International Relations Through Films
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/23210230231203789 |
| Author | Rajdeep Pakanati |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Teaching-Learning Politics in India |
Teaching International Relations
Through Films
Rajdeep Pakanati1
Introduction
For mainstream Political Science and International Relations, ‘popular culture’ is slowly becoming a tool
to still not considered worthy of serious investigation. Similarly, the idea of using movies as a pedagogi-
cal tool has remained at the margins. Nevertheless, film can be a valuable means of teaching university
students about politics and international politics. In an elective at my university, I offer a course titled,
Films and International Relations which is open to Bachelors and Masters students. The course focused
on the topics of history, conflict, peace and theories of international interactions. The primary goals of
the course are to learn about the various topics of international politics portrayed by films and to criti-
cally evaluate the films in the context of discourse about international politics.
In this course, we primarily engaged with international politics. The films were selected because they
illuminate or comment on important ideas in the international relations discipline and/or on key historical
or contemporary events in the international system. At the same time, we kept in mind that feature films
are a remarkably poor source of information about international affairs. The film-makers do not
unobtrusively or objectively report facts. Rather, he or she often plays a role as social commentator,
critic, political activist, or apologist. From the beginning, films have served a political purpose, whether
explicitly through propaganda (in both documentaries and feature films) or more subtly through a film’s
intended and unintended political bias and influence. That is, films both reflect and attempt to change
national and international politics.
I apply an auto-ethnographic lens in this article. I refer to the reading materials for the class, the
course manual2 and the responses of the students in the classroom.
As a student in Jawaharlal Nehru University, around 2001, I would attend movie screenings which
touched upon the critical topics of the day, including the War on Terror, and the invasion of Iraq. These
screenings would see an introduction by a scholar(s) or followed by a discussion about the event that is
addressed in the movie. As I pursued my PhD, I encountered references to popular culture while studying
international relations through works like Harry Potter and International Relations (Nexon & Neumann,
Note: This section is coordinated by Rajeshwari Deshpande (rajeshwari.deshpande@gmail.com).
1 OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana, India
2 A copy of the Course Manual can be accessed by contacting the author of this article.
Teaching-Learning Politics in India
Studies in Indian Politics
11(2) 335–341, 2023
© 2023 Lokniti, Centre for the
Study of Developing Societies
Article reuse guidelines:
in.sagepub.com/journals-permissions-india
DOI: 10.1177/23210230231203789
journals.sagepub.com/home/inp
Corresponding author:
Rajdeep Pakanati, OP Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana 131001, India.
E-mail: rpakanati@jgu.edu.in
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