14 - Humour, War and International Relations

In this episode, Eva Johais discusses with Christopher Browning and James Brassett what a focus on humour reveals about international politics. With (international) politics increasingly becoming a site of ‘comedification’, they make compelling arguments why humour should be taken seriously. Be it its function as a mechanism of anxiety management, a tool of both governance and resistance, or its role in constituting political community, a focus on humour sheds light on both high politics and the politics of the everyday. Considering the differential role of humour in the Russia-Ukraine war and the conflict over Gaza they point out the constitutive role of humour in each case. Why, for whom and with what consequences has one of these conflicts been more ‘fun’ than the other?

James Brassett is Reader in International Political Economy at the University of Warwick, UK.

Christopher Browning is Reader of Politics and International Studies at the University of Warwick, UK.

Eva Johais is a PostDoctoral Researcher for the “War and Fun: Reconceptualizing Warfare and Its Experience” project at the Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen, Norway.