Description: Visual images are a powerful force in international relations, and in Sensible Politics, William A. Callahan presents a unique analytical framework and a diverse range of sources to understand what visuals mean, and also how they can viscerally move and connect us in "affective communities of sense." It explores the visual geopolitics of war, peace, migration, and empire through an analysis of photographs, films, and art. It then expands the critical gaze to consider how "visual artifacts" -maps, veils, walls, gardens, and cyberspace-are sensory spaces where international politics comes alive in the politics of everyday life.
Review Quotes: "Together with recent contributions to visual IR, Callahan's book proves how insightful a broader perspective on visual artefacts is." -- Gabi Schlag, University of Tübingen, Germany, International Affairs
"Sensible Politics is a provocative, intellectually and visually stimulating book that convincingly situates the visual at the heart of global politics. Callahan brings his deep knowledge of Chinese culture and history to show how visual politics is a global phenomenon that cannot be understood without taking a multisensory, interdisciplinary approach. Engaging with Callahan's work is a sensory experience in itself: the interplay of text, image, and touch of the page draws the reader in, with each chapter stepping the reader through the argument as one might hop across sunken stones in a memorial garden lake, challenging, exciting, and enticing the reader to see what is on the other side of each chapter. This book is an excellent example of what critical inquiry can accomplish outside of the confines of conventional academic practice." -- Constance Duncombe, H - Diplo"Sensible Politics is the one book I've read on visual politics that applies critical thinking on what the visual can do - rupture, appeal to the senses, disorient - to the written word. The written word exists in 'dynamic dyad' with the images in the book, while the structure and the chapters interline to create a multisensory experience in reading it: Callahan is not just telling us about such dyadic interactions, he is showing us." -- Professor Sophie Harman, LSE Review of Books