Imagining Cooperation: Cold War Aesthetics for a Hot Planet

Abstract

What does cooperation between rival superpowers look like? Do global issues have the capacity to rise above the geopolitics of the day and trigger alignment between rival powers? This paper argues the Cold War joint space exploration program between the United States and USSR provides a lesson on the limits of cooperation. These limits, I suggest, are not only a matter of power preferences, institutional differences, material disincentives, or even a consequence of a tendency for free-riding. Rather, they are also the result of incompatible “common sense” perceptions. Cooperation, even if institutionally viable, as in the case of the joint space program, can be constrained due to a lack of popular endorsement and legitimacy. To develop the argument, I examine the aesthetics of cooperation rendered through widely circulated media images associated with space cooperation during the Cold War. I argue the Cold War imaginary can serve as both critique and inspiration for today’s attempts to legitimize cooperation on global issues such as climate change. It provides insights on the role of “common sense” perceptions and the ways in which they inform questions concerning universality, the role of affect, and the alure of competition.