Objects in the cultural imaginary of geopolitics: from Patriot Games to Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Abstract

Following the aesthetic turn in International Relations Theory that includes growing interest in how pop culture both reflects and supports international politics, this article argues that mainstream film acts a medium for ‘programming’ the national security apparatus. Through an exegetical analysis of the ‘Jack Ryan’ franchise, the article argues that such feature films provided an important means of (re)conceptualizing what security meant in practice following the Cold War. Subtle variations in the characters’ behavior, as well as how the relationship between them and the technological-material network which realizes their agency, show how security transitions from the outcome of a reflexive process to the result of a technological process in the post-9/11 Ryan reboot.