The International Relations pursuing the cinema: a cinematic look at Détente in the Cold War

Abstract

Since the 1990s, the International Relations discipline has been experiencing a “cultural turn”, when there was a theoretical-conceptual opening and the beginning of the incorporation of cultural studies. Although important, the results are still insufficient and scarce, with great possibilities for development, especially in the Brazilian academy. Among the recent successes, the incorporation of cinema as a source stands out. In this respect, this paper argues for the possibility of IR researchers to approach historians, given History has experienced a similar process in the 1970s, with important epistemological and methodological developments. This paper aims to understand the realist policy of détente and its importance for the Cold War through the cinematic gaze. In addition to its political, economic, social and security impact, this foreign policy had a significant cultural impact that could be felt, among other media, in the cinema. For this investigation, five films from the famous James Bond saga were selected between 1977 and 1985. Using the methods of context analysis and narrative analysis, we sought to identify the dialectical relationship between detente and the franchise.