Political Realism in Apocalyptic Times

Alison McQueen is Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Stanford University, California. She writes on the history of political thought, religion in early modern political thought, and political realism. Her work has been published in the Journal of Politics, Perspectives on Politics, European Journal of Political Theory, Political Theory, and Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy. She is the recipient of the American Political Science Association's Leo Strauss Award for the best dissertation in political philosophy (2012). She has held fellowships at Princeton's University Center for Human Values and the Stanford Humanities Center.

'This is an excellent addition to the burgeoning literature on political realism. Straddling political theory and international relations (IR) in a fresh and creative fashion, McQueen offers us a strikingly original portrait of realist responses to apocalypse. Moving seamlessly from Machiavelli to Hobbes to Morgenthau, from early modern debates about the nature of God to modern fears of nuclear annihilation and catastrophic climate change, she tells a fascinating story that raises profound questions about the dangers and the possibilities of political theology. Combining acute textual interpretation, felicitous historical contextualisation, and subtle normative analysis, Political Realism in Apocalyptic Times makes a major contribution to political theory and international relations.' Duncan Bell, University of Cambridge

• 1. Introduction; 2. Understanding the apocalypse; 3. Machiavelli's Savonarolan moment; 4. Hobbes 'At the Edge of Promises and Prophecies'; 5. Morgenthau and the postwar apocalypse; 6. Conclusion.