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GLOBAL POLITICAL SOCIOLOGY

Populism and World

Politics
Exploring Inter- and
Transnational Dimensions
Edited by
Frank A. Stengel · David B. MacDonald
and Dirk Nabers
 Global Political Sociology

Series Editors
Dirk Nabers
International Political Sociology
Kiel University
Kiel, Germany

Marta Fernández
Institute of International Relations
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Chengxin Pan
Deakin University
Waurn Ponds, Australia

David B. MacDonald
Department of Political Science
University of Guelph
Guelph, ON, Canada
This new series is designed in response to the pressing need to better
understand growing complex global, transnational, and local issues that
stubbornly refuse to be pigeon-holed into clearly-defined established disci-
plinary boxes. The new series distinguishes its visions in three ways: (1) It
is inspired by genuine sociological, anthropological and philosophical per-
spectives in International Relations (IR), (2) it rests on an understanding
of the social as politically constituted, and the social and the political are
always ontologically inseparable, and (3) it conceptualizes the social as fun-
damentally global, in that it is spatially dispersed and temporarily contin-
gent. In the books published in the series, the heterogeneity of the world’s
peoples and societies is acknowledged as axiomatic for an understanding of
world politics.

More information about this series at

http://www.palgrave.com/gp/series/15803
Frank A. Stengel · David B. MacDonald
Dirk Nabers
Editors

Populism
and World Politics
Exploring Inter- and Transnational Dimensions
Editors
Frank A. Stengel Dirk Nabers
International Political Sociology International Political Sociology
Kiel University Kiel University
Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany Kiel, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany

David B. MacDonald
Department of Political Science
University of Guelph
Guelph, ON, Canada

Global Political Sociology

ISBN 978-3-030-04620-0 ISBN 978-3-030-04621-7 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04621-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018962048

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer
Nature Switzerland AG, part of Springer Nature 2019
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
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Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
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Cover image: © Dennis Cox/Alamy Stock Photo

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature
Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Acknowledgements

The present volume is based on contributions to an Annual Convention

Working Group on Global Populism at the International Studies
Association’s 2017 annual meeting in Baltimore, MD, sponsored by the
ISA. It is intended to be the first official collective research output of the
working group. The impetus behind the working group, and the edited
volume, is the realization that while populism has received significant
attention not only by political scientists but across the social sciences,
and not only in recent years, populism’s international and transnational
aspects have received virtually no attention. The reason is not that pop-
ulism is irrelevant for International Relations (IR), but rather that the
topic does not readily fit within existing IR fields. An exception might be
foreign policy analysis, where (at least some) so-called “populist” leaders
and their modes of conducting policy have been systematically analyzed.
But overall, IR scholars have not yet systematically embraced the study of
populism, which provides an important window of opportunity.
The book brings together scholars from critical and mainstream per-
spectives to explore the nexus between populism and world politics, with
a focus not just on “the West” but also on Latin American and Asian
countries. In terms of thematic areas the book connects to, two broad
fields are relevant: (1) IR and (2) interdisciplinary research on populism.
It illustrates how core fields of research within IR like foreign policy
analysis, the study of regional and world orders, international coopera-
tion and conflict, security communities, international integration, inter-
national institutions, global governance, international political economy,

v
vi    Acknowledgements

are affected by the rise of populist parties and movements, at least insofar
as these movements’ policy positions differ from the current elites they
attack. And, to be sure, there is a good reason to assume that the lat-
ter is the case. Not only are right-wing populists often opposed to both,
international political cooperation (certainly integration) and free trade,
but also left-wing populists often also criticize certain aspects of inter-
national cooperation. It stands to reason that (at least under certain
circumstances) increased influence by populists on government policy
might lead to foreign policy change. This in turn affects the possibil-
ity of cooperation and conflict, the persistence of international norma-
tive orders, and so on. Systematically enquiring into the populism-world
politics nexus will contribute to our understanding of a large number of
phenomena IR is traditionally concerned with, and that makes the book
highly relevant for a general IR audience.
In the previous eighteen months, this edited volume has gradually
gained substance, and it would not have become possible without the
help of a number of people. At Kiel, Dirk’s research assistants Merve
Genç and Malte Kayßer did an excellent job in wiping out most of the
typing mistakes and synchronizing the format of the individual chapters.
At Guelph, David’s research assistant Jackie Gillis helped with proofread-
ing and English language revision. Also, we would like to thank Alex
Walker and Andrea Gerlak for their assistance in bringing about the ISA
working group out of which this volume grew.
At Palgrave Macmillan New York, we benefited immensely from
Anca Pusca’s unending support and Katelyn Zingg’s cooperation and
professional guidance. We are also grateful to Chengxin Pan and Marta
Fernández for supporting the idea of including the book in the Palgrave
Studies in Global Political Sociology series.

Kiel, Germany
Guelph, Canada
August 2018
 Contents

1 Introduction: Analyzing the Nexus Between Populism

and International Relations 1
Frank A. Stengel, David B. MacDonald and Dirk Nabers

Part I Theoretical Issues in Global Populism Research

2 Populism Beyond the Nation 25

Jan Zeemann

3 How to Become a Leader: Identifying Global

Repertoires for Populist Leadership 55
María Esperanza Casullo

4 Populism and Contemporary Global Media: Populist

Communication Logics and the Co-construction
of Transnational Identities 73
Precious N. Chatterje-Doody and Rhys Crilley

vii
viii    Contents

Part II Populism and Foreign Policy

5 Sedimented Practices and American Identity in Donald

J. Trump’s Election Campaign 103
Dirk Nabers and Frank A. Stengel

6 The Populist Radical Right Goes Canadian:

An Analysis of Kellie Leitch’s Failed 2016–2017
Conservative Party of Canada Leadership Campaign 137
Brian Budd

7 Populists and Foreign Policy: Evidence from Latin

America 165
Grant Alan Burrier

8 Making (Latin) America Great Again: Lessons

from Populist Foreign Policies in the Americas 195
Daniel F. Wajner

9 Between Populism and Pluralism: Winston Peters

and the International Relations of New Zealand First 227
David B. MacDonald

10 Conceptualizing the Links Between Populism,

Nationalism and Foreign Policy: How Modi
Constructed a Nationalist, Anti-establishment
Electoral Coalition in India 251
Thorsten Wojczewski

Part III Populism and International Politics

11 The Liberal International Order and Its Populist

Adversaries in Russia, UK and USA 277
Robert G. Patman
 Contents    ix

12 The Global Rise of Populism as a Socio-material

Phenomenon: Matter, Discourse, and Genetically
Modified Organisms in the European Union 305
Shane Markowitz

13 Populism and Trade: The 2016 US Presidential

Election and the Death of the Trans-Pacific Partnership 337
Amy Skonieczny

14 Conclusion: Populism, Foreign Policy, and World

Politics 365
Frank A. Stengel, David B. MacDonald and Dirk Nabers

Index 373
 Notes on Contributors

Brian Budd is a Ph.D. candidate in the Political Science department

at the University of Guelph. He holds a doctoral fellowship from the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC).
His research interests lie in the areas of Indigenous-settler relations in
Canada, as well as studying the historical and contemporary role of pop-
ulism in provincial and federal politics in Canada.
Grant Alan Burrier is an Associate Professor of Politics and History at
Curry College in Milton, Massachusetts. He has published several arti-
cles on political economy and sustainable development with an ongoing
book project on democracy, environmental regulation, and hydroelectric
dam construction. With a primary focus on Latin America, he has trav-
elled and studied the region extensively. He received his Ph.D. in politi-
cal science from the University of New Mexico.
María Esperanza Casullo is an Associate Professor at the Universidad
Nacional de Río Negro in Argentina. She received her Ph.D. from
Georgetown University. She was the 2016–2017 Cmelikova Scholar of
Leadership Ethics at the Jepson School of Leadership of the University
of Richmond in 2016–2017 and was previously a post-doctoral fellow at
Brown University. Her main work and research are on democratic theory
and populism, both theoretically and comparatively in Latin America.
She has published in Revista PostDATA, Social Movement Studies, the
Handbook of Latin American Studies and Nueva Sociedad. Her most
recent publications are the chapters “Programmatic and Populist

xi
xii    Notes on Contributors

Parties in Latin American Party Systems” and “Populist Parties of Latin

America, the Cases of Argentina and Ecuador”, both written with
Flavia Freidenberg, which appeared in the edited volume Populism: A
Handbook, compiled by R. Heinisch, C. Holtz Bacha, and O. Mazzoleni.
Precious N. Chatterje-Doody is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate at
the University of Manchester, UK, working on the AHRC-funded pro-
ject “Reframing Russia for the Global Mediasphere: From Cold War to
‘Information War’?” Her research is centered around topics of historical
narrative, national identity projection, and political legitimation; populist
communication, and international media; and Russian foreign and secu-
rity policy. Precious tweets @PreciousChatD.
Rhys Crilley is a Post-Doctoral Research Associate in Global Media and
Communication at The Open University, UK, where he works on the
AHRC-funded “Reframing Russia” project. His research explores the
intersections of social media and global politics with a specific interest in
war and legitimacy. Rhys has published several journal articles and he is
currently working on writing his first monograph on The Legitimation of
War on Social Media. He tweets at @rhyscrilley.
David B. MacDonald is a Professor of Political Science and Research
Leadership Chair, College of Social and Applied Human Sciences, at the
University of Guelph. His research focuses on Comparative Indigenous
Politics in Canada, New Zealand, and the United States. He has worked
extensively in the areas of International Relations, American foreign pol-
icy, Holocaust and genocide studies, and critical race theory. David’s
work has been published in journals such as Canadian Journal of
Political Science, Canadian Political Science Review, Genocide Studies and
Prevention and International Studies Review. He is the co-author, most
recently, of Introduction to Politics (Oxford University Press Canada,
2016).
Shane Markowitz holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Central
European University and is a post-doctoral teaching fellow at Mandalay
University. His research is centred within the new materialist tradition
with a focus on examining the socio-material foundations of political
phenomena and interrogating the modes of action through which differ-
ent types of matter come to make a difference in the world and the polit-
ical implications of these processes. His empirical research has focused
on the issue of plant biotechnology in the EU context, investigating
 Notes on Contributors    xiii

the socio-material underpinnings of public policy outcomes, including

their constituting in scientific and technological processes in the labora-
tory and on farming landscapes and the relations of these processes with
global political economy practices. His broader research interests include:
IR theory, critical security studies, and science, technology, and society
studies.
Dirk Nabers has been a Full Professor of International Political
Sociology at Kiel University since 2010. Previously, he worked as a
senior research fellow and head of the doctoral program at the GIGA
German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, from 2000
to 2010. He also served as a guest professor at Otago University, NZ
and at International Christian University, Tokyo. Before, he held posi-
tions as an assistant professor at Trier University, Germany, and at
Miami University, European Center. He received his Ph.D. in IR from
Muenster University, Germany.
Robert G. Patman teaches International Relations at the University
of Otago. He served as an editor for the scholarly journal International
Studies Perspectives (2010–2014) and is currently Director of the
Master of International Studies (MIntSt) program at Otago. Robert
is the author or editor of 13 books. Recent publications include a vol-
ume called Strategic Shortfall: The ‘Somalia Syndrome’ and the March to
9/11 (Praeger, 2010) and three co-edited books titled China and the
International System: Becoming a World Power (Routledge, 2013); and
Science Diplomacy: New Day or False Dawn? (World Scientific Publishers,
2015); and New Zealand and the World: Past, Present and Future (World
Scientific Publishers, 2018) Robert is currently writing a volume called
Rethinking the Global Impact of 9/11 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019). He is
a Fulbright Senior Scholar, an Honorary Professor of the NZ Defence
Command and Staff College, Trentham, and provides regular contribu-
tions to the national and international media on global issues and events.
Amy Skonieczny is an Associate Professor at San Francisco State
University in the International Relations Department. Her research
interests include Populism and Foreign Policy, Narratives and US
Trade Politics, and the study of national identity and foreign policy dis-
courses. Her most recent publications include a (2018) article in Review
of International Political Economy titled “Trading with the Enemy:
Narrative, Identity and US Trade Politics” and “Corporate Lobbying
xiv    Notes on Contributors

and Foreign Policy” (2017) in the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of

Politics. She has also published in International Relations, Alternatives
and International Studies Quarterly.
Frank A. Stengel is a Research Fellow at the Research Group on
International Political Sociology, Kiel University. His work focuses on
International Political Sociology, discourse theory, Critical Security
Studies, and German and US foreign policy. His work has been pub-
lished in, among others, Global Discourse, Journal of International
Relations and Development and International Peacekeeping. His doctoral
thesis “Discursive Change and Foreign Policy: A Discourse Analysis of
Germany’s Changing Stance on the International Use of Force” received
the 2018 EISA Best Dissertation Award and is under contract for publica-
tion with The University of Michigan Press. He tweets at @frankstengel.
Daniel F. Wajner is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of
International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where
he also teaches a course on “Legitimacy and Legitimation in IR”,
while serves as co-editor of the Politika Academic Journal and General-
Secretary of the Israeli Association for International Studies (IAIS). His
articles have been published in Diplomacy & Statecraft, Regional &
Federal Studies, and Latin American Research Review. His main areas of
research are international legitimacy, conflict resolution, populist foreign
policies, and regional integration, particularly focusing on their interplay
in the realm of Middle East and Latin American politics.
Thorsten Wojczewski is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in the
India Institute, King’s College London. He holds a Diploma in Political
Science from the University of Hamburg and a Ph.D. in International
Relations from the University of Kiel, Germany. His research interests
are: Indian foreign policy, populism, world order, post-structuralism,
Post-Western IR and critical security studies. His research was published
in Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Third World Quarterly
and India Review, among others. He is the author of the book India’s
Foreign Policy Discourse and Its Conceptions of World Order: The Quest for
Power and Identity (London: Routledge, 2018).
Jan Zeemann is a Ph.D. candidate and research fellow at Kiel University
where he teaches global political sociology, political theory and IR. In his
dissertation project, he analyzes the nexus between populism, democracy
and the concept of the nation.
 List of Figures

Fig. 7.1 Venn diagram of populism, nationalism, and protectionism 171

Fig. 7.2 Military expenditures over time 179
Fig. 7.3 Trade openness by development 181
Fig. 7.4 Tariffs by development 182
Fig. 13.1 Word cloud of relative frequency of key words
for TPP, NYT Apr 1–Sept 30, 2015 354
Fig. 13.2 Word cloud of relative frequency of key words
for TPP, NYT Apr 1–Sept 30, 2016 355

xv
 List of Tables

Table 7.1 Cohort study design: cases and groups 176

Table 7.2 Economic policy and populism tests 183
Table 13.1 Example of words/phrases for Obama/White House
TPP narrative 346
Table 13.2 Example of coding words/phrases for candidate
anti-TPP/Trade narrative 349

xvii
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Analyzing the Nexus Between

Populism and International Relations

Frank A. Stengel, David B. MacDonald and Dirk Nabers

A populist wave is sweeping across many countries around the world,

becoming one of the most important topics in current political and social
science debates. Many on the right herald populism as an improved and
more direct form of democracy, which seeks to upend decades of social
disintegration, promising action against political and economic elites in
favor of a long-suffering “silent majority”. Those on the left (though not
exclusively) often present populism as a threat to democracy and civil
society, and the harbinger of authoritarian rule, threatening to overturn
the modern human rights movement.1 One side denounces identity pol-
itics, political correctness, and the expansion of the welfare state, while
the other side fears a return to European-style fascism of the 1930s.2

F. A. Stengel (*) · D. Nabers

Kiel University, Kiel, Germany
e-mail: stengel@ips.uni-kiel.de
D. Nabers
e-mail: nabers@ips.uni-kiel.de
D. B. MacDonald
University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada
e-mail: dmacdo03@uoguelph.ca

© The Author(s) 2019 1

F. A. Stengel et al. (eds.), Populism and World Politics, Global Political
Sociology, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04621-7_1
2 F. A. STENGEL ET AL.

The proliferation of articles and books on the topic has grown exponen-
tially in the wake of the UK’s Brexit vote in 2015 and a string of elec-
toral victories for populist parties across Europe. On both sides of the
Atlantic, populist leaders from what we might see as the left and right
of the traditional political spectrum have either become the govern-
ment (through promising major change) or have entered legislatures as
a vocal opposition to politics as usual. This includes the administration
of Donald Trump, whose populist style and policies may radically alter
American politics and International Relations (IR) as it has been stud-
ied since the end of the Cold War, but also numerous governments in
Europe, Latin America, and Asia.3

Populism Research and IR: The Missing Link

Despite significant attention paid to the phenomenon, populism’s inter-
and transnational aspects remain underexplored, much to the detriment
of both IR and populism research. Populism researchers have mainly
focused on theoretical issues, or have examined individual national cases
(in isolation or in a comparative fashion), while IR scholars have largely
elided the phenomenon. Only recently has IR as a discipline turned
to populism, mainly as a result of Trump’s rise to the U.S. presidency.
This emerging literature on the populism-world-politics nexus suffers
from two shortcomings. First, aside from a few exceptions, studies have
been primarily concerned with individual leaders’ effect on world poli-
tics. Thus, a large proportion of the literature is, for instance, concerned
with the potential negative effects of a Trump presidency on “the West”
and liberal world order more generally.4 Systematic and more general
(beyond individual leaders) reflections on how populism and different
aspects of world politics (e.g., foreign policy, international conflict, and
cooperation or world order) hang together are still rare.5 This concerns
both the effects of populism on world politics and vice versa.
This aspect is linked to the second problem, namely that many IR
studies draw on an underspecified concept of populism that does not dif-
ferentiate between left and right or moderate and extremist groups6—
let alone other dimensions used to distinguish between different forms
populism, such as inclusionary/exclusionary forms of populism.7 As a
consequence, a vastly heterogeneous group of parties, movements and
individuals is listed as examples of populism, ranging from the right-wing
extremist French Front National to the radical leftist Syriza in Greece,
 1 INTRODUCTION: ANALYZING THE NEXUS … 3

from moderate social democrat Bernie Sanders to illiberal but dem-

ocratically elected leaders like Viktor Orbán and Jaroslaw Kaczyński to
authoritarian rulers like Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte.
This becomes even more problematic once we turn to an analysis of
the potential consequences of populism for established social institu-
tions. Most notably, the question to what extent populism is a danger to
democracy, European integration, the transatlantic alliance or the liberal
world order has been the subject of significant debate both in the media
and increasingly academic scholarship as well.8 Unfortunately, most con-
tributions do not sufficiently differentiate here between different types
of populism but, quite to the contrary, lump vastly heterogeneous actors
and ideologies together and make a sweeping statement labeling all of
them a danger to democracy, Europe, the West or liberal world order.
For instance, Fareed Zakaria lists Trump, Bernie Sanders, Syriza, and
the Front National as examples of populism just to proclaim that “the
West is in trouble”.9 Similarly, Jeff Colgan and Robert O. Keohane
seem to equate right-wing populism with populism as such when they
claim that the latter is marked by the “belief that each country has an
authentic ‘people’ who are held back by the collusion of foreign forces
and self-serving elites at home”.10 Suggesting that populism as such is a
danger, they continue that a populist leader “seeks to weaken or destroy
institutions such as legislatures, judiciaries, and the press and to cast off
external restraints in defense of national sovereignty”.11 Again, here,
right and left, moderate and extreme versions of populism are carelessly
lumped together. As opposed to such sweeping generalizations, even a
cursory disaggregation of the category “populism” quickly reveals that
there is not much the so-called “populists” agree upon, certainly not
that democracy and the liberal world order are to be abolished. While
Bernie Sanders’s campaign called for increased U.S. commitment to
international agreements, Trump’s declared aim was to re-evaluate all
international obligations with respect to whether they actually bene-
fit the United States, leading some observers to warn of an impending
“Amerexit”.12
From the perspective of populism research, this is not at all surpris-
ing. For while populism researchers do stress common elements of the
phenomenon—most notably a strong criticism of an allegedly unrespon-
sive elite and a corresponding demand for the restoration of sovereignty
of the people13—they also agree that different populist movements
4 F. A. STENGEL ET AL.

and their demands can vastly differ from context to context. Whether
one conceives of populism as a “thin-centered” ideological skeleton,14
a political style,15 a style of communication16 or a specific form of dis-
course,17 what populism researchers agree on is that populism as such
is rather anemic in terms of actual content and in practice always has to
be combined with other concepts, ideas or discourses. Seen from this
perspective, then, it is not populism as such that makes the difference in
terms of a particular movement’s hostility to, for instance, democracy or
the liberal world order but the context-specific ideological flesh that is
put on the populist skeleton. In fact, anti-elitism and the demand for a
restoration of the people’s influence on politics can be an expression of
both, justified criticism of an insufficiently democratic system and (ille-
gitimate) anti-democratic demagoguery.18 Contra those who claim that
populism as such is a danger to democracy or the liberal world order,
populism research seems to suggest that it depends on the specific ide-
ological makeup of a given populist movement or party.19 Authoritarian
populism certainly is a danger to pluralist democracy, but other forms
might not be.20 Equally, it makes sense to assume that not all populisms
are a danger to the liberal world order or European integration, but pri-
marily those that combine populist demands with, say, hyper-nationalism
or protectionism.21
Nevertheless, in contrast to the bulk of populism research, many
IR studies continue to treat populism as a monolith, and this has sig-
nificant consequences, both analytical and practical. First, the way pop-
ulism is often understood in the IR literature makes it virtually useless
for any differentiated analysis. Treating populism as a catch-all term for
any party or movement that criticizes political elites makes it impossible
to separate populism from other phenomena, and as a result any analysis
unavoidably suffers.22 It is thus no surprise that systematic studies of the
­populism-world-politics nexus are largely lacking. For if populism cannot
be meaningfully distinguished from non-populism, any attempt to the-
orize its relationship to international phenomena such as foreign policy
or world order is futile. Second, presuming that some of the movements
currently labeled “populist” are in fact opposed to liberal democracy,
the European Union, the transatlantic alliance or the liberal world order
(and there is a good reason to do so),23 Western democracies do face the
challenge of having to deal with them. Here, insufficient concept spec-
ification can stand in the way of effective political action, for any polit-
ical action requires the ability to distinguish dangerous from harmless
 1 INTRODUCTION: ANALYZING THE NEXUS … 5

phenomena. The ways populism is used in much of the literature, in

particular in IR, any analysis of the potential danger of “populism” for
democracy, the European Union, the West or world order will unavoid-
ably end up either exaggerating or playing down the dangers posed by
them individually. As a consequence, the current discussion of populism
is more misleading than helpful.
Populism research, on the other hand, has largely neglected the phe-
nomenon’s inter- and transnational aspects. Here, the bulk of research
falls within three broad categories:
First, a body of work has endeavored to clarify the concept of pop-
ulism, and to discuss methodological aspects,24 while exploring pop-
ulism’s relationship to related phenomena, such as liberal democracy,25
European integration26 or leadership.27
Second, other researchers have engaged in unit-level examinations of
individual (mostly national) parties or movements,28 specific (regional)
types of populism,29 and potential reasons for their appeal.30
Third, comparative approaches draw out similarities and differ-
ences between a range of movements or parties according to selected
variables.31
In sum, in the populism literature, a gap exists in the systematized
examination of populism’s inter- and transnational aspects. The neglect
of populism’s global dimension by both IR and populism research is
quite problematic. For if populism manifests itself as a particular style of
politics or discourse, it seems only reasonable to assume that this extends
to international politics. In addition, the borders between foreign and
domestic politics are becoming increasing blurred. Populism is likely
to have an impact on both foreign policy—“the sum of official exter-
nal relations conducted by an independent actor (usually but not exclu-
sively a state) in international relations”32—and world politics, the larger
totality of different actors’ interactions that takes place across national
boundaries.33

The Case for Increased Dialogue

For most foreign policy and IR theorists, aside from offensive realists34
or neoclassical realists who stress the importance of systemic pressures,35
it matters who is in power. A significant body of research highlights the
importance of individual leaders and advisors for the making of for-
eign policy.36 Whether driven by their core beliefs,37 leadership styles,38
6 F. A. STENGEL ET AL.

personality traits39 or their advisors, leadership over military and foreign

policymaking does matter a great deal. This is especially so if someone
with views radically different from his or her predecessor enters office. In
addition, constructivists and “critical” scholars have long promoted idea-
tional factors in foreign policy formulation. In their analyses, they include,
for instance, ideologies40 and gender constructions.41 Certainly, not all of
these perspectives necessarily come into play in the analysis of populism.
For instance, personality should be seen as a factor independent of pop-
ulism (whether understood as an ideology, discourse, or worldview).42
If we take research on populism (whether understood as an i­deology,
discourse or worldview) as a starting point, there are good reasons to
assume that once in power, populists may differ from more conventional
leaders. However, in contradistinction to the rather simplistic and often
alarmist views, widespread in the media, that populism as such is a ­danger
to international cooperation and/or world order,43 populism research
actually suggests that differences between various forms of p ­opulism44
will likely also manifest themselves in different foreign policy positions.
Thus, IR scholars can benefit from making this body of research their
starting point in any analysis, and any useful assessment and explanation
of foreign policy change depends on a thorough analysis of which kind of
populists are making policies in a given country.
Despite obvious differences of opinion, many—but, importantly, not
all—populists converge on the need to undermine international coop-
eration and integration, regional and world orders. Donald Trump’s
“America First” strategy is a good example, according to which the
United States has to stop supporting other governments “free of
charge”.45 This indicates a critical change in the traditional American
view that international cooperation was an end in itself, as was the pro-
vision of global public goods to ensure U.S. prestige and hegemony.46 If
Trump indeed signals the advent of fascism in the United States, as some
observers fear,47 this would erode the joint normative basis of “the West”
and of liberal world order.48 Even if one understands populism as a
superficial style, analogized as a loud and uninhibited drunken guest at a
dinner party,49 this style may nevertheless have an effect on the tenor and
outcome of international negotiations like the 2018 G7 summit meet-
ing in Canada. Earlier, Trump’s harsh economic critique of NATO allies,
his denigration of long-standing trading arrangements like the North
American Free Trade Agreement has led to significant regional and trans-
atlantic discord.50
 1 INTRODUCTION: ANALYZING THE NEXUS … 7

The degree to which many populists question core foreign-policy

commitments of mainstream parties justifies a more systematic analy-
sis. In principle, populists in government could influence a plethora of
international phenomena, including but not limited to international
order and change,51 international rule (Herrschaft), resistance, author-
ity (Autorität), and its politicization52 as well as associated questions like
the legitimacy of international organizations, regimes, leadership,53 and
regional and world order(s).54 Constructivist research suggests that many
of these phenomena, including legitimacy,55 and security communities,56
are (re-) produced and contested in processes of social construction (or
discursive struggles). If so, populist political interventions could have an
important impact on these matters.
IR scholars can benefit significantly from the work of populism
researchers, who have spent substantial time and effort theorizing the
phenomenon, distinguishing it from related issues, and systematizing
different forms. In this context, studies on left- and right-wing57 and
inclusive and exclusive58 populism literature can help counter simplistic
assumptions of populism being either universally positive or negative for
alliance building, trade, globalization, security communities, or world
order. Populism researchers have long ago understood that thick ideol-
ogies matter a great deal to the “thin-centered” ideological skeleton that
is populism.59 Criticizing elites and calling for the general will to be real-
ized in and of itself does not tell us anything about a party’s position on
the United Nations or NATO.
Similarly, populism researchers can profit from increased engagement
with IR research, which can contribute to a better understanding of pop-
ulist successes and failures. As Mudde and Rovira Kaltwasser observe,
“surprisingly few established theories about the success (and failure) of
populist forces exist”.60 IR can contribute to theory-building in that
field, as there is a good reason to assume that international developments
might contribute to populist successes and failures.61 Two aspects in par-
ticular are relevant here: the denationalization of political rule, combined
with the politicization of international authority, and cross-border inter-
action between populists.
First, researchers point to globalization and global governance, and
a perceived decline in domestic political control over these processes,
as factors contributing to the rising appeal of populism. Recent studies
on the legitimacy of international organizations and other global gov-
ernance arrangements point to increased politicization of international
8 F. A. STENGEL ET AL.

authority.62 The argument goes as follows: the growing involvement

of international institutions in virtually all areas of domestic policymak-
ing, in combination with the declining legitimacy of domestic political
institutions leads to increased politicization of the electorate. Debates
between proponents and opponents of regional and/or international
integration have become a central focus of political attention in many
Western countries. Read in this context, populism primarily emerges as a
reaction to the simultaneous increase in authority and depoliticization of
global governance.63 That is, international developments play an impor-
tant role in explaining populist parties’ current election successes.
Second, the success of populist parties and movements depends on
transnational interaction, that is, how various national parties and move-
ments are connected to each other through information sharing, reper-
toires of contention, discourse, ideology, learning, and norm diffusion.
Different parties often draw on similar intellectual resources or adopt
ideas introduced in other countries. For example, Greece’s Syriza and
Spain’s Podemos are linked through common intellectual roots, both
drawing on the work of the late Argentinian political theorist Ernesto
Laclau.64 Similarly, recent research on party politics has provided evi-
dence that parties learn from their successful counterparts in other coun-
tries.65 Moreover, populist parties are often embedded in transnational
networks. For instance, a number of European right-wing parties are
supported by the Kremlin,66 and ongoing debates about Russian inter-
ference in the U.S. presidential elections may demonstrate how different
populist actors support each other. Finally, of importance are the ways
traditional mainstream parties have been obliged to play within a new
populist framework. Centre-left parties in Europe have seen their elec-
toral support greatly reduced, while centre-right parties have promoted
populist anti-immigrant discourses to regain lost voters.
In order to understand the success of populist movements and par-
ties, we need to pay attention to its international aspects. Here, research
in IR and related fields on globalization, global governance and state
transformation,67 norm dynamics,68 diffusion,69 learning,70 transnational
advocacy coalitions,71 and transnational networks more generally,72 the
differential production of identities73 and the emergence of discursive
orders74 can provide a helpful starting point. However, these aspects
require more systematic, theoretically oriented and comparative research
to be assessed reliably.
 1 INTRODUCTION: ANALYZING THE NEXUS … 9

Plan of the Book

The chapters of the volume are situated within the larger framework of
the populism-world politics nexus. We have divided this into three parts:
Part I introduces theoretical approaches to the study of populism
and global politics. In his opening chapter, Jan Zeemann explores the
potential of a global populist project. While populism is commonly
seen to be intertwined with nationalism, he asks whether the concept of
the nation is a mandatory part of populist articulations. He posits that
a focus on form over content enables us to imagine populism beyond
the confines of the nation-state. A global populist movement, he con-
cludes, might be part of the solution to contemporary challenges like
climate change or economic crises. From a different theoretical perspec-
tive, María Esperanza Casullo analyzes the role of populist leadership,
and argues that various socially available discursive scripts exist that can
mediate between the social and the individual levels. Populist leaders
present themselves as patriotic military men, social movement leaders,
or selfless businessmen. Her chapter concludes that the global diffusion
of these scripts generates different possibilities for popular projects.
Finally, Precious Chatterje-Doody and Rhys Crilley analyze the nexus
between populism and the global media, devising an alternative model
for looking at populism as a “transnational communication logic”. After
developing their model, they apply it to three empirical cases: legacy
media, opposition political movements, and international broadcasting.
Part II shifts the focus to populist foreign policies with a range of
comparative case studies and theoretical reflections. First, Dirk Nabers
and Frank Stengel begin with an overview of Donald Trump’s foreign
policy. The chapter advances the discourse theoretical notion of sedi-
mented practices, using campaign speeches as well as statements related
to the foreign policy of America’s 45th president as an illustration. They
conduct a discourse analysis inspired by poststructuralist discourse theory
and theories of populism. In contrast, Brian Budd sheds light on how
contemporary manifestations of populism in Canada are co-constructed
though normative performances of gender. He focuses specifically on
the failed leadership campaign of Conservative MP Kellie Leitch, who
attempted to deploy anti-immigrant nativist forms of populism to court
her party’s voters. Theoretically, Budd notes that this form of discourse
failed in Canada even though it had considerable success in the United
Another random document with
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"Do you think a thing as big as that is man-made?"

There was a grim, stony weariness in her face. "The Japanese say
so. What other explanation is there?"
"But," said Fallon, "why not South America, too?"
"They were probably afraid the monsters might get out of hand and
tackle their own people," said Joan bitterly.
"Maybe." Again Fallon's eyes were distant. Then he clapped his
hands sharply and sprang up. "Yes! Got it, Joan!"
The quick motion ripped at the wound across his back. He swayed
and caught her shoulder, but he didn't stop talking.
"Einar Bjarnsson! He was my last job. I interviewed him the day
before the quake. I want to see him, Joan. Now!"
She took his wrists, half frightened. "What is it, Webb?"
"Listen," he said softly. "Remember the radio calls from the islands?
The monsters came out of the west here, didn't they? Well, out there
—they came out of the east!"
Fallon explained, as he sent the car screaming perilously along
winding mountain roads. Einar Bjarnsson was an expert on undersea
life. He had charted tide paths and sub-sea 'rivers,' mapped the
continental shelves and the great deeps.
Bjarnsson's recent exploration had been in the Pacific, using a
specially constructed small submarine. His findings on deep-sea
phenomena had occupied space in scientific journals and the
Sunday supplements of newspapers throughout the world.
Two days before the big quake Einar Bjarnsson returned to the place
he called home—a small bachelor cabin on a hilltop, crammed with
scientific traps and trophies of his exploring. Webb Fallon drew the
assignment of interviewing him.
"I was pretty sore at Madge, then," Fallon confessed, "and I had a
ferocious hangover. The interview didn't go so well. But I remember
Bjarnsson mentioning something about a volcanic formation quite
close to the Pacific coast—something nobody had noticed before. It
was apparently extinct, and the only thing that made it notable was
its rather unusual conformation."
Joan stared at him. "What's that got to do with anything?"
Fallon shrugged. "Maybe nothing. Only I recall that the epicenter of
the recent quake was somewhere in the vicinity of Bjarnsson's
volcano. I remember that damned quake quite well, because it cost
me my job."
Joan opened her mouth and closed it again, hard. Fallon grinned.
"You were going to tell me it wasn't the quake, but my own bad
character," he said mockingly.
There was something grim in the upthrust lines of her jaw. "I can't
make you out, Webb," she said quietly. "Sometimes I think there's
good stuff in you—and then I think Madge was right!"
Fallon's dark oval face went ugly, and he didn't speak again until
Bjarnsson's house came in sight.

CHAPTER THREE
Bjarnsson's Submarine
Fallon stopped the car and got out stiffly, feeling suddenly tired and
disinterested. He hesitated. Why bother with a crazy hunch? The
rolling crash of gunfire was getting closer. Why not forget the whole
thing and go while the going was good?
He realized that Joan was watching him with sapphire eyes grown
puzzled and hard. "Damn it!" he snarled. "Stop looking at me as
though I were a bug under glass!"
Joan said, "Is that Bjarnsson in the doorway?"
For the third time Fallon's hands clenched in anger. Then he turned
sharply, white about the lips with the pain it cost him, and strode up
to the small rustic cabin.
Einar Bjarnsson remembered him. He stood aside, a tall stooped
man with massive shoulders and a gaunt, cragged face. Coarse fair
hair shot with grey hung in his eyes, which were small and the color
of frozen sea-water.
He said, in a deep, slow voice, "Come in. I have been watching
through my telescope. Most interesting. But it gets too close now. I
am surprised you are here. Duty to your paper, eh?"
Fallon let it pass. He might get more out of Bjarnsson if the explorer
thought he was still with the Observer. And then the thought struck
him—what was he going to do if his hunch was right?
Nothing. He had no influence. The statesmen were handling things.
Suppose Japan did take the Pacific States? Suppose there was a
war? He couldn't do anything about it. Let the big boys worry.
There'd be a beach somewhere that he could comb in peace.
He made a half turn to go out again. Then he caught sight of a map
on the far wall—a map of the Pacific.
Something took him to it. He put his finger on a spot north and east
of the Hawaiian Islands. And even then he couldn't have said why he
asked his question.
"Your volcanic formation was about here, wasn't it, Bjarnsson?"
The tall Norseman stared at him with cold shrewd eyes. "Yes. Why?"
"Look here." Fallon drew a rough circle with his fingertip, touching
the Pacific Coast, swinging across the ocean through the Gilberts
and the Marshalls, touching Wake, and curving up again to
Vancouver.
"The volcanic formation is the center of that circle," Fallon said. "It
was also the epicenter of the recent quake, according to Cal-Tech
seismologists. That's what gave me the hunch. The monsters seem
to be fanning out in a circle from some central point located about
there."
"That is already explained," said Bjarnsson. "The Japanese may
have their projector located there. And why not?"
"No reason at all," Fallon admitted. "You mentioned, in your
interview, something about a Japanese ocean survey ship coming up
just as you left. That ship might still have been near there at the time
of the quake, mightn't it?"
"It is possible. Go on." There was a little sharp flame flickering in
Bjarnsson's eyes.
Fallon said, "Could these super-evolutionary rays be caused by
volcanic action?"
Bjarnsson's grey-blond shaggy brows met, and the flame was
sharper in his eyes. "Fantastic. But so is this whole affair.... Yes! If an
area of intense radioactivity were uncovered by an earth-shift, the
sea and all that swims in it might be affected."
"Ah!" Fallon's lips were drawn in a tight grin. "Suppose the officers of
the Japanese ship saw the beginnings of the effect. Suppose they
radioed home, and someone did some quick thinking. Suppose, in
short, that they're lying."
"Ja," whispered Bjarnsson. "Let us think."
"I've already thought," said Fallon. "Two weeks would give them time
to arrange everything. The important thing is this—if the force is
man-made, even destroying the projector won't do any good. They'll
have others. But if it were a natural force, the psychological aspect of
the thing alone would be tremendous. There'd be a chance of doing
something."
The explorer's deep light eyes glinted. "Our people would fight better
if it was something they could fight." He swung to the big telescope
mounted in the west windows. "Bah! It gets worse. Those creatures,
they don't know when they are dead. And the way they come! We
must go soon."
He swung back to Fallon. "But how to find out if you are right?"
"You have a submarine," said Fallon.
"So has the Navy."
"But they're all needed. Yours can go where the big ones can't—and
go deeper. These monsters are all heading for land, which means
they gravitate to the surface. You might get through below."
"Yes." Bjarnsson strode up and down the cluttered room. "We could
take a depth charge. If we found the volcano to be the cause, we
might close the fissure.
"Time, Fallon! That is the thing. A few days, a few weeks, and the
sheer pressure of these hordes will have forced the defenders back
to the mountains and the deserts. Civilian morale will break."
He stopped, making a sharp gesture of futility. "I am forgetting. The
radiations, Fallon. Without proper insulation, we would evolve like
the sea-things. And it would take many days to make lead armor for
us, even if we could get anyone to do the work."
"Radiations," said Fallon slowly. "Yeah. I'd forgotten that. Well, that
stops that. Projector or volcano, you'd never reach it."
He brushed a hand across his eyes, all his brief enthusiasm burned
away. He was getting like that. He wished he had a drink.
"Probably all moonshine, anyway," he said. "Anyhow, there's nothing
we can do about it."
"Nothing!" Joan Daniels spoke so sharply that both men started.
"You mean you're not even going to try?"
"Bjarnsson can pass the idea along for what it's worth."
"You know what that means, Webb! The idea would be either
laughed at or pigeonholed, especially with the Jap propagandists
doing such a good job. The government's got a war on its hands.
Even if someone did pay attention, nothing would be done until too
late. It never is."
She gripped his arms, looking up at him with eyes like sea-blue
swords.
"If there's a bare chance of saving them, Webb, you've got to take it!"
Fallon looked down at her, his wolf's eyes narrowed.
"Listen," he said. "I'm not a fiction hero. We've got an Army, a Navy,
an air force, and a secret service. They're getting paid for risking
their necks. Let them worry. I had a hunch, which may not be worth a
dime. I passed it along. Now I'm going to clear out, before anything
more happens to me."
Joan's face was cut, sharp and bitter, from brown wood. Her eyes
had fire in them, way back.
"Your logic," she whispered, "is flawless."
"I saved your life," said Fallon brutally. "What more do you want?"
The color drained from the brown wood, leaving it marble. Only the
angry fires in her eyes lived, in the pale hard stone.
"You're remembering how I kissed you," said Fallon, so softly that he
hardly spoke at all. "I don't know why I did. I don't know why I came
here. I don't know...."
He stopped and turned to the door. Bjarnsson, very quietly, was
picking up the phone. Fallon took the knob and turned it.
"I am sorry," said a quiet, sibilant voice. "You cannot leave. And you,
sir—put down that telephone."

A small neat man with a yellow face stood on the threshold. He was
holding a small, neat, efficient-looking automatic. Fallon backed into
the room, hearing the click of the cradle as the phone went down.
"You are Einar Bjarnsson?" The question was toneless and purely
rhetorical. The black eyes had seen the whole room in one swift flick.
"I am Kashimo," said the man, and waited.
"Fallon," Webb said easily. "This is Miss Daniels. We just dropped in
for a chat. Mind if we go now?"
"I am afraid ..." said Kashimo, and spread his hands. "I have been
discourteous enough to eavesdrop. You have an inventive mind, Mr.
Fallon. An inaccurate mind, but one that might prove disturbing to
our plans."
"Don't worry," grunted Fallon. "I have no business whatsoever, and I
attend to it closely. Your plans don't matter to me at all."
"Indeed." Kashimo studied him with black, bright eyes. "You are
either a liar or a disgrace to your country, Mr. Fallon. But I may not
take chances. You and the young lady I must, sadly, cancel out."
"And I?" Bjarnsson asked.
"You come with us," said Kashimo. Fallon saw four other small neat
men outside, close behind their leader in the doorway.
He said, "What do you mean, 'cancel out'?" He knew, before
Kashimo moved his automatic.
Kashimo said, "Mr. Bjarnsson, please to move out of the line of fire."
No one moved. The room was still, except for Joan's quick-caught
breath. And then motion beyond the west windows caught Fallon's
eye. A colder fear crawled in his heart, but his voice surprised him, it
was so steady.
"Kashimo. Look out there."
The bright black eyes flicked warily aside. They widened sharply,
and the cords went slack about the jaw. Fallon sprang.
He had forgotten the wound across his back. The shock of his body
striking Kashimo turned him sick and faint. He knew that the little
man fell, staggering the others so close behind him.
He knew that Joan Daniels was shouting, and that Bjarnsson had
caught up an ebony war-club and was using it. Shots boomed in his
ears. But one sound kept him from fainting—the thunder of slow
relentless giant wings.
He got up in unsteady darkness. A round sallow face appeared. He
struck at it. Bone cracked under his knuckles, and the face vanished.
Fallon found a wall and clung to it.
Hands gripped his ankle—Kashimo's hands. Bjarnsson was outside
mopping up. Fallon braced himself and drew his foot back. His toe
caught Kashimo solidly under the angle of the jaw.
"Joan," said Fallon. The wings were thundering closer. Joan didn't
answer. A sort of queer panic filled Fallon.
"Joan!" he cried. "Joan!"
"Here I am, Webb." She came from beyond the door, with a heavy
little idol in her hand. It had blood on it. Her golden hair was tumbled
and her neck was bleeding where a bullet had creased it.
Fallon caught her. He felt her wince under his hands. He didn't know
quite what he wanted, except that she must be safe.
He only said, "Hurry, before those things get here."
The throb of wings was deafening. Bjarnsson came in, swinging his
club. His cragged face was bloody, but his pale eyes blazed.
"Good man, Fallon," he grunted. "All right, let's go. There's a cave
below here. Take their guns, young lady. We'll need them."
The sky beyond the west windows was clogged with huge black
shapes. Fallon remembered the smashed windows of the
department store in Santa Monica. "Joan," he said, "come here."
He put his arm around her shoulders. He might have walked all right
without her, but somehow he wanted her there.

They dropped down the other side of the hill into a little brush-
choked cleft. There was a shallow cave at one end.
"There go my windows," said Bjarnsson, and cursed in Swedish. "In
with you, before those flying devils find us."
They were well hidden. Chances were the rays would go right over
them—after they'd finished off Kashimo and his men. Bjarnsson said
softly, "What did they want with me, Fallon?"
"There's only one thing they couldn't get from somebody else,"
returned Fallon. "Your submarine."
"Yes. The mechanisms are of my own design. They would need me
to operate it. Does that mean we are right about the volcano?"
"Maybe. They'd have made plans to control it, of course. Or they
may want your ship merely as a model."
There was silence for a while. Outside, heavy wings began to beat
again. They came perilously low, went over, and were gone.
Einar Bjarnsson said quietly, "I'm going to take the chance, Fallon.
I'm going to try to get my ship through."
"What about the radiations?"
"If Kashimo was planning to use the ship, he'll have arranged for
that. Anyway, I'm going to see." His ice-blue eyes stabbed at Fallon.
"I can't do it alone."
Joan Daniels said, "I'll go."
Bjarnsson's eyes flicked from one to the other. Fallon's face was
dark and almost dangerous.
"Wait a minute," he said gently.
Joan faced him. "I thought you were going away."
"I've changed my mind." Looking at her, at her blue, unsympathetic
eyes, Fallon wondered if he really had. Perhaps the stunning shock
of all that had happened had unsettled him.
Joan put both hands on his shoulders and looked straight into his
eyes. "What kind of a man are you, Webb Fallon?"
"God knows," he said. "Where do you keep your boat, Bjarnsson?"
"In a private steel-and-concrete building at Wilmington. Some of the
improvements are of interest to certain people. I keep them locked
safely away. Or so I thought."
Fallon rose stiffly. "Kashimo didn't come in a car, that's certain. He'd
have been arrested on sight. Any place for a plane to land near
here?"
The explorer shook his head. "Unless it could come straight down."
Fallon snapped his finger. "A helicopter! That's it."
He led the way out. They found the 'copter on a small level space
beyond the shoulder of the hill. Fallon nodded.
"Ingenious little chaps. The ship's painted like an Army plane. Any
pilot would think it was a special job and let it severely alone." He
turned abruptly to Joan.
"Take my car," he told her. "Get away from here, fast. Find someone
in authority and make him listen—just in case."
She nodded. "Webb, why are you going?"
"Because there isn't time to get anyone else," he told her roughly.
"Because there's a story there...."
He stopped, startled at what he had said. "Yes," he said slowly, "a
story. My story. Oh hell, why did you have to come along?"
He put his hands suddenly back of her head and tilted her face up,
his fingers buried in the warm curls at the base of her neck.
"I was all set," he whispered savagely. "I knew all the answers. And
then you showed up. If you hadn't, I'd be half-way to Miami by now.
I'd still be sure of myself. I wouldn't be so damned confused, thinking
one way and feeling another...."
She kissed him suddenly, warmly. "I'll make somebody listen," she
said. "And then I'll wait—and pray."
Then she was gone. In a minute he heard the car start.
"Come on," he snarled at Bjarnsson. "I remember you said you fly."
 CHAPTER FOUR
A Dead Man Comes Back
It was a nightmare trip. The battle below was terribly clear. Twice
they dodged flights of the giant rays, saved only because the scent
of food kept the attention of the brutes on the ground.
The harbor basin at Wilmington was choked with slippery, struggling
beasts. There was hardly a sign of shipping. Bjarnsson made for the
flat top of a square building, completely surrounded.
A flight of rays went over just as they landed. A trap door in the roof
raised and was slammed shut again.
"Now," said Fallon grimly, and jumped out.
They were almost to the trap when a ray sighted them. Fallon shot it
through the eye, but others followed. Bjarnsson wrenched up the
trap. A surprised yellow face peered up, vanished in a crimson
smear.
Bjarnsson hauled the body out and threw it as far as he could. The
rays fought over it like monstrous gulls over a fish head.
Fallen retched and followed Bjarnsson down.
There were three other men in the building. One tried to shoot it out
and was killed. The others were mechanics, with no stomachs for the
guns.
They looked over the sub, a small stubby thing of unusual design,
and Bjarnsson nodded his gaunt shaggy head.
"These suits of leaded fabric," he said. "One big, for me. The other
smaller, for Kashimo, perhaps. Can you get into it?"
Fallon grunted. "I guess so. Hey! Look there."
"Ha! A depth charge, held in the claws I use for picking specimens
from the ocean floor. They have prepared well, Fallon."
"You know what that means!" Fallon was aware of a forgotten,
surging excitement. His palms came together with a ringing crack.
"I was right! Kashimo was going to hold you here until the
Government capitulated. Then he was going out to shut off the
power. There's no projector, Bjarnsson. It was the volcano. If we can
close that fissure while there's still resistance, we'll have 'em licked!"
Bjarnsson's ice-blue eyes fixed Fallon with a sharp, unwavering
stare, and he spoke slowly, calmly, almost without expression.
"It will take about three days to get there, working together. One fit of
cowardice or indecision, one display of nerves or temper may
destroy what slight chance we have."
"You mean," said Fallon, "you wish you had someone you could
depend on." He smiled crookedly. "I'll do my best, Bjarnsson."
They struggled into the clumsy lead armor and shuffled into the small
control room of the submarine. Everything had been prepared in
advance. In a few seconds, automatic machinery was lowering the
sub into its slip.
Water slapped the hull. Bjarnsson started the motors. They went
forward slowly, through doors that opened electrically.
Ballast hissed and snarled into the tanks.
Bjarnsson said, "If we can get through this first pack, into deep
water, we may make it." He pointed to a knife-switch. "Pull it."
Fallon did. Nothing seemed to happen. Bjarnsson sat hunched over
the controls, cold blue eyes fixed on the periscope screen. Fallon
had a swift, horrible sense of suffocation—the steel wall of the sub
curving low over his helmeted head, the surge of huge floundering
bodies in the water outside.
Something struck the hull. The little ship canted. Fallon gripped his
seat with rigid, painful hands. Bjarnsson's armored, unhuman
shoulders moved convulsively with effort. Fallon felt a raw panic
scream rising in his throat....
He choked it back. Heavy muffled blows shook the submarine. The
motors churned and shook. Fallon was afraid they were going to
stop. Sweat dripped in his eyes, misted his helmet pane.
The screws labored on. Fallon heard the tanks filling, and knew that
they were going deeper. The blows on the hull grew fewer, farther
between. Fallon began to breath again.
Einar Bjarnsson relaxed, just a little. His voice came muffled by his
helmet. "The worst, Fallon—we're through it."
Fallon's throat was as dry as his face was wet. "But how?"
"Sometimes, in the deeps, one meets creatures. Hungry creatures,
as large even as this ship. So I prepared the hull. That switch
transforms us into a travelling electric shock, strong enough to
discourage almost anything. I hoped it would get us through."
Thinking of what might have happened, Fallon shut his jaw hard. His
voice was unnaturally steady as he asked, "What now?"
"Now you learn to operate the ship, in case something should
happen to me." Bjarnsson's small blue eyes glinted through his
helmet pane. "Too bad there is not a radio here, Fallon, so that you
might broadcast as we go. As it is, I fear the world may miss a very
exciting story."
"For God's sake," said Fallon wearily, and he wasn't swearing. "Let's
not make this any tougher. Okay. This is the master switch...."
In the next twenty-four hours, Fallon learned to handle the
submarine passably well. Built for a crew of two, the controls were
fairly simple, once explained. Nothing else was touched. The only
extra switch that mattered was the one that released the depth
charge.
For an endless, monotonous hell, Fallon stood watch and watch
about with Bjarnsson, one at the controls, one operating the battery
of observation 'scopes, never sleeping. They saved on oxygen as a
precaution, which added to the suffocating discomfort of the helmet-
filters.
Black, close, nerve-rasping hours crawled by, became days. At last,
Fallon, bent over the 'scope screen, licked the sweat from his thin
lips and looked at Bjarnsson, a blurred dark hulk against the dim
glow of the half-seen instrument panel.
Fallon's head ached. The hot stale air stank of oil. His body was tired
and cramped and sweat-drenched, and the wound across his
shoulders throbbed. He looked at the single narrow bunk.
There was nothing out there in the water but darkness. Even the
deep-sea fish had felt the impulse and avoided the sub. Fallon got
up.
"Bjarnsson," he said, "I'm going to sleep."
The explorer half turned in his seat.
"Ja?" he said quietly.
"There's nothing out there," growled Fallon. "Why should I sit and
glare at that periscope?"
"Because," Bjarnsson returned with ominous gentleness, "there
might be something. We will not reach the volcano for perhaps ten
hours. You had better watch."
Fallon's hard jaw set. "I can't go any longer without sleep."
Bjarnsson's cragged face was flushed and greasy behind his helmet,
but his eyes were like glittering frost.
"All the whisky and the women," he whispered. "They make you soft,
Fallon. The girl would have been better."
A flashing glimpse of Joan as she had looked in the car that morning
crossed the eye of Fallon's mind—the tumbled fair hair and the
sunlight warm on throat and cheek, and her voice saying, "You
wouldn't be bad, Webb ... so lazy and so hell-fired selfish!"
He cursed and started forward. The dark blur of Bjarnsson rose,
blotting out the green glow. And then the panel light rose in a
shuddering arc.
Fallon thought for a moment that he was fainting. The low curve of
the hull spun about. He knew that he fell, and that he struck
something, or that something struck him. All orientation was lost. His
helmet rang against metal like a great gong, and then he was sliding
down a cluttered slope.
A blunt projection ripped across his back. Even through the leaded
suit, the pain of it made him scream. He heard the sound as a
distant, throttled echo. Then even the dim green light was gone.

The screen flickered abominably. It showed mostly a blurred mob of

people, trampling back and forth. Then it steadied and there was a
picture, in bright, gay colors.
A starfish twenty feet across wrapping itself around a woman and
her stupefied child.
"We saw that," said Fallon. "On the beach. Remember?"
He thought Joan answered, but there was another picture. A vast red
crab, pulling a man to bits with its claws. And after that, the shrieking
woman outside the broken window, dragged down by a worm.
"Wonder who got those shots?" said Fallon. Again Joan answered,
but he didn't hear her. The pictures moved more rapidly. Rays, black
against the blue sky. Planes falling. Guns firing and firing and
choking to silence. People, black endless streams of them, running,
running, running.
Joan pulled at him. Her face was strangely huge. Her eyes were as
he had first seen them, hard chips of sapphire. And at last he heard
what she was saying.
"Your fault, Webb Fallon. This might have been stopped. But you
had to sleep. You couldn't take it. You're no good, Webb. No good.
No good...."
Her voice faded, mixed somehow with a deep throbbing noise.
"Joan!" he shouted. "Joan!" But her face faded too. The last he could
see was her eyes, hard and steady and deeply blue.
"Joan," he whispered. There was a sound in his head like the tearing
of silk, a sensation of rushing upward. Then he was quite conscious,
his face pressed forward against his helmet and his body twisted,
bruised and painful.
The first thing he saw was Einar Bjarnsson sprawled on the floor
plates. A sharp point of metal had ripped his suit from neck to waist,
laying his chest bare.
For a moment of panic horror, Fallon sought for tears in his own suit.
There were none. He relaxed with a sob of relief, and looked up at
the low curve of the hull.
It was still whole. Fallon shuddered. What product of abnormal
evolution had attacked them in the moment that he had looked
away? Strange he hadn't seen it coming, before.
The dim, still bulk of Einar Bjarnsson drew his gaze. Crouched there
on his knees, it seemed to Fallon that the whole universe drew in
and centered on that motionless body.
"I killed him," Fallon whispered. "I looked away. I might have seen
the thing in time, but I looked away. I killed him."
For a long time he couldn't move. Then, like the swift stroke of a
knife, terror struck him.
He was alone under the sea.
He got up. The chronometer showed an elapsed time of nearly two
hours. The course, held by an Iron Mike, was steady. The beast that
had attacked them must have lost interest.
Fallon clung to a stanchion and thought, harder than he had ever
thought in his life.
He couldn't go on by himself. There had to be two men, to gauge
distances, spot the best target, control the sub in the resultant blast.
Why couldn't he forget the volcano? There were lots of islands in the
Pacific, beyond the affected sphere.
He could stay drunk on palm wine as well as Scotch.
He'd never see Joan again, of course. Joan, accusing, hard-eyed,
contemptuous. Joan, condemning him for murder....
Fallon laughed, a sharp, harsh bark. "Joan, hell! That was my own
mind, condemning me!"

His gaze went back to Bjarnsson's body, rolling slightly with the
motion of the ship. It boiled down to that. Murder. His careless,
selfish murder of Bjarnsson. The murder of countless civilians. War,
bitter, brutal, desperate.
Fallon drew a long, shuddering breath. His head dropped forward in
his helmet, and his slanting wolf's eyes were closed. Then he turned
and sat down at the controls.
The single forward 'scope field gave him vision enough to steer.
Anything might attack from the sides or the stern—another beast
grown incredibly huge, but not yet a lung breather.
Alone, he probably wouldn't succeed. He wouldn't live to know
whether he had or not. His gloved hands clenched over the levers
that would change the course, send him away to safety.
Savagely he forced his hands away. He gripped the wheel. Time slid
by him, black and silent as the water outside. And then....
Something moved in the dark behind him.
Slowly, slowly, Fallon rose and turned. The veins of his lean face
were like knotted cords. The hard steel of the hull held him, tight and
close, smothering.
Blurred, faint movement. The soft scrape of metal against metal. He
had been so sure Bjarnsson was dead. He'd been dazed and sick,
he hadn't looked closely. But he'd been sure. Bjarnsson, lying so still,
with his suit ripped open.
His suit ripped open. Volcanic rays would be seeping into his flesh.
Rays of change—perhaps they even brought the dead to life.
There was a grating clang, and suddenly Fallon screamed, a short
choked sound that hurt his throat.
Bjarnsson's face looked at him. Bjarnsson's face, with every gaunt
bone, every vein and muscle and convolution of the brain traced in
lines of cold white fire.
The shrouding leaden suit slipped from wide, stooped shoulders.
The heart beat in pulses of flame within the glowing cage of the ribs.
The coil and flow of muscles in arm and thigh was a living, beautiful
rhythm of light.
"Fallon," said Einar Bjarnsson. "Turn back."
The remembered voice, coming from that glowing, pulsing throat,
was the most horrible thing of all.
Fallon licked the cold sweat from his lips. "No," he said.
"Turn back, or you will be killed."
"It doesn't matter," whispered Fallon. "I've got to try."
Bjarnsson laughed. Fallon could see his diaphragm contract in a
surge of flame, see the ripple of the laughter.
A wave of anger cut across Fallon's terror, cold and sane.
"I did this to you, Bjarnsson," he said. "I'm trying to make up for it. I
thought you were dead. Perhaps, if you put your armor back on, we
can patch it up somehow, and it may not be too late."
"But it is too late. So, you blame yourself, eh?"
"I left my post. Otherwise, you might have dodged that thing."
"Dodged it?" Tiny sparkles of light shot through Bjarnsson's brain.
"Oh, ja. Perhaps." And he laughed again. "So you will not turn back?
Not even for the beautiful Joan?"
Fallon's eyes closed, but the lines of his jaw were stern with anger.
"Do you have to torture me?"
"Wait," said Bjarnsson. "Wait a little. Then I will know."

His voice was suddenly strange. Fallon opened his eyes. The
glowing fire in the explorer's body was growing brighter, so that it
blurred the lines of vein and bone and sinew.
"No," said Bjarnsson. "No need for torture. Turn back, Fallon."
God, how he wanted to! "No," he whispered. "I've got to try."
Bjarnsson's voice came to him, almost as an echo.
"We were fools, Fallon. Fools to think that we could stop this thing
with a single puny bomb. Kashimo was a fool, too, but he was a
gambler. But we, Fallon, you and I—we were the bigger fools."
"The kind of fools," said Fallon doggedly, "that men have always
been. And damn it, I think I'd rather be the fool I am than the smart
guy I was!"
Bjarnsson's laughter echoed in his helmet. Fallon had a moment's
eerie feeling that he heard with his brain instead of his ears.
"Wonderful, Fallon, wonderful! You see how circumstance makes us
traitors to ourselves? But there is no need for heroics. You can turn
back, Fallon."
The lines of Bjarnsson's body were quite gone. He loomed against
the darkness as a pillar of shining mist. Fallon's weary eyes were
dazzled with it.
"No," he muttered stubbornly. "No."
Bjarnsson's voice rolled in on him suddenly, soul-shaking as an
organ.
Voice—or mind? A magnificent, thundering strength.
"This is evolution, Fallon. So shall we be, a million million years from
now. This is living, Fallon. It is godhood! Take off your suit, Fallon!
Grow with me!"
"Joan," said Fallon wearily. "Joan, dearest."
Cosmic laughter, shuddering in his mind. And then,
"Turn back, Fallon. In an hour it will be too late."
The shining mist was dimming, drawing in upon itself. And at the
core, a tiny light was growing, a frosty white flame that seared
Fallon's brain.
"Turn back! Turn back!"
He fought, silently. But the light and the voice poured into him.
Abruptly, something in him relaxed. He'd been so long without rest.