Avatar: The Internationalist

By: Joshua O’Brien

Water. Earth. Fire. Air.

Those four words, or more accurately, the show that followed them, was my first foray into international politics. Obviously, Avatar: The Last Airbender is not the academic or cognitive framework through which I view international politics as an adult. Regardless, I credit Avatar: The Last Airbender as one of the subtle childhood influences pushing me into social studies.

The show explored the politics and culture of four nations as the world navigated a Hundred Year War fueled by the imperial outlook of the Fire Nation’s policymakers. While issues of war, refugees, and genocide are at the forefront of the show’s story, geopolitics is present in other facets of the show as well.

Geographical influences are prominent across the four nations, for example. The Air Nomads congregate in remote mountainous temples, which allowed them to live a life of peace and spirituality before the Air Nomad Genocide. The Northern Water Tribe is nestled in the icy lands of the North Pole, with the tundra providing a natural defense and tendency towards isolationism. The Earth Kingdom is so vast that it forms disparate cultures and a confederate monarchy for governance. The Fire Nation, meanwhile, behaves in the historic economic and imperial fashions of other island nations—namely Great Britain and Japan—while also allowing it a strong communications network and navy.

None of these geographical elements are explicitly stated in the show, but the world-building is layered enough that these conclusions are easily drawn by nerdy children like myself. This is also true for the political elements, such as the Earth Kingdom’s corrupt bureaucracy, and the militarization of Fire Nation politics and industries. From an early age I developed subtle archetypes about how the real word works from this expertly crafted fantasy.

I have too many thoughts on the show to put in a small blog post. To get to the point: I wanted to begin my blog posts for The Internationalist in the same place I first learned to think critically about how world politics work. It’s nostalgic, sure, but it is also nice to ground myself as I begin to write critically and thoughtfully about our own global affairs.