Pirates, justice and global order in the anime “One Piece”

This article studies the Japanese manga One Piece, which tells the story of the pirate Monkey D. Luffy fighting the World Government. One Piece deserves our attention not only because it is the most successful Japanese mangas of all time, but also because it reflects on dilemmas of IR in a surprisingly elaborate manner. Being a pirate story, it ties into the intertextual milieu of what pirates stand for in popular culture—symbolizing a challenge to the established order of states—and thereby encourages readers to critically reflect on problems of global order. Furthermore, the story also reflects on intriguing dilemmas of order and justice that Hedley Bull framed asking “can justice in world politics, in various senses, be achieved only by jeopardizing international order?” By overcoming the binary metaphysics typical of Western cultural products (particularly superhero stories) also enables One Piece to capture these dilemmas in a subtle manner.