This article is about postmodern IR theory with the ideas of Michael Foucault and the film The Matrix (1999) . First, postmodernism is explained as a critical theory of IR and its assumptions are discussed. Second, The Matrix (1999) will be summarized. Next, the film will be analyzed from a postmodern perspective. And finally, there will be a general conclusion about the article. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayPostmodernism has been one of the leading critical theories of international relations since the 1980s. It is critical because it comes after modernity and criticizes what is modern in international relations. Postmodernism brings another point of view, other considerations, other definitions to modern understanding. Modern international relations began in the 15th and 16th centuries with the formation of the nation-state. The modern nation-state is the major and most important actor in the Westphalian state system. Neorealism and neoliberalism, which dominate international relations, agree that the modern nation-state is the key to international relations. Modernism therefore concerns States in international relations. Postmodernism in international relations therefore goes beyond states. Postmodern theory emphasizes the role of non-state actors and corporations in international politics and how they shape international policies. Political actions carried out by language, norm, idea and abstract concepts according to postmodernism. These also affect our identity. And language helps us understand deeper ideas, like why a certain state acts in a certain way. According to the postmodernist argument, classical theories such as realism and liberalism underestimate the role of non-state actors. In realism, for example, the state is the major actor in international relations. Other actors such as non-state actors or individuals have less or no importance. But according to postmodernism, multinational corporations, social classes, women and poor countries also have an impact on international politics. Furthermore, they argued that contrary to realism, states are not unitary actors and therefore are not rational. Realist theory held that states are rational, unitary actors. On the international stage, they act rationally and try to survive. To do this, they act on a self-help principle. Or, neoliberal institutionalists also recognize that states are major actors in international relations. But like constructivism, postmodern IR theory holds that states are artificial, socially constructed creations. They are abstractions. Therefore, according to the postmodern claim, there is no national interest contrary to realist IR theory. The national interest is the output of individuals and what individuals believe to be the national interest. This shows how critical postmodern international relations theory is. It rejects one of the key concepts of dominant theories. Although postmodernism has been adopted within the discipline of IR, it is in reality a sociological situation of the “post-modern.” The key concept of postmodernism is truth. Postmodernism denies direct access to the truth. There is no absolute truth. For Foucault, the function of knowledge is not to identify correlations or causal chains between entitiespre-existing, but to classify, regulate and standardize with a view to making things and people manageable. In this sense, knowledge produces specific effects, problems and identities. (Fournier, 2014). Knowledge is therefore not stable and can change. If these claims are adopted in IR, concepts such as anarchy or sovereign equality cannot be exact truths. They can be transformed into people. Thus, according to postmodernism, international politics is irrational and unpredictable. This is one of the main assertions of postmodern IR theory. The actions and behaviors of States are irrational, international relations are therefore unpredictable. This is the fundamental difference between mainstream theories and postmodernism, because all mainstream theories hold that international relations are predictable. Their main goal is to predict future state behavior. But postmodern IR theory does not accept this. Postmodernism rejects the concept of absolute truth. Modernism accepted that there is no relationship between power and knowledge and that absolute truth exists. But according to Foucault, power actually produces knowledge. "All power requires knowledge, and all knowledge builds on and reinforces existing power relations. Thus, no truth exists outside of power." (Robert H. Jackson, 2010). There is therefore a deep skepticism towards postmodernism. One of the most important assumptions of postmodernism is the subjectivity and relativity of truth. According to their assertion, truth is subjective, so there is no general truth. Each person has their own truths. Therefore, the general truth that we have accepted is someone else's truth. This other is the most powerful. There is a relationship between power and truth. The most powerful in terms of political and economic power accepted their own truths from others. This understanding shows the skepticism of postmodernism. They argued that truth does not exist and denied objective natural reality. Postmodernism also denies the importance of logic. According to the modern idea of ​​the Enlightenment, if people use their logic and reason, they produce science and technology. And science brings changes to humans and their society, so they will experience more and more successful stages. But postmodernism rejects this argument. According to postmodernists, thanks to science and technology, there are weapons of mass destruction or nuclear bombs that have caused the deaths of millions of people. If technology is used by bad and evil people, it has led to deadly consequences like world wars or terrorist organizations. Therefore, the Enlightenment modernist argument is flawed according to the postmodernist argument. Furthermore, postmodernism also rejects the concept of universal logic as universal truth. According to modernism, there is universal logic and reason and there are rules, regulations and laws in all areas of knowledge, including international relations. These are equal for everyone. But in postmodernist argumentation, logic and reason are also abstract concepts. They are human creations, therefore subjective. There is nothing universal about them. They can therefore change from society to society, or from culture to culture. And over time, these societies and cultures can also experience changes. The Matrix is ​​a 1999 American science fiction film starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss and Hugo Weaving. The film written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. It's a dystopia that in thefuture world, machines use human beings as energy batteries. And they created a simulated reality for humans called "the Matrix." Before this stage, machines created by humans, but eventually they rebel and take control of the world. Humans are trying to blacken the sun because machines get their energy from the sun. But after that, machines discovered that they could use human body heat and electrical activities as a battery for their energy needs. The film begins with a woman "Trinity" who is arrested by the police in a dirty hotel room. But she manages to beat them thanks to superhuman abilities. Soon after, three agents arrive at the hotel who also possess superhuman abilities and try to catch the women. But she manages to escape by answering a ringing public telephone. In the next scene, Trinity comes into contact with a computer programmer Thomas Anderson or his nickname "Neo". He lives two lives. By day he is a computer programmer and by night he is a hacker. Trinity tells Neo, "The Matrix has you." Neo can't understand this and Trinity tells him that if you agree, I can take you with a man who can explain it to you. This man named Morpheus is wanted by agents and in his work agents arrest Mr. Anderson and question him about the terrorist Morpheus. Neo does not speak and later meets Morpheus. He offers Neo the choice between the truth about the Matrix in the form of a red pill and the support of his normal life in the form of the blue pill. Neo always feels in life that something is wrong in this world and he chooses the red pill and swallows it. After that, he woke up from his tube and was saved by Morpheus' ship Nebuchadnezzar. When Neo wakes up, he remembers that he was weak, hairless, and living in a tube full of fluid with millions of other people. Over time, Neo gets better and better. When he is well enough, Morpheus will explain the Matrix. The truth is in the machines of the 21st century and their creators have declared war on each other and humanity has lost the war. Since man blocks the machines' energy source, solar energy, and that means the sun, the machines realized that the human body could be used as an energy source. So Neo is no longer a battery for machines, he has noticed that there is no absolute truth. Morpheus continues to tell: the Matrix is ​​a simulation of the 20th century world in which human beings live there like a harvest and their minds are controlled by machines. Not all the knowledge they know is the truth. And the truth comes from the most powerful, the machines. If a person understands the truth about the Matrix, they can deal with the program's broken physical laws, granting them superhuman abilities. But the problem is that if a person dies in the Matrix, they also die in the real world. Human beings who realize the truth and manage to escape the Matrix lived in an underground city. Zion is the last human city in the real world. Morpheus' goal is with his ship and crew as a group of rebels hack the Matrix and unplug the slaves' human bodies and free them. But in freeing Neo, Morpheus' goal is different. According to a prophecy, a man named "The One" will come to free humanity from the Matrix program and end the war between humanity and machines. This prophecy comes from the Oracle, so Morpheus and his crew enter the Matrix to visit her. When Neo speaks with the Oracle, he understands that he was not the One and that in the future he had to choose between his own life and that of Morpheus. When they try to return to the real world, the agentsrecognize. One crew member, Cyper, betrays Morpheus for a good life in the Matrix. And thanks to his help, the agents manage to capture Morpheus. Their goal for catching Morpheus is to learn the place of Zion and kill all remaining humanity who realize the truth about the Matrix. Neo decided to save Morpheus because of the oracle's words, so he and Trinity enter the Matrix to save him. When they tried to do this, Neo realized that he could compete with the agents, something that is not possible for humans, even Morpheus. Neo, Trinity and Morpheus get rid of the agents and try to return to the real world again. But Agent Smith grabs them and kills Neo before he leaves. So, in Nebuchadnezzar, Trinity speaks with Neo's corpse and says that "you can't be dead because I love you, and the Oracle told me that I would fall in love with the One." And she kisses Neo. And then Neo wakes up and realizes he is the Chosen One. Neo as One now understands the Matrix and can control it. This is why in Matrix he manages to easily kill Agent Smith. And in the last scene, Neo makes a phone call in the Matrix and says I'm going to show unrealized humans "a world in which anything is possible." He hangs up the phone and flies into the sky. There are a lot of hints in The Matrix about postmodernism. In fact, from a postmodern point of view, The Matrix fits their worldview. The Matrix is ​​a postmodern world and the real world is modern. When we look at the first scene of the film, Trinity can have superhuman abilities that the police officers chasing her think is impossible. So we understand that there is something different in this world. Next scene Neo wakes up and finds that his computer has been hacked. On the computer screen we see the phrase “the Matrix has you”. Following Neo, he chooses a book from his library. The book is called Simulacra and Simulation written by Jean Baudrillard. It is a postmodern philosophy book that analyzes the relationship between reality, symbols and society. This scene therefore shows that there is a relationship between The Matrix and postmodernism. Neo opens the book and there is a chapter on nihilism which is a denial of law, institutions and even existence. This scene shows us the skepticism of postmodernism. Neo has postmodern thinking, he questions the world and tends to deny the universal truths of his world. This is also seen in his two different lives. In the morning, he is an ordinary computer programmer and works at a company, Thomas Anderson. But at night, he changes his truths and becomes a second life as a hacker nicknamed Neo. His ideas, perceptions hidden in Thomas Anderson manifest themselves in the nights of Neo. Neo knows something is wrong in this world. There's something wrong. In the next scene, Neo is late for work and his boss is angry with him. He says Neo, "you think you're special, somehow the rules don't apply to you but you're wrong." But Neo doesn't even listen to him. He rejects this reality. This scene also has postmodern influences. According to postmodernism, there is no such thing as absolute freedom as liberalism claims. Neo feels this in the movie, he feels trapped and tries to find a way to get rid of it. As the film progresses, Neo realizes that a man named Morpheus is looking for him to show the truth. He claims I'm going to explain to you what the Matrix is. Morpheus chose Neo to show him the truth because the Oracle told him that Neo was "The Chosen One". But later the Oracle also tells Neo that it's not you. Therefore, the assumption that there is no truth seen in the film due to the truth of.