International politics professor binged on Madam Secretary during the pandemic, and found "comforting strengths" with its flaws

The Washington Post

"The most ludicrous part of the show was the notion that any international crisis could be resolved in America’s favor within a single hour of television," explains Tufts University's Daniel W. Drezner of the Téa Leoni-led 2014-2019 CBS drama. "After years of watching foreign policy failure after foreign policy failure, however, a fictional world in which diplomatic derring-do resolves crises in a neat bow is appealing. The deeper comfort — and also the most misleading part of the show — was the notion that all the United States needed was material leverage to get what it wanted in international affairs. In the world of Madam Secretary, leaders who espouse nationalist beliefs turn out to have hidden motives that make them pliable to bargains. China and Russia are occasionally truculent but can be persuaded to act like responsible stakeholders. The appeal of Madam Secretary is that the world looks like a place where international cooperation is possible so long as the diplomats work really hard at it. In other words, compared to the real world, the show traffics in fantasy. Not all international disputes are amenable to cooperation. Not all disputes are about divisible issues. Still, as long as I had to remain housebound, the fantasy was comforting."