Feminist Theory and International Relations in a Postmodern Era [Paperback]

This book evaluates the major debates around which the discipline of international relations has developed in the light of contemporary feminist theories.Using case studies of the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp in the U.K. and of Zimbabwean women's efforts to secure international funding for producer cooperatives, this text explores the possibility of undermining the masculine identity politics that characterize international relations.Using case studies of the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp in the U.K. and of Zimbabwean women's efforts to secure international funding for producer cooperatives, this text explores the possibility of undermining the masculine identity politics that characterize international relations.This book argues that the identities and activities commonly associated with women have been eliminated from the theories formulated about international relations. The author points out that these theories often rely on the hidden activities of women and their assigned tasks in life to establish a sphere of politics that is for men only. Using case studies of the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp in the UK, and of Zimbabwean women's efforts to secure international funding for producer cooperatives, the book explores the possibility of undermining the masculine identity politics of international relations.Introduction: contestation and El(l)e-phants; Sketches of feminisms first wave in anticipation of chapter one; 1. The palette of feminist epistemologies and practices; 2. The early field of IR - musings, assertions, debates, and (now) feminist interruptions; 3. The second debate in IR revisited by feminists; 4. The third debate in IR visited by feminists; 5. Feminist homesteadings of security and cooperation; 6. Repainting the canvases of IR. The 'coversation' (as opposed to yet another debate) Sylvester hopes to stimulate among feminists inside and outside IR, other critics of IR, and even IR proponents is an urgent one in the face of the new wlc,