Masculinities, Gender and International Relations

Description

Gender is widely recognized as an important and useful lens for the study of International Relations (IR). However, there are few books that specifically investigate masculinity/ies in relation to world politics. Taking a feminist-inspired understanding of gender as its starting point, the book: * explains that gender is both an asymmetrical binary and a hierarchy; * shows how masculinization works via 'nested hierarchies' of domination and subordination; * explores the imbrication of masculinities with the nation-state and great power politics; * develops an understanding of the arms trade with commercial processes of militarisation. Written in an accessible style, and suggestions for further reading, this book is an invaluable resource for students and teachers applying 'the gender lens' to global politics.

Terrell Carver is Professor of Political Theory at the University of Bristol. Laura Lyddon is Research Development Associate at the University of Bristol.

"Carver and Lyddon demonstrate how analysis of gender and sexualities can be transformative, profoundly altering understandings of International Relations from concepts of legitimacy and sovereignty to practices of militarism, arms production and trade." Mary Hawkesworth, Rutgers University "BAE's M-777 howitzers, Raytheon's Javelin anti-tank missiles - they've become everyday topics during Putin's war on Ukraine. This gender-smart investigation of weapons trade fairs and arms trade treaties reveals that the heterosexualized, masculinized hierarchy of the Rational Man and the Warrior Man is a crucial pillar of legitimizing militarism. In exposing this pillar, the analysis makes militarism less potent." Cynthia Enloe, author of The Big Push: Exposing and Challenging Persistent Patriarchy "A compelling and groundbreaking analysis of how masculinities shape and are shaped by the global arms trade. This important book is a must read for security studies scholars as well as activists resisting global militarism." J. Ann Tickner, University of Southern California