Module description
Gender and International Politics and Security is a wide-reaching study that covers a multitude of themes and discussion points. For this year, we will be focusing on the relationship between gender, militarism and war and scholarship arising from feminist security studies and feminist global political economy. Within these scholarships, militarism remains central to sustaining war efforts and current configurations of global(in)security. Militarism is a logic, ‘commonsensical’, and a feeling that shapes security practices and policies. It is also heavily gendered in whom it normalises as the ideal soldier, security expert and terrorist.As both feeling and logic, militarism drives military recruitment, underpins public support for militaries and war economies, and is foundational for how we think about the world as inherently dangerous and in need of securing.
Militarism has also been associated with greater insecurities of vulnerable populations and an acceleration to violence as opposed to other more peaceful pathways. It has also been used as a justifying logic to keep women (and a great deal of men) away from decision-making spaces—either in war rooms or during peace talks. It the very flexible nature of militarism, that takes shape differently depending on the historic and contextual relations to gender that makes it both allusive and endurable.
Assessment details
Group Presentation (25%)
2500-word Essay (75%)
Educational aims & objectives
This module aims to encourage students to think about the interrelationships of masculinity, militarism and global security in all their complexities. Drawing upon pioneer feminist texts and cutting-edge critical gender research alongside empirical studies on peacekeeping and global security operations, students will gain a theoretical grounding on how gender and militarism functions inside and outside militaries, and how gender is both produced by, and productive of, security experts, terrorists, and the peace-kept.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the module, students will have demonstrated:
- a comprehensive knowledge of the concepts and theories that examine the role of gender in IR and their evolution over time.
- a sophisticated understanding of the link between those theoretical debates and methodological issues.
- an ability to engage critically with concepts and theories drawn from gender studies, international relations, and security studies and to use those tools to critically evaluate the role of gender.
- the development of critical analysis, independent judgment, and oral and written presentation to a level commensurate with taught post-graduate study.