Feminist Theory And International Relations In A Postmodern Era

This book evaluates the major debates around which the discipline of international relations has developed in the light of contemporary feminist theories.

Publisher Description

Arguing for a theory of international politics committed to human emancipation, this text suggests that international relations theory must move in a nonpositivist direction. It explores recent developments in the discipline, including critical, Gramscian, postmodernist, feminist and normative approaches.

Expanding on the issues she originally explored in her classic work, Gender in International Relations, J. Ann Tickner focuses her distinctively feminist approach on new issues of the international relations agenda since the end of the Cold War, such as ethnic conflict and other new security issues, globalizations, democratization, and human rights. As in her previous work, these topics are placed in the context of brief reviews of more traditional approaches to the same issues. She also looks at the considerable feminist work that has been published on these topics since the previous book came out. Tickner highlights the misunderstandings that exist between mainstream and feminist approaches, and explores how these debates developed in the new environment of post–Cold War international relations. Acclaim for Tickner's Gender in International Relations: "For all who seek new ways to think about and understand world politics" —Political Science Quarterly "Tickner... rethinks from a feminist point of view virtually every conventional category used by theorists and practictioners of international relations."—Susan Moller Okin, Stanford University

This book is a comprehensive guide to theories of International Relations (IR). Given the limitations of a paradigm-based approach, it sheds light on eighteen theories and new theoretical perspectives in IR by examining the work of key reference theorists. The chapters are all written to a common template. The introductory section provides readers with a basic understanding of the theory’s genesis by locating it within an intellectual tradition, paying particular attention to the historical and political context. The second section elaborates on the theory as formulated by the selected reference theorist. After this account of the theory’s core elements, the third section turns to theoretical variations, examining conceptual subdivisions and overlaps, further developments and internal critique. The fourth section scrutinizes the main criticisms emanating from other theoretical perspectives and highlights points of contact with recent research in IR. The fifth and final section consists of a bibliography carefully compiled to aid students’ further learning. Encompassing a broad range of mainstream, traditional theories as well as emerging and critical perspectives, this is an original and ground-breaking textbook for students of International Relations. The German edition of the book won the "Geisteswissenschaften International" Prize, collectively awarded by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the German Federal Foreign Office and the German Publishers & Booksellers Association.

Originally published in 1998, The "Man" Question in International Relations looks the prevalence of man in the world of international relations. The book argues that, focusing on women as a way of changing the gender of international relations can position women as "the problem." The authors of this book suggest that the problem is not "woman" but "man." Rather than highlighting the absences and presence of women in the theories and practices of international relations, the authors concentrate on questioning the practices of masculinities, the hegemony of men, and the subject of "man." In this way, they hope to destabilize the field in ways that "adding women and stirring" has not.

Meant primarily for students studying international relations, aspirants of civil services, International Relations Today: Concepts And Applications captures the drastic changes in international relations after the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War in 1991. It also examines the rise of China as a major military and economic power, and the potential of Russia, India and Germany as tomorrow's big powers. It will also be useful for those interested in the discipline.

Assesses current poststructural and postmodern theories and defends international relations as a discipline Promising to stimulate discussion among both those who celebrate the arrival of the "Third Debate" and those who fear its colonialization and spread, D. S. L. Jarvis offers an innovative appraisal of the various postmodern and poststructural theories sweeping the discipline of international relations. Citing the work of Richard Ashley, Jarvis explores the lineage of postmodern theory, its importation into international relations, and its transformation from critical epistemology to subversive and deconstructive political program. Inspired by a deep-seated concern that theory in international relations is becoming increasingly abstract and unrelated to the subject matter scholars strive to understand, Jarvis argues that much postmodern and poststructuraltheory has impoverished our theoretical understanding of global political relations, embroilling us in incommensurate discourses and research agendas driven by identity politics. By developing a series of critical typologies to assess postmodern and poststructural theories, Jarvis mount a ringing defense of the discipline's exisiting research methods and epistemologies, and he suggests that more harm than good has come of the epistemological subversion occasioned by the Third Debate.