Revisiting Gendered States ― Feminist Imaginings of the State in International Relations

Two decades ago, V. Spike Peterson published a book titled Gendered States in which she asked, what difference does gender make in international relations and the construction of the sovereign state system? In the intervening years, a wealth of feminist scholarship has responded to her question, but in doing so, has looked past the nation state to consider the gendered dimensions of issues such as human rights, nationalist movements, development, and economic globalization. Moreover, since 2001, feminist international relations has also focused on international security, forging a new subfield of feminist security studies that revisits more traditional IR topics such as war and national security, albeit from very different perspectives.

With a preface by V. Spike Peterson, this book aims to connect the earlier debates of Peterson's book with the gendered state today, one that exists within a globalized and increasingly securitized world. Bringing together an international group of contributors from the Global South, United States, Europe, and Australia, this volume will answer three overarching questions. First, it will answer whether the concept of a "gendered state" is generic or if some states are particularly gendered in their identities and interests, and with what implications for the type of citizenship, society, and international security. Second, it will look at the continued theoretical significance of the gendered state for current IR scholarship. And, finally, it will explain to what extent postcolonial states are distinctive from metropolitan states with regard to gender. Including scholars from International Relations, Postcolonial Studies, and Development Studies, this volume collectively theorizes the modern state and its intricate relationship to security, identity politics, and gender.

Swati Parashar is Senior Lecturer with the Peace and Development Program at the School of Global Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, as well as an Adjunct Senior Fellow with the Monash Gender, Peace and Security Centre at Monash University. Her research engages with the intersections between feminism and postcolonialism, focused on conflict and development issues in South Asia. She is the author of Women and Militant Wars: The Politics of Injury.

J. Ann Tickner is Professor Emerita in the School of International Relations at the University of Southern California, and Distinguished Scholar in Residence in the School of International Service at American University. She is also Professor of Politics and International Relations at Monash University. Her principle areas of research include international theory, peace and security, and feminist approaches to international relations. Her publications include Gendering World Politics: Issues and Approaches in the Post-Cold War World and A Feminist Voyage Through International Relations.

Jacqui True is Professor of Politics & International Relations, and Director of Monash University's Centre for Gender, Peace and Security. She is also an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and a Global Fellow at the Peace Research Institute in Oslo. Her current research is focused on understanding the political economy of post-conflict violence against women and the patterns of systemic sexual and gender-based violence in Asia Pacific conflict-affected countries. Her recent publications include The Political Economy of Violence Against Women and edited with Aida Hozic, Scandalous Economics: The Politics of Gender and Financial Crises.