Coloniality/Post-Coloniality

Feminist Foreign Policy as Ethical Foreign Policy? A Care Ethics Perspective

Citation:

Robinson, Fiona. 2019. “Feminist Foreign Policy as Ethical Foreign Policy? A Care Ethics Perspective.” Journal of International Political Theory, February 25. https://doi.org/10.1177/1755088219828768

Author: Fiona Robinson

Abstract:

This article argues that a liberal cosmopolitan approach to feminist foreign policy reproduces existing relations of power, including gender power relations and Western liberal modes of domination. I suggest that a critical feminist ethic of care offers a potentially radical and transformative account of ethics as a basis for a transnational feminism – one that reveals and troubles the binary gender norms that constitute the international and which exposes the ways in which patriarchal orders uphold political hierarchies that obstruct the building of empathy and repairing of relationship. To illustrate this argument, I address the recent diplomatic crises faced by Sweden and Canada in their relationships with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Policymakers and diplomats must aim to build understanding by recognizing the material and discursive factors that have constructed, over time, the relationships between Saudi Arabia and Sweden/Canada, as well as the ways in which patriarchal structures – across the globe and at multiple scales – hinder the possibility of attentive listening and connection across borders. It is only through the prism of this relationship – where difference takes on meaning – that the more complex role of Western states in the contemporary system of transnational militarism is revealed.

Keywords: care, cosmopolitanism, ethics, feminism, foreign policy, post-colonialism

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Feminisms, Feminist Foreign Policy, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Gender Hierarchies, Gender Equality/Inequality

Year: 2019

‘Women with No Femininity’: Gender, Race and Nation-Building in the James Bay Project.

Citation:

Desbiens, Caroline. 2004. “‘Women with No Femininity’: Gender, Race and Nation-Building in the James Bay Project.” Political Geography 23 (3): 347–66.

Author: Caroline Desbiens

Abstract:

This paper seeks to gender the nation-state through an analysis of the links between gender, colonial history and governmentality in Québec’s James Bay region. In the early 1970s, a new governmental framework was introduced in Northern Québec with the construction of a large-scale hydroelectric complex. The James Bay project coincided with an intensive period of nation-building by Francophones in the province, which led to the 1980 referendum on separation from Canada. Looking at the space of the labor camps, I explore the differential positioning of men and women in dominant narratives of the nation-state. While both men and women who worked in James Bay were cast as heroes of the nation, everyday geographies in the work camps reveal several axes of difference on the basis of gender, race and class. By looking at the production of these geographies and the dual positioning of women as both “outcasts” and “daughters” of the patriarchal state, I call for a broader understanding of difference in the elaboration of a feminist political geography.

Keywords: Gender, labor, colonial history, nation-building, political geography

Topics: Class, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Feminisms, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Patriarchy, Infrastructure, Energy, Race Regions: Americas, North America Countries: Canada

Year: 2004

Revisiting Women Empowerment: A Review Of Policies On Landuse And Food Security In Zimbabwe

Citation:

Dzvimbo, Munyaradzi Admire, Monica Monga, and Tinashe M. Mashizha. 2018. “Revisiting Women Empowerment: A Review Of Policies On Landuse And Food Security In Zimbabwe.” Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal 5 (4): 323-32.

Authors: Munyaradzi Admire Dzvimbo, Monica Monga, Tinashe M. Mashizha

Abstract:

The Land question in Zimbabwe and most countries of the Global South has always been marred by the injustices perpetrated by the colonial governments in the equitable distribution of land. Women have been severely disadvantaged yet they are the ones who contribute so much in agricultural production and food security. Thus, land tenure, ownership, food security and access are interlinked, directly and indirectly. This paper seeks to explore while revisiting policies that have addressed land-use, tenure security and ownership in relation with women in Zimbabwe. Women have always been a domineering force in agriculture in which they contribute immensely though their contributions has not been fairly chronicled and publicised. Thus land is a key resource to empowering women in the socio-economic growth trajectory and poverty alleviation. Successful realisation entails a functioning transparent land administration system. Hence, access to arable and productive land is vital to most women who live in the communal areas and depend wholly on farming for their livelihoods. It is in this realm that, land plays a significant part and as a socio-economic catalyst, policies inclined should clearly state the position of women as far as ownership is concerned. Various statutory and legal statutes should address rights of women so that they will be able to continue contributing to food security. In light of these objections, this paper further examines and explores current and also already researched literature on empowering women in the lenses of land-use, right, access and their contributions to food security.

Keywords: agriculture, food security, land rights, tenure

Annotation:

Topics: Agriculture, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Economies, Poverty, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Land Tenure, Livelihoods, Rights, Land Rights, Women's Rights, Security, Food Security Regions: Africa, Southern Africa Countries: Zimbabwe

Year: 2018

Gender, Land Tenure and Agrarian Production Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa

Citation:

Tsikata, Dzodzi. 2016. “Gender, Land Tenure and Agrarian Production Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy 5 (1): 1–19.

Author: Dzodzi Tsikata

Abstract:

This article examines in historical perspective how gendered land tenure systems have contributed to shaping, and have in turn been shaped by, agrarian production and reproduction systems and how this has worked to the disadvantage of women in terms of their livelihood choices and outcomes and their position in agrarian societies. It is argued that contemporary challenges to the health of Africa’s agrarian production systems have gender implications which are not sufficiently recognized, either in the literature or in policymaking. This stems from the fact that the complexities of women’s positions and contributions to agrarian production and reproduction, since before the colonial period, are often not recognized and, therefore, their influence on longterm processes, such as capital accumulation and proletarianization of rural life, are not accounted for. The article provides a framing of the linkages between gendered land tenure and changing agrarian production and reproduction systems and examines two contemporary land tenure issues which illustrate the impacts of gender biases in land and agrarian policies.

Keywords: gender relations, land tenure, agrarian production systems, reproduction, policies, Africa

Annotation:

Topics: Agriculture, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Gender, Women, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Land Tenure, Livelihoods, Rights, Land Rights Regions: Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa

Year: 2016

Ecofeminism Revisited: Rejecting Essentialism and Re-Placing Species in a Material Feminist Environmentalism

Citation:

Gaard, Greta. 2011. “Ecofeminism Revisited: Rejecting Essentialism and Re-Placing Species in a Material Feminist Environmentalism.” Feminist Formations 23 (2): 26–53. 

Author: Greta Gaard

Abstract:

Formulated in the 1980s and gaining prominence in the early 1990s, by the end of that decade ecofeminism was critiqued as essentialist and effectively discarded. Fearing their scholarship would be contaminated by association with the term “eco-feminism,” feminists working on the intersections of feminism and environmentalism thought it better to rename their approach. Thirty years later, current developments in allegedly new fields such as animal studies and naturalized epistemology are “discovering” theoretical perspectives on interspecies relations and standpoint theory that were developed by feminists and ecofeminists decades ago. What have we lost by jettisoning these earlier feminist and ecofeminist bodies of knowledge? Are there features of ecofeminism that can helpfully be retrieved, restoring an intellectual and activist history, and enriching current theorizing and activisms? By examining the historical foundations of ecofeminism from the 1980s onward, this article uncovers the roots of the antifeminist backlash against ecofeminism in the 1990s, peeling back the layers of feminist and environmentalist resistance to ecofeminism’s analyses of the connections among racism, sexism, classism, colonialism, speciesism, and the environment. Recuperating ecofeminist insights of the past thirty years provides feminist foundations for current liberatory theories and activisms. 

Keywords: animal studies, antifeminism, ecofeminism, essentialism, material feminism

Topics: Class, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Environment, Feminisms, Ecofeminism, Race

Year: 2011

Secularism, Gender and the State in the Middle East: The Egyptian Women’s Movement

Citation:

Al-Ali, Nadje. 2000. Secularism, Gender and the State in the Middle East: The Egyptian Women’s Movement. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Author: Nadje Al-Ali

Annotation:

Summary:
A considerable literature has been devoted to the study of Islamic activism. By contrast, Nadje Al-Ali's book explores the anthropological and political significance of secular-oriented activism by focusing on the women's movement in Egypt. In so doing, it challenges stereotypical images of Arab women as passive victims and demonstrates how they fight for their rights and confront conservative forces. Al-Ali's book also takes issue with prevailing constructions of 'the West' and its perceived dichotomous relation to 'the East'. The argument is constructed around interviews which afford fascinating insights into the history of the women's movement in Egypt, notions about secularism and how Islamist constituencies have impacted on women's activism generally. The balance between the empirical and conceptual material is adeptly handled. The author frames her work in the context of current theoretical debates in Middle Eastern and post-colonial scholarship: while some of the ideas are complex, her lucid style means they are always comprehensible; the book will therefore appeal to students, as well as to scholars in the field. (Summary from Cambridge University Press)

Table of Contents:
Introduction

1. Up Against Conceptual Frameworks: Post-Orientalism, Occidentalism and Presentations of the Self

2. Contextualizing the Egyptian Women's Movement

3. Self and Generation: Formative Experiences of Egyptian Women Activists

4. Secularism: Challenging Neo-Orientalism and ‘His-Stories’

5. From Words to Deeds: Priorities and Projects of Contemporary Activists

6. A Mirror of Political Culture in Egypt: Divisions and Debates among Women Activists

Conclusion: ‘Standing on Shifting Ground’

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Gender, Women, Political Participation, Religion, Rights, Women's Rights Regions: Africa, MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Egypt

Year: 2000

Iraqi Women: Untold Stories from 1948 to the Present

Citation:

Al-Ali, Nadje Sadiq. 2007. Iraqi Women: Untold Stories from 1948 to the Present. London: Zed Books.

Author: Nadje Sadiq Al-Ali

Annotation:

Summary:
The war in Iraq has put the condition of Iraqi women firmly on the global agenda. For years, their lives have been framed by state oppression, economic sanctions and three wars. Now they must play a seminal role in reshaping their country's future for the twenty-first century.

Nadje Al-Ali challenges the myths and misconceptions which have dominated debates about Iraqi women, bringing a much needed gender perspective to bear on the central political issue of our time. Based on life stories and oral histories of Iraqi women, she traces the history of Iraq from post-colonial independence, to the emergence of a women's movement in the 1950s, Saddam Hussein's early policy of state feminism to the turn towards greater social conservatism triggered by war and sanctions. Yet, the book also shows that, far from being passive victims, Iraqi women have been, and continue to be, key social and political actors. Following the invasion, Al-Ali analyses the impact of occupation and Islamist movements on women's lives and argues that US-led calls for liberation has led to a greater backlash against Iraqi women. (Summary from ZED Books)

Table of Contents:
Introduction

1. Living in the Diaspora

2. Living with the Revolution

3. Living with the Ba'th

4. Living with Wars on Many Fronts

5. Living with War and Sanctions

6. Living with the Occupation

Conclusion

Topics: Armed Conflict, Occupation, Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender Analysis, Nationalism, Political Participation, Religion Regions: MENA, Asia, Middle East Countries: Iraq

Year: 2007

Imperial Democracies, Militarised Zones, Feminist Engagements

Citation:

Mohanty, Chandra Talpade. 2011. “Imperial Democracies, Militarised Zones, Feminist Engagements.” Economic and Political Weekly 46 (13): 76–84.

Author: Chandra Talpade Mohanty

Annotation:

Summary:
The post-11 September 2001 consolidation of imperial democracies and securitised regimes in the United States, Israel, and India mobilise anatomies of violence anchored in colonial legacies and capitalist profitmaking. These regimes utilise specific and connected racial and gendered ideologies and practices at their social and territorial borders - in the US-Mexico borderlands, the West Bank and Gaza, and the Kashmir Valley. They exercise militarised and masculinised forms of control, surveillance and dispossession that illuminate the contours of national political subjectivities and the uneven construction of citizenship. These imperial democracies militarise all domains of social life, and discipline or imprison not just abandoned and criminalised communities, but all state subjects. The essay suggests that an alternative vision of connectivity and solidarity requires building ethical, cross-border feminist solidarities that confront neoliberal militarisation globally. (Summary from original source) 

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Economies, Feminisms, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Militarization, Nationalism, Violence Regions: MENA, Americas, North America, Asia, Middle East, South Asia Countries: India, Israel, United States of America

Year: 2011

Asian Fury: Gender, Orientalism and the Indo-Pakistani Nuclear ‘Threat’ in US Foreign Policy Discourse, 1998 – 2009

Citation:

Vaughan, Tom. 2013. “Asian Fury: Gender, Orientalism and the Indo-Pakistani Nuclear ‘Threat’ in US Foreign Policy Discourse, 1998 – 2009.” Working Paper No. 09-13, School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.

Author: Tom Vaughan

Abstract:

Since India and Pakistan each carried out their second tests of nuclear weapons in 1998, US foreign policy discourse and Western media has often taken as fact the 'threat' of nuclear conflict in the region. This dissertation argues that a critical constructivist approach is required when studying Indo-Pakistani nuclear relations, given the inadequacies of structural realism and its unhelpful assumptions about the 'nature' of international politics. Since realist accounts make up the majority of recent literature on the subject, this dissertation aims to provide an alternative account, examining how US foreign policy discourse constructs the condition of threat through representations of the US, India and Pakistan. Using a discourse analysis methodology, I investigate the gendered and orientalist constructions of India and Pakistan which contribute to the mainstream perception of nuclear threat on the South Asian subcontinent. In a two-part analysis, I examine the effect that the September 11th 2001 terrorist attacks have had on the US discourse around Indo-Pakistani nuclear behaviour. I find that the US discourse changes significantly over time. From the 1998 tests onwards, a direct and imminent nuclear threat to international security is constructed. After 9/11, this threat is increasingly negated. Across both periods, the US discourse constitently feminises and orientalises India and Pakistan in relation to a dominant US masculinity – practices which are instrumental in the representation of threat – although the uses and effects of these representational practices shift over time. The discursive changes observed demonstrate how 'radical breaks' in history can change knowledge about international politics, and illustrate how US foreign policy discourse reconfigures the US's global identity after 9/11.

Keywords: United States, India, Pakistan, nuclear, non-proliferation, Foucault, discourse, Gender, orientalism

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Feminisms, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Discourses, Nationalism, Security, Weapons /Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Regions: Americas, North America, Asia, South Asia Countries: India, Pakistan, United States of America

Year: 2013

The Search for a Scientific Temper: Nuclear Technology and the Ambivalence of India’s Postcolonial Modernity

Citation:

Chacko, Priya. 2011. “The Search for a Scientific Temper: Nuclear Technology and the Ambivalence of India’s Postcolonial Modernity.” Review of International Studies 37 (1): 185–208.

Author: Priya Chacko

Abstract:

This article examines the relationship between India's nuclear programme and its postcolonial identity. In particular, I argue that making sense of the anomalies and contradictions of India's nuclear behaviour, such as the gap of two decades between its nuclear tests, its promotion of nuclear disarmament and its failure to sign non-proliferation and test-ban treaties requires an understanding of the racially gendered construction of India's postcolonial modernity and the central roles given to science and morality within it. I suggest that India's postcolonial identity is anchored in anticolonial discourses that are deeply ambivalent toward what was viewed as a Western modernity that could provide material betterment but was also potentially destructive. What was desired was a better modernity that took into account what was believed to be Indian civilisation's greater propensity toward ethical and moral conduct. India's nuclear policies, such as its pursuit of nuclear technology and its promotion of disarmament cannot be seen in isolation from the successes and failures of this broader project of fashioning an ethical modernity.

Topics: Coloniality/Post-Coloniality, Gender, Nationalism, Weapons /Arms, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: India

Year: 2011

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