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Political Science General

Gender and Private Security in Global Politics

edited by Maya Eichler

Publisher
Oxford University Press
Initial publish date
Mar 2015
Category
General
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780199364374
    Publish Date
    Mar 2015
    List Price
    $180.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780199364381
    Publish Date
    Mar 2015
    List Price
    $42.99

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Description

For two hundred years the provision of military security has been a central and defining function of the modern nation-state. The increasing reliance on private military and security companies in contemporary conflict marks a fundamental transformation in the organization of military violence, and it raises issues of accountability and ethics that are of particular concern to feminists. This privatization of force not only enables states to circumvent citizens' democratic control over questions of war and peace, but also undermines women's and minority groups' claims for greater inclusion in the military sphere.

Gender and Private Security in Global Politics brings together key scholars from the fields of international relations, security studies, and gender studies to argue that privatization of military security is a deeply gendered process. The chapters employ a variety of feminist perspectives, including critical, postcolonial, poststructuralist, and queer feminist perspectives, as well as a wide range of methodological approaches including ethnography, participant-observation, genealogy, and discourse analysis. This is the first book to develop an extended feminist analysis of private militaries and to draw on feminist concerns regarding power, justice and equality to consider how to reform and regulate private forces.

About the author

Maya Eichler holds the Canada Research Chair in Social Innovation and Community Engagement and is an Associate Professor of Political and Canadian Studies and Women's Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University. She is also the director of the Centre for Social Innovation and Community Engagement in Military Affairs at Mount Saint Vincent University. Her current research focuses on gender and the armed forces, military sexual violence, military-to-civilian transitions, and community stories of war and peace.

Maya Eichler's profile page

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