International Security and Gender.

• Author: Faddis, Stephanie
• Position: Book review

INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AND GENDER

Nicole Detraz

(Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2012), 224 pages.

In International Security and Gender, Detraz presents a comprehensive introduction to the application of a feminist lens to the study of international security, calling attention to the lack of consideration gender receives within international relations scholarship and refocusing the reader to the implications of this oversight on both security theory and practice.

In an examination of the five important topics within the subjects--militarization, peacekeeping and peace-building, terrorism, human security, and the environment--Detraz challenges the standard security narrative and asks the reader to consider how socialized assumptions about gender impact and shape definitions and norms regarding security across the globe and in all societies. In addition to examining consequences of these theoretical definitions and constructions of security on real-life security practices worldwide, Detraz reflects on how feminist interpretations of these central concepts within security studies intersect with the goals of emancipation. In doing so, she makes a strong argument that feminist international relations...