Feminist Interventions in International Relations

Does feminist International Relations (IR) have anything to say about development? Twenty years ago the question would have been purely rhetorical: feminists working in the field of IR were deeply informed by literature on gender and development, and they contributed to this literature. However, in the wake of the militarisation of international politics in the new century, feminists in IR shifted their attention to studying security and to critiquing the traditional core of the field. The same seemed true for development as development practitioners recognised that countries embroiled in violent conflict ranked at the bottom of measures of development. Concepts such as risk-reduction, conflict prevention, conflict resolution, peace building and state-building joined the vocabulary of development. In this context, feminist IR scholarship became relevant for development in a new way. It put at the centre of attention two propositions. First, there is a relationship between war and gender and second, processes of peace-making and post-war reconstruction are thoroughly gendered.