4.0

credits

Average Course Rating

The threat that armed conflict poses to international, regional, and national security is well known. However, the defining features, rules, and conduct of war have been shaped by men – and a lack of recognition and understanding of how gender, specifically the social constructions of ‘masculinity’ and ‘femininity’, continues to impact how policymakers analyze and design interventions to prevent, address, and resolve conflict. In the nearly 75 years since the creation of the law of armed conflict, a legacy of World War II, contemporary conflicts and battlefields have significantly shifted. These ‘new’ wars are characterized by non-state armed groups, deliberate and brutal violence against civilians, and longevity – and requires challenging traditional understandings of war as defined by relationship to the state to emphasizing the importance of gender, social structures, and identity politics. This course examines the gendered dimensions of war – specifically how gender: (a) drives the behavior of individuals and therefore the motivations and tactics of conflict; and (b) shapes patriarchal systems and the use and acceptability of violence in societies prior to conflict emerging. This course will draw on conflict, feminist, and masculinities studies – with an emphasis on U.S. foreign policy as it relates to gender and war.