Women as Objects and Commodities

Author(s):  
Alina Sajed

The engagement between the discipline of international relations (IR) and feminist theory has led to an explosion of concerns about the inherent gendered dimension of a supposedly gender-blind field, and has given rise to a rich and complex array of analyses that attempt to capture the varied aspects of women’s invisibility, marginalization, and objectification within the discipline. The first feminist engagements within IR have pointed not only to the manner in which women are rendered invisible within the field, but also to IR’s inherent masculinity, which masks itself as a neutral and universally valid mode of investigation of world politics. Thus, the initial feminist incursions into IR’s discourse took the form of a conscious attempt both to bridge the gap between IR and feminist theory and to bring gender into IR, or, in other words, to make the field aware that “women are relevant to policy.” In the 1990s, feminist literature undertook incisive analyses of women’s objectification and commodification within the global economy. By the end of the 1990s and into the first decade of the 21st century, the focus turned to an accounting for the agency of diverse women as they are located within complex sociopolitical contexts. The core concern of this inquiry lay with the diversification of feminist methodologies, especially as it related to the experience of women in non-Western societies.

Author(s):  
V. Wittmann

There are numerous global challenges facing humanity in this century. Diplomacy has to take these needs into account and contribute with profound expertise to academic and political discussions as well as societal developments. Any single state-related or disciplinary solo effort will not provide adequate answers to how humanity can manage and cope with the global risks of the 21st century. The article deals with the question of digital diplomacy versus downfall by fi rst outlining the global hazards endangering humanity as well as infl uencing world politics and international relations. Thereafter digital diplomacy as a tool to prevent humanity’s downfall is presented. Requirements for diplomats in the global age are highlighted in the following. Furthermore, visionary claims of a global turn in politics are designated and diplomacy’s contribution toward this undertaking are formulated. To close, diplomacy’s most promising way of off ering humanity its profound expertise in the digital era is set forth.


Author(s):  
Tim Dunne

This chapter examines the core assumptions of liberalism regarding world politics. It explores why liberals believe in progress, what explains the ascendancy of liberal ideas in world politics since 1945, and whether liberal solutions to global problems are hard to achieve and difficult to sustain. The chapter also considers central ideas in liberal thinking on international relations, including internationalism, idealism, and institutionalism. It concludes with an assessment of the challenges confronting liberalism. Two case studies are presented: one dealing with imperialism and internationalism in nineteenth-century Britain, and the other with the 1990–1991 Gulf War and its implications for collective security. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that asks whether democracy is a better system of government and whether it should be promoted by peaceful and forceful means.


2013 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-41
Author(s):  
Predrag Simic

In the early 21st century, globalization and the world economic crisis changed the balance of powers between the old (declining) and new (emerging) industrial states replacing the unilateral with a multilateral system of international relations and changing the way in which world politics was functioning. Globalization has increased the number of transnational problems (protection of human environment, international traffic and communications, flows of capital, energy, migrations, etc.) that require global governance. However, these trends also indicate that in the 21st century, international relations and world politics will function in a significantly different manner than they did within the bipolar and unipolar order, which characterized the second half of the 20th century.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 240-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cynthia Boaz

Abstract Fictional universes can be treated as discrete units of analysis in which we see the operation of international relations theory. This article discusses insights gleaned from a course created at Sonoma State University called “Gender and Geopolitics in Science Fiction and Fantasy,” in which feminist theory and international relations approaches are integrated, and science fiction and fantasy texts serve as the mechanism through which to examine the key themes and questions. This article provides an overview of the pedagogy to highlight the usefulness of speculative fiction in teaching. Each of the fictional universes is treated as a separate system where gender and political dynamics manifest in ways that observers of international relations will recognize. The core texts are Battlestar Galactica, Game of Thrones, Jessica Jones, Star Trek, Misfits, and Watchmen. The major theories and approaches explored here have implications for gender studies and feminist theory, the concepts of metaphor and allegory, and game theory.


Author(s):  
Stephen Hobden ◽  
Richard Wyn Jones

This chapter examines the contribution of Marxism to the study of international relations. It first considers whether globalization is a new phenomenon or a long-standing feature of capitalist development, and whether ‘crisis’ is an inevitable feature of capitalism, and if so, whether capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction. The chapter proceeds by discussing a number of core features common to Marxist approaches as well as the internationalization of Karl Marx's ideas by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently by writers in the world-system framework. It also explains how Frankfurt School critical theory, and Antonio Gramsci and his various followers, introduced an analysis of culture into Marxist analysis. Two case studies are presented, one relating to neoliberalism in the developing world and the other to the Occupy movement. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that asks whether the global economy is the prime determinant of the character of world politics.


2001 ◽  
Vol 95 (1) ◽  
pp. 257-258
Author(s):  
Sylvia Ostry

The word globalization first appeared in the second half of the 1980s and now has become the most ubiquitous in the language of international relations. It has spawned a new vocabulary: globaloney (Why all the hype when the global economy was more integrated in the age of Queen Victo- ria?): globaphobia (the new, mainly mistaken, backlash); globeratti (the members of the international nongovernmen- tal organizations [INGOs] who travel around the world from conference to conference, except when they are on the Internet mobilizing for the next conference), and so on. For Robert Gilpin, among the world's most eminent scholars of international relations, globalization is insightfully defined as the deepening and widening integration of the world econ- omy by trade, financial flows, investment, and technology.


2019 ◽  
pp. 111-118
Author(s):  
George Zviadadze

After transformation of unipolarity and reformatting world order system, a question been forwarded on how new system is to be founded on. As it is known classical international relations system developed since Westphalia Agreement of 1648 has been composed mainly by the state as key actors of international politics. The system has been developed two type of regimes: soft bipolarity and balance of power interchanged in several period of time consequently. One of the characteristic features of globalization is a fundamental change of the international system and world order. It differs from the world of post-Cold War period with the stance of different actors of international relations on each other as well as with the forms of sharing power and that of interconnections. In that context there were four phases of the international relations systems: the system of Westphalia, the system of Vienna, the system of Versailles, the system of Yalta-Potsdam and later international relations were transformed into bipolarity one. Since demolishing classical Cold War order and entering into new epoch of anarchic scenario, the states as key actors of the system have been diminishing in favour of so-called “nonstate actors”. However, in the international system of the 21st century, the nationstate still has particular functions. It represents the dominant element of the world politics which can influence the behaviour of the population and non-state actors.


Author(s):  
Stephen Hobden ◽  
Richard Wyn Jones

This chapter examines the contribution of Marxism to the study of international relations. It first considers whether globalization is a new phenomenon or a long-standing feature of capitalist development, and whether ‘crisis’ is an inevitable feature of capitalism, and if so, whether capitalism contains the seeds of its own destruction. The chapter proceeds by discussing a number of core features common to Marxist approaches as well as the internationalization of Karl Marx's ideas by Vladimir Lenin and subsequently by writers in the world-system framework. It also explains how Frankfurt School critical theory, and Antonio Gramsci and his various followers, introduced an analysis of culture into Marxist analysis as well as the more recent ‘return to Marx’. Two case studies are presented, one relating to the Naxalite movement in India and the other focusing on the recent experience of Greece. There is also an Opposing Opinions box that asks whether the global economy is the prime determinant of the character of world politics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-17
Author(s):  
Leah R. McEwen

AbstractCommunicating chemical knowledge is at the core of the IUPAC mission and underlies the success of the chemistry enterprise. In the global economy of the 21st century, this involves exchange among computer systems along with the expert scientists who use them. To enable the application of IUPAC outputs in the digital environment, IUPAC must augment its efforts to enable accessibility and interpretation by machines as well as humans. The Union must adapt to a digital work culture to engage in its mission of sustainable development, common language and free exchange of scientific information. [Frey 2014, https://doi.org/10.1515/ci.2014.36.1.14] 


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