Gender, Justice, and the Wars in Iraq
A Feminist Reformulation of Just War Theory
By (author) Laura Sjoberg
Not available to order
Publication date:
12 May 2006Length of book:
278 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9780739155479
Gender, Justice, and the Wars in Iraq offers a feminist critique and reconstruction of just war theory. It points out gender biases in the just war tradition and suggests alternative jus ad bellum and jus in bello standards that emphasize women, political marginality, and empathy. Laura Sjoberg applies this feminist just war theory to analyze the wars in Iraq since the end of the Cold War—the First Gulf War, the war of sanctions, and the Second Gulf War. By examining international political discourse from and about Iraq, it shows where war generally and just war specifically are gendered. Through the stories of key just war characters like Jessica Lynch, this book reveals where women are omitted and subordinated in global politics. Sjoberg suggests that dialogue and empathy replace righteousness in just war thinking for the good of human safety everywhere and concludes with alternative visions of Gulf War policies, inspired by feminist just war theory.
A significant strength of the text lies in its method of articulating potential counter-discourses to those actually employed in the case of the Iraq Wars, which draw inaginatively on a feminist war ethic....Gender, Justice, and the Wars in Iraq provides thought-provoking reading for students and academics alike......