Ask a Feminist: Gender and the Rise of the Global Right

For this edition of “Ask a Feminist,” Cynthia Enloe-feminist, activist, writer, scholar, and research professor at Clark University-speaks with special issue editors Suzanna Danuta Walters, Ratna Kapur, and Agnieszka Graff about the relations between gender and militarism and imperialism, in particular about the role of gender in the rise of the imperialist, fascist (or neofascist), populist (or neopopulist) social movements that seem to be spanning the globe

Gender, war and militarism: making and questioning the links

The gender dynamics of militarism have traditionally been seen as straightforward, given the cultural mythologies of warfare and the disciplining of ‘masculinity’ that occurs in the training and use of men's capacity for violence in the armed services. However, women's relation to both war and peace has been varied and complex. It is women who have often been most prominent in working for peace, although there are no necessary links between women and opposition to militarism. In addition, more women than ever are serving in many of today's armies, with feminists rather uncertain on how to relate to this phenomenon. In this article, I explore some of the complexities of applying gender analyses to militarism and peace work in sites of conflict today, looking most closely at the Israeli feminist group, New Profile, and their insistence upon the costs of the militarized nature of Israeli society. They expose the very permeable boundaries between the military and civil society, as violence seeps into the fears and practices of everyday life in Israel. I place their work in the context of broader feminist analysis offered by researchers such as Cynthia Enloe and Cynthia Cockburn, who have for decades been writing about the ‘masculinist’ postures and practices of warfare, as well as the situation of women caught up in them. Finally, I suggest that rethinking the gendered nature of warfare must also encompass the costs of war to men, whose fundamental vulnerability to psychological abuse and physical injury is often downplayed, whether in mainstream accounts of warfare or in more specific gender analysis. Feminists need to pay careful attention to masculinity and its fragmentations in addressing the topic of gender, war and militarism

Target of Opportunity Multipoint in Situ Measurements with Falconsat-2

This paper describes the FalconSAT-2 mission objectives to take advantage of targets of opportunity to make multipoint in situ measurements of ionospheric plasma depletions simultaneously with other spacecraft. Because these plasma depletions are known to interfere with radio transmissions over a broad range of frequencies, including 100-1000 MHz, the international space weather community is investigating the instigation, temporal evolution, and spatial propagation of these structures in the hopes that a prediction tool may be developed to warn operators of outages in communications or navigation. FalconSAT-2 will be launched into a low altitude (360 km), medium inclination (52 degrees) orbit with sensors designed to measure in situ suprathermal plasma spectra at a rate of 10 samples per second. The primary mission objectives are to 1) investigate F region ionospheric plasma depletion morphology relative to geomagnetic activity, and 2) demonstrate the utility of the Miniature Electrostatic Analyzer (MESA) in measuring energy-resolved spectra of ionospheric electrons over a dynamic range such that plasma density depletions down to 0.1% of the background may be resolved at a rate of 10 Hz. Simultaneous in situ multipoint observations of ionospheric plasma depletions are designated as a secondary objective since FalconSAT-2 consists of a single spacecraft, and opportunities to make these simultaneous measurements with other spacecraft in compatible orbits are not in our control. Both deep and shallow bubbles, frequently observed in the pre- and post-midnight sectors, respectively [Singh at al., 1997], are known to exhibit magnetic field-aligned behavior [Fagundes et al., 1997]; thus, there is the expectation (to first order) that multiple spacecraft entering a magnetic flux tube simultaneously have the opportunity to observe a depletion structure at different points within the structure. This observation would provide insight into the plasma depletion extent along the field line. Other conjunction types, such as non-simultaneous intersection of a flux tube or crossing of orbital paths simultaneously in different magnetic flux tubes, provide insight into other aspects of depletion structure, such as constraining the plasma depletion extent and propagation speed along the magnetic field line, or plasma depletion vertical extent. With this paper, a statistical analysis of the probability that FalconSAT-2 will intersect a magnetic flux tube during eclipse simultaneously with other spacecraft capable of measuring thermal electrons is presented

Sexual violence in Iraq: Challenges for transnational feminist politics

The article discusses sexual violence by ISIS against women in Iraq, particularly Yezidi women, against the historical background of broader sexual and gender-based violence. It intervenes in feminist debates about how to approach and analyse sexual and wider gender-based violence in Iraq specifically and the Middle East more generally. Recognizing the significance of positionality, the article argues against dichotomous positions and for the need to look at both macrostructural configurations of power pertaining to imperialism, neoliberalism and globalization on the one hand, and localized expressions of patriarchy, religious interpretations and practices and cultural norms on the other hand. Finally, the article reflects on the question of what a transnational feminist solidarity might look like in relation to sexual violence by ISIS

Critical methods in international relations: the politics of techniques, devices and acts

Methods have increasingly been placed at the heart of theoretical and empirical research in IR and social sciences more generally. This article explores the role of methods in International Relations and argues that methods can be part of a critical project if reconceptualised away from neutral techniques of organising empirical material and research design. It proposes a two-pronged reconceptualisation of critical methods as devices which enact worlds and acts which disrupt particular worlds. Developing this conceptualisation allows us to foreground questions of knowledge and politics as stakes of method and methodology rather than exclusively of ontology, epistemology or theory. It also allows us to move away from the dominance of scientificity (and its weaker versions of systematicity and rigour) to understand methods as less pure, less formal, messier and more experimental, carrying substantive political visions

The agency of liminality: army wives in the DR Congo and the tactical reversal of militarization

The inherently unstable boundaries between military and civilian worlds have emerged as a main object of study within the field of critical military studies. This article sheds light on the (re)production of these boundaries by attending to a group that rarely features in the debates on the military/civilian divide: army wives in a ‘non-Northern’ context, more specifically the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Drawing upon the ‘analytical toolbox’ of governmentality, we explore how civilian and military positionalities are called upon, articulated and subverted in the governing and self-governing of Congolese army wives. We show the decisive importance of these wives’ civilian-military ‘in betweenness’ both in efforts to govern them and in their exercise of agency, in particular The inherently unstable boundaries between military and civilian worlds have emerged as a main object of study within the field of critical military studies. This article sheds light on the (re)production of these boundaries by attending to a group that rarely features in the debates on the military/civilian divide: army wives in a ‘non-Northern’ context, more specifically the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Drawing upon the ‘analytical toolbox’ of governmentality, we explore how civilian and military positionalities are called upon, articulated, and subverted in the governing and self-governing of Congolese army wives. We show the decisive importance of these wives’ civilian–military ‘in-betweenness’ both in efforts to govern them and in their exercise of agency, in particular the ways in which they ‘tactically reverse’ militarization. The article also demonstrates the dispersed nature of the governing arrangements surrounding army wives, highlighting the vital role of ‘the civilian’ as well as the ‘agency of those being militarized’ within processes of militarization. By foregrounding the relevance of studying Congolese army wives and their militarization with an analytical toolbox often reserved for so called ‘advanced militaries/societies’, and by revealing numerous similarities between the Congolese and ‘Northern’ contexts, the article also sets out to counter the Euro/US-centrism and ‘theoretical discrimination’ that mark present-day (critical) military studies

Women, ethnicity and nationalisms in Latin America

Gutierrez Chong, Natividad (ed. lit.) "Women, ethnicity and nationalisms in Latin America". Aldershot : Ashgate, 2007. 235 p. ISBN 978-075-464-925-0Nationalism is a multifaceted phenomenon that has recently become a focus of redefinition through new multidisciplinary and multi-method approaches. The complex links among gender, ethnicity and nationalism, neglected for a long time in academic research, are increasingly receiving coverage in the scholarly literature. The book "Women, Ethnicity and Nationalisms in Latin America”, edited by Natividad Gutiérrez Chong, systematically explores these links in the context of Latin America, with case studies covering Argentina, Ecuador, Bolivia and Mexico. Contributions are by leading Latin American scholars from diverse academic fields who share the aim of overcoming the limitations of the Eurocentric and androcentric framework that characterizes the main approaches to nationalism

Researching "British [Muslim] Values": Vernacular politics, digital storytelling, and participant researchers

This article reflects on methodological decisions, strategies, and challenges from a recent interdisciplinary project on the relationship between ‘British values’ and Islam. The project employed digital storytelling to access ‘everyday’ conceptions and constructions of this contentious relationship. The research was undertaken by participant researchers recruited from Muslim communities in the UK’s East Anglia region, working with academics from media studies and political science. In this article we offer a detailed account of key moments relating especially to recruitment, retention, and the production of digital content. It offers two contributions. First, methodological guidance for researchers interested in combining participatory research with digital storytelling. And, second, rationale for so doing given the methodology’s scope for producing rich visual content with capacity (i) to deepen and disrupt established knowledge, and (ii) to change the views, ideas and aspirations of those involved in the content’s creation

Ultraviolet-induced flashover of a plastic insulator using a pulsed excimer laser

Ultraviolet-induced flashover has been observed over stressed, angled, acrylic insulators illuminated by a short (60 ns) pulse of excimer laser light at 249 nm. Flashover has been observed at ultraviolet fluences of 5–65 mJ/cm 2 for electric field stresses approximately 10–30% of static breakdown stress. Insulators at positive angle (conventional configuration) exhibit a reduced tolerance to ultraviolet light versus insulators at negative angle (unconventional configuration) by approximately a factor of 2, while the presence of impurities at the triple point reduces the tolerance to ultraviolet even further. Flashover is related to the fluence, rather than the power density, for short pulses, and the production of photoelectrons is a likely mechanism for the initiation of flashover.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/45478/1/11090_2005_Article_BF01016000.pd