Globalization and Militarism : Feminists Make the Link (07 Edition)

Enloe (international development, women's studies, Clark U., Massachusetts) argues that a "feminist curiosity" can lead to insights on globalization, militarism, and their linkage. Extending lectures she gave in Tokyo (some of which were translated into Japanese for a 2004 volume; Ochanomizu U. Press), she discusses such topics as the US invasion of Iraq, national security as a militarized male agenda, the gendered/global aspects of the Abu Ghraib scandal, and fashion as political. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Written by one of the world's leading feminist scholars, this masterful and provocative book takes seriously women's desires to be patriotic yet feminine and men's fears of being feminized as a strategy to explain how militarism is being globalizedand thus what it will take to roll back militarized societies and assumptions. Through explorations of how governments think so narrowly about national security, of how post-war reconstruction efforts have marginalized women, of how ideas about feminization were used to humiliate male prisoners in Abu Ghraib, and of why camo has become a fashion statement, Cynthia H. Enloe unravels militarism's both blatant and subtle workings. Focusing her lens on the Big Picture of international politics and on the small picture of women's and men's complex everyday lives, Enloe challenges us to recognize militarism in all its forms.