As a searcher in international relations, Ann Tickner was firstly stroke by the law number of women working in the field. She then realised that not only were women excluded as researchers, but also as subjects of study. That was the first step of her carrier as one of the main feminist authors in international relations theory. The work of Ann Tickner relies on classical visions of security and on their challengers, to introduce a brand new vision of International relations based on the concept of gender. Her main query was to know how the International Relations field would look in we introduced women in the field. International relations studies were born with realism, in the aftermath of the Second World War. For realist thinkers, security is defined in terms of national security. National security comes from power, in an anarchical world where no structure exists to regulate the relations between countries. Ann Tickner defines realism as concentrated on the "security of the State, which has to be achieved by increasing military capacities." The boundary between the state order and the international anarchy is tight, due to the lack of a central authority, which would "curve power's aggressive ambitions" .
[...] After 1990 and the end of the cold war, re-analyses of security came from many sources, since classical theories revealed unable to cope with the new international givens. Policy makers, as well as academics from both West and East sides were trying to give “security” a new meaning. The critics toward realism have actually already begun during the cold war. Hendley for instance, stated already in 1965 that realism theories were too ethnocentric to systematize international relations[4]. It was also discussed to restrain many important fields, and especially economics, into politics” issues. [...]
[...] To Tickner, this situation justifies in itself the need for a definition of security that would be “people-centred and transcends state and regional boundaries”[11]. But “gendering world's politics” goes beyond denouncing inequalities between men and women. Ann Tickner, after other feminist theorists like Cynthia Enloe, demonstrates that the very definition of what is male and what is a female clusters woman in these inequalities, trough a patriarchal State. Gender is a key concept in feminist theories. Contrary to sex, which is biologically given, gender is socially constructed. [...]
[...] Our media depict bored and angry young men in Muslim countries, who only aim is to destroy every symbol of the hated Western civilization. The attack on the towers is highly symbolised, as they epitomized urban life, which gathers Western values that are at stake. Materialism, liberalism, capitalism, and feminism Tickner adds, are targeted. On the other side, the West is reinforcing the defiance toward these countries trough a gender reality. The images of Afghan women, forced to hide behind the Burka have chocked the public after 9/11. [...]
[...] As the original sinner, or the object of a permanent temptation to men, woman is designed in many societies as the other, who must be blamed for what is going wrong in society. Tickner underlines the strong link between religion and culture. Women, still as mothers, are often attributed the social role of socialising the youngest. It is in many societies a sufficient reason to keep them at home, with the children, and erasing them from public places. In the Muslim world, women are especially suffering of the resurgence of the fundamentalism, which was especially striking during the Afghan war. [...]
[...] Ann Tickner refers here to the work of Mohamed Ayoob, who states that the quest for security in the North may have actually led to greater insecurities in the south[6]. Moreover, she assesses that the South, military threats do not arise from outside aggression but from the failure to integrate diverse social groups into the political process.”[7] Critics came from different actors, streams and places, but one of their common points was the emphasis put on “structural violence”. Peace researchers introduced this concept in the 1960s. [...]
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