PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Nicola Pratt is Reader of the International Politics of the Middle East at the University of Warwick, U.K. She researches and writes about gender, civil society and security in the Middle East. She is also joint leader of the ‘Reconceptualising Gender’ research network between Warwick and Birzeit University (Palestine). Sophie Richter-Devroe is lecturer in Gender and Middle East Studies at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, Exeter University, U.K. She is the author of several prize-winning articles on Palestinian women’s activism against Israeli occupation. More recently her research focuses on Palestinian refugees and the Naqab Bedouins.
Gender, Governance and Security offers a timely and ethically relevant collection of essays that all critically engage with the virtues and shortcomings of United Nations (UN) Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security. Pratt and Richter-Devroe and their contributors raise very important ethical questions regarding the universal applicability of 1325 and critically take on board the essentialist discourses and practices that surround the resolution and as such helping to deconstruct the protection myth that underpins so much of international relations scholarship. The book is an indispensible contribution to debates about the lack of intersectional awareness amongst policy-makers charged with the task of furthering women's peace and security in international society. It offers telling feminist insights into the misuse of 1325 to justify, amongst other things, military intervention and brute force more generally. Annika Bergman Rosamond, Senior Lecturer in International Relations, Lund University, Sweden. This remarkable collection offers a timely opportunity to engage and reflect upon the impact of SC Resolution 1325 some 10+ years after its adoption. Lauded as one of the most important accomplishments concerning women, peace and security at the UN while simultaneously drawing sharp criticisms from feminist activists and academics alike, this volume captures the contours of that debate with nuance and sophistication in both theoretical and empirical terms. It is a must read for anyone interested in questions of gender, governance and security. Sandra Whitworth, Professor of Political Science, York University, Former Editor, International Feminist Journal of Politics
