Engendering (in)security and conflict in African international relations
This chapter asserts that gender is essential to a full understanding of conflict, violence and human security/insecurity in Africa. While there is a growing literature arguing for the importance of gender in International Relations (IR) (Steans, 2006; Tickner, 1992, 2001), for the most part mainstream and even critical IR has remained relatively impervious to gendered arguments, particularly in regard to security and conflict. Moreover, much of the literature on IR and (in)security in Africa adopts this position as well (Clapham, 1996b; Harbeson and Rothchild, 2000; Reno, 1998).