'Well, What is the Feminist Perspective on Bosnia?'

The author discusses the difference that feminist scholarship can make to the discipline of international relations, especially by applying the insights relating to the socially constructed nature of gender that have come out of much feminist writing of recent decades. Looking in turn at the issues of gender, human rights, and the military and war, she argues that deeply entrenched beliefs and assumptions about what constitutes "masculinity" and "femininity" need to be examined in the light of these insights, rather than taken as "givens," in order to work towards an understanding of the important role played by beliefs and myths about gender in creating, maintaining and ending wars.