Masculinity and the Fear of Emasculation in International Relations Theory

This chapter examines the classical debate between conservatism and liberalism from a gendered perspective. Traditionally, gender has been seen as a physical, unchanging attribute. Physical properties unique to a particular sex were meant to produce different gender properties. Fractures within masculinity have played a crucial part in defining the relationships between the two orthodox paradigms in international relations (IR): namely realism and liberal internationalism. Realism claims an understanding of the innate laws of human nature that govern all human action; liberal IR assumes that it understands the nature of human progress in accordance with the doctrines of reason. Orthodox IR was and remains a product of the conflict between conservatism and the forces supporting what became the Enlightenment reaction to conservatism. IR has been constructed on the idea of a split between the international and the national, which has left little place for the home.