War and Terrorism

This chapter offers an account of central issues in feminist philosophical work on war and terrorism. Violence and oppression have been core feminist issues, both historically and substantively. Feminists have cleared two distinctive but parallel paths for reflections on violence. One path focuses on embodiment and norms and analyzes violence in terms of gender and sexuality. A second path engages with questions of political frames of violence. Who is visible, who receives recognition, who is treated with dignity and who is not? How are exclusions from the frame of recognition a condition for the ongoing existence of such political and moral frames? These two directions inform discussions of war and terrorism as well. This chapter traces how militaristic masculinities/feminities and a politics of exclusion/inclusion contribute to the legitimation of war and terror. Looking forward, the chapter notes the importance of feminist anti-militarism and of posing feminist questions to new technologies of war.