Claire Turenne Sjolander

One of the Boys

This article argues that American media reports of the Jessica Lynch case illustrate some of the ways in which gender has been reordered, policed and disciplined within the United States (and North America more broadly) in the wake of 9/11 and in the context of war. The study of a key gendered representation of the war – and of the way gender interlocks with race, class, nationality and sexuality in these representations – tells us not only about how the war was sold to the American public, but also about the degree to which normative and disciplinary gender roles can be stretched, or not, within domestic society and the ways in which contemporary media portrayals of foreign adventures serve to reinforce these gender norms. Ultimately we argue that media portraits of Jessica Lynch demonstrate how little the simple inclusion of women in the military acts to disrupt sexist systems of power and meaning.

Feminist perspectives on Canadian foreign policy

Contributors Acronyms Preface 1. Taking Up and Throwing Down the Gauntlet: Feminists, Gender, and Canadian Foreign Policy 2. Engaging the Possibilities of Magic: Feminist Pedagogy and Canadian Foreign Policy Part 1: Internationalism and Globalization 3. Disrupting Internationalism and Finding the Others 4. Gender and Canadian Trade Policy: Womens Strategies for Access and Transformation 5. Of Playing Fields, Competitiveness and the Will to Win: Representations of Gender and Globalization Part 2: Human Security 6. Militarized Masculinities and the Politics of Peacekeeping: The Canadian Case 7. Myths of Canadas Human Security Pursuits: Tales of Tool Boxes, Toy Chests, and Tickle Trunks 8. Masculinities, Femininities, and Sustainable Development: A Gender Analysis of DFAITs Sustainable Development Strategy Section 3: Human Rights 9. Womens Human Rights: Canada at Home and Abroad 10. Discourses and Feminist Dilemmas: Trafficking, Prostitution, and the Sex Trade in the Philippines 11. The Contradictions of Canadian Commitments to Refugee Women Section 4: Womens Organizing 12. Its Time for Change: A Feminist Discussion of Resistance and Transformation in Periods of Liberal World Order 13. Organizing for Beijing: Canadian NGOs and the Fourth World Conference on Women 14. Gendered Dissonance: Feminists, FAFIA, and Canadian Foreign Policy Bibliography Index

(Re)presenting landmines from protector to enemy: The discursive framing of a new multilateralism

The Ottawa Process leading to the international ban on anti‐personnel mines has been portrayed as an example of the New Multilateralism. In evaluating this claim, de Larrinaga and Turenne Sjolander trace the way in which the meaning attributed to landmines has been contested. They argue that the success of the NGO coalition in bringing landmines to the fore of the international agenda depended on their ability to redefine landmines as a humanitarian issue, rather than a legitimate weapon in the arsenals of the sovereign state as protector of civil society. The discursive focus on landmines as a scourge against humanity had the potential to fundamentally question the states responsibility in legitimizing the production and use of landmines. This potential for fundamental questioning is eclipsed by a further discursive turn, through which landmines themselves are seen to be the ‘enemy’. This allowed states to dissociate themselves from their role in the production and use of landmines, allying themselves w...

Canadian Foreign Policy: Does gender matter?

The Department of Foreign Affairs has had a longstanding commitment to advance gender equality and womens human rights. This article looks first at the challenges facing women within the foreign affairs bureaucracy, and then examines Canadas support and encouragement of gender mainstreaming initiatives internationally. In comparing the Canadian commitment to gender mainstreaming abroad with its attempts to integrate women into the foreign policy establishment at home, the article points to some of the limits of the current efforts to include women and gender in foreign policy processes and policies. It suggests that these processes and policies cannot respond meaningfully to concerns about the place of women and gender in foreign policy, without first understanding the extent to which they reflect profoundly gendered premises about the nature of foreign service, on the one hand, and the structure of global order, on the other.

Beyond Positivism Critical Reflections on International Relations

This work adopts the premise that the metatheoretical debates about positivists and post-positivists have reached an impasse; it suggests that an approach driven by theoretical reflexivity offers a basis on which alternative understandings of international relations can be developed.

Most safely on the fence? A round table on the possibility of a Canadian foreign policy after 9/11

The attacks of September 11, 2001, changed both the nature of world politics and how Canadians perceive their place in the world. Subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq only reinforced the sense that something of epochal significance had occurred. The organizers of the Canadian section of the International Studies Association wondered if the notion of something “Canadian” in foreign policy might no longer be relevant in a world reconfigured by the pre‐eminence of the US and its single‐minded pursuit of its war on terror. A round table was held on this question at the February 2003 meeting of the association in Portland, Oregon. This article reproduces the edited remarks that each participant presented at that time, with a second round of comments that each participant made in response to the other presentations and to subsequent questions posed by the moderator.

Through the looking glass: Canadian identity and the War of 1812

In 2012, the Harper government launched a national celebration of the bicentennial of the War of 1812, even though few Canadians were aware of the anniversary or of the war itself. While commemorating a largely unknown war might at first seem counterintuitive, this article argues that the focus on the War of 1812 represented an opportunity to engage in the construction of a different Canadian identity. In effect, the narrative surrounding the War of 1812 celebrations permitted the Conservative government to begin to establish a new “warrior identity” in contrast to the “peacekeeping identity” that has been associated with liberal internationalism and the Liberal Party. While liberal internationalism in both the study and practice of Canadian foreign policy contributed to a national identity framed around shared internationalist values, the narratives presented during the War of 1812 celebrations suggest an alternative understanding of the “true” nature of Canadian identity.

Unilateralism and Multilateralism: The United States and the Negotiation of the GATS

Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario. This is a revised version of a paper prepared for the annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association, 31 May-2 June 1992. I would like to express my gratitude to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (grant 410-92-0996) and to the University of Ottawa, whose funding made the research for this project possible. I am indebted to Fuyuki Kurasawa for able research assistance. I would also like to thank Michael Drolet, Alan Bones, Kim Richard Nossal, Keith Heintzman, and Renee MarlinBennett as well as an anonymous reviewer at the Journal for their helpful comments.

The Obama Charm? Canada and Afghanistan Under a New US Administration

This article examines the evolution – or lack thereof – in Canadas commitments to Afghanistan in light of Barack Obamas election to the US presidency. Obamas victory, certainly popular in Canada, signaled a renewed focus on Afghanistan as a priority for the American war on terror. For allies who were reluctant to participate, either at all or more extensively, in the war on terror because of their concerns over the administration of George W. Bush, the Obama election effectively removed all obstacles. In framing the discussion on the evolution (or not) of Canadas role in Afghanistan since the Obama victory, the article returns to the traditional understanding of Canadas role and place in world affairs – notably, to the concept of the middle power. In so doing, the article posits two understandings of middlepowermanship and argues that the Canadian intervention in Afghanistan can be seen through both interpretations. Framed as a peacekeeping or development mission, it coincides with the Canadian nation-building project and helps to reinforce a social order built upon the presumption of Canadas inherent moral superiority on the world stage. Framed as an action to reinforce the good of the existing global order, Canadas participation in the Afghanistan mission can be seen as representing the (global) “common interest.” The tensions around these two lenses through which Canadas middlepowermanship can be seen to characterize the first Obama year of the Canada–United States relationship on Afghanistan. Whatever the eventual decision of the Canadian government with respect to its intervention in Afghanistan, middlepowermanship will continue to loom large.

Mothers, Militarization and War: Quebec in Afghanistan

ABSTRACT Even though Quebec society is often defined as pacifist and antimilitarist, scripts of militarization are deeply embedded in its social fabric. In order to explore this controversial contention and problematize the construction of elements of Quebec’s pacifist identity, this article focuses on the figure of mothers grieving their soldier-children killed in combat and on the politics of the performances of motherhood in Quebec and Canada. We first turn our attention to the very idea of militarization and the role of mothers in it. We then examine the traditional figure of the militarized grieving mother in Canada through an exploration of Remembrance Day ceremonies. Finally, we focus on the efforts to resist this construction of militarized motherhood in an antimilitaristic video released by the Fédération des femmes du Quebec in October 2010. The different reactions to these two opposed performances of motherhood suggest that motherhood in Quebec is militarized, and demonstrate that seemingly pacifist societies can be profoundly militarized.