Breaking with the powerful bond among manly men, states and war,
feminist theories of international relations have proliferated since the
early 1990s. These theories have introduced gender as a relevant empirical
category and analytical tool for understanding global power relations as
well as a normative position from which to construct alternative world
orders. Together with a range of new perspectives on world politics,
including postmodernism, constructivism, critical theory and green
politics, feminist theories have contested the power and knowledge of
mainstream realist and liberal International Relations. Like these other
contemporary theories, feminism shifts the study of international
relations away from a singular focus on inter-state relations toward a
comprehensive analysis of transnational actors and structures and their
transformations in global politics. Arguably, the political rupture
created by the magnitude and significance of the events of September 11,
2001 has given new impetus to feminist perspectives on international
relations. With their focus on non-state actors, marginalized peoples and
alternative conceptualizations of power, feminist perspectives bring
fresh thinking and action in the post-9/11 decentred and uncertain
world.