《女性主义国际关系学》教材编写进度汇报.

Women and Non Traditional Security: A report

by Chinese scholars

Institute of World Economics and Politics (IWEP), China

The paper intends to introduce the work my colleagues and I have done in the field of non-traditional security studies as well as our future research plan. It is divided into two parts. In the first part, I will brief on the contents of the Feminist International Relations textbook as well as our ensuing tasks. In the second part, I will give you some information on the newly established Center of Gender & Global Issues at Beijing Foreign Studies University as well as some of its future work plans.

PART I Promote the Feminist International Relations Textbook

The Feminist International Relations textbook is one of the research subjects under the program of “Non-traditional Security and China” led by Dr. Wan Yizhou, sponsored by the Ford Foundation. As part of the “Leading Textbooks on International Relations” series, it was published in November 2006 by Zhejiang People’s Press.

This book’s target users are undergraduates as well as post-graduates in higher education institutions. It is not only an ideal teaching material for the course of Feminist IR Studies, but also a good supplementary reading for such curriculums as IR Theory, Political Science and Women’s Studies.

Structure

The textbook Feminist International Relations consists of ten parts, including one introduction and nine chapters:

Introduction (by Li Yingtao)

Chapter 1 Development in the Study of Feminist International Relations (by Hu Yan)

Chapter 2 Gender Identity, Sovereignty and International System (by Hu Yan)

Chapter 3 Gender, War and Peace (by Li Yingtao)

Chapter 4 Gender Perspectives on Power and Security (by Hu Chuanrong)

Chapter 5 Environment Security from a Gender Perspective (by Guo Xiajuan)

Chapter 6 International Women’s Movements and International Organizations (by He Peiqun)

Chapter 7 Women and Development (by He Peiqun)

Chapter 8 Women, Culture and Nation (by Fan Ruolan)

Chapter 9 Gender and Contemporary Diplomacy of China (by Hu Chuanrong)

All the content can be roughly divided into four modules.

The introduction and the first chapter can be regarded as the first module. Since the study of feminist IR is new in China as well as abroad, readers are not very familiar with its analysis scope and theoretical framework. Thus, the introduction is to outline the general ideas of feminism, the main research target of feminist IR as well as the purpose of designing such a course. Besides, it is to define some concepts and terms that are frequently used in later chapters. Based on a critical review of the Western theories, Chinese study of feminist IR gradually takes shape. As a result, the first chapter of this textbook is to review the development, main schools and prospects of feminist IR, as well as its interactions with mainstream IR theories. Such elaborations help to sort out the basic threads in the historical and real-life development in feminist IR.

The second module, including chapters from two to five, is to criticize traditional IR theories. In pointing to the absence of gender analysis within the mainstream IR theories, this textbook strives to obtain new theoretical construction based on a feminist point of view, so as to update the agenda for mainstream IR studies in a comprehensive fashion.

Chapters from six to eight constitute the third module. If the second module still revolves around the mainstream IR theories, this module introduces more brand-new contents and thus further enlarges the scope of IR.

Undoubtedly, feminist researches are indispensable from the development of international women’s movements as well as the establishment of international women’s organizations. The sixth chapter of International Organizations and International Women’s Movements plays the role of transition as to build links between traditional IR theories and a new feminist perspective. It studies the international organizations and international women’s movements using the vertical as well as the horizontal parameters. Within the framework of North-South relations, the seventh chapter of Women and Development, along the main thread of development, probes into the relations between the developed North and the developing South as well as those between men and women. More specifically, it first clarifies the traditional development concept, revealing the “absence” of women in it; and then elaborates on the feminist concept of development which is to emphasize feminist transcending the traditional concept on the development model. That is to say, feminist theory undertakes an incremental transformation from “women in development”to “gender and development”, forming a situation in which multilayered development models coexist. By offering a fresh perspective, feminism enriches the study of IR. As for the eighth chapter of Women, Culture, and Nation, it incorporates women’s voice in the previously gender-absent IR study, and thus investigates the close ties linking women, culture, religion and ethnicity.

The ninth chapter of Gender and Diplomacy in Contemporary China, which is also the fourth module, focuses on China. Such analysis of the Chinese diplomacy in contemporary times from a gender perspective is to reveal the vital role of the gender perspective in Chin a’s theoretical study of IR as well as its diplomatic practice and development. Feminism not only concerns women themselves, but also raises questions concerning the development of the whole human being. As a result, this