Antimilitarism Political and Gender Dynamics of Peace Movements

People come together in movements to end war from many political traditions. They are socialists, communists and anarchists, people of a variety of faiths, secularists, pacifists and feminists. They share a belief that peace is possible, but have divergent views on the causes of militarism and strategies to end it. As both peace activist and social researcher, Cynthia Cockburn is well placed to ask, 'How coherent and cohesive are we?' The book presents original case studies of anti-war, anti-militarist and peace movements in Japan, South Korea, Spain, Uganda and the UK, of international networks against military conscription and the proliferation of guns, and of singular campaigns addressing aggression against Palestinians and the expansion of NATO. The stand-alone chapters make ideal course readings. Scanning the political spectrum, but always with a gender lens, the author carefully uncovers the movements' many tensions and antagonisms, looking for the source of alliance that may make of these and a multitude of other groups, organizations and networks worldwide an unstoppable movement for change. Between the nihilist view that violence is inevitable and the utopian belief in the possibility of a violence-free world is an achievable goal of violence reduction, both in times of war and in times called peace. Violence is, much more often than we think, a choice.

CYNTHIA COCKBURN Visiting Professor, Department of Sociology, City University London, and Honorary Professor at the Centre for the Study of Women and Gender atUniversity of Warwick, UK. She is a feminist researcher and writer. She lives in London, where she is active in Women in Black against War and the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

'A new book by Cynthia Cockburn is always cause for cheer. Antimilitarism is full of gritty cross-national comparisons. You can hear women peace activists debating whether to stay in mixed-gender movements, and when do masculinized internal movement cultures replicate the patriarchal structures that perpetuate militarism. Students of social movements, masculinities, feminisms and militarism will each be smarter for having read Cynthia Cockburn.'
- Cynthia Enloe, author of Nimo's War, Emma's War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War

'Cynthia Cockburn's research has done a service to the various peace and anti-war groupsh. Ultimately, it challenges readers to look for "a different common sense". This is the critical, "counter-hegemonic" sense that works for a reduction of every form of violence - from the structural violence of poverty and deprivation and from daily physical violence and intimidation to the organised mass violence of war - and insists that there are other choices we can bring into being.'
- Howard Clark, War Resisters' International