Top 10 Books: International Women’s Day 2024
Welcome to International Affairs’ yearly celebration of women’s contributions to the field of International Relations (IR). Scouring our Book Reviews section for the most noteworthy books recently reviewed in the journal leaves the overwhelming impression that women are everywhere, in a discipline that has so often disregarded their experiences and expertise.
In this year’s selection, Book Reviews Editor Mariana Vieira highlights that while women continue to write about feminist perspectives, that is merely one aspect of their research. The books below showcase women’s broad reach, from contributions to memory politics to international political economy; their diverse focuses, whether on great powers or understudied states like Uruguay or Mozambique; and their ability to revisit, learn from and reflect on the past, be it from the last century or the last decade.
1) Twelve feminist lessons of war
Written by Cynthia Enloe. Published in London by Footnote Press.
Cynthia Enloe is back, with a series of user-friendly lessons that expose the tensions behind women’s involvement in war. Twelve feminist lessons of war travels across time and space to uncover the complexities around militarism and patriarchal norms, analysing the stories and experiences of women during conflict, including their decisions to join the military, as well as the failed promises of postwar settings. Enloe’s accessible yet fierce masterclass demonstrates that feminist thinking is not designed to provide black-and-white answers, but rather to hold space for nuanced discussion.
Read the full review here.
2) The Routledge handbook of memory activism
Edited by Yifat Gutman and Jenny Wüstenberg. Published in London by Routledge.
With almost 80 chapters, The Routledge handbook of memory activism maps out the fast-growing ‘activist turn’, whereby memory activism is conceptualized as a ‘bottom-up movement’ reacting against state power. It features the voices of activists themselves, and it compellingly highlights the ways in which they deal with trauma, engage in political protest and attempt to subvert official narratives. Whereas this progressive handbook spotlights non-state actors, our joint review also features the state-focused Handbook on the Politics of Memory, which is curated by Maria Mälksoo, another leading woman scholar in the field. Both are highly recommended.
Read the joint review here.
3) Milton Friedman: the last conservative
Written by Jennifer Burns. Published in New York by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
At first glance, it might seem counter-intuitive to include a biography of Milton Friedman in this list, but bear with me. In this revelatory book, Jennifer Burns meticulously explores the life of one of the most influential economists of the twentieth century and her efforts to humanize Friedman, with all his flaws and ambitions, are greatly welcomed. In the process, the book successfully ‘rescues from anonymity’ a group of women who were critical for Friedman’s career, including the economist Anna Schwartz. The result is part biography, part intellectual history of the discipline, and will interest a wide-ranging audience.
Read the full review here.
4) When this is over
Edited by Amy Cortvriend, Lucy Easthope, Jenny Edkins and Kandida Purnell. Published in Bristol by Bristol University Press.
Four years ago, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson delivered the country’s first lockdown speech, alerting that ‘the coronavirus is the biggest threat that this country has faced in decades’. In this book, academics, activists and artists come together to remember, and to contemplate their lived experiences during the COVID–19 pandemic. The chapters contain stories and reflections — on social inequalities, the taboo surrounding death and the police interactions with the civilian population during the pandemic — that are touching and informative, laying the groundwork for the practical discussions of the post-pandemic world that follow.
Read the joint review here.
5) Multilateral sanctions revisited
Edited by Andrea Charron and Clara Portela. Published in Montreal by McGill-Queen’s University Press.
This unsung hero draws on the work of Margaret Doxey, a Canadian scholar known for her insights into collective sanctions and international enforcement, and its contributors apply her lessons to the evolving sanctions regime of the United Nations. ‘Written by an international team of women’, the chapters provide detailed coverage of the different tools that the UN employs, from embargoes to asset freezes. The book celebrates the UN’s ability to improve the effectiveness of its sanctions, while remaining well rounded in its coverage, offering a mixed picture of adaptation, reforms, frustration and failure.
Read the review here.
6) The life and death of states
Written by Natasha Wheatley. Published in Princeton, NJ and Oxford by Princeton University Press.
International history enthusiasts, gather round — this one is for you! The life and death of states travels back to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to demonstrate how the debates on sovereignty that took place around the future of the Austro-Hungarian empire were crucial for the emergence of the contemporary interstate system. Natasha Wheatley delves into the historical arguments made by the book’s protagonists, offering her own formulations, to highlight the tensions behind general theory and historical specificities. The book benefits readers interested in international law and the history of central Europe.
Read the full review here.
7) Of light and struggle
Written by Debbie Sharnak. Published in Philadelphia by University of Pennsylvania Press.
Debbie Sharnak’s promising debut book details Uruguay’s human rights journey, starting with the human rights violations that took place under military rule four decades ago. Sharnak, impressively, travels through the many political developments that have shaped the country’s return to democracy and accountability. The analysis includes both the domestic and international dimensions, emphasizing the influence of neighbouring states’ experiences and transnational human rights groups. In the words of our reviewer, Sharnak’s ‘admirably lucid, deeply researched and nuanced book successfully counters Uruguay’s peripheral status’ in the literature on the Southern Cone.
Read the full review here.
8) Sovereign funds
Written by Zongyuan Zoe Liu. Published in Cambridge, MA by Belknap Press.
In Sovereign funds, Zongyuan Zoe Liu combines extensive primary resources with evidence from over 100 interviews to demystify the evolution, inner workings and uses of China’s sovereign funds both at home and abroad. Focusing on three main institutions, the book challenges the conventional wisdom on the state–market dichotomy, arguing that Chinese sovereign leverage funds are market actors, simultaneously funded by the state and representing it. Anyone interested on how China uses its wealth to pursue its domestic and foreign policy goals will find this book illuminating.
Read the full review here.
9) The parliamentary battle over Brexit
Written by Meg Russell and Lisa James. Published in Oxford by Oxford University Press.
Just as we seem to have left the COVID–19 pandemic behind us, so Brexit feels like a lifetime ago. Yet, as Meg Russell and Lisa James argue, the ways in which the Brexit process itself has damaged the UK constitution and cast aside the British parliament are not fully understood. Meticulously, the authors evaluate the immense complexity of MPs’ roles regarding the UK’s withdrawal from the EU and the role of the media in portraying the parliament as a block on popular will. The literature on this historic and disputed process is richer because of this book.
Read the full review here.
10) Violent resistance
Written by Corinna Jentzsch. Published in Cambridge by Cambridge University Press.
Violent resistance addresses an important gap in the existing state-centric literature on the formation of militias during civil wars. Corinna Jentzsch dives into the conditions, motivations and efforts that prompt civilians and communities to form militias amid violent conflict. Jentzsch’s theoretically innovative argument is persuasively illustrated with the case-study of the emergence of the Naparama militia in the civil war that engulfed Mozambique from the 1970s to the 1990s. The book has implications for understanding violent conflict around the world, and it will be of interest to scholars and policy-makers alike.
Read the full review here.
Mariana Vieira is the Book Reviews Editor of International Affairs.
Find the latest book reviews section in our March 2024 issue here.
For more reading suggestions, check out the IA Bookshelf series.
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All views expressed are individual not institutional.
