Much has been written on how masculinity shapes international relations, but little feminist scholarship has focused on how international relations shape masculinity. Charlotte Hooper draws from feminist theory to provide an account of the relationship between masculinity and power. She explores how the theory and practice of international relations produces and sustains masculine identities and masculine rivalries.

This volume asserts that international politics shapes multiple masculinities rather than one static masculinity, positing an interplay between a "hegemonic masculinity" (associated with elite, western male power) and other subordinated, feminized masculinities (typically associated with poor men, nonwestern men, men of color, and/or gay men). Employing feminist analyses to confront gender-biased stereotyping in various fields of international political theory—including academic scholarship, journals, and popular literature like The Economist—Hooper reconstructs the nexus of international relations and gender politics during this age of globalization.

Charlotte Hooper won the British International Studies Association best dissertation prize in 1998. She now teaches gender and international relations at the University of Bristol.

Matthew Basso:
With the publication of this text Hooper joins the first rank of scholars using interdisciplinary tools to investigate questions of manhood and power.

Crucial for illuminating the current contests between and among hegemonic and subordinated masculinities now in play.

Hooper draws conceptual, normative, and discursive parallels between the discipline of international relations and its practice in real life... fascinating... excellent.

Contributes to the theoretical development of international relations and is important reading for those interested in the challenge of incorporating gender into the field... This book will engage scholars interested in issues of gender identity and globalization apparent in popular culture