Forging bonds with women, nature and the Third World: An ecofeminist critique of international relations

This research focuses on the specific issue of poverty and suffering in the Third World and the reasons for its neglect in IR, despite the fact that it impacts the lives of such a large number of people. It is in this context of tremendous under-representation in theory and repression in practice and the two actively reinforcing each other that this thesis aims at developing a critique of IR using an ecofeminist perspective. Ecofeminism and IR seem, at first observation, rather disparate: fields, far removed from each other. However, this thesis aims at building a bridge between the two by showing that ecofeminism has a significant contribution to make to the discipline. Thus, the aim of this thesis is two-fold: first, to highlight the abandonment of the Third World in IR and examine its reasons and impact on the former as well as the latter; second, to demonstrate that ecofeminism can be seen as a radical and critical approach to IR and thus intensify the existing feminist critique of the discipline. The exercise of power or its study cannot be one-way; if power is all-pervasive, so is resistance. Thus, the Third World is not entirely without recourse to action. In light of this Foucauldian notion of power, a materialist ecofeminism serves as the seed of resistance in the context of the naked hegemony exercised by the dominant states in the discipline of IR and in terms of the political, military and economic control in relations between nations. Moreover, as mentioned earlier, ecofeminism serves as the key tool to developing a deeper understanding of exploitation and repression in all its forms, including its manifestation in the theory and practice of IR. Above all, it attempts to provide an alternative to the existing world-view, norms and practices that are associated with existing approaches in IR.