Contextualizing 'trafficking' and 'peacekeeping sex' in the Arizona Market: A feminist political economy framework for conceptualizing Bosnia and Herzegovina as a complex space of post-war

This thesis forwards a feminist critique of the neo-liberal approach to post-conflict reconstruction that was implemented in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina -- seen with the creation of, and regulation of 'trafficking' within, what came to be known as the 'Arizona Market'. The critique of the neo-liberal project of societal reconstruction is premised on the argument that an ideologically-rooted focus on 'free market' reform lacks a broader understanding of post-conflict spaces in which reconstruction programs are actually implemented; and this lack manifests into how BiH (effectively regulated by the International Community during the U.N peacekeeping mission) regulated 'trafficking'. Indeed, lacking a broader understanding of the context, the International Community's attempt to regulate 'trafficking' in BiH positions 'consent' in terms that fail to recognize structural constraints on women's agency.;Therefore, positioned against a de-contextualized approach to reconstruction, this thesis draws on the language of political economy to offer a more complex view of post-war sites. The framework of political economy offers a way of bringing into focus the complex material conditions negotiated by 'trafficked' women, and by implication, the social contingencies of masculinity that constitute the spatial complexities of 'peacekeeping economies' like the Arizona Market.;This thesis is not prescriptive. However, the focus on women's autonomy, and on the social contingencies 'peacekeeping masculinity', enriches an understanding of post-war spaces, and thus contributes to a more comprehensive approach to their regulation.