Faking It In 21st Century IR/Global Politics

Laura Sjoberg (Editor)

Research output: Contribution to journalSpecial issuepeer-review

3 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This is a forum that is a retrospective on, prospective about, and reflection on the continued contributions of Cynthia Weber’s (1999) Faking It: US Hegemony in a ‘Post-Phallic’ Era.1 A number of timely events, inside the discipline of IR and in global politics, inspired renewed conversation about Faking It. In global politics, US-Cuba rapprochement reminded a number of scholars of the powerful account of US-Cuban relations found in Faking It, while international debates about gay rights and sexuality have brought discussions like Weber’s about sexuality among states from the margins to the mainstream in the policy world. Although scholars have been interested in thinking about the trajectory of queer thinking in IR since the publication of Faking It, Queer IR (with Faking It as its founding work) is experiencing something of a rebirth/resurgence in disciplinary IR. That, paired with the selection of Weber as the 2016 ISA Feminist Theory and Gender Studies Eminent Scholar and the release in 2016 of her Queer International Relations: Sovereignty, Sexuality and the Will to Knowledge, have
generated a significant amount of discussion about the utility and continued relevance of Faking It – a book which was critically acclaimed but perhaps published before its (disciplinary) time.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)80-130
Number of pages51
JournalMillennium: Journal of International Studies
Volume45
Issue number1
Publication statusPublished - 18 Aug 2016

Keywords

  • gender
  • queer theory
  • international relations
  • feminist IR
  • Cuba

Cite this