The international politics of sex : bodies, images, and Russian state homophobia
Description
Dean COOPER-CUNNINGHAM. The international politics of sex : bodies, images, and Russian state homophobia. New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2025. Online resource, e-book.
Integrating queer theory into visual international relations scholarship, this volume examines the ways in which sex, sexual shame, and stigma play into international power games. Using Russian state homophobia and the international response as a case study, the author illustrates the dynamics through which sex comes to matter geopolitically: namely, through moralising policies that carve out international hierarchies. In recent decades, Russia has consistently constructed Europe and the West as 'Gayropa' in its foreign policy discourse, arguing that this Gayropean space and its values threaten Russian national security and cultural sovereignty. Indeed, Putin's speeches have legitimised the war in Ukraine as a mission to save the country from decadent Europeanisation. To understand this, Cooper-Cunningham introduces the concept of heteronormative internationalism.
Integrating queer theory into visual international relations scholarship, this volume examines the ways in which sex, sexual shame, and stigma play into international power games. Using Russian state homophobia and the international response as a case study, the author illustrates the dynamics through which sex comes to matter geopolitically: namely, through moralising policies that carve out international hierarchies. In recent decades, Russia has consistently constructed Europe and the West as 'Gayropa' in its foreign policy discourse, arguing that this Gayropean space and its values threaten Russian national security and cultural sovereignty. Indeed, Putin's speeches have legitimised the war in Ukraine as a mission to save the country from decadent Europeanisation. To understand this, Cooper-Cunningham introduces the concept of heteronormative internationalism.