A Constructivist Perspective of Rape as a Military Strategy: A Comparative Analysis of the Rwandan Genocide and the Bosnian War
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
This paper explores how the social construction of a peoples’ ethnic or national identity can influence the use of rape as a military strategy. In exploring this concept, the Rwandan genocide and Bosnian War will be used as case studies. It is argued that rape as a military strategy derives coercive power from social constructions of ethnicity, nationality and gender in patriarchal societies. In presenting this argument, the constructivist school of thought is used to analyze the processes that led to social constructions of ethnicity, nationality and gender. This paper considers the subsequent social environment that allowed rape to be used as an effective military strategy in both Rwanda and Bosnia.
Downloads
Article Details
Section
Articles: USURJ’s current Publication Agreements apply a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (CC-BY-NC) by default. The CC BY-NC license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon work non-commercially. The author(s) can choose a different CC license, as outlined in https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/. Please see the PDF for each article to determine what license is applied to that article. Author(s) can also request to reserve all copyright (All Rights Reserved). If there is no indication for articles published before September 2020, assume the author retains all rights beyond those necessary for publication by USURJ. All articles published after September 2020 will apply one of the aforementioned CC licenses. See the Publication Agreement under the Submission Preparation Checklist or Author Guidelines for more information. Artwork: All copyright for the original artwork remains with the artist unless they wish to apply a Creative Commons (CC) license to the artwork. Please see the PDF for each artwork to determine what license is applied to that artwork.