Christine Agius
Associate Professor, Politics and International Relations. I hold a B.A. (Hons) degree in Political Science from the University of Melbourne, Australia and a PhD from the University of Manchester in International Relations and Security.
My research interests include:
* IR theory (critical, constructivist and normative approaches in IR)
* Swedish and Scandinavian politics (foreign policy, Social Democratic theory and ideology, identity, globalisation, EU membership, welfare states, internationalism, and the ‘war on terror’)
* Security and neutral states in the international system, particularly EU ‘militarily non-aligned’ member states and European security cooperation; critical approaches to security.
* Gendered perspectives on security, especially states, violence, and the relationship between masculinism and protection.
* Identity and discourses of identity in international relations and security.
My research interests include:
* IR theory (critical, constructivist and normative approaches in IR)
* Swedish and Scandinavian politics (foreign policy, Social Democratic theory and ideology, identity, globalisation, EU membership, welfare states, internationalism, and the ‘war on terror’)
* Security and neutral states in the international system, particularly EU ‘militarily non-aligned’ member states and European security cooperation; critical approaches to security.
* Gendered perspectives on security, especially states, violence, and the relationship between masculinism and protection.
* Identity and discourses of identity in international relations and security.
less
Related Authors
InterestsView All (69)
Uploads
Books by Christine Agius
Endorsements
'Surrounded as we are by a masculinized populism that continues to enable insecurity, violence, and oppression, this book demonstrates the depth and breadth of the lineages that facilitate these masculinist practices.'- Brent J. Steele, University of Utah, USA'
'This book shows how reactionary movements systematically mobilize masculine resentment, and how that links up with broader structures of patriarchy, white supremacy, and colonialism. It is essential for scholars, writers and journalists seeking to fully understand antifeminism as a political and ideological force.'- Jason Wilson, Columnist and Journalist at The Guardian
Table of contents
Introduction.
Chapter Two. #Notallmen, #menenism, Manospheres and Unsafe Spaces: Overt and Subtle Masculinism in Anti-"PC" Discourse.
Chapter Three: Real Victims, Real Men, Real Feminists, Real Sluts. The persistent masculinist collapse of gender-based violence discourses.
Chapter Four: Muscular humanitarian intervention.
Chapter Five: Drones and the politics of protection.
Conclusion.
This edited collection will be of particular interest to students of international relations theory, migration studies, gender and sexuality, post-colonialism and policy-making at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Contents
1 The politics of identity: making and disrupting identity - Christine Agius and Dean Keep
Part I: Establishing and consolidating identity
2 Co-constituting Fijian identity: the role of constitutions in Fijian national identity - Christopher Mudaliar
3 Australian foreign policy and the vernacular of national belonging - Katie Linnane
4 Gendered identities in peacebuilding: an analysis of post-2006 - Timor-Leste and Sarah Smith
5 Agents of peace: place, identity and peacebuilding - Gezim Visoka
Part II: Identity rupture
6 A space for identity: the case of Lebanon's naturalised Palestinians - Hind Ghandour
7 The Romani 'camp-dwellers' in Rome: between state control and 'collective-identity closure' - Riccardo Armillei
8 Telling terrorism tales: narrative identity and Homeland - Louise Pears
9 Right(s) from the ground up: internal displacement, the urban periphery and belonging to the city - Helen Berents
Part III: Contesting identity
10 Sweden, military intervention and the loss of memory - Annika Bergman Rosamond and Christine Agius
11 Pollution and purity: caste-based discrimination and the mobilisation of Dalit sameness - Ted Svensson
12 The queer common: resisting the public at Gezi Park and beyond - Paul Gordon Kramer
13 Positive regard for difference without identity - Lucy Nicholas
Using Sweden as a case study, it links identity, sovereignty, internationalism and solidarity to the debates about Swedish neutrality today and how neutrality has been central to Swedish identity and its world-view. Rather than viewing Swedish neutrality as the policy of isolationism or small and weak states, this book argues that Swedish neutrality is an embedded part of Swedish identity, and its domestic sources stem from the ideology and vision of Social Democracy. Far from isolationist, Sweden practiced an active form of neutrality, acting as the ‘moral voice’ of the global community. Identities are malleable, however, and this book examines the shifts in Swedish identity and neutrality. European integration, globalisation, new threats to security, and the arguments about decline of the state and sovereignty have impacted on neutrality. Whilst many are quick to herald its demise, this book argues that the norms and values of active neutrality can be reworked to contribute to a more cosmopolitan international order.
Contents
Introduction
1. Writing neutrality: from the Peloponnesian war to the Cold War
2. Neutrality 'is what states make of it': rethinking neutrality through constructivism
3. Neutrality as a Social Democratic project: tracing the origins of Swedish neutrality, 1814-1945
4. Sweden's post-war neutrality doctrine: active internationalism and 'credible neutrality'
5. The crisis in Swedish Social Democracy: paving the path for a new identity
6. A new Swedish identity? Bildt, Europe and neutrality in the post-Cold War era
7. Into Europe with the SAP: Sweden as an EU member state
8. The war on terror and globalisation: implications for neutrality and sovereignty
Conclusion: the failure of neutrality?"
Journal Articles by Christine Agius
external policy, and discourses. While Trump’s electoral loss to Biden in 2020 has been described as a ‘return to normal’, this article instead considers how Trump’s presidency exhibited lines of continuity when examined through a gender lens. Understanding how masculinism informs ideas of ontological security reveals how notions of gendered bordering, hierarchy, and ordering have been persistent threads in US politics, rather than simply an anomaly under Trump. This suggests greater potential to read ontological security in more complex terms through gendered bordering practices.
strategies to Counter or Prevent Violent Extremism (C/PVE) have
largely neglected the growing far-right threat. In this article, we
draw attention to the gender blind spot in C/PVE strategies by
arguing that misogyny and masculinism go beyond ‘anti-women’
sentiment and align with the far-right’s valorisation of order, hier-archy and traditional values. This blind spot in C/PVE measures has
significance for understanding the current limitations of tackling
violent extremism and the disconnection between misogyny, mas-culinism and how we apprehend violent extremism. Therefore, a
gender lens must be adopted to understand the nature of far-right
extremism and such views within wider societal contexts. We exam-
ine the recent C/PVE strategies of select western states to show that
they rarely connect far-right ideology and gender, and that gender
is mostly represented in terms of women and role type. Australia
serves as a case study based on its overt masculinism, where
attitudes towards women and misogynistic violence underscore
broader political and societal debates which can feed the growth
of the far-right, especially when focused on the aspects of mascu-linism that the far-right shares with mainstream politics.
continued to pursue foreign policy objectives at odds with the protection of women by its pursuit of punitive asylum seeker policies. Australia’s human rights record with regard to asylum has been widely criticised by international organisations such as the UN, peak medical associations, and human rights activists, including the impact of its asylum regime on women and children, who have been subjected to mental, physical and sexual abuse (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2017). In this article, we examine the gendered impact of Australia’s asylum policy in two ways: first, by highlighting the incoherence between this policy and Australia’s claims to protect women and children, and second, how Australia’s border practices reflect gendered ideas of security and sovereignty. We then consider how a feminist foreign policy can account for, and challenge, the hidden gendered outcomes of forced
migration and state practices.
In war and in peacemaking, our focus is largely directed towards the ‘major players’ in the conflict – the belligerents, and subsequently, the victors and victims – but a category of actor that is often overlooked is that of the neutral state. Impartiality in war between belligerents has a legal status and has existed historically for thousands of years, yet the role of neutrality in international politics has always raised difficult questions. Neutrality conjures up many connotations – mainly negative – but neutrals have played an important role in times of war and peace. Assessing the contribution of neutral states to war and peace requires a consideration of neutrality’s place in history and development over time. The changing nature of warfare and differing types of security threats also have had an important impact on neutrality and this article considers some of these implications for the neutral (or now post-neutral?) state, with a particular focus on Sweden and Switzerland."
Endorsements
'Surrounded as we are by a masculinized populism that continues to enable insecurity, violence, and oppression, this book demonstrates the depth and breadth of the lineages that facilitate these masculinist practices.'- Brent J. Steele, University of Utah, USA'
'This book shows how reactionary movements systematically mobilize masculine resentment, and how that links up with broader structures of patriarchy, white supremacy, and colonialism. It is essential for scholars, writers and journalists seeking to fully understand antifeminism as a political and ideological force.'- Jason Wilson, Columnist and Journalist at The Guardian
Table of contents
Introduction.
Chapter Two. #Notallmen, #menenism, Manospheres and Unsafe Spaces: Overt and Subtle Masculinism in Anti-"PC" Discourse.
Chapter Three: Real Victims, Real Men, Real Feminists, Real Sluts. The persistent masculinist collapse of gender-based violence discourses.
Chapter Four: Muscular humanitarian intervention.
Chapter Five: Drones and the politics of protection.
Conclusion.
This edited collection will be of particular interest to students of international relations theory, migration studies, gender and sexuality, post-colonialism and policy-making at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Contents
1 The politics of identity: making and disrupting identity - Christine Agius and Dean Keep
Part I: Establishing and consolidating identity
2 Co-constituting Fijian identity: the role of constitutions in Fijian national identity - Christopher Mudaliar
3 Australian foreign policy and the vernacular of national belonging - Katie Linnane
4 Gendered identities in peacebuilding: an analysis of post-2006 - Timor-Leste and Sarah Smith
5 Agents of peace: place, identity and peacebuilding - Gezim Visoka
Part II: Identity rupture
6 A space for identity: the case of Lebanon's naturalised Palestinians - Hind Ghandour
7 The Romani 'camp-dwellers' in Rome: between state control and 'collective-identity closure' - Riccardo Armillei
8 Telling terrorism tales: narrative identity and Homeland - Louise Pears
9 Right(s) from the ground up: internal displacement, the urban periphery and belonging to the city - Helen Berents
Part III: Contesting identity
10 Sweden, military intervention and the loss of memory - Annika Bergman Rosamond and Christine Agius
11 Pollution and purity: caste-based discrimination and the mobilisation of Dalit sameness - Ted Svensson
12 The queer common: resisting the public at Gezi Park and beyond - Paul Gordon Kramer
13 Positive regard for difference without identity - Lucy Nicholas
Using Sweden as a case study, it links identity, sovereignty, internationalism and solidarity to the debates about Swedish neutrality today and how neutrality has been central to Swedish identity and its world-view. Rather than viewing Swedish neutrality as the policy of isolationism or small and weak states, this book argues that Swedish neutrality is an embedded part of Swedish identity, and its domestic sources stem from the ideology and vision of Social Democracy. Far from isolationist, Sweden practiced an active form of neutrality, acting as the ‘moral voice’ of the global community. Identities are malleable, however, and this book examines the shifts in Swedish identity and neutrality. European integration, globalisation, new threats to security, and the arguments about decline of the state and sovereignty have impacted on neutrality. Whilst many are quick to herald its demise, this book argues that the norms and values of active neutrality can be reworked to contribute to a more cosmopolitan international order.
Contents
Introduction
1. Writing neutrality: from the Peloponnesian war to the Cold War
2. Neutrality 'is what states make of it': rethinking neutrality through constructivism
3. Neutrality as a Social Democratic project: tracing the origins of Swedish neutrality, 1814-1945
4. Sweden's post-war neutrality doctrine: active internationalism and 'credible neutrality'
5. The crisis in Swedish Social Democracy: paving the path for a new identity
6. A new Swedish identity? Bildt, Europe and neutrality in the post-Cold War era
7. Into Europe with the SAP: Sweden as an EU member state
8. The war on terror and globalisation: implications for neutrality and sovereignty
Conclusion: the failure of neutrality?"
external policy, and discourses. While Trump’s electoral loss to Biden in 2020 has been described as a ‘return to normal’, this article instead considers how Trump’s presidency exhibited lines of continuity when examined through a gender lens. Understanding how masculinism informs ideas of ontological security reveals how notions of gendered bordering, hierarchy, and ordering have been persistent threads in US politics, rather than simply an anomaly under Trump. This suggests greater potential to read ontological security in more complex terms through gendered bordering practices.
strategies to Counter or Prevent Violent Extremism (C/PVE) have
largely neglected the growing far-right threat. In this article, we
draw attention to the gender blind spot in C/PVE strategies by
arguing that misogyny and masculinism go beyond ‘anti-women’
sentiment and align with the far-right’s valorisation of order, hier-archy and traditional values. This blind spot in C/PVE measures has
significance for understanding the current limitations of tackling
violent extremism and the disconnection between misogyny, mas-culinism and how we apprehend violent extremism. Therefore, a
gender lens must be adopted to understand the nature of far-right
extremism and such views within wider societal contexts. We exam-
ine the recent C/PVE strategies of select western states to show that
they rarely connect far-right ideology and gender, and that gender
is mostly represented in terms of women and role type. Australia
serves as a case study based on its overt masculinism, where
attitudes towards women and misogynistic violence underscore
broader political and societal debates which can feed the growth
of the far-right, especially when focused on the aspects of mascu-linism that the far-right shares with mainstream politics.
continued to pursue foreign policy objectives at odds with the protection of women by its pursuit of punitive asylum seeker policies. Australia’s human rights record with regard to asylum has been widely criticised by international organisations such as the UN, peak medical associations, and human rights activists, including the impact of its asylum regime on women and children, who have been subjected to mental, physical and sexual abuse (Australian Human Rights Commission, 2017). In this article, we examine the gendered impact of Australia’s asylum policy in two ways: first, by highlighting the incoherence between this policy and Australia’s claims to protect women and children, and second, how Australia’s border practices reflect gendered ideas of security and sovereignty. We then consider how a feminist foreign policy can account for, and challenge, the hidden gendered outcomes of forced
migration and state practices.
In war and in peacemaking, our focus is largely directed towards the ‘major players’ in the conflict – the belligerents, and subsequently, the victors and victims – but a category of actor that is often overlooked is that of the neutral state. Impartiality in war between belligerents has a legal status and has existed historically for thousands of years, yet the role of neutrality in international politics has always raised difficult questions. Neutrality conjures up many connotations – mainly negative – but neutrals have played an important role in times of war and peace. Assessing the contribution of neutral states to war and peace requires a consideration of neutrality’s place in history and development over time. The changing nature of warfare and differing types of security threats also have had an important impact on neutrality and this article considers some of these implications for the neutral (or now post-neutral?) state, with a particular focus on Sweden and Switzerland."
This project aims to map right-wing extremism in Victoria through the lens of gender. It begins from the premise that there is an under-explored connection between anti-feminist sentiment and far-right extremist sentiment. It does this by focusing on select Victorian-based online groups that have an anti-feminist and far-right profile. The project also works with stakeholders who work in the areas of gender and family violence, to gain insight into their practices and experiences.
The research found that far-right and anti- feminist sentiment is mutually reinforcing but differs depending on social media platform and wider context. Anti-feminism appears to be a ‘uniting ideology’ in far right-extremism. It brings together key themes that animate far-right ideology, such as hierarchy, order, power and a preference for ‘tradition’; it also becomes reinforcing when those who hold far-right views believe ‘the system’ works against them, and harbour a sense of ‘aggrieved entitlement’ which is related to ideas of relative deprivation (that minorities and women benefit at their expense). The normalisation of extreme views of women and gender, aided by misinformation, is an issue frontline workers contend with.
The practice, however, also contains implications for sovereignty as an institution as well as draws attention to issues of complicity, distance, security and the state. This paper aims to explore some of the ways in which extraordinary rendition challenges established notions of territory and sovereignty in the context of visibility and disappearance. It does
so by exploring the forms of resistance to such practices, such as counter-mapping, and what these forms of resistance are aiming to uncover/reinstate or reveal, and the limitations of such.
The Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris in January 2015 reinvigorated global debates about freedom of speech
and violence. The overwhelming response to the attacks was
to defend freedom of speech, witnessed prominently in the ‘Je
suis Charlie’ slogan that dominated social media and news reports. In this MFU session, we explore some of the dynamics
of this event and the ensuing debates and discourses that came
to define it, in an effort to go beyond mainstream responses.
When we talk about freedom of speech, what do we mean? How do we defend it and is freedom of speech really ‘free’? In
order to explore some of these questions, we will discuss the importance of context, identity and representation. Were the
Charlie Hebdo attacks different to others elsewhere, such as in
Denmark? What is the domestic and historical context? How
does the connection between violent extremism and ideas of
identity and belonging work? And how are representations such
as cartoons and satirical images used for political purposes?