ABSTRACT
In this chapter, we problematise the common association of women and peace by engaging instead with the varied feminist scholarship on peace. We anchor this discussion in Shampa Biswas’ postcolonial feminist account of nuclear power to highlight how feminist peace scholars and activists shift our attention from the potential future uses of nuclear weapons to the harm they cause right now. From production, to testing, to deployment, nuclear weapons (along with nuclear power for so-called peaceful purposes) often negatively affect communities already marginalised in the global political and economic order. This discussion of everyday nuclear politics allows us to highlight the feminist concept of a continuum of violence that spans peace- and wartime, drawing attention also to how the personal is political – and international. We expand on this through a discussion of feminist anti-nuclear activism and its practices of care. Alternative feminist futures, where security and peace are envisioned as processes to sustain and nurture life, depend not on the pursuit of power in hierarchical social orders, but instead on practices and ethics of mutual care and relationality.
