Wars, Wimps, and Women: Talking Gender and Thinking War

Despite the parsimonious ap­peal of ascribing the nuclear arms race to "missile envy," the author argues in this article masculinity is not a sufficient explanation of why men think about war in the ways that they do. Indeed, she found many ways to understand what these men were doing that had little or nothing to do with gender. But ultimately, confronting the role of gender is unavoidable. Thus, in this paper, the author explores gender discourse, and its role in shaping nuclear and national security discourse.