Manuela Lavinas Picq and Markus Thiel(Eds) Sexualities in World Politics: How LGBTQ claims shape International Relations, London: Routledge, 2015

Abstract

The ‘Sexualities in World Politics: How LGBTQ claims shape International Relations’ is a peculiar work which discusses the impact of LGBTQ politics on the study of International Relations (IR) through LGBTQ experiences to the IR system. This book contains an introduction, eight chapters and a conclusion edited by Manuela Lavinas Picq and Markus Thiel. The eight chapters are based on different themes and written by different authors which helps in collaborating vibrant and insightful ideas about inclusion of the LGBTQ community in mainstream politics. The focus of the book is on the subtitle- ‘How LGBTQ claims shape International Relations’, rather than on the title which talks about Sexualities in World Politics. The editors in the introductory chapter introduce the LGBTQ terminology under the startling acronym LGBTIQQ2SA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual, transgender, intersex, queer, questioning, 2-spirited, and allies) along with different elements of LGBTQ perspectives which have an immense impact on the gender studies. The case studies in the book cover a wide range of regions from Europe to the United States and discuss the relations between core, non-core and peripheral countries through different concepts such as war, security, modernity, particularism and universalism. The chapters merely focus on the LGBTQ politics and theories through anthropological and sociological perspective of sexuality and their impact on international politics, rather than the feminist and queer theories