Archives

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  Vol. 60 (2025)

  This issue introduces a collection of critical reflections on global governance, security, and legitimacy. Revisiting the evolution of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), critiques of counterterrorism discourse, transparency reforms in Malawi, and technocratic shifts in the Eurozone, the contributions highlight the persistent gap between ideals and institutional realities. From geopolitical rivalries to crisis-driven policymaking, each article underscores the limits of reform without structural support or democratic accountability. Together, these pieces challenge assumptions about progress and offer sober insights into the complex interplay of power, principle, and practice in contemporary political life.

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  The Rise of Anti-gender and Anti-feminist Discourses in International Politics

  Vol. 59 No. 2 (2025)

  This special issue of Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science examines the complex interplay between rising anti-gender movements and feminist resistance strategies across diverse global contexts. Three articles analyze how these movements operate transnationally across political institutions, advocacy organizations, and digital technologies. Together, they reveal the strategic adaptability of anti-gender actors who shift between religious and secular arguments, grassroots and institutional tactics, and traditional and technological battlegrounds. Key insights reveal these movements’ remarkable adaptability, cross-border coordination, simultaneous multi-level operation, and tendency to co-opt progressive language while projecting their own authoritarian tendencies onto feminist movements. 
  
  The cover illustration for our special issue is designed by Utsa SARMIN, a journalist, researcher, and artist based in Kolkata, India: "The illustration depicts our tired angry embattled selves having to look back, and go back to the basics—bread and roses, equality and dignity—in an increasingly polarised world where anti-women and anti-feminist narratives dangerously start resembling a world without our rights."

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  The Rise of Anti-gender and Anti-feminist Discourses in International Politics

  Vol. 59 No. 1 (2025)

  This special issue of Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science examines the complex interplay between rising anti-gender movements and feminist resistance strategies across diverse global contexts. Through six contributions, it explores how opposition to gender equality has emerged as a powerful unifying force for conservative actors while simultaneously creating new divisions within established feminist spaces.

  The research reveals several critical developments in contemporary gender politics. Anti-gender movements have evolved significantly, shifting their focus from opposing same-sex marriage to targeting transgender rights, often deploying sophisticated digital strategies and "child protection" narratives. These movements demonstrate remarkable adaptability in building coalitions across religious, political, and ideological lines. Their influence runs deeper than their immediate targets, reaching into feminist spaces themselves. Even established feminist organizations have begun adopting gender-critical positions, creating internal rifts that threaten collective solidarity. This fragmentation is particularly visible in how feminist movements respond to opposition—while some maintain strong unified fronts, others struggle with competition for resources and institutional pressures, leading some to retreat from public advocacy altogether.

  Through a rich mix of methods—from ethnographic studies of NGOs and feminist media to digital discourse analysis of social media platforms—these contributions examine how anti-gender movements and feminist responses operate across different cultural and political contexts. The research particularly highlights the crucial role of online spaces in shaping contemporary gender politics, serving both as tools for anti-gender mobilization and sites of feminist resistance.

  How can movements foster solidarity while making space for internal differences? What does meaningful visibility look like in increasingly hostile environments? And as anti-gender campaigns grow more sophisticated, what strategies might prove most effective in building sustained resistance? These are not just tactical questions but fundamental ones that touch on the very nature of feminist organizing in a changing world.

  The cover illustration for our special issue is designed by Utsa SARMIN, a journalist, researcher, and artist based in Kolkata, India: "The illustration depicts our tired angry embattled selves having to look back, and go back to the basics—bread and roses, equality and dignity—in an increasingly polarised world where anti-women and anti-feminist narratives dangerously start resembling a world without our rights."

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  Vol. 58 (2024)

  The new issue of Politikon: The IAPSS Journal of Political Science as always presents a very diverse set of contributions. The issue features articles examining global health cooperation and pandemic treaties by Lala Jafarova, Lebanon's sectarian politics and French colonial legacy by Judy El Baba, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a decolonial lens by Catalina Catana and Simen Ekeberg, and debates about identity and democracy by Sung Jun Han. Stephanie Mae Pedron's essays in the Conversations section advocates for expanding non-citizen voting rights in the US. The issue includes two book reviews focused on feminist movements and gender politics in China and Russia. These diverse contributions converge around critical questions of how political systems navigate inclusion, representation, and the enduring impact of historical structures on contemporary governance.

  The journal also continues a dialogue on inequalities in academic publishing through Abel Polese's piece, which offers practical insights for emerging scholars.