What are the root causes of sexual violence in war? From times of antiquity through the most recent conflicts in Bosnia, Rwanda, the Congo, and Syria, rape and other forms of sexual violence have been a consistent feature of war. Analyses of these more recent conflicts have prompted a surge of research into rape as a weapon of war and prompted a number of international and national initiatives to address this form of violence. This work has helped to identify rape as a deliberate tool of war-making rather than simply an inevitable side effect of armed conflict. However, much of what has been written on rape as a weapon of war has suggested that the underlying causes stem from a single motivation--whether individual, symbolic, or strategic. This singular focus has led to disagreement in the field about how we can understand the causes and consequences of sexual violence in war and about how to respond to this atrocity. Sara Meger argues that it is this approach to sexual violence in war that has rendered ineffective recent attempts by the UN, national governments, and aid and advocacy organizations to address it. Rather than identifying conflict-related sexual violence as an isolated phenomenon, this book argues that sexual violence is a form of gender-based violence (perpetrated against both men and women) and a manifestation of unequal gender relations that are exacerbated by the social, political, and economic conditions of war. She looks at trends in the form and function of sexual violence in recent and ongoing conflicts to argue that, in different contexts, sexual violence takes different forms and is used in pursuit of different objectives. Taking a political economy perspective she argues that these variations can be explained by broader struggles over territory, assets, and other productive resources of contemporary armed conflicts. As it is a reflection of global political economic struggles, she argues that sexual violence in war can't be addressed only at the local level, but must be addressed through regional and international policy. She concludes by providing some initial ideas about how this can be done via the UN and national governments.
