Katharine M Millar
Biographic Data
| ID | 3687787 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Katharine M Millar |
| GIVEN NAMES | Katharine M |
| FAMILY NAME | Millar |
| SIGNATURE | MILLAR K M |
| AFFILIATIONS | London School of Economics and Political Science |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2511-5325 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 88 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Gender, Sexuality, Warfighting & the Making of American Citizenship Post-9/11
The so-called global war on terror marked a pivotal moment in the intersection of gender, sexuality, military service, and U.S. warfighting. This essay explores, via paradigmatic empirical incidents, three key dimensions of gendered warfare-military service, support for the military, and protest/dissent-to reveal a central paradox in the post-9/11 U.S. gender-war system. While military service has declined overall, efforts to formally include wom…
The Temporal Politics of Inevitability: Mass Death during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Many international phenomena, from complex, interconnected processes to specific catastrophes, have been deemed “inevitable” by elites, policymakers, and scholars. Yet existing scholarship treats “inevitability” as an objective fact to be assessed retrospectively, rather than an expression of politics and contestation. To see the “politics of inevitability,” we argue, requires attention to the underlying politics of time through which inevitabili…
Limitations of hypocrisy as a strategy of critique in international politics
Hypocrisy, when addressed at all, is typically considered a functional, even valuable, aspect of international political practice within international relations theory. It is alternatively seen as necessary to the exercise of sovereignty and a rhetorical device used to seek pragmatic political change. Utilising insights from feminist, queer, and postcolonial theory, this article challenges this understanding of hypocrisy. The article demonstrates…
Conspiratorial medievalism: History and hyperagency in the far-right Knights Templar security imaginary
Imagery associated with the Knights Templar appears in the public discourse and symbolism of many white supremacist and white nationalist groups. The 2011 Norwegian mass murderer cited the Templars in his manifesto, as did the 2019 New Zealand shooter. Templar crosses were on display at the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina. To understand the security imaginary behind these racialised medievalisms and their contempor…
Masculinist Actionism: Gender and Strategic Change in US Cyber Strategy
How do gender hierarchies inform processes of strategic change? Drawing upon feminist institutionalism and security studies, we argue that gender hierarchies form the boundaries of acceptability for strategic change. We conduct a qualitative feminist analysis of cyber strategy policy documents and expert commentary around a 2018 shift in US cyber strategy. We identify two ideal-typical modes of masculinity-military and "tech"-as influential in co…
Response to Stéfanie von Hlatky’s Review of Support the Troops: Military Obligation, Gender, and the Making of Political Community
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the 'Save PDF' action button
What makes violence martial? Adopt A Sniper and normative imaginaries of violence in the contemporary United States
What makes violence martial? Contemporary militarism scholarship, owing to an analytical overdetermination of the role of military institutions, frequently conflates martiality with violence writ large. Drawing upon the illustrative case of Adopt A Sniper, a US military support charity founded by police officers operating during the global war on terror and intended to help supporters ‘directly contribute to the killing of the enemy’, this articl…
Covid-19 as a Mass Death Event
As of the first week of February 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over two million people dead across the globe. This essay argues that in order to fully understand the politics arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to focus on the individual and collective experiences of death, loss, and grief. While the emerging scholarly discourse on the pandemic, particularly in political science and international relations, typically conside…
The plural of soldier is not troops: The politics of groups in legitimating militaristic violence
This article identifies ‘the troops’ as a new, radically under-examined figure in the Western canon of war. Utilising discourse analysis of an original corpus of US ‘support the troops’ material from 2001 to 2010, the article argues that ‘the troops’ cannot be read as a simple aggregation of the figurative soldier or literal military personnel. Instead, ‘groupness of the troops’ shifts the politics of the legitimation of violence – and the possib…
What do we do now? Examining civilian masculinity/ies in contemporary liberal civil-military relations
In contemporary Western, liberal democratic societies, the soldier is frequently regarded as ‘the best of us’, taking on the unlimited liability for the protection and betterment of the whole. In the context of volunteer militaries and distant conflicts, the construction of men (and the universalised masculine citizen) as ‘always-already’ soldiers (or potential soldiers) poses a substantial obstacle to the identification or performance of ‘good’ …
Combat as a moving target: Masculinities, the Heroic Soldier Myth, and Normative Martial Violence
This article problematizes the conceptualization and use of 'combat' within critical scholarship on masculinities, militaries, and war. We trace, firstly, how combat appears as an empirical category within traditional war studies scholarship, describing an ostensibly self-evident physical practice. We then examine how feminist and gender approaches – in contrast – reveal 'combat' as a normative imagination of martial violence. This imagination of…
They need our help’: Non-governmental organizations and the subjectifying dynamics of the military as social cause
The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan spurred a range of popular activity – from anti-war protests to war boosterism to veterans’ advocacy – purporting to ‘support the troops’. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), from veterans’ welfare organizations to anti-war groups, are crucial to this transformation of ‘the troops’ into a social cause and matter of collective concern. As such, this article proposes an initial qualification of NGO represent…
Death does not become her: An examination of the public construction of female American soldiers as liminal figures
Since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, over 150 female American military personnel have been killed, over 70 following hostile fire. Given Western society's long-standing practice of reserving the conduct of collective violence to men, these very public deaths are difficult to encompass within the normative and ideological structures of the contemporary American political system. This study examines the ways in which the public duty to comm…
Combat as a moving target: Masculinities, the Heroic Soldier Myth, and Normative Martial Violence
This article problematizes the conceptualization and use of 'combat' within critical scholarship on masculinities, militaries, and war. We trace, firstly, how combat appears as an empirical category within traditional war studies scholarship, describing an ostensibly self-evident physical practice. We then examine how feminist and gender approaches – in contrast – reveal 'combat' as a normative imagination of martial violence. This imagination of…
Death does not become her: An examination of the public construction of female American soldiers as liminal figures
Since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, over 150 female American military personnel have been killed, over 70 following hostile fire. Given Western society's long-standing practice of reserving the conduct of collective violence to men, these very public deaths are difficult to encompass within the normative and ideological structures of the contemporary American political system. This study examines the ways in which the public duty to comm…
Covid-19 as a Mass Death Event
As of the first week of February 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over two million people dead across the globe. This essay argues that in order to fully understand the politics arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to focus on the individual and collective experiences of death, loss, and grief. While the emerging scholarly discourse on the pandemic, particularly in political science and international relations, typically conside…
Conspiratorial medievalism: History and hyperagency in the far-right Knights Templar security imaginary
Imagery associated with the Knights Templar appears in the public discourse and symbolism of many white supremacist and white nationalist groups. The 2011 Norwegian mass murderer cited the Templars in his manifesto, as did the 2019 New Zealand shooter. Templar crosses were on display at the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina. To understand the security imaginary behind these racialised medievalisms and their contempor…
The plural of soldier is not troops: The politics of groups in legitimating militaristic violence
This article identifies ‘the troops’ as a new, radically under-examined figure in the Western canon of war. Utilising discourse analysis of an original corpus of US ‘support the troops’ material from 2001 to 2010, the article argues that ‘the troops’ cannot be read as a simple aggregation of the figurative soldier or literal military personnel. Instead, ‘groupness of the troops’ shifts the politics of the legitimation of violence – and the possib…
They need our help’: Non-governmental organizations and the subjectifying dynamics of the military as social cause
The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan spurred a range of popular activity – from anti-war protests to war boosterism to veterans’ advocacy – purporting to ‘support the troops’. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), from veterans’ welfare organizations to anti-war groups, are crucial to this transformation of ‘the troops’ into a social cause and matter of collective concern. As such, this article proposes an initial qualification of NGO represent…
The Temporal Politics of Inevitability: Mass Death during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Many international phenomena, from complex, interconnected processes to specific catastrophes, have been deemed “inevitable” by elites, policymakers, and scholars. Yet existing scholarship treats “inevitability” as an objective fact to be assessed retrospectively, rather than an expression of politics and contestation. To see the “politics of inevitability,” we argue, requires attention to the underlying politics of time through which inevitabili…
Limitations of hypocrisy as a strategy of critique in international politics
Hypocrisy, when addressed at all, is typically considered a functional, even valuable, aspect of international political practice within international relations theory. It is alternatively seen as necessary to the exercise of sovereignty and a rhetorical device used to seek pragmatic political change. Utilising insights from feminist, queer, and postcolonial theory, this article challenges this understanding of hypocrisy. The article demonstrates…
What do we do now? Examining civilian masculinity/ies in contemporary liberal civil-military relations
In contemporary Western, liberal democratic societies, the soldier is frequently regarded as ‘the best of us’, taking on the unlimited liability for the protection and betterment of the whole. In the context of volunteer militaries and distant conflicts, the construction of men (and the universalised masculine citizen) as ‘always-already’ soldiers (or potential soldiers) poses a substantial obstacle to the identification or performance of ‘good’ …
Masculinist Actionism: Gender and Strategic Change in US Cyber Strategy
How do gender hierarchies inform processes of strategic change? Drawing upon feminist institutionalism and security studies, we argue that gender hierarchies form the boundaries of acceptability for strategic change. We conduct a qualitative feminist analysis of cyber strategy policy documents and expert commentary around a 2018 shift in US cyber strategy. We identify two ideal-typical modes of masculinity-military and "tech"-as influential in co…
What makes violence martial? Adopt A Sniper and normative imaginaries of violence in the contemporary United States
What makes violence martial? Contemporary militarism scholarship, owing to an analytical overdetermination of the role of military institutions, frequently conflates martiality with violence writ large. Drawing upon the illustrative case of Adopt A Sniper, a US military support charity founded by police officers operating during the global war on terror and intended to help supporters ‘directly contribute to the killing of the enemy’, this articl…
They need our help’: Non-governmental organizations and the subjectifying dynamics of the military as social cause
The invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan spurred a range of popular activity – from anti-war protests to war boosterism to veterans’ advocacy – purporting to ‘support the troops’. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), from veterans’ welfare organizations to anti-war groups, are crucial to this transformation of ‘the troops’ into a social cause and matter of collective concern. As such, this article proposes an initial qualification of NGO represent…
Death does not become her: An examination of the public construction of female American soldiers as liminal figures
Since the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, over 150 female American military personnel have been killed, over 70 following hostile fire. Given Western society's long-standing practice of reserving the conduct of collective violence to men, these very public deaths are difficult to encompass within the normative and ideological structures of the contemporary American political system. This study examines the ways in which the public duty to comm…
Combat as a moving target: Masculinities, the Heroic Soldier Myth, and Normative Martial Violence
This article problematizes the conceptualization and use of 'combat' within critical scholarship on masculinities, militaries, and war. We trace, firstly, how combat appears as an empirical category within traditional war studies scholarship, describing an ostensibly self-evident physical practice. We then examine how feminist and gender approaches – in contrast – reveal 'combat' as a normative imagination of martial violence. This imagination of…
The plural of soldier is not troops: The politics of groups in legitimating militaristic violence
This article identifies ‘the troops’ as a new, radically under-examined figure in the Western canon of war. Utilising discourse analysis of an original corpus of US ‘support the troops’ material from 2001 to 2010, the article argues that ‘the troops’ cannot be read as a simple aggregation of the figurative soldier or literal military personnel. Instead, ‘groupness of the troops’ shifts the politics of the legitimation of violence – and the possib…
What do we do now? Examining civilian masculinity/ies in contemporary liberal civil-military relations
In contemporary Western, liberal democratic societies, the soldier is frequently regarded as ‘the best of us’, taking on the unlimited liability for the protection and betterment of the whole. In the context of volunteer militaries and distant conflicts, the construction of men (and the universalised masculine citizen) as ‘always-already’ soldiers (or potential soldiers) poses a substantial obstacle to the identification or performance of ‘good’ …
What makes violence martial? Adopt A Sniper and normative imaginaries of violence in the contemporary United States
What makes violence martial? Contemporary militarism scholarship, owing to an analytical overdetermination of the role of military institutions, frequently conflates martiality with violence writ large. Drawing upon the illustrative case of Adopt A Sniper, a US military support charity founded by police officers operating during the global war on terror and intended to help supporters ‘directly contribute to the killing of the enemy’, this articl…
Covid-19 as a Mass Death Event
As of the first week of February 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in over two million people dead across the globe. This essay argues that in order to fully understand the politics arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, we need to focus on the individual and collective experiences of death, loss, and grief. While the emerging scholarly discourse on the pandemic, particularly in political science and international relations, typically conside…
Response to Stéfanie von Hlatky’s Review of Support the Troops: Military Obligation, Gender, and the Making of Political Community
An abstract is not available for this content. As you have access to this content, full HTML content is provided on this page. A PDF of this content is also available in through the 'Save PDF' action button
Limitations of hypocrisy as a strategy of critique in international politics
Hypocrisy, when addressed at all, is typically considered a functional, even valuable, aspect of international political practice within international relations theory. It is alternatively seen as necessary to the exercise of sovereignty and a rhetorical device used to seek pragmatic political change. Utilising insights from feminist, queer, and postcolonial theory, this article challenges this understanding of hypocrisy. The article demonstrates…
Conspiratorial medievalism: History and hyperagency in the far-right Knights Templar security imaginary
Imagery associated with the Knights Templar appears in the public discourse and symbolism of many white supremacist and white nationalist groups. The 2011 Norwegian mass murderer cited the Templars in his manifesto, as did the 2019 New Zealand shooter. Templar crosses were on display at the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, North Carolina. To understand the security imaginary behind these racialised medievalisms and their contempor…
Masculinist Actionism: Gender and Strategic Change in US Cyber Strategy
How do gender hierarchies inform processes of strategic change? Drawing upon feminist institutionalism and security studies, we argue that gender hierarchies form the boundaries of acceptability for strategic change. We conduct a qualitative feminist analysis of cyber strategy policy documents and expert commentary around a 2018 shift in US cyber strategy. We identify two ideal-typical modes of masculinity-military and "tech"-as influential in co…
Gender, Sexuality, Warfighting & the Making of American Citizenship Post-9/11
The so-called global war on terror marked a pivotal moment in the intersection of gender, sexuality, military service, and U.S. warfighting. This essay explores, via paradigmatic empirical incidents, three key dimensions of gendered warfare-military service, support for the military, and protest/dissent-to reveal a central paradox in the post-9/11 U.S. gender-war system. While military service has declined overall, efforts to formally include wom…
The Temporal Politics of Inevitability: Mass Death during the Covid-19 Pandemic
Many international phenomena, from complex, interconnected processes to specific catastrophes, have been deemed “inevitable” by elites, policymakers, and scholars. Yet existing scholarship treats “inevitability” as an objective fact to be assessed retrospectively, rather than an expression of politics and contestation. To see the “politics of inevitability,” we argue, requires attention to the underlying politics of time through which inevitabili…
Political science (11 works) · Law (10 works) · Law (10 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Gender, Security, and Conflict (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · Criminology (5 works) · Normative (4 works) · Epistemology (3 works) · Gender Studies (3 works)