WHY IFI PRESCRIPTIONS FOR POST-WAR ECONOMIC RECOVERY CANNOT BRING SUSTAINABLE PEACE: A feminist analysis

Standard policy prescriptions for post-war economic recovery fail to support the building of sustainably peaceful countries and secure lives for their citizens. Whilst many criticise international financial institutions’ (IFIs) economic policies in war-affected countries, we argue that a feminist political economy (FPE) approach is critical in understanding why these policies fail-and what to do about it. Our FPE approach provides two overlooked but crucial insights. First, it reveals the disjunction (indeed, chasm) between a country’s economic recovery from war and the IFIs’ focus on the recovery of the economic system. Second, it locates the conceptual underpinnings of this chasm in the profoundly gendered assumptions of neoclassical economics. We illustrate these points with a focus on one pervasive example of the IFIs’ approach, their encouragement of the large-scale extraction and export of natural resources. Finally, we show how adopting the work of feminist economists and ecologists who emphasise care, social reproduction, and the value of nature can offer radically new visions for post-war economies-ones that make sustainable peace possible.