Familial Ties as a Gendered Relationality in Civil War : Militarisation, Violence and Politics

In what ways is family militarised in civil war? How to understand familial ties as configured in relation to violence? This article develops a theoretical understanding of familial ties as a distinct form of gendered relationality in civil war. I illustrate first, how family as a social institution is entangled with military and political aims in ways that sustain and legitimise war, and second, how familial ties are not merely militarised but also emergent from and profoundly transformed by violence. My argument advances the theorisation of social ties in civil wars by offering a feminist rethinking of the familial domain.