Promotional Information

Bare Branches is a tour de force. It represents a groundbreaking contribution to the literature on gender and security studies. Hudson and den Boer call attention to the ticking time bomb of sex ratio imbalances, especially in East and South Asia, and its impact on the likelihood of domestic instability and inter-state war. All who address these issues in the future will need to contend seriously with the persuasive arguments made in this book. -- Rose McDermott, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara Bare Branches is an excellent book that represents a new approach to thinking about political stability and international politics. Hudson and den Boer draw from the life sciences to reveal historical patterns that other scholars have missed. They present comprehensive data on sex ratios and fascinating historical studies of social instability brought on by excess young males. -- Francis Fukuyama, Dean of Faculty and Bernard Schwartz Professor of International Political Economy, The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University Bare Branches reveals a largely overlooked but important variable correlated with war and peace: high ratios of males to females. Through both historical and contemporary analyses, Hudson and den Boer show that in societies where women have low status, peaceful democracies are far less likely to take hold. All those who hope to understand the causes of war -- in academe as well as in government -- will have to be aware of these findings. A brilliant contribution to the literature on contemporary world affairs. -- Jessica Stern, Lecturer in Public Policy, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

About the Author

Valerie M. Hudson is Professor of Political Science and faculty affiliate at the David M. Kennedy School for International and Area Studies at Brigham Young University. She is the author of the books Culture and Foreign Policy and Artificial Intelligence and International Politics and coeditor of The Limits of State Autonomy- Societal Groups and Foreign Policy Formulation and Political Psychology and Foreign Policy.

Andrea M. den Boer is a Research Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent at Canterbury.

Reviews

[E]xciting, innovative, refreshing...marks an important contribution at the nexus of the already burgeoning literatures addressing environmental and human security.

—Survival