Abstract

Bread, Not Bombs: Transnational Women Peace Activists’ Alternatives to Nuclear Weapons and Military Expenditure in the 1980s

This paper studies the challenges women transnational peace and anti-nuclear weapons activists levied against their governments’ military expenditures during the 1980s. These women argued against the massive growth in armed forces budgets and the corresponding buildup of nuclear weapons arsenals in the 1980s. They entered the international political stage—many for the first time—and organized to prevent the outbreak of nuclear war and reduce enmity among their countries. As non-state actors, these women conceived of their role in international politics as challenging traditional conceptions of the Cold War and pushing their governments to change.

Intersectional perspectives of gender, religion, and race informed their arguments about nuclear weapons and military spending that considered the environment, capitalism, and ethics. They argued that militarization and nuclear weapons buildup was a lost opportunity to fund schools better, feed those who were hungry, create pay equality for women, and create a more equitable global future through the economic development of states in the Global South.