Congratulations to Chelsea Pope on recently defending her PhD thesis proposal! Her project is titled “A Feminist International Relations Approach to the Destruction of Infrastructure in Precision Targeting Missions: The Canadian Armed Forces and The United States Military in Afghanistan”.
“My research investigates the gendered impacts of infrastructure destruction resulting from precision-guided munitions missions, focusing on the actions of the Canadian Armed Forces and the United States Military in Afghanistan from 2001 to 2022. Specifically, it examines how these operations disproportionately affect women and asks: “What are the gendered consequences of infrastructure destruction in PGM missions?” The study argues that such missions often overlook the long-term gendered repercussions of destruction, neglecting both their strategic implications and the broader societal effects on women.
I owe a huge thank-you to the Carleton University Department of Political Science, and to my amazing mentors, Fiona Robinson, Elinor Sloan, and Cati Coe, who have been incredibly generous with their time and support.
I am excited to start the research portion of my degree and challenge dominant frameworks that ignore the long-term social consequences of war, advocating for a more holistic approach that prioritizes sustainability and gender-sensitive analyses of military strategy.”