Breaking the Binaries in Security Studies upends multiple conventions that deserve to be questioned. The book interrogates simple gender dichotomies as well as those that contrast war versus peace, combatant versus victim, and state versus society. Ayelet HarelShalev and Shir DaphnaTekoah present gripping material drawn from interviews with 100 women who served as Israel Defense Force combatants or combat support personnel. An invaluable contribution to feminist research, this study is among the first to illuminate how combat soldiers cope with trauma in a strong military and, later on, as civilians in a highly militarized society
Ayelet Harel-Shalev is a political scientist. She is Associate Professor at the Conflict Management and Resolution Program and The Department of Politics and Government, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Harel-Shalev is the author of The Challenge of Sustaining Democracy in Deeply Divided Societies and co-editor (with Arthur A. Stein) of Affect, Interest, and Political Entrepreneurs in Ethnic and Religious Conflicts.
Shir Daphna-Tekoah is a senior lecturer in the School of Social Work of the Ashkelon Academic College, Ashkelon, Israel, and the Head of the Social Work Department, Kaplan Medical Center, Rehovot, Israel. Her academic interests include Gender, Health and Violence, Women Combatants, Child Abuse and Neglect, and Dissociation and Trauma.