Refusing to take part in war is as old as war itself. This wide-ranging and original book brings together four different bodies of knowledge and practice: historical and philosophical analyses of conscientious objection; feminist, LGBT and queer analyses of conscientious objection as a critique of patriarchy, sexism, and heterosexism; activist and academic analyses of conscientious objection as a social movement and individual act of resistance; legal analyses of the status of conscientious objection in international and national law.

Conscientious objection is an increasingly important...