The International Politics of Sex: Bodies, Images, and Russian State Homophobia

A book launch seminar

How does sex get politicised and enter the realms of geopolitics and international security? How does this politicisation both affect regular people in their everyday lives as well as sow divides and structure moral hierarchies between states in the international system? What are the means through which the politicisation of sex are contested and negotiated?

If any of these questions pique your interest, we encourage you to join Dean Cooper-Cunningham (Assistant Professor, University of Copenhagen), for a discussion and celebration of his recent book The International Politics of Sex: Bodies, Images, and Russian State Homophobia (Oxford University Press, 2026) on Thursday, 3 December 2026 at 15.00 in the Department of Political Science.

Joined by Debbie Lisle (Professor, Queen’s University Belfast), Alexander Stoffel (Assistant Professor, Queen Mary University of London), and Lene Hansen (Professor, University of Copenhagen), Cooper-Cunningham will discuss how sexual shame and stigma have been used in Russian foreign policy since 2012 to build a geopolitical project rooted in traditional family values, a moralising international agenda that is now bearing significant fruit. The conversation will explore how this project has been contested through bodies and images rather than solely through the written and spoken word, and why this matters for how we theorise international security and understand ordinary people’s involvement in foreign and security policy.

The event is hosted by the Central and Eastern European Security (CEES) hub. The hub aims to increase the capacity for evidence-informed policymaking in the field of security by taking advantage of the perspectives of Central and Eastern European countries. The hub is financed by the EU Horizon fund.

Programme

Registration

Please register, so that we can order enough wine, and book the correct size room.