This book recognises sexuality as a mainstream concept in political analysis, and explores issues in the politics of sexuality that are highly salient and controversial today. These include conceptions of citizenship and nationality linked to gender and sexuality, the legislation about the age of consent, prostitution and 'trafficking in women', the international politics of population control, abortion, sexual harassment, and sexuality in the military. The international team of contributors provide a wide range of perspectives in a variety of contexts. On a national level, they offer illustrative case studies from the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain and Israel among others, and on an international plane they cover the European Union, the UN Conference on Population and Development and the role of the Vatican as international arbiter. Moreover, the volume addresses the interaction between political discourse and the work of major theorists such as Weber, Freud, Foucault, Irigaray and Butler.

This volume reflects a variety of views of what sexuality is and how it has moved into politics and into the realm of political science. Theoretical chapters are balanced by a wide range of case studies covering topics such as sexuality in the UK armed forces and the sexual policies of the Catholic Church. The book provides methodologies for accommodating the political and intellectual changes associated with the emergence of sexuality as a political issue.

Is our sexuality determined primarily by our genes? Or is it shaped by the social norms and expectations we happen to be born into. This Very Short Introduction provides an accessible, thoughtful and thought-provoking introduction to major debates around sexuality in the modern world, highlighting the social and political aspects of sexuality. It critically explores different ways of defining and thinking about sexuality and shows that many of our assumptions about what is "natural" in the sexual domain have, in reality, varied greatly in different historical or cultural contexts. The volume also examines ways in which governments have tried to regulate citizens' sexualities in the past-through policies and laws concerning public health, HIV/Aids, prostitution, and sex education-paying special attention to the particular zeal with which women's sexuality has been policed. The volume concludes by discussing political activism around sexuality more widely, focusing on the ways in which feminists, lesbians and gay men, as well as religious fundamentalists have transformed our ways of thinking about sexuality in the past few decades.
About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.