Over the past decade, democratization and civil society promotion became key variables in preserving global security and the liberal economic market. This book examines the prevalence of democratization policies as a hegemonic geopolitical tool; these policies represent a concerted political effort in which civil society organizations are manipulated through funding strategies. Denise Horn offers a fresh, innovative feminist-constructivist perspective by arguing that Western gender norms-i.e. those norms that determine degrees of participation within civil society-inform the policies of hegemonic powers and transform the foundations of civil society in transitional states. This powerful volume will be of interest to students and scholars in Gender and Women's Studies, Political Science, and International Relations.

Denise M. Horn is an Assistant Professor of International Affairs at Northeastern University in Boston, MA. Her research examines the effects of US foreign funding in the development of civil society in transitional states, particularly in the areas of women's issues and women's NGOs.

Part 1: Constructing Gender and Democratization Within a Framework of Geopolitics 1. Gentle Invasions: Creating Pro-American and Pro-European Spaces for Global Democracy 2. Gentle Invasions and the Development of Civil Society in Transitional States 3. Post-Soviet US and EU Foreign Policy: Exploiting the Tools of Democratization Part 2: Case Studies: Gentle Invasions and the Newly Independent States 4. Setting the Agenda: US and Nordic Gender Policies in the Estonian Transition to Democracy 5. Constructing Agency: Civil Society and Gender Identity in Moldova 6. Gentle Invasions: Universally Applicable or Culturally Specific?