The liberal interpretation of violence ignores the role of violence in maintaining power relations between individuals and in society more broadly. The establishment of a private sphere, including family life, combined with the liberal presupposition of a rational subject whose specific embodiment is irrelevant makes the political and legal system incapable of addressing the issue of domestic violence. Just as feminist political theorists have critiqued liberalism for being unable to adequately address violence in the private sphere of the family, feminist theorists in International Relations have critiqued traditional IR theory for not being able to 'see' certain forms of violence, including violence that takes place far away from the high-level decision-making of heads of state, generals, and so forth. While these types of violent politics in IR overwhelmingly involve men, the violence that affects women—such as wartime rape, civilian victimization, the disproportionate effects on women of sanctions, infrastructural damage, refugee crises, famine, and the broader destruction of the social order—often takes place 'off the radar' of IR theory. The international arena is the public sphere writ large, with war in particular being a separate and exceptional activity that takes place far form 'the home front.' When women do appear in stories of violence in IR, they are in roles that we expect of mothers, wives, nurses, victims, and 'beautiful souls.'
Lauren B. Wilcox, Bodies of Violence: Theorizing Embodied Subjects in International Relations